Effexor withdrawal basics - if you've ended up here looking for help
02.28.04 (6:58 pm) [edit]
A couple of people have posted comments looking for help to lessen Effexor's discontinuation symptoms. I'm still hoping to get some contributions and suggestions on that from readers, and I myself am only about midway through the process myself, so here are just some basic, "sturdy," hopefully-can't-hurt-ya recommendations (see my disclaimer below--you know, the one about me not being a doctor!!!):
1. TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR FIRST. I haven't been good about this personally, but it really is best to let your doctor know about your decisions and start getting off the drug under their supervision. If you can, and your circumstances allow, try to find a sympathetic, knowledgeable psychiatrist that you trust.
2. THE TECHNICAL TERM IS TITRATE--TAPER, TAPER, TAPER!! Just keep in mind all those T's. After talking with your doctor, he or she will hopefully have told you that you must taper down little by little from your current dose to progressively lower doses. DO NOT STOP TAKING THIS MEDICINE COLD TURKEY, unless doing so for medical reasons and/or under the supervision of a doctor. Your symptoms will be far worse that way.
3. DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. Nobody has really told me this specifically, but I think that discontinuing a drug is kind of a detox of sorts. When you're sick, you're supposed to drink lots of liquids, right? Drinking plenty of water helps to flush out your system and, I imagine, promotes healing. I guess. But it's good to do anyway!
4. TRY TO GET PLENTY OF REST. If you've stopped the drug without tapering, most likely you don't have a choice on this one--you're probably so dizzy, nauseous, and wacked out you can't do much else besides roll miserably around in bed, on the couch, or whichever other horizontal surface you prefer. But since sleep is the time when the body renews itself, getting plenty of sleep is probably a good way to help the discontinuation process along as your system gets used to not having the drug in it.
Also, I find that it helps me not feel so nauseous and dizzy if I try to make sure to eat regularly. I mean, I personally look for any excuse to eat regularly in general, but right now I feel a lot better if I have something in my stomach like, all the time. But that might just be me--I've also heard from some people who have thrown up a lot during withdrawal, and probably didn't feel like eating anything.
Good luck, and hang in there! Feel free to come back here and post comments, questions, etc.--I'll try to post back when I can.
1. TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR FIRST. I haven't been good about this personally, but it really is best to let your doctor know about your decisions and start getting off the drug under their supervision. If you can, and your circumstances allow, try to find a sympathetic, knowledgeable psychiatrist that you trust.
2. THE TECHNICAL TERM IS TITRATE--TAPER, TAPER, TAPER!! Just keep in mind all those T's. After talking with your doctor, he or she will hopefully have told you that you must taper down little by little from your current dose to progressively lower doses. DO NOT STOP TAKING THIS MEDICINE COLD TURKEY, unless doing so for medical reasons and/or under the supervision of a doctor. Your symptoms will be far worse that way.
3. DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. Nobody has really told me this specifically, but I think that discontinuing a drug is kind of a detox of sorts. When you're sick, you're supposed to drink lots of liquids, right? Drinking plenty of water helps to flush out your system and, I imagine, promotes healing. I guess. But it's good to do anyway!
4. TRY TO GET PLENTY OF REST. If you've stopped the drug without tapering, most likely you don't have a choice on this one--you're probably so dizzy, nauseous, and wacked out you can't do much else besides roll miserably around in bed, on the couch, or whichever other horizontal surface you prefer. But since sleep is the time when the body renews itself, getting plenty of sleep is probably a good way to help the discontinuation process along as your system gets used to not having the drug in it.
Also, I find that it helps me not feel so nauseous and dizzy if I try to make sure to eat regularly. I mean, I personally look for any excuse to eat regularly in general, but right now I feel a lot better if I have something in my stomach like, all the time. But that might just be me--I've also heard from some people who have thrown up a lot during withdrawal, and probably didn't feel like eating anything.
Good luck, and hang in there! Feel free to come back here and post comments, questions, etc.--I'll try to post back when I can.
Now you can bookmark this site! Hell, come back every day!
02.27.04 (5:05 pm) [edit]
Hey, all you Effexor withdrawal sufferers!
Now you can even more easily bookmark this site! Just click on the words "Bookmark this site!" below the links on the left side of the page.
Come back often for gentle, soothing, chatty, informative, empathetic support during your Effexor withdrawal period.
