[sun_flower]

Hello,
I deal with brain fog all the time, and have for years now. And I am always depressed even on my good days with medication which is Venlafaxine HCL ER (Effexor XR).
Only very ocassionally/rarely I will have this feeling of "normal" or "brain clarity" where I feel amazingly clear headed and not depressed at all. Like the cloud has lifted.Not sure if certain things actually improve like spelling and such. It's hard for me to explain.
This happened a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to go hiking with the hubby and kid's. We didn't go, as hubby had to work.
It didn't last but an hour or so anyway.
This morning, while I Was packing lunches, it happened again. I felt "normal" and clear headed". Then by the time I got everyone on their busses, and walked my dogs, I was back to the way I always am, which is depressed.
What is this? I don't want to call it mania, because I go to bed everyday when the kid's and hubby are gone. No problem sleeping. All I do is sleep.

I know this must happen to others and I'd appreciate any input.

Thanks, Sun_flower.

[jilliebeanmn]

hmmm...I would talk to your doctor and ask her about the meds, or if a change needs to be made. Sounds very strange.

[justfloating]

hi sun_flower,

do you mind if I ask how long you've been on the Effexor? Because I had the same thing happen to me. I'd been on it probably a year or so (with steadily increasing dosages) and I had a period where i'd get these stretches of time where I was feeling absolutely fine. As time went on, I'd get those "flashes" of normalcy more and more often, and they'd last longer and longer each time. Over a few months the depression got under control, so that I really only have the occasional flare-up anymore. With therapy and a med boost around stressful times like exams I'm a lot more in control of my depression.

Anyway, that's just my experience, but this could be a good thing! I agree with jilliebean, definitely call your doctor and let them know what's going on. Good luck.

[Lilleth]

I am not on any medication but I get those episodes too. For no reason I'd wake up feeling 'normal' or just from feeling really awful I'd notice that I feel nomal and able to cope and am relieved only problem it does not last long and because I know that it will pass and I will be feeling dreadful again. The first time it happened to me I was so relieved to be feeling ok and thought Thank God I am feeling better but over the years I know that when I have those moments they dont last so now when it happens I just hope that the feeling doesnt go away to quickly.

[thine_self_untrue]

Ditto ^^ I'm not on meds either, but sometimes I literally feel like someone pulled a trap off of my brain and I can think clearly.

[madisgram]

well first of all perhaps they either need to tweak your meds, add a med to what you already take, or try something else. sometimes our meds just stop helping us. as for feeling depressed most of the time there is a condition, i have it, whereby we always feel below just normal. forget the medical term. but imho you don't need to have all these symptoms. i'd definitely discuss this with your pdoc. the times you feel clear headed i think is when your med is trying to bring your mood up but fails either because you need a higher dose or it doesn't serve it's purpose for your depression. i hope you and pdoc can get to the bottom of this and communication is vital. keep persisting til you feel better.