Effexor and ween

I was put on Effexor because of depression. My husband was going to be going to the middle east and I was so worried and depressed as well as experiencing separation anxiety. I started it a month before he left and IT WAS HORRIBLE.! Getting on it was just as bad as not having it! The side effects were like everyone else. No sex drive (mind you...my husband was leaving to the middle east!), cotton mouth and nausea. He left and that is when little by little it got worst. I GAINED WEIGHT and felt even more depressed because my husband was coming home to a PIG! Hubby got out of the military and I had went home to wait for him. (VA is where I was getting the meds and home is CA) When he got home I decided to get off the meds. I had gained over 30lbs! I was always petite and athletic. 5'2 120lbs and size 3 or 5. I was at 152 and size 9,11 and EVEN 13!!!! I have 2 kids and even pregnat never gained that much weight! I called my Dr. and they said I would have to come in to get off the meds! I live in CA now and cannot go to VA just to get the ween off pills so I did it COLD TURKEY!!! BIG MISTAKE!!!!! One disagreement with my husband made me FLIP OUT!!!! I was out of my character! I attacked him and became physically violent and angry! This is not like me! He could not control me and called the police thinking they were just going to calm me down. Because he told them the truth, but did not want to press charges, they still arrested me and I went to jail that night! I have NEVER went to jail and I never thought I would NEVER be somewhere like this. It was so embarrassing! As a result, my charges were dropped, but because my son was there CPS got involved, my husband and I were separated (although we didn't want to be apart, but if we did not do as they wished they would've taken our children!) for 6 months 1 month after he got back from the middle east! I was made to attend 52 week domestic violence classes! THIS HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE!!!! I DO NOT RECOMMEND ANYONE TAKE THIS MEDICATION!!!!!

This is the worst drug I've ever been on. This has totally destroyed my life, I took it for 8 years, in which time I felt severely depressed (much worse than the depression it was meant to be treating), irrational and no sex drive whatsoever. I stopped taking it 2 years ago and have extreme withdrawal symptoms for months on end, feeling nauseous, depressed etc and now that I have stopped my body has still not recovered from the side effects. I feel that if I had never been prescribed this horrific drug my life would not be the misery it is today.

I just want to say 'thank you' to Guest 27984, for having something GOOD to say about Effexor as there are people who really need some serious help in their lives and times in a lot of lives when a little help is needed for a shorter period. I found Effexor extremely helpful after a ghastly personal tragedy but have also found it bloody irritating to ween myself off. I have the lightheadness and a stiff, floaty eye experience....is the best way I can describe it... I keep trying to come off it and find the results of that worse...perhaps 'cold turkey' is the way to go..........

I was on a 225mg daily dose of Effexor for about two weeks before I started to ween myself off because it was doing nothing for my situation, causing ridiculous dehydration, and possibly causing mood swings. I haven't taken any for just over a month and every day I'm still getting the same extreme light-headedness that I got the first time I missed a dose. I have no idea how long this is going to last, and I'm sick of it.

I urge anyone who is researching this medication and considering starting it to reconsider. Tell your doctor you would rather try something different first.

-I have been on Effexor XR for almost 1 year @ 150mg.

When I was first on the drug I would feel the dizziness, brain shock, etc, side affects if I went roughly 2 days without taking the drug (on accident). In the past few months I start getting severe withdrawl side affects (dizziness, brain shocks, etc.) as soon as it hit 24 hours from my last dose (If I took a pill at 2pm on one day, by 3pm on the next day I was having severe side affects).

What seemed to be unrelated at first was the fact that in the past 2-3 months I started to have severe sleeping problems. I got extremely worse in the past 2 months as no matter what time I went to bed it became extremely difficult for me to wake up before 10am - 11am (which obviously affected my work). It was the hardest thing in the world to drag myself out of bed, no matter what time it was (it was almost impossible for me to get out of bed before 8am). I would then work for a few hours and come home and take a nap. I went to my Doctor (same one that prescribed me the Effexor XR) and he sent me to a sleep study thinking that I might have Sleep Apneia. Immediately after that a friend recommended trying to get off of the Effexor XR and as soon as I started weening down my doseage, my sleep went back to normal. In any regard, I was able to ween myself down to 37.5 MG for a couple of weeks and have now been off of it or 3 days and it has sucked. I've tried getting off before and have many horror stories as other people (the following horror story is one that happened about 2-3 months ago when I tried to quit cold turkey once from full 150 mg a day doseage, not a good idea!).

This is somewhat funny & scary...I had gone about 2-3 days at one point in trying to cut cold turkey from 150 mg a day(I was also out of pills) and was suffering from severe withdrawl affects and decided to drive to my pharmacy to have it refilled because I could not take it anymore. My pharmacy is one that is in a large grocery store...so while it was being refilled I tried to find some granola bars so I would have something to eat to take with the medication. I was so dizzy and confused that I had to call my wife (fiance at the time) on my cell phone. I had to ask her to help me find the granola bars (this was a store that I often shopped at) and was standing in the middle of an isle with tears streaming down my face begging her to help me over the phone. I'm a 30+ year old professional who is 6'2" and was (prior to my weight gain recently) a healthy 250 pds, and was reduced to tears in a grocery store trying to find granola bars. The storry is sad, true, scary, and slightly funny all at the same time.

I've also managed to put on about 25-30 pds in the last 2-3 weeks as well. One of the side effects I personally got when I went too long between doses (or now in trying to stop completely and was feeling after reducing doseage) is a weird nausea feeling (I suppose similar to the one others have felt too). If you've ever felt nausea from being overly hungry, this is the type of nausea feeling I get. I feel like my body needs some food to help it feel better, so I eat and eat, and it's a very temperal relief (unfortunately, even the temporal relief doesn't always come), then the nausea is back. Hence the 25-30 pounds in the last 2-3 weeks.

In closing, I think it is sad that most doctors probably do not fully understand the drug. I know the manufacturer states that the side affects occur in about 10% of those that use the drug. However, I wonder what the percentage of severe side affects is in those that try to come off of the drug? I'm sure it has to be very high as the only thing my doctor made clear was to talk to him when/if I want to ever come off of the drug. THESE SIDE AFFECTS FROM COMING OFF OF THE DRUG ABSOULTELY NEEDS TO BE MADE CLEAR TO PATIENTS BEFORE THEY START OUT ON THIS DRUG!
Thanks,
M