Hmm.
I am amazed sometimes as to how people can have such a narrow minded view about things.
Sure, everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but don't berate others who have a different view than you do, especially when it's something that you have both shared.
This got me a little miffed, and that's why i'm posting it....
This was taken from a flickr group that deals with depression and bi-polar:
hellophotokitty says:
Hello everybody.
I've been away for a while cause I've been trying to process and calm the crazy side effects that I'm getting now that I'm coming down (and eventually off) effexxor.
I told my doc that I wanted to take baby steps - 30 mg less each other week.
'well, you know that it will take longer for you to come off of it..."
DUH!
I told him that i didn't care, as long as I would'nt end up in the hospital from the horrible withdrawl symptoms.
I've had a few manic episodes tho - and not the 'good creative kind"
The doc says that my system may be de-stabilized but I beg to differ. I remember reading that some meds may even make you hyper manic..
Thanks to CBT, I managed to nip them in the bud - see the paranoia sneaking around the corner, quell the racing thoughts that piggy back on eachother, but sometimes, the mania hits like a bolt of lightning - and I stand stunned and overwhelmed.
I was so pleased with myself last week as I found the perfect metaphor to describe the feeling in my head when I'm on the ladder to mania:
Imagine the sound of a thousand zippers going up and down at the same time - that is what I hear in my head...
What about you? Have you had any increase in side effects from decreasing medication?
Scrybl says:
Efexor is notorious for having a withdrawal syndrome. You have to come off it very very slowly and with the help of other medication. It's a good antidepressant, but a bitch to come off of. My psychiatrist said that you need other meds to help you come off it. All the best of luck to you.
Grey Skies, Sad Eyes says:
when i went off effexor it was horrible, i was throwing up, shaking, and i was just completly out there, for like a week. but i did stop cold turkey, i ran away from home with out my pills so i couldnt really help but stop........ but i have come off a lot of meds and things often will get worse for a while just because your body has to reajust.... but dont give up hope it took me three years but now im med free and feeling better then ever....
jouste says:
i don't get it!
this thing about being off meds is REALLLLLY weird to me.
if i go off my meds there is a way higher than average chance i will either be dead or in prison.
the last time i went off meds i was in a manic state of paranoid hallcuinations for six days, called the police six times, and was OUT OF MY HEAD!
i thought i was doing just fine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so, excuse me if i have no pity or sympathy with people who screw around with meds.
you either need them or you don't but if you go off of them you owe it to the people around you and society in general to not be too ill in the first place.
otherwise stay on them and deal with it.
madmike73 says:
Last year they tried to ween me off of Efexor. The thinking was I was already taking an anti-depressant, Remeron, along with lithium and adavan so i could probably eliminate Efexor. Every second week i would drop 37.5 of the Efexor. When I finally got down to the last 37.5 is when I started getting the wierd withdrawals. It would feel like an electrical pulse starting at the base of my spine and running up into my brain and vibrating. My mind started to race, and I started pacing the floors. My mind always races though, but at least with the meds it's blunted a bit.
About the hypermanic....I was put on Paxil, and it actually agitated me. I literally couldn't sit down. I would go to work for 10 hours, walk to a gym, 4miles round trip, stay up all night watching tv, and eventually get about two hours sleep. That went on for a year till i crashed. MY Aunt is bipolar and had a similar experience with Paxil.
You're under a doctors care, and it seems like you know yourself pretty well. You'll know what you need or don't.
Good luck, hope you're feeling ok.
jodiemim says:
Effexor withdrawl was a bitch for me too, but I did it and you will too. I had the weird brain thingies and the flu symptoms and the racing thoughts. it went away eventually, don't worry.
Weirdly enough, Paxil did crazy crap to me too. I was practically hallucinating (and that's not something I typically do) and I was totally panicked. Apparently it has really bad effects on some people!
Posted 14 hours ago. ( permalink )
covinichrome says:
Oh lord, I thought I had it hard coming off paroxetine, but reading this I see I got off very lightly. I wish you well.
