Posted by gardenia girl on April 18, 2005, at 20:45:30
In reply to Re: About the Effexor XR Withdrawal, posted by Detroit on April 17, 2005, at 12:06:16
Regarding brain zaps:
For me it sounded like the light sabers in the Star War's movies. Kind of a mid-to-low range zzzzzzt, zzzzzzt. With the noise in my head, there was almost a time delay or short circiut in my consciousness. I felt as though I had a ton of electricity stored up in my body. About 15 years ago I tried to push a wire back onto a spark plug on a lawn mower when the mower was running (yep, pretty stupid) and got a hefty electric shock. I can still remember the icky feelings throughout my body, and these brain zaps have that same sensation, but to a lesser degree. Head movement, eye movement, something or someone moving in my peripheral vision, basically anything that stimulated my brain could cause them to happen. They were at their worst when I was using the day-skipping method (every 2nd day for a month, then every third day for a month, then 4th...)which I DO NOT RECOMMEND!! Like clockwork, on the evening of the third day the zaps started and got progressively worse until I was throwing up. About three hours after I took an Effexor it stopped.
I am now at about 8 grains plus 1/2 benadryl each morning. I have not needed the evening dose in quite some time. Some days are good, others not so good. I usually have about three good days then one day when I feel like I am walking around drunk. My husband and my co-workers have all learned to quickly recognize my "drunk" days and they all try to keep me from harm's way.
I have often wondered what this syndrome must look like to others, and how to describe it adequately. I thought I was surely about to have a stroke until I found this web site, then others. It is not like anything else I have ever experienced in my life. I hope to never experience anything like it again.
Wednesday I am dropping to 8 grains. I need to make a trip back home to Texas, but I cannot imagine being in a car for a 12 hour road trip until this nightmare is over. I'm getting a little impatient. On the one hand it is kind of nice to have that emotion back, on the other... I never was really good at waiting.
poster:gardenia girl
thread:469497
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20050323/msgs/486206.html