Posted by Mercedes on November 13, 2003, at 2:07:48
In reply to Re: Effexor XR Experiences, Withdrawals and Thoughts » Mercedes, posted by Samadhi on November 12, 2003, at 19:21:00
Sorry Sahmadi....I don't think you've had the infamous "zaps" yet. However the light thing you describe seems to be a hallucination, similar to what I also experienced.
One of my "weird" hallucinations was in the middle of the day, I was on my reclyner watching TV, and I saw...don't laugh ok...these 3 little skinny ET looking creatures in my perifial vision. They were black in color, and had very skinny arms and long poiny fingers. Only saw them from the waist up and for a moment. I even drew them on a peice of paper and showed the drawing to my Pdoc. I had the most vivid memory of what they looked like. Another was when my occilating fan, suddenly had a face. Another was a faceless bald man with outstreached arms as if he was going for my throat. He had no legs though. My pdoc said that could be from my PTSD. That's when he lowered my dose of effexor from 350 to 300, T.G. And I stayed on 300mgs for about 10 months maybe.
Some of the things I constantly complained to my Pdoc about was my inablility to concentrate, comprehend, retain info, short term memory loss, migranes, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, etc. while on Effexor. Fortunatly some of the SE's are disapearing slowly the longer I'm off Effexor. It will be one month on the 14th!
THE question I have is...are any of the SE's I've listed above going to be permanent???? No one will answer that. I really feel my IQ has suffered.
I didn't start getting the "zaps", or as some people call them "electric shocks" until I was off Effexor completly. OH.....MY.....GOD!
But then again, I was on my lowest dose, 37.5 mgs for only one week, then quit Effexor completly. I shuda stayed on 37.5 for at least 2-3 weeks. So please do spend longer on your lower doses....then again, some people here have stated that they didn't have any withdrawals whatsoever. I guess it affects everyone differently?
Yesterday I had the zaps really bad accompanied with lack of co-ordination, dizzyness, and today none....go figure.
Anyway, I enjoyed your stories. Makes me feel "not-so-weird". Oh, did I mention I've never ever done illegal drugs? So these hallucinations were very new and scary to me.
Keep us posted.
Mercedes***************************************
> 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
poster:Mercedes
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031111/msgs/279275.html