![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 1 of 1. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by dogperson11 on April 19, 2006, at 23:15:08
Basically, I just want to know how long the withdrawals are going to last. Any input? My story below...
Friday, April 14, 2006
I'm a 20 year old female who has been on various depression medications for the past 3 years. I have been on 225 mg Effexor combined with 80 mg Strattera for the past two years. My doctor and I messed with my Effexor dosage for a while before adding the Strattera about a year ago. I have been on this dosage of Effexor for about a year now. Last week I stopped taking my medications cold turkey (I was out of town for two weeks and ran out at the end of my vacation, but I was going to go off them anyway, so I took the opportunity and went with it) and I have been having some bad withdrawals. My withdrawals didn't start for about 2 or 3 days after I stopping taking Effexor.
The withdrawal symptoms include:
• Nausea (which comes in waves, and is usually a lot worse right after I eat)
• Headaches (like someone turned a bass on in my head; a deep thumping pressure)
• Diarrhea (which went away after taking anti-diarrhea medication)
• Unclear (cloudy) head
o Cannot concentrate or form deep thoughts
o Easily distracted while trying to form thoughts
• Body tremors/twitching (uncontrollable shaking [mostly internally – my stomach will flutter for minutes at a time, as it would if someone were extremely cold])
• Chills (when I am not cold or hot – just randomly)
• Body Sweating (I wake up drenched in sweat)
• Odd dreams
• Extreme Thirst (but when I drink something I get nauseous)
• Hunger (but after I eat I get nauseous)
• Food Cravings (I have not craved food since I began taking anti-depressants more than 3 years ago, but now I am experiencing some random food cravings)
The side effects were pretty sever the first two days I experienced them, but have been SLOWLY getting better. Today (day 6) was the first day that I was actually able to stay at work all day long (not withdrawal symptom free by any means, just bearable enough to function basically), and to do so I ate nothing but Saltine crackers and 7-Up all day long. I saw my doctor today and he mentioned that taking a small dosage (one pill = 75mg) of the Effexor would help with the nausea.Good luck to anyone else out there!
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Withdrawal | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.