Posted by Liz7711 on December 8, 2005, at 6:44:17
In reply to Re: Effexor withdrawal and side effects » NZgirl, posted by alexandra_k on December 6, 2005, at 14:05:47
Hi, well I'm finally going off Effexor. I started taking it 2 years ago. It worked good for me, helped with anxiety, kept me from feeling rage, especially helped me deal with my 5 year old!
But now i'm trying to just go natural, and clean out my system. My doctor said to go down to 75 for 2 weeks (I was taking 150), then stop. So that's what I did. I had heard of people having problems, but I had also heard of people who did NOT have problems, so I was hoping to be among the lucky ones. Not to be. My last dose of 75 mg was last Thursday. Friday and Saturday morning were fine, no feelings of withdrawal at all. Then it started Saturday evening with extreme crying, and all day Sunday I was crying, dizzy, nauseous, slept alot too, hot and cold. I was thinking that I could hang in there, perhaps it would just last a couple days. Finally, last night (Tuesday) after two more days of not being able to move out of the bed without spinning, crying, feeling so weak and sick and having to have my brother watch my daughter, I decided to go back on.
Since I had already been off completely for 5 days, I decided to open the capsule and take 1/4 of the 75 mg capsule. It was about 50 beads, I think about 18 mg. That was about 6:30 pm last night, and today I feel sooooooooooo much better. The main thing is not being dizzy anymore. My stomach is not totally good, but at least I can eat. And I can drive and do basic self and household care! It still hurts to look at too much light, like this screen!
My plan is to stay at 18 mg for at least a week, then go down a few mg for another week or two, and on down until I'm basically just down to 2 or 3 mg and then quit. Hopefully that will help my body adjust. I'm also taking milk thistle to help the liver detox. I'm thankful I didn't have the brain zaps...at least not yet!
It's been hell though, this drug is way too powerful...I hope we can all be completely healed of its' effects. ONce I'm off entirely i'm going to go through a detox program to clean my whole system--uggghh...just too many toxins over the years. I agree 100% with those who have recommended finding natural ways to deal with depression/anxiety.
By the way to you Kiwis...when I was about 10 years old I lived in Singapore for 2 years and traveled to NZ, had many kiwi friends. I can honestly say that new Zealand is the most beautiful country I've ever been to. That said, although I live in the US, i've never been to the amazing sites in the US, so maybe I'd take that back, but I doubt it. Anyway, good on ya!
Liz
poster:Liz7711
thread:584314
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20051018/msgs/586821.html