Not trying to start a medical advice thread - more looking for personal testamonials.
I’ve been on Effexor for about a month and a half now. The first 3 weeks I was very “speedy” (as a result I started smoking again after having quit for about 6 months) - the fourth week I was almost manic with happiness - and these last two weeks I’ve settled into contentment.
I’m happy with the fact that the constant suicidal thoughts and images are gone, and that I don’t feel like bursting into tears for no reason.
The accompaning therapy is going swimmingly as well.
However, I have read that some people start out OK on Effexor and then slump back. I’ve also read that the withdrawl symptoms are extremely severe.
I have no plans on stopping my dosage, but I am curious as to other Dopers’ experiences with this antidepressant, and the tapering off of positive effects, in particular.
My wife could give you a better opinion since she’s the one taking Effexor, but I’ll try. With Effexor, she no longer has bouts of debilitating depression, and her highs and lows seem “normal” (if that’s the word). She’s taking a comparatively small dose (150 mg daily), but if she accidentally skips a day, she feels extremly lethargic and her thinking becomes fuzzy until she takes her medication. Her physician has told her that if she needs to stop taking Effexor for some reason, it must be done slowly in stages.
If I remember correctly, she had some trouble sleeping the first couple of weeks after starting Effexor, but no other symptoms that I can think of.
I’m on it, have been on it for several years. It works quite well for me - I switched to it from another serotonin+norepinephrine (not checking spelling here) anti-depressant, so I didn’t have the ramping-up problems. I have occasionally skipped a dose without any problems at all.
I am almost certainly a ‘lifer’ with anti-depressants, so I’m not as worried about the issues about coming off of them. However, I’ve never had problems transitioning from one to another. (Gradually lower the dose of the old one, add in the new one at a low dose, titer the old one down and the new one up). I have recently increased the dosage of my Effexor without any problems.
I think it really depends on the individual. Some people have problems with anti-depressants, some people don’t have as many problems. The very first time I took an SSRI (many, many years ago) I did have manic feelings for about two weeks, but they went away and I was then extremely grateful for not having the suicidal feelings.
Therapy is important. The problems don’t go away, they just lose their ability to completely take over your life. (In my experience).
Good luck, and feel free to email me if you have any questions you don’t want to put in a public forum, or just need to talk.
I appreciate all the input and well wishes in this thread. Its good to hear from people on both sides of the experience.
My therapist has told me in all likelihood I am also going to be a lifer, if only because my depression went on so long before being treated (13+ years). I’m OK with that now, because I see that the alternative to unmedicated depression is so much easier to live with.
I was also worried about the “zombie” effect, as I am a graphic designer by trade and I didn’t want to have that spark taken away simply so I could live without depression. I’m happy to say that has not been the case - in fact, I have been more inventive and prolific than ever in the past two weeks.
Again, thanks to everyone for their stories and their offers of support.
No problems coming off. None at all. I only switched to Lexapro because I was taking Effexor and Celexa together and hoped I could take just one med so that’d be cheaper. Otherwise I’d still be taking it.
Effexor gives me night sweats, which are QUITE annoying at times, and if I miss a day of meds I become a complete zombie. But apart from that, it’s great. I actually GO PLACES and DO THINGS on a vaguely consistent basis, and some of those things are actually productive. Haven’t noticed any negative mental/creative effects when I’m taking it properly. But I HAVE discovered that missing it for a day makes me absolutely unbeatable at spider solitaire for some reason.
First off, congrats on the remission of your depression! That’s great news!
I don’t have first-hand knowledge, but EffexorXR is one of the mainstays of my mom’s practice, and quitting cold-turkey is indeed a really bad idea. I’d say you’ve no reason to worry about it, but “poop-out” (or tachyphylaxis, as it’s technically referred to) can happen, and it indeed does often necessitate a switch in meds. EffexorXR is, no question, a tricky drug to get off of.
According to my mom, a slow taper sometimes causes no problems for some, big problems for others, and everything in between. There’s no way to predict beforehand how you might fare, except perhaps if you’ve had a particularly troubling reaction to missing a dose already. For her, complaints about “zaps” when a dose is lowered or missed are a warning sign, but she’s got no hard data to support her intuition that those folks are going to have a rough time getting off the drug.
Recently she cross-tapered a couple patients off EffexorXR and onto Cymbalta, fairly aggressively, with great success. It’s too soon for her to say if this is a sure-fire method for smoothly transitioning a patient off of one SNRI and efficaciously onto another, but it may be reason for encouragement.