If you notice I'm using the words "Effexor withdrawal" a LOT right now, it's an unabashed effort to increase my rankings with search engines. If cheeseball, hard-sellin,' infomercial-soundin', book and audio tape sellin' websites can do it, so can I, baby!!
Now you can even more easily bookmark this site! Just click on the words "Bookmark this site!" below the links on the left side of the page.
Come back often for gentle, soothing, chatty, informative, empathetic support during your Effexor withdrawal period.
If you notice I'm using the words "Effexor withdrawal" a LOT right now, it's an unabashed effort to increase my rankings with search engines. If cheeseball, hard-sellin,' infomercial-soundin', book and audio tape sellin' websites can do it, so can I, baby!!
Link of the day
02.27.04 (4:49 pm) [edit]
U.S. National Library of Medicine
http://www.nlm.nih.gov" title="http://www.nlm.nih.gov" target="_blank"http://www.nlm.nih.gov
A real virtual library (huh?) with several searchable databases, a plethora of health information sources (including MedLine, ToxNet, health organization directories, etc.), and plenty of information to drive you crazy over-researching your condition/disorder/medica tion!
http://www.nlm.nih.gov" title="http://www.nlm.nih.gov" target="_blank"http://www.nlm.nih.gov
A real virtual library (huh?) with several searchable databases, a plethora of health information sources (including MedLine, ToxNet, health organization directories, etc.), and plenty of information to drive you crazy over-researching your condition/disorder/medica tion!
Making the transition easer--any recommendations??
02.27.04 (3:14 pm) [edit]
I'm working on a sort of a top ten list of simple things you can do to make the discontinuation process easier. My list of nuggets of getting-off-Effexor wisdom so far includes talking to your doctor first (today my therapist sort of scolded me for not having done this yet, and she's actually right--for as frustrated as you may be with your doctor for prescribing you a certain med in the first place, you should really do this with a doctor's supervision); TAPER TAPER TAPER--don't quit cold turkey! the technical term is titrate, I believe; drink lots of water; get plenty of sleep; and a couple of other things.
I know several people have posted about having gone through a bad Effexor withdrawal themselves--now would anyone care to post about what helped them get through it? I've heard from people whose doctors have tapered them down concurrently with administering Prozac, or who have taken other meds during that time. How about alternative and complementary remedies? Exercise? Tell me what helped lubricate the withdrawal, if you will (yeah, I'm rolling my eyes at that one too), and I may include it in the list. Just post them as comments--you can post them anonymously, if you'd rather.
I know several people have posted about having gone through a bad Effexor withdrawal themselves--now would anyone care to post about what helped them get through it? I've heard from people whose doctors have tapered them down concurrently with administering Prozac, or who have taken other meds during that time. How about alternative and complementary remedies? Exercise? Tell me what helped lubricate the withdrawal, if you will (yeah, I'm rolling my eyes at that one too), and I may include it in the list. Just post them as comments--you can post them anonymously, if you'd rather.
Ugh...update after hiatus...
02.26.04 (12:00 pm) [edit]
I haven't updated the blog for awhile, and I apologize.
I've had a relatively uneventful couple of weeks in terms of my discontinuation--I'm holding steady down to 150mg/day for now--until today. I forgot to take my dose yesterday--I left my pill case in the car, and asked my husband to bring it upstairs for me, and then I totally forgot about it. I woke up this morning feeling weird and dizzy, and finally realized I forgot to take my evil dose. (So much for the pro- or anti-med neutral position I was gonna take...at least for today anyway)
Then I went to get the pills and couldn't find them in the car, and started panicking and feeling more awful. I couldn't close the door of the dryer and screamed and cussed at it, causing my dogs to look at me in this really startled and quizzical way. When I was making my way back from the car, feeling like my brain was a mass of rice pudding quivering with a million tiny electric shocks, I felt paranoid that the security guard and maintenance guys would think that I looked freakish and insane.
DAMN!! I just accidentally deleted two whole paragraphs. To make a long story short, I finally found the stupid pills after calling my husband at work and sobbing like a crazed addict demanding that he remember where he put my pill box last night. I hate that. It's so embarassing.
Anyway, I felt better just locating and taking the stupid thing--it's just psychological I guess, not panicking anymore thinking I'll have to be miserably rice-pudding-brained and out of commission all day. In the meantime, I'm riding out the nausea, waiting for the Eff to kick in, lying on my back with my laptop on my tummy, watching my guilty TV pleasure of the moment ("Starting Over," on NBC--does anyone else find this show as entertaining and funny as I do? Or am I just pathetic?). I'll have to wait a little bit to be productive today like I planned.
