Posted by d.g. on April 29, 2003, at 19:59:03
In reply to Re: Effexor and drinking wine » PuraVida, posted by Krissy P on March 18, 2003, at 11:51:08
Hi all - been reading through the messages and I just thought I'd put in my two cents as a three-year Effexor user, which is fairly long-term I suspect. My dosage is fairly light, 75mg per day, although I'm about to go to 150mg per day due to an increase in the frequency of my migraines.
I was prescribed Effexor XR as a preventative for my migraines and also because of some mood irregularities possibly associated with the migraines. I had the side effects almost immediately after taking my very first dose - sweating, felt extremely hyper, etc. But that faded quickly and I haven't felt a side effect since unless I miss consecutive doses (more about that later.)
Effexor has helped me a lot - in tandem with BuSpar, my migraines are well under control, and my mood swings less frequent. I probably don't help matters by drinking alcohol liberally and frequently; for the first year I took Effexor I wasn't drinking at all, the second I was drinking lightly and lately I've been partying down and I can really tell the difference. I'm going to stop drinking again as I've also been prescribed an antiepileptic.
Anyway, the only time I have had side effects is when I have missed more than a day's dose. If I miss two days' doses, I'm f***ed, plain and simple. Brain shivers, electric shock sensations, cottonmouth, extreme depression, you name it. The thing is, I can tell it's the drug and not me going mad. It's like an amazingly bad LSD trip, kind of, only it doesn't go away quickly like LSD does. My advice to anyone just starting out with this drug, is to hold back a pill or two from each batch, just in case you ever get in a situation where you can't get your script refilled as quickly as you need it.
No one should be too scared of this drug, but definitely go into it with your eyes open. Good advice for any of these very powerful psychotropics.
poster:d.g.
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030429/msgs/223253.html