Posted by zinya on June 10, 2003, at 9:26:28
In reply to Re: Off Effexor - Day 2 and carpal tunnel » zinya, posted by CherC68 on June 9, 2003, at 21:51:40
Gosh, Cher, i can't tell you how out-of-the-blue comforting it is to think i'm being helpful. Part of my own depression is a kind of catch-22 of isolation or hiatus from the person i knew as 'me' who always thrived on such an image of myself, as teacher, friend, whatever. Plus i've felt connected to you too, in a way that i frankly, selfishly, felt a personal bit of letdown that you weren't going to be going through this "with me" over time. But i also hear that it doesn't sound right for you (and may prove not to be for me either for all i know).
In fact, with your new info shared, my first reaction is to wonder even more about whether it's hormone-withdrawal which has led you to the depression symptoms. Is there a reason related to the endometriosis why hormones are not advised? Otherwise, it would seem that with the uterus removed, you wouldn't need progesterone (which has had the most problematic research findings) and that you could try taking something like estratest, for a balance of estrogen and testosterone (I assume you know women have --and need -- low levels (compared to men) of testosterone too, which i think plays a role in energy levels too. If this isn't something you've already looked into and ruled out for other reasons, i'd think that once you get through this new withdrawal, from effexor, that you might raise it with your md. and consider it.
By the way, there's a great book by Christiane Northrup called _Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom_, that i learned a lot from which you might like too. She's an md. who specializes particularly in post-menopausal but treats the entirety of hormonal factors and she's also a big believer in the underlooked role of the adrenal system which also starts to show signs of age and peter out in many folks beginning in the 40's which, for some women, it can compound the effects of menopause, surgical or natural, because the adrenal glands are our bodies one other site for hormone production. She also highly promotes natural routes of hormone replacement.
It also seems to me that, based on what others say here about tapering off, that if you continue to have bad withdrawal symptoms today, you might open a capsule and take even just a few grains of it, 1/4 of the 75 mg total or less, as it might even at this point help your body to taper off -- even though you didn't go beyond 37.5. It seems even at that level, there can be a need to taper off gradually.
But maybe you''ll be 'over the hump' today and won't need to consider that -- I hope so.
wishing you well, and sending hugs,
zinya
poster:zinya
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030609/msgs/232864.html