Posted by tarian617 on April 12, 2004, at 10:35:27
In reply to Re: Side effects when going to higher dose, posted by Davez on April 11, 2004, at 12:48:01
This might be long, I have a lot to say!!
btw, i posted a couple times a long while before as "traumaqueen"--I was a trauma ICU RN--and now I am "tarian617".
Well...I have been on Effexor for probably five months now. A couple months ago, I told my doctor I was still having a lot of anxiety, some panic attacks and BAD PMS. So he doubled my dosage from 75mg to 150mg. At first I just took 2 75mg capsules. He gave me a lot of samples, so I did that for a couple of months. Then I was running out, so I got a script for 1 150mg capsule a day. I started this a couple weeks ago.
Well...you would think that going from 2 75mg E-XR to 1 150mg E-XR would make absolutely no difference, but it was like HELL. I went from fine to having the bad muscle aches and pains, the horrible insomnia where I felt exhausted but couldn't sleep, and this restless leg thing where my legs have to be moving or shaking constantly. I became irritable, and felt a great deal of rage about things in my past that I thought I was over. I was not too happy about having to take my Effexor, and would miss doses and then last week decided to just stop taking it. I felt like I was being "oppositional-defiant"--I knew what I was doing was stupid, but I didn't care. I actually became a little paranoid that the 75mg samples that I was taking before were possibly not full strength--I wouldn't put it past the pharmaceutical company to jyp (sp?) people in their samples. I know...sounds crazy.
Then, last night, I went to work. I'm an RN in a Cardiovascular Surgery Recovery ICU. I had a complicated and sick patient and I couldn't THINK. I would turn my head, and feel like my brain was trying to catch up with my head movement. It got worse and worse by the second. I started crying uncontrollably, ended up in the ER shaking uncontrollably...my heart rate up in the 110's (normally 50's) and my BP in the 200's, normally 110's. I felt like at any moment I could have a seizure. They gave me a couple of Xanax and I felt better...but now I have to figure out what to do with my meds. I am going to see the doc today. I might have to slowly work up to the 150mg capsule with the help of Xanax or Benadryl or something.
This whole thing is crazier than I am....any advice would be much appreciated...
:)
Tari
poster:tarian617
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040412/msgs/335507.html