Poor attention span symptoms and conditions

I have definitely had the hot flashes, the poor attention span. But those are bearable. I can tell that I have had some bone loss due to the pain in my feet when I first stand up and sometimes I just feel like an old lady. These are not complaints, though, because if you read up on the drug...it tells you these things.

I was on effexor for a year to treat dysthimic depression and general anxiety disorder. My dose started low but was upped every few months until I was on 150 mg.

The side effects I experienced were:

- Dizziness
- Inability to sleep soundly at night (I would wake several times and have difficulty falling asleep again)
- Inability to stay awake during the day (probably as a result of the previous side-effect. this was so bad that i even fell asleep once while i was standing up!)
- A "fuzzy" mental state; everything looked cloudy, I had no concentration, poor attention span
- Frequent vivid nightmares
- This weird sensation that happened every couple of minutes. It wasn't quite like dizziness...it was more like my brain was doing a flip-flop in my head.
- I was ALWAYS exhausted
- My libido disappeared

The withdrawl affects of the drug were similar but also accompanied by twitching, nausea, increased dizziness, more frequent "brain flips", and occasional fainting or blacking out.

Worse was that I had to take the drug at the same time every day, or else I'd enter withdrawl almost immediately. If I took the drug at 7:00 AM every morning before school, and then slept in until 10:00 AM on the weekend, I would wake up in withdrawl, even though i was only a few hours late!

When I tapered off the drug, the withdrawl affects were almost unbearable for a couple of weeks, but eventually I returned almost to a normal state, except that it took over a year for my libido to return, and even though I've been free of the drug for a couple of years, I still have difficulties in that area sometimes.

If you scroll down a ways you'll see entries by Leah. Leah is my sister. She had terrible problems with Yasmin and I have too!

I was on Yasmin for just over 3 years, I stopped taking it this month becase Leah and all of you convinced me that I wasn't really a sickly & emotional mess... it was Yasmin's fault!

Over the past 3 years I've been suffering from the following side effects I now believe are directly related to Yasmin:

Clouded Thinking/Poor Attention Span
Depression (I've been on 2 anti-depressants for almost 3 yrs)
Anxiety (I've been on an anti-anxiety medication)
Violent Mood Swings
Night Sweats
Daily Headaches
Feeling tired all the time
Poor Circulation
Shortness of Breath
Leg Cramps at night that wake me up
Cronic Muscular Pain in my back
NO sex drive

It's been almost 2 weeks since I stopped taking Yasmin. Already my thinking is clearer, I have more energy, less headaches and the sex drive of a teenager! From what I've read here it sounds like things will continue to improve in the next few months. I'll keep you updated. Thanks everyone!