Posted by IsoM on December 11, 2001, at 14:52:36
In reply to Re: verrrry interrrresting...., posted by Bob on December 11, 2001, at 13:57:26
Interesting that you took months to finally get off the med. I did too (it was Paxil) but no doctor thought it would be necessary to prolong it that much but by taking smaller & smaller doses, it made the withdrawal slightly more tolerable. I spent most of the summer in bed afraid to move for fear my head was going to disconnect from my body. I found that only by remaining absolutely still, the nausea & vertigo was bearable. When I had enough emotional energy to care about anything, I lamented my beautiful garden I'd built up previously, dying & drying up.
The idea of driving to a doctor was out of the question, just walking about slowly made me want to die. One friend just couldn't take it anymore & found a local doctor & took me to him, not that he understood the withdrawal but he was/is a good doctor otherwise.
I honestly think that it changed the way my brain operates forever. Even though I'm on different meds now that work very well - emotionally, I'm doing great! BUT my head has never returned to feeling normal for me. I still get feeligs of vertigo now whenever I turn my head fairly quickly or when I bend over a bit. I still get the weird small brain zaps, though the electric current feels turned way down but I still hate these feelings. It's been about two years now with this, but who knows? - maybe eventually I'll go back to "normal". At least my mood is good so I'll simply live with it & do my best to ignore it.
> I experienced Effexor withdrawal in '95... when nobody realized how nasty it was. I too had been on it for about 18 months. I had previously experienced a nasty withdrawal from Anafranil, so I knew what was going on. However, I never could have guessed how protractive and severe it would be. I literally took months (3-6?) to get completely off the med, and at the end I was practically taking little tiny wisps of the stuff. I stop trying to convince the doctors.
>
> Recently, I went to Hopkins for a consultation about my problems, and I mentioned what I had to do to get off Effexor. They said they knew that there was withdrawal, but thought that "months" was unnecessarily long. The fact is, you can never know unless you've been through it.
>
> The doctors still don't understand the physical toll of the meds, and I think it will be a long time coming. Think about it: if you went to med school and they "taught" you everything about how these meds make you feel (both therapeutically and side-effects), would you understand? I've taken them, and sometimes I'm at a loss for words. How will they ever understand?
>
> On the other hand, we have to work with the tools available to us.
poster:IsoM
thread:86535
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011202/msgs/86576.html