Posted by zinya on November 16, 2003, at 0:03:55
In reply to Re: Effexor XR Experiences, Withdrawals and Though, posted by Samadhi on November 15, 2003, at 20:11:46
hi samadhi,
i like your name :)
well, yes, i (who literally had never sweat in my whole life except from my scalp) sweat like a stuck pig from the point i hit 37.5 on the way up the effexor onramp and for every single day (and night! waking to soaking wet sheets and nightclothes) for the whole 3 months i was on (at 150 mg) ... I kept on, despite the fact that the sweating alone started screwing up my life, but what made me actually quit was realizing that it was making my heart race so badly that gardening had become an aerobic exercise and i was terrified of doing actual aerobic exercise for fear of a heart attack...
Anyway, just as i went on Effexor VERY slowly, the slowest surely of anybody in the history of Effexor (!!!) given past problems with other AD's and wanting this one to work - i had started at 19.5 mgs and went to 37.5, then 50, then 75, then 100, before up to 150 and staying at least 2 wks at each level... before being at 150 for about 2 months...
Similarly, on the offramp, i've been going down super slowly to avoid the zaps (given what i understand from reading here that it's a process of giving the brain time to 'restructure' again) ... so it took me almost 2 months to work from 150 down below 37.5 but sure enough since dropping below 37.5 (to 25, then 19, then 12, now at 9 mg) i have NOT been sweating!! :))
So i write to give you encouragement... Yes, i did sweat one day, just last Thursday, in a way that was unusual given my pre-Effexor self - but i was moving a bunch of stuff at the time and it was understandable, no biggie... So YES, there's life after Effex-sweating ...
I do encourage you though to take it VERY VERY slowly from here on out. From everything i'd read -- since last December on here -- about others' withdrawal experiences, it seems to me that the worst part of the withdrawal is the last part and weaning yourself off REALLY slowly becomes increasingly important the lower you go ... Which is why i'm dividing up granules into the amounts i mentioned above and so far it's pretty okay... My way-too-rapid heart beats stopped back somewhere around 75 mg and the excessive sweating has stopped since somewhere below 37.5... and i've only had zaps so far when i've tried (intentionally or not) skipping a night's dose and then the next day starting to really feel it before taking the next night's dose (which i then usually took a bit earlier than usual to cut off the zaps)... This next week i plan to start intentionally taking only 9 mg every other night and then every 3rd night... til it seems i can quit completely w/o the zaps...
good luck!
zinya
poster:zinya
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031111/msgs/280180.html