Posted by dancingstar on October 6, 2004, at 21:26:01
In reply to Re: Effexor XR WDs... How To Handle...**LINK**, posted by Jubilee on October 6, 2004, at 2:37:23
Three years ago I was in my friend's brother's office. He is a family practice physician. I didn't have a doctor of my own; so I went to him for various health problems that I had, most particularly what I thought was a bad back injury but what was really probably the beginning of mild fibromyalgia. On one particular day that I was there my boyfriend and I had broken up -- yet again...and I was upset. "Dr. Wonderful" suggested taking Effexor. (I'm not really blaming him for this, there's plenty of other things I'm grumpy about in regard to my medical care, but not this.) I started taking 75mg, and somehow sooner or later, I was taking 150mg. Maybe it's not that much, I don't know. When I finally found my terrific internist, I stayed on the same dosage. Every now and then he would ask me if everything was okay with "that Effexor." I'd acknowledge that it was.
It seems that every year towards the latter part of September I either do something out of the blue or something happens to me that sets me on a course that I'm not expecting. For purposes of this board, I'll just say that I ran out of EffexorXR, and I don't know why I was so insistent about not refilling the prescription. I can speculate that originally I was irritated at a memory having to do with the way the original prescribing doctor had handled my care. Then I remembered the last time I weighed 125 pounds, my normal weight. It was about one month before I began taking EffexorXR. I remember my weight ballooning up to 151 pounds I'm 5'6," and a 25lb+ weight gain alone was enough to throw me into my version of deep depression. You see, I'm a happy person by nature. Since then, I've been surviving on between 600 and, maybe, 1200 calories a day, calories lacking in carbohydrates I might add, and I wasn't able to drag my weight back down much below 138 - 140 no matter how much exercise I did.
So, what the hey, I said to myself, let's give up this drug. Little did I know the monsters that lurk beneath the little maroon pill....
Okay, I'm going to drive you nuts here because I mix all the good and bad together in one huge stream of consciousness but here goes: No problem the first couple of days; so I didn't realize what was about to happen to me. From day three to day seven, all I can say is that I don't remember being so sick maybe ever. Today is day eight. Let me first say that nothing ever in the whole wide world will ever make me take this or any antidepressant ever again, nothing!!!!!!!!!!!! I am sick as a dog. I weigh 135 :-). We're going down. The weight is falling off. And yes, I am eating, though nothing stays down. I no longer crave anything sweet, which is interesting to me. I am happy!! Not that I wasn't, but I haven't felt this happy in ages. I can't stop throwing up, etc. My shoulders hurt, my hips hurt, my ankles hurt, my toes hurt. my fingers hurt, my eyes hurt. I don't need my reading glasses to see close up any longer. I can see better than I used to from the back of the room in my art history class. I'm exhausted because it feels as though I can't sleep for long periods of time. It's really a pain because I have so much work to do and cannot afford the downtime that feeling this bad takes. I have to run my business and I also just went back to school for design.
I only post this so that someone else might know that it is very painful for some of us to stop taking this drug, but I would never do it some other way because I want it to be gone, not lingering somewhere in my system.
I am worried about other people like me that are possibly taking it for the wrong reasons. I think that it is being prescribed predominantly by family practitioners and internists for a million and one reasons from anxiety to for weight loss to perimenopause and this could potentially be a very well -- icky situation. Yes, "icky" is as scientific as I'm willing to get. Maybe it is a good drug, I wouldn't know. Is there something in it that makes it impossible to stop taking it, kind of like the cigarette manufacturers make nicotine intentionally addictive? Are there thousands of people that should not be taking it?
Even though I am sick in a very bad flu-like way, I feel more calm without this drug, more sane, more normal, more happy, more content.
Also, and here's a good question for you scientists: I'm on 75mg of Armour thyroid that I have only begun to take in the last one and a half years. I read something on this board about the relationship between thyroid and EffexorXR.
And one more that someone asked about albeit a long time ago was the working out connection. When I began taking Effexor, I was in the very best shape of my life. I was probably in "fitness" shape. I don't do it for a living as I have a completely different business, but I am also a private trainer. Now I am having trouble even working out at all. I was getting weaker and weaker.
Ultimately, there were lots of things that made me want to find some answers, and I don't know that quitting one drug is the cure all. I was just surprised to see that other people had so many similar complaints, one might say shocked even.
At any rate, best of luck to everyone. You will make it through, I know you will!!! I will check back in and let you know when this terrible feeling is over. If anyone has any nondrug recommendations, please send them along. Also, I have an appointment with my internist tomorrow. Fortunately, he is also holistic, when necessary. I know he will give me some great withdrawal advice. He doesn't even know that I have done this yet, though he knows I can do some interesting things from time to time. I'll pass along any tips that he might have.
poster:dancingstar
thread:3670
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041002/msgs/399820.html