Posted by WishyWashy on March 1, 2002, at 7:55:40
In reply to Anyone had success on Effexor XR? , posted by jp on October 24, 1999, at 14:59:14
I was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder 4 years ago, after dealing with 5 major depressions and bouts of mania between them over a 5 year period. 4 years ago, I was put on depakote and Zoloft. I gained about 60 lbs over about a 2 year span. I told the Dr. my concern about a year and a half ago, and switched to Neurontin 300mg twice daily, along with Zoloft. Neither combination really worked that well for me. I stayed manic & obsessive with the Zoloft & Depakote.
I went to a new psych. this week, for feelings of severe agitation, rage, obsessiveness over stupid things and just a basic feeling of loathing for people right now. He quickly stated that Neurontin was NOT the med I should have been taking to control bi-polar disorder, and put me on Lithium and Effexor, both twice daily (I can't remember dosage). It just seemed so fast to change me after talking to me 5 minutes, and I told him so. He offered to leave me on neurontin with Effexor, but I replied that he was the Dr., so let's "do the right thing".
It's been 4 days now. My sleep was bad before, I was having problems going to sleep. I had switched to a 6am-2:30pm schedule for a couple months at work and was taking Ambien to get to sleep early enough, but found my mood swings and sleeplessness to be too much to stay on the schedule, so swapped back to a later schedule.
I don't really know what the point of my post is, besides the fact that I awoke at 3:30am after going to bed at midnight, and couldn't go back to sleep. So, I'm here at work, alone and concerned about being on new meds... concerned about the immediate problems I'm having with libido/e.d. And wondering if I need an anti-depressant at all.. I'm having the nausea, swimmy-head, strange fatigue/inability to sleep that other people have mentioned. I wonder if I should go on lithium only. I feel like I need something for Bi-Polar. But I don't want to get hooked on something with such bad withdrawal problems, if I don't need it. And if I don't need the Effexor, by the time I've given the drug it's time to really work, and the side effects maybe subside, am I going to end up kicking Effexor by the wayside and then have to go through withdrawal? What a mess. On the upside, since Day 2, I don't feel like I want to bash anybody's head in, which is a plus.
poster:WishyWashy
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020301/msgs/95930.html