oops
In all the uncharacteristic activity of the weekend, I forgot to take my effexor for the last 2 or 3 days. I'm almost tempted to not bother taking it again now.
I just went to look up the half-life and now I'm even more discouraged. The first thing crazymeds says about effexor is "If anything is going to cure the deepest, blackest depression, it's Effexor". Great... Does that mean if that had no effect, nothing will help?
It goes on to list all the scary side effects and how hard it is to stop taking and how you should start on a tiny, tiny dose and work your way up slowly and discontinue it even more slowly. As opposed to my doubling the dose twice (to close to what this site says is the maximum) and back to half within a month or so. Given that it should be out of my system by now, should I bother restarting? I don't really want to annoy the meds nurse, I guess. I did ask what the point of taking it was, since it's not doing anything noticeable, when I emailed her, but she hasn't replied yet.
The fact that I don't even get any side effects from any of the medications I've tried really makes me think they're doing absolutely nothing. Other than helping me build up a nice little stockpile, in case I ever decide to go into the illicit drug trade, of course.
posted by Lucy @ 10:43 PM
7
comments
7 Comments:
OK, a couple things about this--the Old Roommate was on Effexor, so I know a little bit about this, though not as much as some SSRIs...
First, just because the Effexor doesn't seem to be doing anything doesn't mean that no medication will help. It's really weird how some SSRIs can totally work when others don't. I got lucky with mine--Celexa, the first one I tried, worked for me--but three other people in my family were already on it (!!), so that was a good indication that it would work for me. Also, though--you really might not want to go cold turkey on the Effexor. I'm STILL feeling weird from the cold turkey on the Celexa, and Effexor is supposed to be much more difficult to quit cold turkey. I'd really, really recommend tapering if you're going to stop taking it (though, of course, you know I didn't).
So. That's my convoluted 2 cents--and you know I've been going around with this same issue. Hope whatever you decide works out for you!
thanks, Luckybuzz. I figured I was feeling crappy enough that it was probably best to just take it, in case it did have some unnoticed effect. I think I'm seeing the nurse sometime soon, anyway. I'm sorry she annoyed you, too, and I hope the weirdness goes away soon.
I don't know if this makes any sense or not, but I was wondering if your burst of activity this weekend was a sign that the Effexor *was* working? It sounded like a very good weekend, and then a kind of crash, which might have come about from forgetting to take the Effexor? This is probably simplistic... but I couldn't help but wonder.
I guess it's possible. But it's hard to tell. The reason I was home on friday to clean was that I felt too miserable and apathetic to go into lab on thursday and friday, so it didn't really feel like it was working. The sense of accomplishment from getting something done for a change tends to have a short-lived positive feedback effect, too.
It takes longer than a couple of days to get the meds out of your system. I've forgotten mine every now and then, too. I just start 'em up again when I remember. :) Give them time; it will take some experimenting to get the right dosage.
Hi Lucy:
Found your blog googling around. I've been blogging about Effexor lately as well, and I'm just getting over the withdrawal symptoms after slowly weaning myself off over the past 6 months. I was on the max dose (375mg/day), so it takes a while.
If you're not getting any withdrawal symptoms, count yourself lucky. I'm actually loathe to tell you more about what symptoms most of us experience, as I don't want to jinx you.
How big of a dose are you on? In my experience, the bigger the dose, the bigger the side-effects and the harder it is to cut yourself loose. That said, for me, mostly I was OK except for the jump from 150mg to 75mg that was hellish, and then the jump from 37.5mg to 0 (which is what I'm on the tail end of dealing with now).
In my experience, the withdrawl effects kick in about 36 hours after your last dose, and the worst of it hits about another 36-72 hours after that. I believe after about 7 days the withdrawl effects are gone if not almost totally diminished.
Good luck, and glad to hear you're doing ok. You may want to check out the crazymeds forum for effexor as well, I've found some good info in there from other depressed bastards like myself.
Good luck;
--booj
thanks, booj. I've read about some of the withdrawal problems and I'm definitely lucky not to have any of them. Of course, I didn't get any of the good effects, either. I was on 300mg for a couple of weeks, now I'm back down at 150mg.
Good luck to you, too!
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