I’ve been on EffexorXR for over a year now. It is without question the best depression medication I’ve been on. I used to be on Prozac years ago and I didn’t like the “fake-happy” feeling it gave me; with Effexor I feel like I can enjoy life normally.
The claims of bad withdrawal symptoms are true; If I miss even one pill, the next day I feel extremely drowsy, no matter how much I slept, and if I do sleep during that time, I have horrible, vivid nightmares. I also get what a lot of people call “brain zaps”. I don’t know exactly what they are, but I feel little “fwooshes” in my head every time I move/turn my head, and I feel faint for a split second during the fwoosh. It’s almost like having a series of mim-strokes all day long. No, it’s not pleasant. I suspect the withdrawal symptoms are worse the higher your dose is; I’m on a pretty low dose (75mg). As long as I don’t miss a dose, I’m fine. But if I ever go off it I’m sure I will have to wean myself off slowly.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with it and I don’t feel it’s become less effective during my time on it.
BTW, I’m also a graphic designer, and after all my time on the drug so far, I can say with certainty that my creativity did not diminish. In fact, in the depths of my depression I didn’t have ANY ideas and hardly did any recreational work - a very bad thing. Now I feel like I have life in me again.
I was on Effexor briefly. It made me fall asleep randomly, occasionally in very bad circumstances for sleeping. It’s amazing how different drugs affect different people.
I’m happy for everyone in this thread who has had some success in treating their depression. I’m gearing up to try to get mine treated again, if I can just find the energy.
I’m currently coming off Effexor XR cold turkey because of a major glitch with my HMO. Right now it’s Day 4, and although I no longer feel as though I’m literally dying, I’ve got enough agitation to start a war :eek:
Please, if you’re ever thinking of coming off it, do what the doctors say and TAPER DOWN! Don’t follow my example. The reason why Effexor has a nasty reputation is because of its dual chemical makeup. Its half-life is much shorter than other meds, which is why the nastiness hits you as soon as you miss a dose.
There are several websites out there which outline the laundry list of side effects. I won’t reiterate them here except to say that agitation, brain zaps, dizziness, hypersensitivity to smells/sounds/light, insomnia, and dry mouth have become most unwelcome buddies.
Yeah, but what about when you were on it?
The most remarkable difference between being on Effexor as opposed to a SSRI, in my experience, is less “mummification”. It didn’t make me drowsy in the least. My creativity wasn’t stunted. I actually felt I was part of the world. It took awhile for it to dissipate my anxiety, but once it did, I felt much more clear headed and had a better handle on things.
Would I go back on it? As much as my body’s craving it at the moment ZAP, I’m saying no. I’ve been on too many meds in my life and I’m at the point where I want to try handling life without them. YMMV.
I switched from Paxil to Effexor in January and have had no side effects. I will occasionally have restless legs and the electric shocks but not anything that was debilitating.
The drugs were a Godsend for me. Gave me my life back.
My mom takes it. I didn’t know she was on it until she decided to see what things were like if she didn’t. She was downright nasty, mean, had HUGE overreactions to things. It was like a giant negative moodswing. Ugh, she made me cry so much, she was such a nasty bitch when she decided to stop. We sort of joke about it now, how she won’t do it again because it made her so awful.
I had a helluva time when I was ramping up on them. Effexor made me sleepy to the point I literally slept four days straight, only up long enough to go to the bathroom. I was drowsy and low energy ALL the time. I finally adjusted, and like you, it felt GREAT to have the suicidal thoughts go the hell away & to actually feel good about life. But I’d still get sleepy during PMS, so my doc lowered my Effexor and put me on Welbutrin as well. That helped quite a bit, but taking B vitamin supplements finally got me out of the constantly sleepy stage.
If I miss a dose I get kind of cranky and twitchy. Occasionally I have the zaps & I get the jerks at least once a day, but I figure it’s a small price.
I had absolutely no withdrawal symptoms at all even though I stopped cold-turkey from a very high dose. But I have heard that many people have severe withdrawal symptoms.
I was taking it as a treatment for depression and social phobia but I didn’t get much benefit from it. So my doctor kept increasing the dose until at the end I was taking twice the recommended maximum dose. At this dose I was having auditory hallucinations, severe anxiety, and the worst headaches I have ever experienced in my life. All of these stopped the day after I took my last tablet.
I don’t think the problem was with Effexor but rather my doctor was incompetent in prescribing me such a high dose. At the lower dose it didn’t work for me, but it sounds like it may well work for you…
