Quote:
Originally Posted by Broken59
It's been 18 days since I was given Effexor and I've yet to start taking it. I've made myself scared to take it after reading the possible side effects. I'm so depressed and want to get to feeling more myself but I just can't even take the first one. I worry about it all the time, kind of obsessively. Is anyone here taking it or has taken it in the past? Any side effects? I've read that even missing one dose will make a person very sick, its hard to get off of, some kind of brain "zaps", seizures....I don't know how to quit worrying about it and just start!
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I took effexor eleven years ago and I took it for 18 months.....it was prescribed to me again during my last serious hospitalisation. I refused to take it...preferring to be depressed!
Yes it did treat my major depressive symptoms, I was not deeply sad, suicidal or even heartbroken miserable.
I was, however, manic as all F#%$...had no apetite at all....chain smoked, became obsessive compulsive at work....lost my sex drive, had uncontrolled outbursts that could go either way...violent or emotional, I could not sit still...unless with a coffee or cigarette. I isolated and generally felt chemically distorted...I don't think I smiled once during that 18 months....but no I was not depressed...
I was in orbit somewhere with the pharmaceutical fairies!
I would work so hard and be so under-nourished I would get dizzy throughout the day and be on the verge of fainting often (syncope).
I sure got alot done....probably the best overachieving ever...but I was a shell of a man...distressed and dispirited in a disturbingly detached way.
(it has a nickname...side-effexsor)
and whats worse...that 18 months is so unfamiliar to me it barely registers in my meomories, like it was someone elses life and the real me was not even there.
when I stopped taking effexor I had similar head warping sensations...like I would turn my head and my eyes would take a while to lazily join up with my face...and I was almost like seeing sounds and hearing visions...my ears became eyes and my eyes became ears...trippy!!
and like my brain was stretched out in a drainpipe, things tasted weirder than when on it but then I wasn't eating so who knows. I leapt for the ellicit drugs to get me through the withdrawals...but then I abused them...went nuts and ended up back in rehab...bummer!
So I wonder how I would have faired without the effexor...I won't know.
I won't take it again though...I would prefer to be depressed.
I may not be a suitable comparison because I have tried several anti-depressants and my mind/body and soul seems to reject them all.
I think I am allergic or something...
hope that helps broken59
good luck
