Posted by Leslie Elliott on July 23, 2004, at 5:53:59
In reply to Re: Anyone had success on Effexor XR?, posted by lorily on July 22, 2004, at 8:50:06
> Leslie,
> If I had known of the side effects of Effexor, I would never have taken it. I must say that I am grateful I didn't know because Effexor enabled me to get my life together. Dealing with depression and being an active alcoholic is a Hell I hope to never return to. Only after taking Effexor, getting my depression under was the only way I could deal with my recovery. They went hand-in-hand for me. I refused ADs for a couple years, then finally agreed to take them (Effexor because I'd heard tremendous results from people I knew who took it) I never realized how depressed I was until I wasn't anymore!!!!!!!!!!! What freedom I have! I was able to handle everything else in my life. That began Feb 2003. Today, I am off effexor 8 days. I read all the horror stories and experienced some of the side effects myself. They are no picnic, but in my experience and based on my researching, the withdrawals can be managed or eliminated. 37.5 is a very low dose, Thats where I started, six months later I went up to 75. June 1 I went back to 37.5 and 5 weeks later began tapering the daily dose GRADUALLY. Took vitamins, took antihistamines, even tried dramamine. During the last week, I've had a cold which could be masking some symptoms, but all-in-all I'm doing well.
> I understand there's a new medication, Cymbalta I believe that does the same thing without the side effects. I don't know where it's available, but talk to your doctor. I personally would rather try that than return to effexor if the need arose. Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!!Thank you so much for responding, I've been so unsure about what to do, I will talk to my Doctor. I don't know why I'm so scared to take medication, but I'm almost 40 and have been going through this (depression/anxiety) for about the past 10 years, I almost turned to alcohol, but could not function literally, then everything turned inward and I thought I was dying, hypochondriac, I'm so glad I found this web site
poster:Leslie Elliott
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040719/msgs/369276.html