I've had a relatively uneventful couple of weeks in terms of my discontinuation--I'm holding steady down to 150mg/day for now--until today. I forgot to take my dose yesterday--I left my pill case in the car, and asked my husband to bring it upstairs for me, and then I totally forgot about it. I woke up this morning feeling weird and dizzy, and finally realized I forgot to take my evil dose. (So much for the pro- or anti-med neutral position I was gonna take...at least for today anyway)
Then I went to get the pills and couldn't find them in the car, and started panicking and feeling more awful. I couldn't close the door of the dryer and screamed and cussed at it, causing my dogs to look at me in this really startled and quizzical way. When I was making my way back from the car, feeling like my brain was a mass of rice pudding quivering with a million tiny electric shocks, I felt paranoid that the security guard and maintenance guys would think that I looked freakish and insane.
DAMN!! I just accidentally deleted two whole paragraphs. To make a long story short, I finally found the stupid pills after calling my husband at work and sobbing like a crazed addict demanding that he remember where he put my pill box last night. I hate that. It's so embarassing.
Anyway, I felt better just locating and taking the stupid thing--it's just psychological I guess, not panicking anymore thinking I'll have to be miserably rice-pudding-brained and out of commission all day. In the meantime, I'm riding out the nausea, waiting for the Eff to kick in, lying on my back with my laptop on my tummy, watching my guilty TV pleasure of the moment ("Starting Over," on NBC--does anyone else find this show as entertaining and funny as I do? Or am I just pathetic?). I'll have to wait a little bit to be productive today like I planned.
Ooh ooh ooh! Google acknowledges I exist!
02.14.04 (2:36 am) [edit]
Just had to report this, in case anyone cares...as of right now, when you do a search on Google for "effexor withdrawal", Brainzaps comes up at the bottom of the first page of search results!
It's the only site dedicated to the topic as far as I can see, and I think there's a need for it. Eventually I'd like to forego the primarily chatty, personal tone in favor of creating a broader resource and support type of a site. Does anyone out there have an opinion on this? Do you feel there's a need for this type of site? What would you like for it to include?
It's the only site dedicated to the topic as far as I can see, and I think there's a need for it. Eventually I'd like to forego the primarily chatty, personal tone in favor of creating a broader resource and support type of a site. Does anyone out there have an opinion on this? Do you feel there's a need for this type of site? What would you like for it to include?
A word from our sponsors...or not.
02.14.04 (2:20 am) [edit]
Oh, geez. Including an "ad-supported" calendar available through tBlog, combined with the content of this site, seems to have resulted in a sudden proliferation of ads for Effexor and related prescription drugs appearing on the page. This was not intentional on my part--I guess it comes with the territory of using a free, hosted blogging service. I think I'll turn off the calendar tomorrow.
Still hanging in at 150mg/day. I'll have to break down and go to my pdoc to get an RX for pills in a lower dosage to go the next step down; I checked out other options and it looks like it would take too long for them to get here.
Coming soon:
My Psychopharmacology Reform Wishlist
10 Free/Cheap/Simple Things You Can Do to Deal While Discontinuing
Discontinuing as Detox
Sorry for the pithy, cutesy, cheesy magazine-style titles...I was reading Self magazine while waiting for my prescription to be filled (or at least the last installment of 5 pills, which is what I can afford at a time until my insurance's pharmacy benefits coverage gets straightened out).
Still hanging in at 150mg/day. I'll have to break down and go to my pdoc to get an RX for pills in a lower dosage to go the next step down; I checked out other options and it looks like it would take too long for them to get here.
Coming soon:
My Psychopharmacology Reform Wishlist
10 Free/Cheap/Simple Things You Can Do to Deal While Discontinuing
Discontinuing as Detox
Sorry for the pithy, cutesy, cheesy magazine-style titles...I was reading Self magazine while waiting for my prescription to be filled (or at least the last installment of 5 pills, which is what I can afford at a time until my insurance's pharmacy benefits coverage gets straightened out).
So far, so good...
02.13.04 (12:58 am) [edit]
Day five, and I'm still doing OK. I've been holding steady at 150 mg/day for about asix days now. I feel nauseous and dizzy when it gets within a few hours of the time to take my next dose; if it's more than 24 hours since my last dose, forget it!
