Posted by PoohBear on March 22, 2004, at 9:39:51
In reply to Re: Effexor Newbie, posted by Beta on March 21, 2004, at 19:14:25
Beta:
My personal experience with many of the common antidepressants and side effects lead me to request Effexor from my pDoc this time around. For me at least, it has been a miracle, regardless of the negative posts that one finds here. I have tried to be as positive as possible over the last 5 months of posting because there are MANY for whom Effexor works and works WELL. For many there are issues with withdrawal after stopping the med, but this can be midigated by using Prozac when stopping Effexor.
I had a number of side effects when I started Effexor, none of them extreme. Among these were troubles getting to sleep at night, frequent urination, difficulty urinating, erectile disfunction and anorgasmia, plus ring ears, dry mouth some dizziness and brain "zaps". All of these went away with time and as my system got used to the drug. The erectile disfunction I was able to counter for a while with Wellbutrin, but I don't even need that now. For me, the most aggravating side effect when first beginning Effexor were the absolutely bizzare technicolor dreams. But these too went away with time.
My point here is that I was determined to make this work and stuck with it long enough, adjusting doseages with my pDoc until we achieved satisfactory results...
I didn't notice any real weight GAIN with Effexor, but I did notice that it was much harder to LOSE weight, which has not helped me reaching my Weight Watcher goal, but hey, that's the way it goes.
The biggest thing for me is that Effexor stopped my suicidal ideation *dead* in its tracks and for the first time in my memory I was able to stop unwanted thoughts from contantly streaming into my brain, out of control.
I am now augmenting 150mg of Effexor each morning with 100mg of Seroquel at night for mood moderation and sleep and 20-30mg of Adderall daily for ADHD. This combo seems to be working very well for me.
Is this enough insight for you? Take care,
Tony
> I am on week 2 of 75mg of effexor XR, started out at 37.5 mg for a week. I was 25 lbs. underweight when I began, have gained almost 10 lbs, may be due to the effexor XR, or my attempts to eat more. I was initially prescribed Zoloft for depression, but quickly re-diagnosed with PTSD so effexor was evidently more recommended. I am on a new found crash course with antidepressents and traumatherapy. Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks. =)
poster:PoohBear
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040319/msgs/326967.html