Effexor Withdrawal

[R0seswhite]

I'd like to talk more about my Effexor withdrawal. It's been over a month and the physical withdrawal is gone, however the feeling that I thought I had for just a few days is gone as well. I feel horrible. I feel worse than I did before I went on Effexor almost 5 years ago. I have been reading and searching for anything that will make how I'm feeling mentally go away. Bad news is that even people who were at 37.5 to over 300mg which is where I was, go through the same thing. I actually feel dead inside and can't fake being happy or "normal". I am miserable, I feel so much anxiety ALL DAY from the time I wake up. Actually yesterday when I was trying to explain to my husband how messed up I feel I told him waking up is the worse part of my day. I don't eat, I can't think, I'm angered easily, I can't concentrate, I'm having nightmares, I cry all the time, I don't want to be bothered by people, and can't help but think negatively all day. Some called this process that we who are withdrawing from an Effexor Nightmare. My talk therapist told me that the point of withdrawal I'm at is the mental portion and unlike the physical portion which seemed like a breeze compared to this hell lasts a lot longer. I can't do this anymore. I am totally miserable with myself. I don't really know how much more of the Effexor Nightmare I can take. Everyone tells me you'll get through this think positive but when you can't how can you? Had I known that going though withdrawal would be like this I would have NEVER gone on Effexor. I think you truly can't understand what this nightmare is unless you've gone through Effexor Withdrawal. I wonder even if I have any serotonin in my body. Worse part is you can get blood work for levels of serotonin in your blood, but in order to get the proper level reading of where the level is in your brain is when your dead. I see both my  Dr. and Talk Therapist tomorrow. My Dr. will probably try to re-medicate me with something else and my talk therapist will keep telling me to out think my brain and say all the words of comfort I'll need to hear at that point in time. But I don't know how I can fix this. I don't know even if this can be fixed. When this is over who will I be and will I be "normal" again? I always said from day one when I decided I didn't want to be on Effexor and tapered down, what if I don't like who I am... I still worry about that because I HATE who I am now. How much longer has this lasted for some of you and has anyone ever beat it?

[Paxiled]

Withdrawal are a very individual thing.  Effexor and the one that did me in, Paxil, are the two worst for the most people, but any individual can have a hard time with any drug.  It has nothing to do with the amount of serotonin you have.  Serotonin, as far as anyone knows, has nothing to do with mental illness except for a very tiny population that can't make enough of it.  You're not one of those.  Effexor didn't make more serotonin, it changed the way you use what you have.  It also did the same with norepenephrine.  Your brain has to now learn how to function again without the drug.  For some, this is easy peasy.  For some it's moderate.  For some, however, it's very difficult, and leads to what's called PAWS, which your doctors probably have never heard of, or Protracted Withdrawal Syndrome.  The only way I know of to stop this is to go back on the Effexor at the last dose at which you felt fine and do a much slower taper off and hope that works.  The taper has to be suited to the individual, not some generalized schedule a doc uses for everyone.  Almost no docs do this, but it is the only scientifically accepted way to do it.  Docs also are very bad at recognizing withdrawal, partly because almost everything they know about drugs is written by the pharmaceutical company.  Anyone who disagrees with this is labeled out of the mainstream and ignored.  It takes a very good psychiatrist to know this and work this way.  Regular docs almost never know very much about the drugs they prescribe, as they don't specialize in anything and so are always jumping from one problem to the next, never really learning any of them completely except the simplest ones.  The withdrawal you're feeling is thought to arise from the receptors in the brain that shut down while you were on the drug because they were no longer being used, as these drugs target just a certain set of receptors.  The others are trying to wake up now, and aren't succeeding yet.  The other way to do it is to wait it out and hope it goes away eventually.  For most people, it does, for some, it never does.  Let's assume you're most people and at some point, slowly, your brain will re-adapt to working naturally.  If you don't buy that at some point, again, the only other way to handle it that I've found is to go back on the drug and try tapering off more slowly.  In the meantime, try to stay busy, exercise, eat really really well, find what it is you look forward to and do that.  Nobody can guarantee how this will turn out, so pretend it's all going to be fine -- life is full of pretense anyway so you might as well pretend optimistically.  That's what cognitive therapy is all about, and what your therapist is trying to tell you -- you really are who you convince yourself you are, to some extent.  I don't know if going on another medication will help or not -- I'm sure it does for some and not for others, but it won't work the same as Effexor so it won't do exactly what Effexor did -- they're all engineered to work differently or they wouldn't get patents.  But if that becomes your only option, then it's worth a try.  For me, I had a quack for a shrink, and needed to go back on Paxil and never did because nobody ever told me about withdrawal -- I eventually found out about it on the internet.  At least you know, which I think will help you make your next move.      

[AnxiousNoMore]

When you were on E did you do any therapy to try to resolve whatever caused you to be depressed? Did you use this therapist before you went off it?

Why did you go off it other than not wanting to be on it? Were you feeling fine on it?

[R0seswhite]

I have been seeing the same Dr and Therapist the whole time. With Effexor I became numb and lost all sex drive. I was feeling better mentally with being on it. Even while I was tapering off Effexor I was doing well. Went from 325 to 75mg. Then after one day of being off it my nightmare began. I saw my Dr. and for the 15 minutes i'm given for my appointment my Dr started me on 20mg of Prozac. Needless to say since I started the Withdrawal, I quit my job and I'm putting my family though hell. My job was my trigger when I started Effexor. It was during an audit that I knew was right and eventually so did everyone else. My job even though I'm not there anymore is a huge trigger. I don't even go near that place and avoid it at all costs. Oh one week on Prozac and I still want to chopped everyone off at the knee caps....

[AnxiousNoMore]

Keep your mind open to the possibility that you need Effexor to avoid feeling the way you are today,, since your present situation coincides with the absence of it in your system.

[Evie_Famke]

I feel like weeping just reading your post. I can relate, absolutely. I am into my fourth day of not taking this horrific medication and I am utterly miserable. The constant sobbing, inability to focus, the permanent and frequent 'brain zaps, disassociation, severe paranoia and exacerbated anxiety, profuse perspiration (predominantly at night). My depression has never been so alarming and intense.

[AnxiousNoMore]

You might get some helpful replies if you start your own thread.