Posted by livingjuliet on July 7, 2004, at 19:50:23
Ok, so I this is my situation-- I've been on Effexor for several years now. Probably since I was about 16 years old-- I'm almost 23 now. I am a lot better than I used to be-- used to be very angry, have tons of anxiety, very depressed, etc. I was a mess. The past few years I have gotten a lot better, and a while ago (probably close to 2 years ago, although I can't exactly remember) I talked to my doctor about going off of the medicine. He said it sounded like I was ok to try and reduce it gradually, so I started to do so, but I never finished going off of it. I was taking, for a long while, 225 MG a day (3 pills) and I reduced it down to 2, and stayed on that for a long while. Then, some time ago (maybe around the first of this year), I decided I wanted to try and get off of it for good. So I started taking just 1 pill a day for a while, then down to half, then 1/4th of a pill for a couple weeks, then I stopped altogether.
The last time I took it (besides today, because I decided to go back on it) was a few weeks ago. I've noticed myself going in a complete downward spiral, and it's really scary. I talked to my friends & parents and I realize that sometimes people just have a chemical imbalance and NEED the medicine. I really wanted to think I was "better" and didn't need it, but how I have been the past few weeks leads me to believe I really DO need it. I have been freaking out at things, extremely irritable, crying at the smallest things, and acting totally paranoid & crazy, and feeling like I cannot control it whatsoever.
Do you think that this is all from withdrawal, or do you think it's more probable that I need the medicine, to balance me out? I started it again today, because I just feel like I can't cope without it. I hate that feeling.
I might try to go off of it later, but now is just not a good time because the stress and craziness of going off of the medicine, on top of all the stress I'm currently under, is not a good combination.
I'd appreciate anyone's advice or input... thank you.
Tiffany
poster:livingjuliet
thread:363833
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040704/msgs/363833.html