Posted by liza29 on October 1, 2005, at 10:37:16
In reply to Re: Anyone had success on Effexor XR?, posted by NicknameRay on September 27, 2005, at 11:21:21
After reading the posts here (this is my first, too), I am posting to share a success (so far) story with Effexor XR and also to see if there are others who are like me. I think I've had off and on depression for several years, but, at 49, I got worse, and finally sought help. I started on Effexor XR at 75 mg and felt better, not great, after about a month. Then I went to 150 mg and it was like the lights came on. I felt like I was recognizing an old friend as I saw myself becoming the person I used to be. Colors were brighter, my relationship with husband improved, I became more outgoing. I had some symptoms like yawning all day, and some constipation, but nothing to offset the huge positives.
So..now I've been on it for nearly 5 years...I am mainly concerned with long term use, for which I realize there is no data. I tried dropping to 75 just to see...I am only working with a family practice medical person, by the way. At any rate, after about a month, I began to feel more irritability, and find that negative thoughts were creeping in more and more and were more difficult to control. I was also avoiding people. So I went back up to 150 and it took about 2 weeks to return to feeling "right" and that's where I am at now.
I would happily take it forever, if that's what it takes to keep feeling good.
However, I'm still worried about long term effects. I don't want to end up in 10 or 20 years with seizures, alzheimers, schitzophrenia, bipolar disorder...Not that I have ever read about any of these things happening, but that there just is no DATA that I am aware of. Anyone else have an information source on that subject? I've searched and read quite a bit.
poster:liza29
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050927/msgs/561563.html