Posted by bertie on October 14, 2003, at 19:03:41
I recently had a descent into physical and psychological trauma precipitated by trying to take myself off of Effexor, then compensating (under doctor's orders) with a heightened dose of Zoloft, which I had been on previously. Who knows which drug really caused the worst of it, but after literally losing touch with reality for a few days, and having a heart that nearly exploded for racing too fast, I feel lucky to have come away from the experience with nothing more than a bad case of tremors which won't go away. My doctors are very puzzled by them. It was supposed that once the drugs got out of my system, the tremors would resolve, and they did, for a time, but now they are back. They've given me a cat-scan and MRI, as well as a battery of blood-tests, but have so far come up blank. In an effort to take control of my own destiny, I started surfing the web to look for possiblities for myself, and came across postings on this web-site related to tremors and post-traumatic stress disorder. I've been realizing that, with the return of my sanity has come a host of - not exactly memories, but impressions - about an experience in my childhood when I disappeared for a day. My parents have always been very close-mouthed about this event, saying little more about it than what I just related, and I have no clear recollection of it myself, but the memory - or impressions, rather - of it has been so distracting for me of late that I am becoming dysfunctional with my spouse and children. I worry that this may be imagined somehow, that this is not, in fact, a case of repressed memory or whatever. But the impressions are so vivid, and so viscerally real to me, and create such a physiologically palpable response, that I must conclude there is something to them. I have heard of the use of EMDR, and wonder if it might be of value to me or not. I am extremely leary, at this point, of trying any other psychotropic drugs. Zoloft was a godsend to me for a couple of years, but the increasing dosages and sexual side-effects, which led to my trying the Effexor, almost weren't worth the benefits, and I've thought there must be a better way. I'm intrigued by the possiblities of supplement use, but cautious, as a background in biochemistry inclines me to regard herbal remedies as unrefined pharmaceuticals with potentially more, rather than less, capacity for side-effects. I'm weary of pill-popping anyway, and want a more sustainable solution. Maybe this will be with me all my life, but I need better ways to cope with it.
poster:bertie
thread:269444
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031010/msgs/269444.html