Posted by waterlily on May 8, 2003, at 15:38:55
In reply to effexor-the good and the bad, posted by minu on May 7, 2003, at 11:19:42
I've been on Wellbutrin for 7 years and have at various points added different medications for generalized anxiety. I've tried Paxil, Prozac, Buspar, imipramine, Zoloft, and Serzone. I asked my psychiatrist to prescribe Effexor even though I knew about the withdrawal effects and have been reading this forum for a few years. I've was on 75 mg for the first week and then bumped up to 150 mg for the past two weeks. I know I'm an Effexor 'newbie', but here are my observations so far:
The bad: Initial side effects of severe anxiety, sweating, nausea, headache. These went away and now my only negative side effects are insomnia and difficulty climaxing.
The good: Relieved depression, made me much more social and less self-conscious, slight decrease in general anxiety, and an increased sex drive (my husband really likes this).
I'm definitely going to stay with this medication. It has practically saved my 14 year marriage.
> I was put on effexor(37.5 mgs) for having a low frustration tolerance. It helped tremendously with my tolerance levels but it also had me extremely groggy the entire time I was on it. It changed my depth perception, also the look of my eyes changed. They went from piercing to that dreamy look. It also had me chewing on my lip(which I had never done before). I also had "hot spells". I considered these side effects tolerable as my tolerance was good all around :) However, after being assaulted one day and having my injuries take forever to heal, I thought it would be best to come off of the effexor to see if it was inhibiting my recovery. After 6 months of having every muscle in my body turn to stone no matter how many massages I got, I weaned myself off to find myself having a nervous breakdown. Crying all the time, unable to get to sleep easily, muscle twithching, considering suicide for the first time in my life( I had always been a strong personality, so this was very unusual for me)I went back to my psychiatrist and he put me on 10 mgs. of prozac. Slowly the anxiety left but the muscle twitching is still going on. I came off 3 months ago. I also had developed a cyst right before coming off. It has since disappeared. Hindsight being 20/20...I would never have taken this drug. I too, was not told of the withdrawal symptoms. I wonder when and if I'll be able to stop the prozac...Overall, the time spent on the effexor(2 years)I was able to get an idea of what it feels like to not get so aggravated by life's bumps and bruises. I am better able to control my reactions to them. Could be the prozac keeps me calm enough or behavior modification is finally working. I still do a lot of meditation and try very hard to not overachieve so much. Finding my balance has been my goal from the beginning and I am still striving for it daily. It is not easy or natural for me...overcoming the idea of my being perfect seems to be the best medicine. Thanx for letting me share! Minu
poster:waterlily
thread:224859
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030505/msgs/225179.html