I took it for awhile, and noticed a few odd effects. For one, it raised my blood pressure and heart rate by a decent amount; I don’t know if this happens to others who take it, but as it stimulates the noreprenine (sic) system, this is to be expected. Secondly, when quitting it, for several days I experienced weird “brain flashes”; essentially, I’d get periodic sensations of a sort of “wave” of electricity through the brain. Weird, but not horrible.
Just thought I’d throw those out there. I didn’t take it for depression, so I can’t say how it would have affected that, but you might want to ask about what physically stimulating effects it might have.
I just started Wellbutrin. So far I have had minimal side effects–just an occasional “head rush” feeling. I have taken Paxil & Celexa as well. Virtually no side effects with the Celexa… but with the Paxil the “sexual side effect” I had was that I never wanted any…
For anybody experiencing “sexual side effects,” try taking gingko biloba. Worked well to counteract the side effects I had.
Addendum - My RN (psychiatric RN) said Celexa, Paxil, and other SSRI’s work well on depression combined with anxiety. He suggested Wellbutrin or Effexor for me since I have very little anxiety combined with my depression.
Also, both before & after the Celexa I had very little energy or motivation. My RN said that Wellbutrin can help raise energy levels. In fact, I’ll be taking Wellbutrin 2 times a day and he made a point of saying the second dose should not be taken too late or it can cause insomnia.
Too bad I can’t blame my tendency to ramble on the meds… I’ve always been like this. grin
I literally took it for the first time tonight and almost called the hospital. I took it before bed and I woke up at 4am, at first I felt really dizzy and shaky so I tried to go back to sleep when I experienced the worst thing ever. The trembling got worse and I started getting this increased feeling of physical anxiety, my whole body got hotter and hotter and my skin felt tingly and hot and it just kept increasing and I though I was going to die. I had to keep checking my pulse because it felt like I was having a heart attack but it seemed to be beating quite normally even though I was totally freaking out. It happened about 3 times in a row.
I looked it up and it looks like it might be panic attacks. Which is something that people take Effexor to fix apparently??? I’m taking it for chronic generalized and social anxiety by the way not depression. I tried regular ssri’s(zoloft) first but had a strange reaction(bad fever) and had to stop.
Has anyone gotten panic attacks caused by Effexor before (after the first dose too??) I’m going to talk to my doctor but as of now I’m on the fence about continuing this because if I do I’m really going to hate myself tomorrow if I have to experience that again.
P.S I have major sympathy/respect for those who get panic attacks because that was absolutely terrible. You really do feel like you’re going to die. I have heard about panic attacks before and thought I might have had them before caused by my gad but boy was a wrong. I know now that those were extreme unwanted adrenaline rush/hot flash NOT a panic attack there is definetly a difference.
It helped me a lot with my depressive symptoms, while Celexa did not. Side effects were minor (feeling a bit shaky, some ‘brain zaps’ when it was getting close to time for next dose). Withdrawal really sucked - but I did it cold turkey, which is not advised.