Posted by kcg33 on October 2, 2003, at 5:58:26
In reply to Re: EFFEXOR , posted by BJL on October 1, 2003, at 12:06:40
Okay, maybe I have this thing going in the right direction now. I have been taking the pills apart and pouring half out for the past 3 days. To my surprise, the nausea and dizziness is reduced to a tolerable level, the fatigue is still there, but when you have an extremely low metabolism to begin with and you enhance that with a "downer" like an AD, I guess that is to be expected. (What I wouldn't give for a day of energy and a desire to have sex with my husband without it feeling more like a chore than what it is supposed to be.)
So my next obstacle while I'm adjusting to the 1/2 dose until I can taper down to 1/4 dose is this: Anyone out there figured out a way to battle the weight gain? Can't take a stimulant with an AD, and most diet drugs contain stimulants - I intend to have this thing whipped (the tapering) hopefully within a couple of weeks, because of how horribly ill it made me before, I will not attempt to ever "cold turkey" again, but hopefully the way I am going will help. I sure appreciate all the advice and suggestions you guys have made.
By the way, I, too, experienced the coughing last week when I went cold turkey, not doing it so much now, the flatulence thing, well, yeah, I can identify with that symptom! Presently, I am suffering from daily "headaches" in my eyes, I'm sure it is a sinus thing, as I have read that is a side-effect, but it sure is irritating. The "brain zaps" stopped as soon as I started taking the half pill. It really is amazing how little of that stuff it takes to make the symptoms get better. Man, after last week, I'm so grateful for that. You know, I've heard that sSRI withdrawals can cause suicidal thoughts and for some people, the desire to go the whole way with it, after last week, I can certainly understand how that can happen. I wasn't far from it! I've never experienced that kind of illness before, and I have been through a lot in my life - not childbirth, not the automobile wreck, not the half dozen surgeries I have had in my life from gall bladder to hysterectomy - NOTHING could have ever come close to last week.
And finally, as promised, now that I am feeling a little better, (but still totally enraged that I am imprisoned by this medicine), I have begun the process of collecting info., and speaking with the attorneys I work with. (I have been a legal secretary for 10 years). We are looking into any possible C-A suits that have already been filed, and making sure there is not already one out there before we look into going it from scratch. If anyone is interested in a little justice (me, I'm not in it for money, I'm in it to make the RX companies recognize the need to be more thorough in their testing and acknowledge the shortcomings of the medication to the people they market it to), stay with me and I'll let you know what I come up with.
poster:kcg33
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030928/msgs/264869.html