Posted by loolot on September 4, 2003, at 14:35:58
In reply to effexor XR hell, posted by tai daluna on September 4, 2003, at 6:33:46
> hello all.
>
> well, i finally have my head together enough to post! i have been reading posts here for all of this month: they have sustained me through an extremely challenging period.
>
> i was prescribed effexor xr 4 months ago because i was having panic attacks. i began to 37.5 mg a day, in the morning. it was great for the first month: at 37.5 mg a day i feel wired but no panic attacks. the prescribing physician increased my dose after about a month and a half to 75mg and that is when the hell began.
>
> i began to experience side effects like night sweats and abdominal cramping, but the doctor said to stick it out. by the end of the second month i had developed a persistent cough. at this time the doctor increased my dose to 150mg, and i went psycho. suddenly i developed extreme asthma. i couldn't walk to the bathroom because i couldn't stop coughing. my chest hurt so badly! i hallucinated like crazy, when i closed my eyes, it was as if i was dreaming. one day, i spent the entire afternoon in a bathtub full of cold water, because it was only then that i could stop coughing. i was twitching. my whole body hurt. my doctor wouldn't believe me. said it was all just part of my anxiety disorder.
>
> finally my husband looked this drug up on the internet, and we started to put it all together. i begged my doc to please take me down. he prescribed me 75mg. things got a little better.
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> that was about two weeks ago. i dropped to 37.5 mgs this week. i am not really experiencing withdrawal symptoms, but i am still hallucinating mildly. i see giant blue and green spots superimposed on my surroundings and tracers. i feel in a fog, worse then before. i am writer and singer and both have suffered. i am usually articulate, but can hardly describe myself as such now.
>
> but nothing as bad as what it was on 150mg. i have scars on me to prove it! i was so depressed and suicidal my mother-in-law bought me a sewing machine to help me feel better, because everyone seriously thought i was going to off myself.
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> i can't wait to be off this terrible, terrible drug. i feel raped. the doctor still insist that my symptoms were not caused by effexor XR, but i know. i am surprised how little doctors know or care about the drugs they're prescribing-- at least the docs in this town anyway.
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> i am so glad to be rid of the asthma, delusions, mania, and terror. now the doc and the pdoc want to prescribe me an anti-psychotic for the delusions and hallucinations that the effexor caused, but i am onto them, and do not want anymore "medicine".
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> thanks for reading this post. i am feeling really depressed-- like i am never going to feel better. i feel like i have been mind-phucked. i would rather have panic attacks than this.
>
> tai
>Your doctor sucks!!!!!! He should have taken you off effexor! There are so many options, maybe you can try another drug. I could not stand effexor either, and it seems like one of the more powerful antidepressants, so maybe you could switch to a gentler drug.
Can you get a second opinion? Maybe there is a good univeristy with a psychiatry program where you can find one of the teaching docs to meet with.
The hallucinations happened to me as I went off effexor for a couple of nights. They didnt stay beyond that.
poster:loolot
thread:256832
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030902/msgs/256975.html