Posted by demon_child_cin-666 on February 23, 2006, at 20:18:50
In reply to New user DOSAGE INQUIRY » qleo, posted by Aim on February 23, 2006, at 12:23:51
> Thank you for your response regarding the weird side effects. Since this is my first venture with taking medication I have to admit, I am a little fearful.
>
> It is reassuring that other people have experienced jaw clenching as a side effect and the speedy chatty feeling. It is slightly bothersome, but I am hopeful that it will subside. It is not happening as often as it did on Day 2, now it's day 4.
>
> My only thought was if 37.5 has helped me feel slightly different in only 4 days, should i suggest to my doctor that I remain at this dosage for some time, try it lower before jumping up to 75? If I take too high of a dose, how will I know?
Stay at the dose that you are at for now. There is no reason to hurry things along. You want to see how your body reacts to the drugs, and a few days, or even a couple of weeks, is not enough time to determine exactly what all of the changes to your system are at that dose (37.5mg). The lower the dose of Effexor that you're on the better.
I, like so many others on this site was on Effexor. It was definitely not the drug for me. These are some of the things that I experienced:
-lack of fluids in my body. (ALWAYS had to have a bottle of water on me.)
-clenching my jaw
-body twitches (mostly legs, but arms as well.)
- you probably won't believe this but.....hiccups (I'd get them and wouldn't be able to get rid of them-last up to 30 mins. sometimes)
-lost more than 60 lbs in 8 months (did not exercise-just didn't care if I ate, some days didn't think of it at all)
-insomnia-at 1st I could fall asleep, but would only get about 2 hrs. -then when the constant movements got worse (tapping your toes, bouncing your leg, moving your feet) I couldn't even fall asleep.
-constant sweating
-could go pee once a day and there wouldn't be much for that even (constant sweating)
I was taking Lithium, but when my doctor up'd my Effexor to 3x150mg/day, it made my Lithium levels toxic. So DO NOT!!!! take Lithium and Effexor together.
About going off the Effexor...see if it works for you first. If you take it and decide it's working for you then stay on it. If you find that you can't tolerate it, seeing as you are only taking 37.5mg just stop taking it. I took it for 9 months and was taking 4x150mg capsules at the time that I quite. I didn't wean myself off of it like others did. I just stopped taking it, after ending up in the Emergency Room. I knew that if I wasn't at the hospital I would be at home looking at my pill bottles and thinking, "how many can I get down before I become incapable of opening the bottles. It doesn't matter they're all full anyways." It was because of the Effexor that I was feeling that way. I was getting so much of it that I could barely function even when I was feeling rearly, really good. I kept going from really, really good - extremely irritable - and then lower than low. You all have probably seen this lower than low side, now just imagine your AD putting you there. The moods were lasting about a week each. The last downswing that I experienced from the Effexor is the time that I have described above.
Don't let our experiences scare you off of the Effexor. Everybody's chemical make up is different and it just might work for you. My advise then is to just take it slow. It's better to move slower and find out if it's working for you before you start to push the dose higher and experience worse side effects, or develop an addiction to it. I say "addiction" because, any drug that you are on and can't just stop taking, without being weaned off, or going through withdrawal IS an addiction.
Take care
demon_child
poster:demon_child_cin-666
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060219/msgs/612641.html