I tried to come off pararoxetine cold turkey in the mid-90s when withdrawal symptoms were only starting to be reported in the literature. (I remember massive anxiety and insomnia.) After showing such a report to my psychiatrist I was weaned off paroxetine with a tapering dose of fluoxetine over two weeks. It was perhaps the weirdest time I've ever experienced. I felt my life was a movie, with myself and all around me as characters; it was reminiscent of a low-grade mushroom trip without euphoria, during which I was expected to function as normal.
The great thing was that once the trauma was over I felt real emotion for the first time in two years.
For the past few years I've been on moclobemide, which fortunately has almost no noticeable side effects, and no withdrawal symptoms at all. But it isn't an effective antidepressant for everyone.
Posted 8 hours ago. ( permalink )
My response (with a delicate finger point to Jouste)
hellophotokitty says:
Thank you everybody for sharing such intimate stories - it's often quite harrowing to recount even the most incidental of moments...
Scrybl - My new doc is listening to me because I told him that I've been on this medication for longer than he's been a doctor - that shook him up. But without further bruising his ego, I said that I had come to a point where I knew my body so well, and had experienced many different stages of withdrawal and increase in several medications that I could write my own information sheet about each medication. I have switched to the non SR (they didn't come in denominations lower than 75mg) to the regular effexor - and am going down slower, but have to keep the dosages timed (am, afternoon and pm) as to keep the level stable in my system...
Grey Skies, Sad Eyes - ouch! Cold turkey is always a huge shock to your system, even caffeine, sugars etc. I tried coffee - cold turkey, and that turned me into a shaking, quaking rambling, vomiting mess for two weeks. Any drug yanked out of your system quickly is bound to create havoc - the body has its own way of telling you "WOA NELLY!!" I'm glad you’re on the mend.
:-)
jouste :
"so, excuse me if i have no pity or sympathy with people who screw around with meds"
Hmm.
Everybody is entitled to their own opinions about these matters, but if might say so, I think you're being a little harsh about this. I'm not 'screwing around with' my meds. I've been on effexxor for almost 10 years, and over the last 4, it's just stopped working. My depressions got worse no matter how much I increased the dose. Why stay on a medication if it's not working? Withdrawal symptoms are part and parcel of the whole medication world, and it's something we must accept when we decide to take any kind of anti-depressant.
I'm sorry to hear that your experience was so horrible, and that you fell so rapidly and intensely. If you can find a medication that works for you, I'd say stick with it as long as you can. Why quit something that keeps you sane and alive? But when the medication is causing you more harm, grief and depression, it's time for a change, or at least, a modification in the hopes that you'll find something better...
madmike73 - ahh - those wonderful brain shocks. I've heard so many stories about this, and have experienced them myself - not pretty, and it worries me that even at the final small dose, you had those crazy side effects, but like you, I'm going REALLY slow, and if I even feel so much as an odd twitch, I re-adjust the dose (as in terms of decrease - keeping myself on a dose of 150 instead of dropping 50 mg in one shot). Paxil? I think there was a lot of controversy when people started committing suicide on it. I've heard horror stories, and have stayed away because of it. As I said to Jouste - we are all aware of the risks and side effects that come with these medications, it's not like we are going into this blindly, but there are some risks and variables as everybody's system is different. I hope you're doing better now.
jodiemim - thank you for your words of support. Coming from someone who's an effexxor withdrawal effects survivor, it gives me hope that I'll be able to kick this nasty brain shaking rollercoaster ride soon enough!
covinichrome - mid 90's - the days when excitement over new SSRI's and other cerebral happy seasonings were all the rage, mixing and matching drug classes was vogue. Little did many doctors know that some mixtures were toxic and harmful. I guess lab rats just didn't cut it when it came to exhibiting racing thoughts, panic attacks, and the surreal Avant Garde cinematic - waiting for the credits to role headspace that many of us found ourselves in, despite repeated attempts to sleep it off, or ignore it. I'm happy that you've found your 'right med' and right dose after all these years. That makes all the difference.
I will keep you all posted on my progress... :-)
I'm waiting for his comeback to my post...
this should be interesting...
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