Posted by dapper on June 12, 2008, at 17:17:16
My experience in a nutshell...was on 225mg effexor, along with 200mg lamictal, and 50mg trivastal (trying the european approach)...started reduction to 150mg effexor, then one stablon daily, withdrawals very manageable, felt a little better....
2 weeks later, 75mg effexor, 2 stablons daily....mood improved a little, effexor withdrawals not too bad....
3 weeks later, dropped the effexor completely, still taking 2 stablon daily as well as the lamictal and trivastal...
the effexor withdrawals at this point smacked me in the face...5 days without effexor, brain zaps starting to get a little better, but overall the withdrawals are MEAN...I'm a pretty tough guy, and can take quite a bit, but this put me near the breaking point...felt like I had a bad fever, appetite was out of whack, sleep very disturbed for several nights...getting off effexor is like getting off morphine, its very tough...granted I lowered the dose pretty rapidly going from 75mg to 0 at once....
very slowly starting to normalize and hoping the stablon proves effective. I dread the thought of having to get back on effexor. I will keep you all posted. This reminded me of how bad the sexual side effects are of SSNRI's, as I thought I just didnt care for sex...Now I reach orgasm in about 1 minute, it's pretty unbelievable until you experience yourself...
My advice; if you attempt to get off effexor, plan on having at least a week of being able to be 'sick' at home, and not having work or finances to worry about, otherwise you probably will give in and take an effexor
poster:dapper
thread:834360
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080606/msgs/834360.html