Posted by pablo1 on July 27, 2004, at 15:27:23
In reply to Re: Effexor and Alcoholism » Rockson, posted by lorily on July 27, 2004, at 14:42:26
I had some diminishing of the desire to drink when I started effexor but it didn't last. It almost felt like the effexor sedated me some and that acted as a replacement but as I said, it didn't last. It is supposed to be true that getting the proper medication will help you not to want to self medicate. It's also true I'm sure that the drinking interferes with the medications working properly to some degree.
I guess what the other responses were saying is to go ahead and quit drinking and let the meds do their thing and that it is not possible to diminish the desire to drink. I'm not sure about that. It just came off as a moralistic lecture to me. Sorry I don't intend to attack them for that, these are simply my feelings.
BTW I can quit drinking without major withdrawl, just uncomfortable for a couple days... but I don't 'feel good' so I drink again. So it makes more sense to me that I need to find a way to feel good in order to stop drinking. Being sober doesn't make me feel good. I'm still missing something. Yes drinking makes things worse also and is obviously not a very good med but it works and that's why I do it. I'm looking for other options but until I find something that helps, it's awfully hard to give up and just feel crappy. Effexor helped some but not enough for me to tolerate the side effects for me. So far I'm willing to put up with the side effects of alcohol.
Some people get extremely addicted to alcohol abusing it in enormous quantities and behaving very badly. I don't think that's the case for you or I though Rockson.
So my answer to your question is that no I don't think you should take or increase effexor to limit the urge to drink but rather take it if it works on your symptoms. I think when you find something that works then you can stop drinking comfortably. Obviously cutting back some would be helpful.
I disagree that alcohol is dangerous with SSRI's. That's just scare tactics and simply isn't true. All medications will warn that it's unwise to drink with them but hell, it's unwise to drink alone so that doesn't really mean anything.
poster:pablo1
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040724/msgs/371288.html