Posted by ReadersLeaders on December 4, 2005, at 22:58:14
In reply to Effexor withdrawal and side effects, posted by NZgirl on December 1, 2005, at 19:34:08
Even though you were taking the medication for 3 weeks, you still needed to go slower on the amount you cut each time and the amount of time in between. Tapering should be done by taking only 5%-10% off of your dose each time and then staying at that new dose until you feel completely stable (this usually means waiting anywhere from 2 1/2 - 4 weeks).
Unfortunately you cannot just stop taking Effexor, even at 10mg. Effexor does come in tablet form--25mg, 37.5mg, 50mg, 75mg & 100mg. You can buy a "pill splitter" and reduce your dose that way.
Everyone is so different on how long withdrawal will last. One thing is for sure---you are not exaggerating what you are experiencing---it is all too real!
RL
> I have been reading discussion boards like this avidly now for about a month. It has been a huge help and support to know that others have expereinced what I have been going through with this awful drug. I was only on Effexor 75mg for 3 weeks, yet the side effects were horrific (chronic insomnia, nausea, migraines, fatigue) that I demanded my doctor take me off it.
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> She offered me a reduction schedule that lasted 5 days! and after 2 days I rang her and told her I would be doing my own reduction over the next month. What followed was one of the worst months of my life. I had one week off work and I have never been so sick in my life, vomiting, diareaha, nausea, painful heaadaches that dont respond to medication, fatigue, ringing in my ears. I had to go and stay at my mums and was completed incapacitated at times. I stablised on a lower dose so I could return to work, and decided to reduce my dose slightly every Friday and try and cop the worst of it over the weekend. I managed this for 3 weeks and went to work every day with these painful headaches and awful nausea. Nothing I took for the headaches helped, but ginger did help for the nausea.
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> I took my last Effexor dose 7 days ago. It was a a very low dose of 10 of those little balls from the XR capsule - equivalent of about 3 gms of the drug. I felt ok for the first 3 days, the physical withdrawals more or less have gone, but the last 3 days I have been "out of control". My emotions are all over the place, I cant stop crying, I am having suicidal thoughts (not that I am planning to follow through on them), I feel desperate and have not been able to go to work this week.
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> Is this normal? Did anyone else feel like this in the first week coming off the drug? How long does it last? I know that my doctor would say it is the depression symptoms returning but I know that is not the case - I did NOT feel like this before starting on Effexor. My doctors are ill informed about the side effects of taking this drug and coming off it and I feel that they think I have exaggerated the effects I have experienced the last month. It makes me so mad.
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> Anyway, thanks for reading, and all replies very much appreciated.
poster:ReadersLeaders
thread:584314
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20051018/msgs/585616.html