Posted by papillon on January 14, 2012, at 23:53:37
In reply to Effexor and it's short half life, posted by sleepygirl2 on January 8, 2012, at 11:39:49
Hi Sleepygirl,
I used to take Effexor XR, up to 450mg at one point but mainly 375mg. Some hospital buddies of mine joke that you don't just get side effects from stopping or missing a dose of Effexor, you also get a 'slide effect' - it sounds like you know what we mean!
I would get quite anxious if I missed a dose, but I also experienced a lot of 'physical' side effects too, such as sweating, shaking, incredible nausea, tachychardia, a strange 'other-worldly' feeling and an electrical zap type sensation in my brain. I would wake up with the shakes, sweats and vivid nightmares halfway through the night, just after missing one bedtime dose (that's only after 5/6 hours!) and it would get progressively worse from there if I didn't realize what was happening and take the missed dose. One time I even took myself to the hospital, as things were so bad and I didn't know why!
Some things that have helped me:
* keeping a 7-day med organizer
* always taking my meds at set times and having a recurring alarm on my phone to remind me
* keeping a couple days doses in envelopes at my parents' and boyfriend's houses, in case I forgot to fill a script and the pharmacy was closed
* after filling my med organizer, putting the empty box of meds and the script in my handbag straight away - whenever I look in my bag I am reminded that I need to go to the pharmacy.
* keeping valium and a prescription antiemetic on hand in case things got drive-to-the-hospital ugly (which happened less due to greater self-awareness).Your prescribing doctor might have some other tips.
poster:papillon
thread:1006689
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120108/msgs/1007275.html