Posted by Samadhi on November 12, 2003, at 19:21:00
In reply to Re: Effexor XR Experiences, Withdrawals and Thoughts » Samadhi, posted by Mercedes on November 12, 2003, at 5:40:29
Thanks Mercedes. It's day 3 of 75mg now, and those withdrawals are sure kicking in. You're absolutely right about the same SE you get titrating up, you get them going down too. When I went from 225mg to 150mg, no extreme side effects. But I think I now know what a "zap" is...was lying in bed last night and thought I saw a flash of light. It startled me, so I looked towards my window, thinking it must have come from there. Then suddenly a massive "zap" of light hit me again and I realised it was in my head and eyes, not external. It scared the hell out of me and left me looking around confusedly. Am I on track here - have I finally felt the infamous "zap"? I still don't have porcupine needles though, touch wood.
As for hallucinating, yep, I've had that too, on 225mg only though. I actually heard a woman's voice whisper loudly to me "I'm going to eat you" in an empty room. That was when I decided to wean myself off. I've heard voices and hallucinated whilst on the higher dose. The "zap" experience last night was a bit like that, like an internal rapid hallucination of light followed by fear and confusion and exhaustion. Ugh. Gotta love it, eh? Can't wait to get off.
I don't know about my blood pressure...I have had heart palps since being on Effexor...but not sure if it has affected my blood pressure itself. I have always had low blood pressure anyway - maybe it's actually balanced that out for me!!!
Oddly, I am feeling very happy today. Cheerful and positive to the extreme. Very unusual and not what I would expect to be feeling on day 3 of withdrawals. Good, though!
Woke up in the early hours of the morning bathed in sweat and trembling from the dark dreams. But I knew it was just withdrawals, so I'm handling it.
This board is invaluable to deal with this process!!!
xxx
> Samaldi? Sorry if the sp is wrong. First, my sincere condolences on the death of you mother. I lost my mom 3 yrs ago, and still miss her so much.
>
> Your description of being on effexor, are exactly how I felt when I started. And always thinking, "it's got to get better". And it did. My worst titration up was when my Pdoc took me up from 300mgs to 350 and I started hallucinating. that's when I said Whoa, so I went back to 300.
>
> It sounds like you are doing fine as you decrease you dosages. You are definatly going slower than me and please keep doing that. The one thing I learned is that all the side effects going up the ladder of effexor, I got the same SE's going off effexor.
>
> I'm off completly now but had I to do it over agian (the decrease that is), I would have stayed on the lowest dose...37.5 at least three weeks, not one, like I did. And then, even after 3 weeks, go a 4th, even a 5th week and take your lowest dose by skipping a day till the side effects are gone. But this s/b monitored by your doctor. Unfortunatly, they don't take the drug.
>
> Keep us posted ok. Your experience may be helpful to other future withdrawer's?
>
> One good thing, is that the mental alertness is getting better for me, but I still have the zaps and the porqupine needles. And it's weird cause one day I'll have them real bad, then another day nothing, then again like today...Yikes!! Zaps and very unco-ordinated. They don't realy scare me anymore though. I just know I'm having withdrawals. What's funny is that when I was titrating up...I would read these posts about zaps and had no idea what people were refering to. Now I know. I reeeallly KNOW.
>
> My blood pressure going haywire on me does scare me though. But you seem to be doing it right. Get off effexor slooooowly.
>
> Good luck,
> Mercedes
> **************************************
>
> > I was put on Effexor XR after trying various other Anti D's (ie: Zoloft, Aurorex, as well as Diazepam for anxiety and Tamazepam for sleep disturbance) and following the sudden and unexpected death of my Mother when I was 22 (just over a year ago). I went to my trusted GP and requested I be put on an Anti D again, and one I hadn't tried before. She suggested Effexor XR, told me it was a relatively new drug and she'd heard positive things about it, and I accepted her suggestion gratefully and without a second thought.
> > Well, my first week on Effexor was HELL. Shaking. Sweating. Insomnia. Nausea. Severe leg and other muscles spasms. Headaches. Confusion. Vivid dreams that stayed with me all day and felt real and disturbing and disorienting. No appetite. Emotions all over the place. But I stuck with it, thinking "it HAS to get better than this". And it did. And for a period of time it really helped me - it no doubt got me through my Mum's death and my subsequent year of deep depression and trauma.
> > But the side effects were ALWAYS strong (particularly the sweating, shaking, dreams, twitches) and scary, and it has now reached the point where the side effects so outweigh the benefits that I am weaning myself off. I was on 225mg and reduced to 150mg for a few weeks. No severe withdrawals, but I definitely noticed mood disturbances and a bit of nausea and increased sweating and vagueness - as well as extreme absent mindedness and memory issues.
> > Anyway, after a few weeks at 150mg I reduced again to 75mg, 2 days ago. Obviously it's too soon to say how that will affect me, so far I feel ok, a little "out of it" and lethargic, still sweaty, but otherwise standard. Nothing like the horror stories I have read on here (which helped me a lot, by the way, as I knew to decrease slowly) and none of the "brain zaps" or "porcupine needles" I have read about here. But I'll wait and see and won't speak too soon.
> > This board has been so helpful to me during my time on Effexor. I have experienced so many side effects and had so many foreign things occurring in my brain and body that I would have been terrified and confused about had I not been able to see other's experiences matched mine. Thankyou all!
>
>
poster:Samadhi
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031111/msgs/279156.html