Anti-Depressant Novo-Venlafaxine

My girlfriend is coming off this and having some crazy with drawls and I am just wondering if anyone else on the forum has any experience with this drug or has heard anyone else on it? Any help would be appreciated.

Shes been on it for close to 3 years but now wants to get off them and is weening herself off them but it is pretty rough. Shes having some pretty bad symptoms but in the long run being on this drug will be worse than good.

Any input is greatly appreciated. This is my first thread, but it is important to me.

I was hospitalized for a few days about two weeks after starting Effexor. My experience with it was horrible. Same result with Cymbalta.

Now I just don't seek treatment because doctors will swear up and down that these meds are totally without side effects and safe.

They are dangerous!

Effexor, like many SSRI's has a discontinuation syndrome, that unfortunately some physicians are either unaware of, or refuse to acknowledge, because the Phamco doesn't always acknowledge them.

It's fairly common. Is she having "zaps"? This feels like electricity gone amuck in the brain. It's essentially harmless, but annoying, however I have heard of some cases where a seizure was induced.

If she's tapering off, she is doing it too quickly. It can take a weeks to safely wean off one of them. Cymbalta and Paxil are apparently the worse, but it doesn't happen to everyone.

If her doctor is not helping her with it, then find one who will. They typically switch the person to Prozac for a while, because it has a longer half-life, thusly preventing the discontinuation syndrome.

Good luck. Also, if the zaps get really bad.....I've known of people who have had up to 300 per day at the beginning. Beer helps. But......bump up the dosage a little. You can buy a pill slicer for like, $5.00, and you take a half for a few days, then a half of a half for a few days, then half of that, etc.

But this is best overseen by a physician.

There can also be "sensory disturbances" associated with SSRI's, and in this event, you need to stop taking the medication.

My daughter is taking effexor and she said when she misses a dose she gets something she calls 'brain shivers' like a weird twitch behind her eyes like a ticking(she's describing this to me,as she has to go to work)and she also sleeps alot.she says she get migraines loss of appetite,basically full blown withdrawals.definitely would seek medical attention to get off any of these meds.

You also get these symptoms when you first start taking SSR's
It's really odd kind of like an electric tingling behind your eyes, sometimes in your jaw too. When I first started taking them I also had a few odd visual experiences, the most bizarre being a really weird sort of tunnel vision that I couldn't shake for ages,.

Personally I need to take antidepressants as my life before I took them was way worse then with them, I suffered from major bouts of deep depression, and had almost constant absolutely crippling social phobia which meant I could hardly even leave my house / answer a telephone / write an email or interact with anyone at all on any level for weeks at a time, I would analyse every single thing anyone ever said to me until I could turen it into something negative, I self medicated with things that were way worse for me then SSR's I certainly couldn't have participated in this forum.and it got to the point where there was no way I could even work any more.

Heres a wiki page about SSR withdrawal symptoms, she has to do it slowly and under supervision, and just work through it the way you have to with any sort of dependency drugs or otherwise

I should add that if your girlfriend was taking SSR's then I would assume she started taking them for a reason, once she's not taking them any more the symptoms she was having that caused her to start will probably reappear so she should have a strategy for dealing with that.

If she doesn't want to take medication then I would suggest that she looks into getting some cognitive-behavioural therapy so she works on the psychological part of the cause rather then the biological part

I am currently on Venlaxafene, even knowing full-well what the withdraw effects are. Hell, a skipped dose produces an immediate migraine, so it makes it easy to remember to take...

Anyway, I agree with everyone else that if her Psychiatrist will not help her wean off of this medication, find someone who will.

I suggest using this, only if she is really desperate. Have her show up at a large hospital Emergency Room suicidal, and they will admit her to the mental health department. It might be easier for her to come off, with nurses and Doctors around at all times, to take care of all symptoms as they appear, and work as long as it takes to get her stable on something else that works better for her. This method is awesome, assuming she has good enough health coverage. Any would have to cover an emergency situation like this -- Hopefully the full amount.

I used to get "the zaps" from Paxil, but not any longer. I've been on it for eight years. It works for me. My success in dealing with major depression has been a combination of medicine and cognitive behavioral therapy. For me, this stuff is chicken AND egg. The brain is the most complex organ in the human body, and it makes sense to me that if our other internal organs can have problems, so can the brain. I see mental illness as brain disease. There is terrible bias against these kinds of diseases,and I think this is a big reason a lot of people don't seek help.

She does get the "zaps" and also feels nauseated and irritable. She started on 150mg, weened off down to 75mg, then down to 37.5mg and finally she is trying to get to nothing (so it has been a 8-12 month process). She is taking other medication but it is all natural, but if it continues to get worse she will maybe pick some prozac up. The reasons she started going on the meds was a rough patch in her life and she thinks right now in her life she is happy and stable enough to get off them.

Its a tough situation to be in, because she knows she has to get off them, but at the same time it makes her feel like such crap.

Thanks for all the responses, means a bunch.