I skipped my appointment with my psychiatrist yesterday, which was probably a bad move. Believe it or not, I was totally absorbed with my shiny new blog--a really lame reason to skip a doctor's appointment--and also feeling achy and exhausted. But since moving to a lower dosage I actually want to DO stuff again--i.e. work creatively, produce, write, initiate communication with others, etc...as opposed to endlessly lurking and browsing and consuming info passively. I feel like I've been in that mode for the past year.
I'm having really bad cramps too, which doesn't help matters.
Thanks to people who have commented and sent messages and stuff. The support--and just knowing I'm not posting blindly away into space--is supah helpful.
Oh yeah, if you know of a website or book or something that helped you get through withdrawal from Effexor or even another anti-dep, please post it in your comment or send it to me as a message. I'm collecting worthy links to add to this site.
I skipped my appointment with my psychiatrist yesterday, which was probably a bad move. Believe it or not, I was totally absorbed with my shiny new blog--a really lame reason to skip a doctor's appointment--and also feeling achy and exhausted. But since moving to a lower dosage I actually want to DO stuff again--i.e. work creatively, produce, write, initiate communication with others, etc...as opposed to endlessly lurking and browsing and consuming info passively. I feel like I've been in that mode for the past year.
I'm having really bad cramps too, which doesn't help matters.
Thanks to people who have commented and sent messages and stuff. The support--and just knowing I'm not posting blindly away into space--is supah helpful.
Oh yeah, if you know of a website or book or something that helped you get through withdrawal from Effexor or even another anti-dep, please post it in your comment or send it to me as a message. I'm collecting worthy links to add to this site.
If you really want to know the extent of the Effexor withdrawal problem...
02.12.04 (5:55 pm) [edit]
just Google the words "effexor withdrawal."
Or, just click on the link above.
Oh yeah--my favorite search result so far:
Or, just click on the link above.
Oh yeah--my favorite search result so far:
=http://www.happiness-is-onlin...Effexor Withdrawal Directory - effexor withdrawal,effexor symptom ...
Large affordable personalized celebrity posters, ...
www.happiness-is-online.com/Directories/ Qdeprs_effexor-withdrawal .html - 56k - =http://216.239.41.104/search?...:_8z7V4BvOPUJ:www.happiness-is-online.com/Directories/Qdeprs_ef fexor-withdrawal.html+effexor+withdrawal&h l=en&ie=UTF-8Cached - Similar pages
Effexor Withdrawal Directory - effexor withdrawal,effexor symptom ...
Large affordable personalized celebrity posters, ...
www.happiness-is-online.com/Directories/ Qdeprs_effexor-withdrawal .html - 56k - Cached - Similar pages
On the subject of browsers...
02.11.04 (5:03 pm) [edit]
This blog looks rather horrible in Safari (Apple's browser)...it looks a lot better in Explorer. Haven't seen it in Netscape or Mozilla yet.
Anybody out there? :(
02.11.04 (10:05 am) [edit]
I just posted over at Dr. Bob's Pyscho-Babble, an online community for mental health and psychopharmacology-relate d issues, to let people know about this blog. I hope people show up. I suck at marketing.
If you're reading this blog, please post and let me know you're out there. If you feel like it. If you're not sure how to comment, look down at the bottom of each blog (each block of journal text) and you should see a little line that says, "view/add comments." Click on the link, then you should be able to figure it out from there. I hope.
If you're reading this blog, please post and let me know you're out there. If you feel like it. If you're not sure how to comment, look down at the bottom of each blog (each block of journal text) and you should see a little line that says, "view/add comments." Click on the link, then you should be able to figure it out from there. I hope.
Why am I finally deciding to go off Effexor XR?
02.10.04 (6:54 pm) [edit]
I always knew I eventually wanted to get off antidepressants in general, but I think the final straw, so to speak, was that when I recently got some blood tests back, I had slightly elevated levels of ALT and AST. More on that in a sec, but first...
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OK, I guess here's the time to issue a disclaimer--I AM NOT A DOCTOR, AND NOTHING IN THIS BLOG CONSTITUTES MEDICAL ADVICE, AND I AM NOT INTENDING ANYTHING I SAY TO TAKE THE PLACE OF PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE FROM A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL!
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I got that out of the way, I hope, so here's the rest:
Why, you may ask, if the levels of that stuff were just slightly elevated, would I make such a decision?
