Posted by Angel Girl on March 4, 2002, at 14:45:23
I am severely depressed and started taking Effexor 37.5mg in November last year. It has been slowly increased and 2 weeks ago it was changed to Effexor XR 225mg. Immediately upon taking the first dose at the new level I felt immediate relief from my depression. No more crying or suicidal thoughts UNTIL I was watching a TV show that was talking about death last week. Although I was not feeling at all depressed at the time and the show was upbeat in mood, I started thinking of taking my life and I have no idea why. :( I quickly turned off the show and the feelings went away in a short period of time. Other than that one episode, I have been feeling great. I was also taking Triazolam .25mg every night to enable sleep. I was taking it for 5 months. I've been trying to get off it and last Friday I decided to not take it. It took me a few hours to get to sleep but I did manage without the medication, with no withdrawal effects. I did the same thing Saturday night, again with no problems other than taking a few hours to get to sleep. Last night (Sunday) it looked impossible to get any sleep so I took one Gravol pill, which always makes me sleepy. It worked fine.
But today when I was at work I had a fight on the phone with my sister and then an unpleasant conversation with my manager. I got so upset that I walked out of my manager's office in tears. I ended up taking Alpralozam to calm myself down. Between these two situations I once again had suicidal thoughts. And now I am at home crying. :(
I thought this dosage was working for me but now I can see it's not. I am reluctant to go to a higher dosage because I'm having an extremely hard time dealing with the twitches and jerks that I'm getting.
I have two questions:
1. What should I be able to expect taking Effexor XR? Is it possible to not get so upset and have suicidal thoughts if the right dosage is achieved??? Or is this something that I should still expect to have from time to time???
2. What about my major twitches and jerks??? How do I handle that??? They are unbearable at the dosage I'm on now.
I would be VERY appreciative of any advice anybody would have for me.
Thanks and I wish you all the best!
Angel Girl
poster:Angel Girl
thread:96345
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020301/msgs/96345.html