I had this problem when I stopped taking Paxil - I acually became suicidal and had to go to the hospital. I would call her Dr and if she gets worse before you can get there take her to the ER. I was on Buspar and tapered off and didn't have any problems. Some anti-depressants are not good to come off of too quickly.

reply to post by crazydaisy


Right now she takes a 37.5mg pill 2 days in a row, then one day off, then 2 days on one day off until she can get down to, 1 day on 1 day off. She did this with 150-75, and then 75-37.5 and both times worked with pretty good success with some withdrawls. So its the final step of the ween off, its just a little rougher this time.

I know this isn't any help, but anti-depressants are the worst idea I've ever heard of. Personally, I'd rather be addicted to crack or heroin.

reply to post by xiphias


Hence the reason she is trying to get off them. And no offense, but I don't think you see many people who are on anti-depressants committing crimes to get the meds. So I think you should maybe check your statement.

I take Venlafaxine and find missing a dose leads to escalating symptoms. Firstly I get nervous and edgy and don't want to be around people, I almost want to run off and hide. After that I start to get a very dry mouth and a headache. The headache then turns into a very worrying feeling that my head contains a huge bag of water sloshing around where my brain should be, this is quite disorienting it also makes my eyes hurt.

I tried to cut my dose down from 150mg to 75mg and was a complete mess when I tried, I tried to lengthen the intervals between the dose, from 24 hours to 30 hours, with the intention of weaning myself off them. That didn't work.

Finally I discussed it with my doctor who said that coming off Venlafaxine is easier said than done, shame they didn't mention that when I went on them, in fact the opposite they said they were not addictive! The doctor did suggest that Valium could be used to help mitigate the symptoms while coming off the Venlafaxine, but is that better or worse than being stuck on the Venlafaxine?

I'd be interested to hear more experiences of others with this drug. I'm not convinced about it's effect as an anti-depressant either, I couldn't care less about anything which is not the effect I wanted. I found amplopidine which I was given for high blood pressure was a damned sight more effective in controlling my depression than any of the anti-depressants I've taken over the last 17 years.

One thing with meds is finding the right one at the right dose. If she absolutely needs some kind of medication, it will take time and patience.

When it comes to BiPolar and similar spectrum disorders, an awesome drug I have had the best success with is Gabapentin. It is NOT addictive, just about no withdrawl at all, for most people, and it actually works. It is an anti-seizure med that works on the central nervous system. I am not the only one to find success with Gabapentin, most everyone I know has a prescription for it now. Little to no known side effects either, makes it at least worth trying, if depression is your only problem.

I am finding almost little success with Venlaxafene for Generalized Anxiety Disorder, honestly, so I am not sure what to do now. It is known for being one of the two best for the disorder.

It just doesn't make sense to me that Psychiatrists are prescribing such a powerful drug with such side effects and known withdrawls, for just a little depression. I think it is irresponsible, personally.

anti-depressants kill faster than crack or heroine in some cases and they screw your brain up just as much.
and yes some people do commit crimes do get anti-depressants as well.

*DRUG USE REMOVED*


synthetic chemicals and one pathway miracle pills will be the death of the human race as weve known it.

reply to post by pryed -eyed-one


If you just stop them though, its just like any other drug, there is massive with drawl and sickness. I get your point, but I would rather say my girlfriend has taken anti-depressants than crack or heroin
haha

reply to post by anthbes


I've been on most of these, including Venlafaxine. It is hard to come off them, actually, it can be excruciating. Paxil was the worst one for me, that was so awful. I'm on sertraline now, and it does its job, but if I miss a dose, I start getting the symptoms.

You can ask your doctor for a low dose course of librium to counter the effects of withdrawl. That really worked when I was in the trenches coming off Paxil. Alcoholics use it for withdrawal, too. Failing librium, valium will also do the trick. But make sure it's only for a couple of weeks.

Originally posted by xiphias
I know this isn't any help, but anti-depressants are the worst idea I've ever heard of. Personally, I'd rather be addicted to crack or heroin.

edit on 3-10-2010 by xiphias because: (no reason given)

Somehow I imagine this comment comes from someone that has never taken antidepressants or crack or heroin as it's one of the dumbest things I have ever heard in my life.

Millions of people take antidepressants and have perfectly fulfilling normal lives that they would be otherwise unable to lead because of depression or social phobia..

Obviously they are not a cure all, sometimes have bad side effects, and some people have bad experiences with them, which is why they are given after a consultation process and by prescription and usually accompanied by some form of counselling.

Depression isn't just "wow I feel really miserable today" It can lead to you losing your job, your partner and in the worst cases your life, you can't get out of bed and when you do you then can't sleep for days at a time, everything seems utterly pointless, not just "Oh I don't feel like going to a party" but "I can't see the damn point in eating or waking up"

I guess I seem to be a little harsh in this post, but it was attitudes like this that stopped me from going and getting help with my problems for years on end for fear of being labelled a "drug addict" or thinking that the meds would make me into some kind of Zombie and I would hate your comments from stopping even a single person from getting the help they need whatever type of help that is