If you're visiting for the first time (or the first time in awhile)

I started this blog in February 2004 to document my experience with and research about discontinuing Effexor, an antidepressant I had been taking for about two years. Based on my own experiences with my therapist and doctors and what I found online, I felt that there was a lack of awareness among both patients and the medical community about how serious and scary some of the withdrawal effects were for many people. The process of keeping this blog and having other people read and comment and share their own stories with me was also very therapeutic and validating. It let me know that there were many, many other people out there going through the same thing, and gave me a safe space to vent and sort out the things I was feeling.

I actively maintained this blog until about June 2004, when my posting became much less frequent because, well, I got off Effexor! I'm not sure quite what to do with the site now, but I see that people are still reading and commenting here. There still seems to be a need for this type of resource--something that is both personal and informational. And I continue to hope that psychiatrists and mental health professionals will be more aware of and sympathetic to the seriousness of the discontinuation effects of Effexor (and Paxil, while we're at it). So for now, it will just kind of stay here, and I hope that it will continue to be useful to folks.

To sort of show you around, you can read the first post with my reasons for starting the blog here; definitely read this before you make any serious decisions about quitting any drug; some basic information about things that helped me here and here; and some links and resources (may be out of date) here. There are comments from readers detailing their own experiences all over the site, but a compilation of some of them is here. Finally, my personal decision to top taking Effexor is here, and I am NOT a doctor or medical professional, so don't do anything just because I said it! This is just a personal document and educational resource. 

tBlog, the blog hosting service I used to set up this site, upgraded their system fairly recently, so I finally changed the template and updated some things. I might try to do some more tweaking to restore the original header image, but in general I think that while this version is more generic, it is also more readable.

Finally, I wish anyone who reads this lots of better health and peace and feeling better if you're struggling with a med or mental health issue that's making you feel horrible. And I wish for you understanding and patience if you're here looking for information on behalf of a friend or loved one who seems to be going totally wacko on you.

You can also send comments or questions to me at brainzaps at yahoo.com.