Posted by Bunny Goldberg on July 20, 2000, at 1:20:02
In reply to Re: help withdrawal, posted by Sunnely on July 20, 2000, at 0:14:25
> Cam,
>
> I wholeheartedly agree with what you said. I was only addressing the issue of how to deal with SRI withdrawal symptoms with less difficulty. I did not mean to insinuate that the short half-life SRIs are not effective for conditions for which they are clinically indicated.
>
> If I am not mistaken, the way I understand Bunny's question is, she wants to stop Effexor. She wants to add Prozac to ease the possible withdrawal symptoms while she tapers down and eventually stop Effexor. I assume she also eventually would like to stop Prozac once she's off Effexor. (Based on her statement that she believes she has a handle on her depression.) Based on this, I still say Prozac, with its long half-life, is the best add-on to a shorter half-life SRI being withdrawn. Once one has tapered down and completely discontinued Effexor, he/she probably could even abruptly discontinued Prozac without fear of bothersome withdrawal symptoms (well, almost always). I don't believe you can do that with any of the shorter half-life SRIs. Just my own 2 cents.
>
> Thanks for your additional comments.Boy you people are really knowledgeable about this stuff. I wish my docs knew as much. Anyway, Sunnely is correct - I want to get off all the anti-depressants and anti-anxiety pills and see how I feel. I was taking the antidep. for both depression and for the pain I have from fibro. No one seems to know why but anti-dep. and anti-anx. meds help with fibro pain. Now that I don't feel depressed I would rather live with the pain than feel so detached from life. These pills rob me of my emotion. I definitely don't feel normal emotions on anything I've been on. I'm going to try nutrition and exercise (I eat all the wrong foods and am a real couch potato). The only med I can't live without at this time is Ambiem. I would never sleep if I didn't take it. As far as withdrawal, effexor xr is the only med I've been on that caused such horrible withdrawal problems. Prozac and everything else was a breeze compared to effexor. I also think if I had been told about the withdrawl symptoms at least I could have made the choice of whether to take it or not. Again, I thank all of you for your imput. I'm going to print out your replies to show to my doc.
poster:Bunny Goldberg
thread:40847
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000717/msgs/41000.html