Posted by dancingstar on December 26, 2004, at 11:37:11
In reply to Re: Ever tried cold turkey? » sillyme, posted by ht on December 26, 2004, at 2:47:54
I quit 150 mg just over three months ago, and I am just now returning to normal. I think you should opt for a tapered dose, or some doctors like to add Prozac in to make you "feel" better, something about it being a longer-acting drug and not being difficult to stop taking later.
Barring those options, Benadryl or something similar might be your best bet for relief with the addition of SAMe and St. John's Wort, perhaps, and possibly L-tryptophan, but I don't take it cause I didn't react well to L-tryptophan. Most people recover in a week to a month, but I didn't. Every time I thought it was over, I got sick again. Nausea, vomiting, colitis, brain shivers -- still get this and the paresthesia, uticaria, migraines, massive pain everywhere so that I could barely move, sweating, freezing, fever, extreme anxiety, panic attacks, inability to be around people even if you are normally really social...any and all of those are probably withdrawal symptoms.
It's been three months, and for the first time yesterday I went rollerblading at the beach...want to go again this morning. I'm beginning to feel like myself again. It was one rough road!!! You will have to take extremely good care of yourself and ask your wife for infinite patience as you will be mighty difficult to live with...most say this is so. If you are going to go cold turkey, tell her you love her now, tell her nothing, absolutely nothing will change this no matter what you say or do...or don't do.
I'm putting together a class action against Wyeth for not letting people like me know how horrible this was going to be and also for not letting us know about the possible side effects of Effexor/XR. If after you are done you find yourself interested in joining our group, you are welcome to drop me a line :-).
Best of luck to you!!! Happy New Year!!!!!!!
Bebe
Bebe0217@aol.com
poster:dancingstar
thread:12459
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041223/msgs/434266.html