Another Effexor Q

During the aftermath of hurricane Wilma, I noticed I was running low on Effexor -- mostly bec. I am running low on money, too, so I haven't gone to a doc to get a new scrip.

I decided to try to wean myself off the med by taking one 75-mg dose a day instead of 2 75-mg.

I've been on Effexor since last summer. I've probably had low-lying depression most of my life, since my teens. A few decades in other words. On Effexor, I'm less anxious about things that bother me. I'm not exactly a Party Girl even on this stuff, but at least I'm not a wreck with suicidal thoughts.

After about 7-10 days of half doses, last night I found myself weeping about issues I could sworn I've resolved. I noticed that my feelings that life isn't worth living -- a familiar way-station on the road to suicidal ideations -- were getting stronger, and indeed had probably been creeping in for 3-4 days. The mental/emotional changes start so slowly, can't they?

At any rate, is it possible that a week or 10 days of half-doses could make this kind of difference in my mental condition?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

yes, ma'am....you're on the right track.you're cutting down too fast. you need to taper down much slower than cutting the dosage in half. i am the living example of withdrawal from Effexor. i tapered and tapered and tapered. when i went too fast, i had horrible thoughts and felt awful. are you having the electrical brain zaps yet? headaches? please stay in touch with me. i'll walk you through this. okay? love, pat

Have to agree--I tried the same thing with the same results! (I kind of dug the electrical brain zaps, though--kind of reminded me of the 70's!) rotfl

So slow it down, and you should do it under a doctor's care.

Good luck
DJ

Hi WTF,

I am in the same boat as you. On Effexor XR, and low on $$$$. I recently cut my dose from 187.5 to 150 and have stayed here because the first few days after tapering were horrible. Headaches, nausea, feeling the the someone came and drained the life right outta me. I am doing better now, but I beleive that cutting your dose like that is responsible for the feelings you are having now.

Can you try calling your PDOC and see if he can hook you up with some samples of the 37.5 and take that with a 75 mg dosage? Just a thought. Sorry your going through this.

Take care.

Jen

guys.........almost every drug company has a program to provide you with free meds. go to a walgreen's pharmacy and they have the paperwork to fill out. i saw the sign yesterday. i get mine free through the local mental health clinic.

I started Effexor XR about 6 weeks ago. I am now taking 150mg daily. It has helped but I seem to have leveled out.

I was told the max. dosage was 200mg. But I noticed some of you are taking more than the 200mg. How long did it take before you increased the amount?

Also I was told to take my mine in the morning. Is this the best time?

I was on Effexor for several years it did seem to help to a point but then I felt like it was not worthwhile. Maybe because I wasn't taking the correct dosage. Any suggestions? Thanks

How do we know when the Efexor has actually started working anyway? My dosage has been increased gradually and I am not getting any better, I have days where i just stay in bed which is awful, then i have days where i can get up and waddle around the place. then on an excellent day, i can actually go out side and take myself off to the shops. I am now on 225mg and have been for 3 weeks now, I am getting the electrical zaps which are awful and sometimes they really hurt......... aluta continua.

I don't know if there is really such a thing as a "maximum" dose of Effexor XR. According to the prescribing information at the Effexor XR website (http://www.effexorxr.com) the maximum dose for a moderately depressed person is 225 mg/day. I've been taking 300 mg/day for over a year now, and in one of the 2 reported overdoses, a person was fine after taking 6 grams! That's 40 150 mg capsules! So I hate to say it, tracylee, but if you're not noticing improvement yet, you're probably not going to.

You're SUPPOSED to level out -- that's how you tell it's working -- no up and down, or just plain really, really down moods, just kind of cruising along not really feeling any extreme feelings.

I've been on it for so long I have no idea when my pdoc decided to ramp it up at whatever times. Technically, for XR, the max dose is 225 mg, but most pdocs will take it to 375 mg like the regular Effexor. It doesn't seem to do any harm.

I've been on 450 mg for about a year, after 2 hospitalizations last year. I was told by two pdocs, my in-house guy (my regular pdoc doesn't do inpatient) and my regular guy, that you go over the maximum "when nothing else is working." I called my regular pdoc after the inpatient guy upped to me to 450, just to check. He said, "Oh, I'd trust him on this one -- he sees the really HARD-CORE cases in the hospital."

Yay, I'm a chronic headcase! Yay!

I take mine in the morning because, for the first 3 weeks I took it, it had me bouncing off the ceiling, almost manic. I don't know how it works for anyone else, but I get really lethargic when I'm really depressed and so they give me things that are known to "energize."

Have never had a side effect, ever. Love the stuff. Good luck.

Candy

Effexor is nasty stuff! This medication disrupts your whole body...if you can take another medication do it asap!

I credit Effexor with the fact that I'm still alive and walking around on the planet, Dublin, and I've never had a single problem from it -- so maybe it's not a horrible thing for everybody.

I too credit Effexor for really helping my MAJOR TREATMENT RESISTANT depression. I currently take 600 mg. and have for almost 2 yrs now. I have taken effexor for almost 6 yrs total. Good luck!