Stopping in for two very important public service announcements...
11.13.04 (12:19 am) [edit]
Since finishing my whole getting off Effexor experience, I have to admit I don't monitor this blog very frequently. Today I checked in to look at comments and see what's up, and I wanted to let y'all know a couple of important things:
1) The free service that hosts this blog (tBLOG) sometimes does wacky things when they do maintenance on the system, so it seems like two to three whole months' worth of archived posts are GONE. When you click on any of the first four links on the left, you'll get a "This entry does not exist!" message. This is really frustrating! I'll try to see what's up. In the meantime, there are lots of helpful resources still accessible through the "Links and Resources" link, and you can also look through the archived posts from April through September to see my journal and other info I compiled while I was tapering off of Effexor.
2) Tapering off Effexor...that brings me to my second very important public service announcement, which is
UNLESS YOUR DOCTOR HAS INSTRUCTED YOU TO DO SO FOR SPECIFIC MEDICAL REASONS, DO NOT QUIT EFFEXOR COLD TURKEY!!! DO YOU HEAR ME??
I know while you're having brainzaps, the yelling hurts your head, so I'll stop. But seriously--have you read the experiences from readers? The worst withdrawal experiences seem to be from people who stop taking Effexor abruptly. Don't do this to yourself, okay?
Please--even if the side effects are becoming intolerable, even if your sex life is reduced to a pathetic memory in the back of your head, even if your cognitive skills are impaired and you can't stand being on this med anymore--do yourself a favor and, if at all possible, taper down slowly from whatever dose you were on. If you've already quit, consider going back to your last dosage before quitting and start taking progressively smaller doses every day, every week, or even every two weeks.
I was having hysterical crying fits and banging my head into walls, I couldn't think straight, I gained a bunch of weight, all that stuff--and I really really really just wanted the drug out of my system. Still, my tapering off process took FIVE MONTHS. I still experienced discontinuation symptoms, especially at the end--but I can't imagine how horrible it would have been if I had just stopped taking it all of a sudden.
If you can't afford to continue taking this medicine, there are a couple of things you can do to avoid stopping cold turkey. This happened to me--because Effexor is so expensive, my health insurance's RX benefits ran out before the end of the year and the prescription ended up costing something like $179/month, which was really prohibitive for me. Here is what you can do:
1) Talk to your doctor, or if you don't feel comfortable with your current doctor, try to find one who seems more sympathetic and helpful. Explain your situation--that you can no longer afford to pay for the prescription, but that you experience intolerable side effects if you miss a dose. Your doctor may be able to give you enough free samples to carry you through the end of the discontinuation process.
2) There are patient assistance resources out there to link up low-income or uninsured patients with prescription meds donated or discounted through drug companies. I didn't know about these organizations during my own saga, but some that looked pretty kosher (disclaimer: I do not officially endorse any of these sites--this is just for informational purposes to let people know what's out there) when I did a search online included NeedyMeds and HelpingPatients.org, and The Medicine Program.
3) I ended up *sigh* charging my last bottle of Effexor on a nearly maxed-out, super high-interest credit card I was trying to pay off. If nothing else works, this sucks, but it's worth your sanity and health.
Please hang in there, whoever is reading this, and spread the word that it is A REALLY BAD IDEA to go off Effexor (or any long-term medication, for that matter) cold turkey. Unless you have a really compelling medical reason to do so.
1) The free service that hosts this blog (tBLOG) sometimes does wacky things when they do maintenance on the system, so it seems like two to three whole months' worth of archived posts are GONE. When you click on any of the first four links on the left, you'll get a "This entry does not exist!" message. This is really frustrating! I'll try to see what's up. In the meantime, there are lots of helpful resources still accessible through the "Links and Resources" link, and you can also look through the archived posts from April through September to see my journal and other info I compiled while I was tapering off of Effexor.
2) Tapering off Effexor...that brings me to my second very important public service announcement, which is
UNLESS YOUR DOCTOR HAS INSTRUCTED YOU TO DO SO FOR SPECIFIC MEDICAL REASONS, DO NOT QUIT EFFEXOR COLD TURKEY!!! DO YOU HEAR ME??
I know while you're having brainzaps, the yelling hurts your head, so I'll stop. But seriously--have you read the experiences from readers? The worst withdrawal experiences seem to be from people who stop taking Effexor abruptly. Don't do this to yourself, okay?
Please--even if the side effects are becoming intolerable, even if your sex life is reduced to a pathetic memory in the back of your head, even if your cognitive skills are impaired and you can't stand being on this med anymore--do yourself a favor and, if at all possible, taper down slowly from whatever dose you were on. If you've already quit, consider going back to your last dosage before quitting and start taking progressively smaller doses every day, every week, or even every two weeks.
I was having hysterical crying fits and banging my head into walls, I couldn't think straight, I gained a bunch of weight, all that stuff--and I really really really just wanted the drug out of my system. Still, my tapering off process took FIVE MONTHS. I still experienced discontinuation symptoms, especially at the end--but I can't imagine how horrible it would have been if I had just stopped taking it all of a sudden.
If you can't afford to continue taking this medicine, there are a couple of things you can do to avoid stopping cold turkey. This happened to me--because Effexor is so expensive, my health insurance's RX benefits ran out before the end of the year and the prescription ended up costing something like $179/month, which was really prohibitive for me. Here is what you can do:
1) Talk to your doctor, or if you don't feel comfortable with your current doctor, try to find one who seems more sympathetic and helpful. Explain your situation--that you can no longer afford to pay for the prescription, but that you experience intolerable side effects if you miss a dose. Your doctor may be able to give you enough free samples to carry you through the end of the discontinuation process.
2) There are patient assistance resources out there to link up low-income or uninsured patients with prescription meds donated or discounted through drug companies. I didn't know about these organizations during my own saga, but some that looked pretty kosher (disclaimer: I do not officially endorse any of these sites--this is just for informational purposes to let people know what's out there) when I did a search online included NeedyMeds and HelpingPatients.org, and The Medicine Program.
3) I ended up *sigh* charging my last bottle of Effexor on a nearly maxed-out, super high-interest credit card I was trying to pay off. If nothing else works, this sucks, but it's worth your sanity and health.
Please hang in there, whoever is reading this, and spread the word that it is A REALLY BAD IDEA to go off Effexor (or any long-term medication, for that matter) cold turkey. Unless you have a really compelling medical reason to do so.