1) Well, I tend to get physically "off", very out of wack, and symptomatic when lab tests indicate that levels of stuff (for example, thyroid hormone, in my case--I'm also hypothyroid, meaning I have low thyroid) is only slightly out of "normal" range as opposed to wildly out of normal range. I've never had anything out of wack with my liver before, so this was a bit alarming for me. I'm a web research fiend, so I looked up "venlafaxine [effexor's "real," i.e. not-market name] and liver" on Google. And I found a couple of items--not a LOT, but a coupple--documenting a correlation between liver toxicity and venlafaxine intake. I'll put up links to those items soon.
2) I am pretty sure that my depression and anxiety are symptoms of my hypothyroid condition, which I recently found out has been undertreated. Now that my dosage of Synthroid is getting straightened out, I might not even need antidepressants, especially if the one I'm taking might have an effect on my liver. Especially at such a high dose--supposedly 225 mg/day is the highest approved therapeutic dose of Effexor XR, and I was at 300mg.
More later, I gotta go.
I just wanted to document this experience...
02.10.04 (5:30 pm) [edit]
It was only last week that I mustered up the courage to tell my mother-in-law that I've been taking antidepressants for the past two years, so I feel a little odd about barfing up even more personal info for a potentially larger audience. But, well, here I am. I have been taking Effexor XR for depression and anxiety for about a year and a half now, and I'm about to begin the process of tapering off the drug. And I want to keep a journal of that process for whoever cares to see it.
After I first missed a dose way back when I first started my prescription and felt what I now know to be discontinuation (which to me seems like a euphemism for withdrawal) effects, I went online to see if there was any information about it. There didn't really seem to be anything in the Effexor drug info itself, but I found what seemed like kajillions of posts to discussion boards along these lines: "Anyone ever tried to get off Effexor? I'm tapering off/missed a dose/stopped taking it and I'm dizzy/nauseous/experienci ng flu-like symptoms/feeling "brainzaps"/vom iting/fatigued/crying uncontrollably/all of the above."
Now that I want to stop taking the drug completely, I know that I'm going to encounter those, um, unpleasant experiences again on my trip out of Effexorland (as one British journalist referred to it). Since I encountered a dearth of cohesive or even HELPFUL information about Effexor withdrawal online--mostly just worried posts from weary withdrawal sufferers--I thought I'd keep a blog of my own withdrawal process and try to set up a way for people to add their own comments, experiences, what helped them, etc.
I'd also like to post here any helpful information I DO find as I scour the web.
I've been at 300 mg/day for nearly a year, and last week I dropped down to 150 mg/day. I probably should have tapered off to this dose more slowly, but I was anxious to kickstart this here thing...
Some of the telltale nausea, dizziness, brain shivers, and fatigue have already begun, but mostly when I've taken my daily dose too late in the day. Here goes...thanks for reading, if you've made it this far, and stay tuned for more adventures with...
BRAIN ZAPS AND BELLYACHES!!!!
(imagine a deep announcer's voice, like you're listening to the end of a 1940's radio soap opera...)
After I first missed a dose way back when I first started my prescription and felt what I now know to be discontinuation (which to me seems like a euphemism for withdrawal) effects, I went online to see if there was any information about it. There didn't really seem to be anything in the Effexor drug info itself, but I found what seemed like kajillions of posts to discussion boards along these lines: "Anyone ever tried to get off Effexor? I'm tapering off/missed a dose/stopped taking it and I'm dizzy/nauseous/experienci ng flu-like symptoms/feeling "brainzaps"/vom iting/fatigued/crying uncontrollably/all of the above."
Now that I want to stop taking the drug completely, I know that I'm going to encounter those, um, unpleasant experiences again on my trip out of Effexorland (as one British journalist referred to it). Since I encountered a dearth of cohesive or even HELPFUL information about Effexor withdrawal online--mostly just worried posts from weary withdrawal sufferers--I thought I'd keep a blog of my own withdrawal process and try to set up a way for people to add their own comments, experiences, what helped them, etc.
I'd also like to post here any helpful information I DO find as I scour the web.
I've been at 300 mg/day for nearly a year, and last week I dropped down to 150 mg/day. I probably should have tapered off to this dose more slowly, but I was anxious to kickstart this here thing...
Some of the telltale nausea, dizziness, brain shivers, and fatigue have already begun, but mostly when I've taken my daily dose too late in the day. Here goes...thanks for reading, if you've made it this far, and stay tuned for more adventures with...
BRAIN ZAPS AND BELLYACHES!!!!
(imagine a deep announcer's voice, like you're listening to the end of a 1940's radio soap opera...)