Posted by CEK on March 25, 2006, at 22:56:24
In reply to Re: This is my first time taking anythingstrungo » LisaH817, posted by tizza on March 25, 2006, at 16:21:10
I was started on a sample pack of Effexor 6 years ago. It starts you out on a low dose and gradually goes up to 75mg. For me it had it's plus and minuses. The plus for me was that it did take away all of my anxiety. It made me less emotional. I too was going through a lot of bad things in my life at that time and all I did was cry or get mad, couldn't sleep, was very irritable and would jump out of my skin over little things that normally wouldn't have scared me. Within a week the crying stopped, the awefull vengfull anger got less and I was no longer irritated by every little thing. I felt more in control. Before the Effexor anything that happened that wasn't just right would get me fighting mad. Even my children whinning or crying Momma,Momma, Mommaaaa all the time didn't bother me anymore. I could get in an arguement with my father or husband and not feel like I wanted to punch their face in. It no longer felt like the end of the world when ever little things went wrong. That was definitely my big plus. Now the minus for me was that I too had major brain fog. I thought about going back to school and tried refreshing my geometry skills and could not get a thought to stay in my head. I would read something and could not get it to register in my brain. I was always good in school and never had problem getting good grades but on Effexor I felt like an idiot. Even if someone tried to teach me a new card game, I couldn't get it. Another problem was weight gain. The information on the drug never stated weight gain, only weight loss, but people do gain weight on it. It would give me the munchies so bad. I wanted to eat sugary and fattening things all the time. I would get bad cravings like if I didn't get to eat peanut butter cookies right now I'd lose my mind. It was very hard for me to control it. At one time my doctor increased my dose to 150mg and I gained 5lbs a week for two months. 40lbs total in 2 months! Duriing that time I would forget what I ate for breakfast and it was only lunch time! My doctor lowered me back down to 75mg. It also made me nausiated within 20min. after taking it and this never went away. I took it for almost 6 years. The nausia itself would only last about an hour but still it was bad. I started taking the 75mg tablet instead of the capsule so I could break it in half and then the nausia went away with only 37.5mg. I had tried Celexa, Lexapro and Wellbutrin instead of the Effexor but none of them worked for me so I had to go back to Effexor. Effexor was my first antidepressant also. I tried to take diet pills while on Effexor to help with the weight gain but found out later that the diet pills would cause the Effexor not to work and after 3 days of taking them I would start having withdrawl symtoms. The only way that ever worked for me to come off of the Effexor was my doctor having me take it and another antidepressant at the same time for 10 days, then slowly taper off of the Effexor for two weeks. She said that this allowed the new antidepressant to be fully in my system when I started tapering off of the Effexor. She said it takes a good 10 days for the new drug to be in your system. Eveytime before when I would try another antidepressant she would stop it cold turkey and immediately start the new one. After 3 days withdrawl symptoms were awfull and I would have to go back to Effexor. Everyone is different as far as how a drug will effect them, but this was my experience.
poster:CEK
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060322/msgs/624676.html