Re: Effexor Withdrawal

Posted by dave on 07/15/05 at 12:13 AM

When my psychiatrist put on Effexor for anxiety he made no mention of withdrawals. I knew better because I had been on many SSRI�s before such as Paxil (yuck). I also get a script for Valium that the doctor very reluctantly gives me. I not only had to show him the medicine bottle to prove I had it prescribed to me before, but I almost had to talk him into it. I was told about the dangers of the drug, addiction and so forth. I personally have only had good experiences with that class of drugs (benzodiazapines). So I start the effexor and work my way up to 150mg/day (about 0.45mg/kg of body weight), and it seems to be working. But keep in mind that I�m am still taking the Valium for acute anxiety attacks. The first two side effects of the Effexor were very noticeable and pronounced. The first was a terrible hand tremor that was most prominent in the morning. Most people thought I had Parkinson�s disease. It was bad, I couldn�t write or even keep my hands still. Along with the constant hand tremors I would occasionally get a whole body tremor, or spasm. On rare occasions I would also develop a jaw tremor that mimicked the behaviour of shivering, as if I was cold. The other side effect was the inability to reach sexual climax (orgasm). Being a 23-year-old male this is a big deal. Irritating at first, and a challenge for my girl friend, it soon progressed passed annoying into the almost unbearable. On certain nights I would intentionally miss a dose if I knew my girl friend would be staying over the next night. This is how I learned of the withdrawal. I skipped my dose two nights in a row on one occasion. By 10:00PM the second night I was lying on the floor covered in a cold sweat, too tired, dizzy and nauseous to get up. My girl friend thought I was dying, and kept asking if I needed to go to the hospital. I vomited then took my effexor, and crawled into bed. This was a first for me, and I repeated missing two does to rule out the flu or any thing else that would have caused this. Nope. It was the effexor. After telling my psychiatrist of the side effects we decided to taper the dose down to 75mg day (0.22mg/kg). The tremors were not so bad but that was all that changed. At one point I decided I wanted nothing to do with the drug as the side effects were beginning to outweigh the benefits. I am down to 37.5 mg a day now, and while my hand tremors have gone away, mostly, I still have the sexual side effects. Another non-physiological side effect of lowering or stopping effexor is terrible nightmares and night terrors; Nightmares so bad that you perceive them to be real minutes after waking up. I habitually found myself in a delusional state after I woke up, not knowing where I was or what was happening. Very frightening. I still have not one that war against effexor as of yet. I still have many side effects, but my head feels very clear now.

Replies	Posted By	#	Date & Time
Re: Re: Effexor Withdrawal	j	0	06/19/06 01:58 PM
Re: Re: Effexor Withdrawal	Helen	0	03/13/06 06:00 AM
rVj1P0HPeo	rVj1P0HPeo	0	03/08/06 09:58 AM