Posted by bleauberry on October 21, 2007, at 15:12:19
In reply to Alternatives to help Effexor withdrawl rage, posted by mibunny88 on October 21, 2007, at 6:04:55
5htp is my vote. Start with 10mg (dump out a capsule), 25mg the next day, and then feel it out. I think around 25mg to 50mg is a decent dose, but naturopaths commonly go as high as 200mg to 300mg per day in divided doses.
Effexor had a lot of extra serotonin at the synapses. That serotonin is now gone. The receptors are frieking out. With the absence of exaggerated serotonin, things are probably being overwhelmed with norepinephrine and dopamine (adrenaline kind of stuff). Serotonin will balance that out, buffer it, and calm things down. Most likely.
I went through many months of the post-antidepressant restlessness/irritation/suspiciousness/overly sensitive to meaningless comments behaviors or gestures kind of stuff. I've never had rage, but I do believe all the above are in the same vein as rage and have a common root cause, which is basically too much adrenaline and too little serotonin.
Anyway, 10mg the first late afternoon kind of wound me up for an hour and then calmed me down a little. Second day, same thing. Third day, peace and calm. Eventually got up to 50mg, and since have found my best overall dose is 25mg. Some people need it in multiple doses. I never tried that but should. I now take between 15mg and 25mg about 4pm. I do feels times throughout the day when I should not wait till 4pm.
In any case, yeah, I think 5htp is a great idea for this particular post-effexor scenario you are experiencing.
poster:bleauberry
thread:790449
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20070923/msgs/790512.html