Posted by KaraS on August 3, 2004, at 18:44:22
In reply to Re: Effexor XR withdrawal symptoms @ 37.5mg/day, posted by I cook for you on August 3, 2004, at 17:28:25
> I was on 37.5 mg. of Effexor for 11 months, and my withdrawls were minor compared to many on this board. Today is the first day I don't feel sick, I actually feel pretty good. My girlfriend weaned herself off of Lexapro, and she said it was the hardest thing she's ever been through. I'm not an expert on all medications, but most of them have pretty bad detoxes associated with them. The startup is usually difficult as well. I was desperately sick for 8 days when I started on the Effexor. This is why I never increased my dosage to 75 mg. It took over a month for it to even start working, and most people who have tried it, cannot get thru the initial trial period of starting it. Fortunately (well maybe not) at that time, I had a client who was a psychiatrist and was a research expert on Effexor. She helped me along and told me not to give up.
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> My detoxing experience was pretty much the same as the start up period. Headaches, nauseous, fatigue, YUK!
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> What I am finding out in my own research is that depression at certain stages of life, or caused by certain events, can be associated with different things. Hormones can play a big part in this. This was the case with me, along with physically needing surgery last year for female issues.
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> You will find that we are on this board are here because we needed help detoxing and most doctors don't know the side effects that are caused or how to properly do it. I was told when I was precribed Effexor that I might "feel a little nauseous for a couple days". Farthest thing from the truth.
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> I am thinking that a great deal of the people who are prescribed these drugs at the alarming rate they currently are, need to fix the real problem first. In that case, I feel there are many who probably wouldn't be on these drugs. It's so easy to medicate everyone because they are having some stress or depression, and it is moreover VERY legitimate, but there can be many other things causing it. Especially as we get older!
I agree that other things often need to be looked at in terms of what is causing the depression. Too bad people don't get a complete physical that measures all of their hormone levels, enzyme levels and amino, vitamin and mineral levels before treatment is given.I don't agree that all meds are horrible to start on or go off of for everyone. I had very little trouble going on any of the SSRIs nor did I have any trouble on Effexor. I couldn't even tell that I was taking anything. I had mild nausea initially which went away with time. Paxil and Effexor were difficult to go off of but not nearly as bad for me because I did it soooooo slowly. (I'm in the process of going off of Effexor now.) Being educated about them up front helps a lot. I think that doctors should be more forthcoming however and tell people that it may be difficult and that you might have to go slowly to escalate or withdraw from these meds. There are things you can take to lessen the symptoms of withdrawal. Unfortunately, the doctors don't want to believe that their tools can be difficult to deal with in the first place so they don't always tell their patients about the things they can use to help them.
poster:KaraS
thread:372972
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040730/msgs/373748.html