Posted by Katia on October 29, 2002, at 0:24:34
In reply to Re: Constipated - anyone else on Effexor????, posted by ST on October 28, 2002, at 18:31:33
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for your long e-mail. I am just outside of SF. I'm 32 (just). In fact on my 32nd b-day I was sitting inside a psychiatrict clinic waiting for my first ever dose of ADs! I was on Celexa for only about 8-9 weeks. it started Ok, but then it pooped out and I had confusion and insomnia from it. i then went on Effexor XR. I have been through so much personal loss and tradegy and changes in the past nine months that it is really hard to tell what is the depression and are the ADs working? or is it life circumstances? So, I DO feel better, but I think I'm suffering from some of the side effects, like lethargy, sleeping many hours, dizziness, some flu-like sypmtoms, EXTREME CONSTIPATION, some spaciness and confusion sometimes. and fatigue. A lot of symptoms of depression in fact...This fatigue and lethargy I have also had most of my life from the depression. I've suffered from Dysthymia since I was ten/eleven and I've cycled through at least 3-4 major depressions all of which went undiagnosed until I finally figured it out and sought help myself. So, it seems like a LONG battle to find the right combo of drugs. And I'm being tossed around at a current non-profit psych. clinic. I'm on my third PDr. in just over three months! They keep leaving for no stated reason. But at least I'm not still rolling around on the floor sobbing for hours on end. I'm actually functioning. I work nights, so it's easy to sleep in so late. If I had to get up early, I wouldn't be keeping up.
Keep writing if you feel like it.
Thanks.
Katia
> Hi Katia,
> I'm a Bi-polar 2 with mostly depressive episodes. I'm on a mood stabilizer, Depakote as well as Wellbutrin. But a few years ago, one of my doctors suggested also adding an SSRI (at the time, Serzone) and I felt a great relief from this combo. After about 2 years or so, I felt the Serzone was pooping out, so I switched to Celexa for about a year. Well, I finally went off of Celexa because I gained over thirty pounds in three months! (I've now lost 25!) So I started Effexor and went throught the whole dizzy, flu-like symtom thing while my body got used to it. Each time I upped the dose, it made me feel very wierd and sick. I eventually - I think - got up to a fairly high dose...like 275 or 300?? I think....However I noticed my sex drive shriveled, it really did nothing for my depression and if I skipped a dose or didn't take it at exactly the same time every day, those flu symptoms came on. I did so much reading on the internet about how it made people feel sick. I finally decided to just go off it - with my doc's encouragement - since it really wasn't makig a difference. I was so, so, so, so very sick for three months while I weaned myself off it. I'm sure you've heard the horror stories on this board. (And my story is in the archives-from last April or so, I think)But to make it brief, I couln't drop my mgs too much at a time or I'd be incapacitated by flu-like symptoms. It got to the point that when I was down to taking 10 or 12 mgs a day, I had to chip off pieces of the tablet or count out spreckles form the inside of the SR capsule. In the final weeks, if I didn't take the 3 or 4 or 5 mgs a day, I'd get sick! I went on these crying jags for really no reason and was moody...I finally got down to what seemed to be about 2 mgs a day and then took a 3-day weekend to get off it completely. I missed a lot of work and felt like crap for a long time and finally was off it by last May. But Effexor works wonders for many people, so give it a shot. But...if you ever need to get off it, GO SLOWLY. My pdoc was so surprised that the lack of Effexor coursing through my body made me so sick. These doctors really don't realize how these meds affect us!
> So I went without any kind of SSRI this whole summer and was moody and depressed and anxious and tense...I realized how much that SSRI added to the Wellbutrin and Depakote helped. So I'm back on Serzone (about 6 weeks now) and my anxiety has decreased, but not my lethargy and depression.
> I'm in LA...where are you? I'm 34...
> Talk to you soon!!
> Sarah
poster:Katia
thread:124815
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021025/msgs/125621.html