Re: Effexor Withdrawal = Depression and Anxiety!!

Posted by Shauna on 01/01/05 at 10:00 AM

Hello- I was the \"stupid one\" that decided to go cold turkey off 1 75mg and 1 37.5mg Effexor. It wasn\'t until it was already too late that I found this website out of desperation to see what was happening to me. I\'m not saying the Effexor was a terrible medicine for me while I was taking it but I must say that I\'m extremely offended that my doctor didn\'t tell me about these HORRIFIC withdrawal effects and I\'m also offended that he probably didn\'t know about them either. And, (just venting), I\'d be really offended if I saw him now and he looks at me like it\'s me and not the Effexor. Here are some of the things I\'ve experienced and I believe I hit them all except throwing up ( thank the Lord); facial numbness around my mouth, extreme dizziness which lasted about 5-6 days and then seems to wane unless I push myself too much, emotional ups and downs on a scale that I had never experienced before the Effexor( fear is huge, sadness huge, anger huge, giddy huge), I woke up one night at 3 am and thought I had swallowed a Demon( delusion),I heard a voice(auditory hallucination), I can hear my eyeballs moving like a swishing sound and the \"brain zaps\" have been intolerable. It\'s been about 10 days. I can tell things are getting better and most of the physical stuff is going away slowly but surely. Emotionally, tho, it\'s still not good and it\'s getting confusing as I wanted to see what my baseline was without it but I can\'t tell if it\'s me yet. I hope to God that it isn\'t quite me yet because it\'s very uncomfortable being in my own skin right now. On a positive side, I feel that getting rid of some of the numbness has allowed me to think more and some real creative ideas are coming out of me again. I also remember reading that someone said 5 days af dizziness and that semmed like an eternity to me and one that I wouldn\'t be able to handle but I did. I was also trying to read about the levels and Half-life, etc. It seems that anything under 75 mgs removes the inhibitor in the brain and that\'s when all Hell breaks loose. It does seem tho that some of the people were counting the granules and I hope that provides a safer and more comfortable journey. I also bought but I didn\'t take motion sickness pills. Looking back now, it probably would\'ve helped but I was afraid that if I put another chemical in my system, a pure meltdown may have occured. So, I\'m still praying and I hope for all of our sakes that \"this too shall pass\". I like what the one woman said about \" i\'d rather drink Drano then go back on this\". Have strength- and if you don\'t have enough strengh for yourself, use somebody elses. Good luck and Happy New Year.

Replies	Posted By	#	Date & Time
Re: Re: Effexor Withdrawal = Depression and Anxiety!!	Laurie	1	01/02/05 05:41 PM
Re: Re: Effexor Withdrawal = Depression and Anxiety!!	Stacy	2	01/02/05 10:55 AM