[alpinus]

I'm seeing a psychologist and getting my medication from my MD. I was originally prescribed Zoloft for depression and social anxiety disorder but I had to get off of it after six weeks because it was making me climb the walls. My MD then prescribed Effexor and so far I've seen no unpleasant side effects; I'm still only taking 75 mg. I've read many people complain about Effexor causing emotional numbness, basically causing you to not feel much of anything. My question is this: how high of a dose of Effexor do you need to produce this effect? This is what I want, to not feel much of anything anymore. What I've learned in therapy is that I'm screwed up, I've screwed up my life by making the wrong choices, and at the age of 46, things are not going to change. So if someone could tell me what dose of Effexor i would need to take to make me functionally numb, it would be much appreciated. No, I'm not kidding.

[Umbral_Seraph]

I'm not sure, I never got that with Effexor, but I'm pretty med resistant. Gabapentin though, whoa... little bit of that with Lamictal too.

While it may seem like a good idea when you feel hurt, emotional numbness makes things worse. You really do alot based on emotion. Oh, and people may not be able to tell what you're feeling but they always know when you aren't feeling.

[pgrundy]

Hmmm. I've been on 300 mg of Effexor CR since February and I am not emotionally numb. I definitely feel things, good and bad, the only difference between me on Effexor and me off Effexor is that when I'm on it I feel normal and can be happy sometimes, whereas off it I feel horrible and don't even know what happy is.

I don't think it helps to be numb. What helps is the right medication or medications so you can feel happy sometimes and normal the rest of the time. If you are on the right meds, you'll still have stuff come up that you need to deal with in therapy--you'll just be more able to deal with it. It won't shut you down so fast.

Good luck and thank you for sharing your experience. Hang in there!

[pgrundy]

PS--I have not had good experiences with GPs dispensing psych meds. Have you ever tried getting a medication evaluation by a good psychiatrist? Even though you'll hear people slam them on the forums here, they definitely know more about meds that GPs. You just need to find a good one. Once you get the right combo, after awhile a GP can just refill it for you if necessary.

[scooterb]

Originally Posted by alpinus

I'm seeing a psychologist and getting my medication from my MD. I was originally prescribed Zoloft for depression and social anxiety disorder but I had to get off of it after six weeks because it was making me climb the walls. My MD then prescribed Effexor and so far I've seen no unpleasant side effects; I'm still only taking 75 mg. I've read many people complain about Effexor causing emotional numbness, basically causing you to not feel much of anything. My question is this: how high of a dose of Effexor do you need to produce this effect? This is what I want, to not feel much of anything anymore. What I've learned in therapy is that I'm screwed up, I've screwed up my life by making the wrong choices, and at the age of 46, things are not going to change. So if someone could tell me what dose of Effexor i would need to take to make me functionally numb, it would be much appreciated. No, I'm not kidding.

I am on 150 mg. of Effexor XR daily and have been for several years. It is the antidepressant that works the best for me.
I understand not wanting to feel anything, but if you load up on medication so that you don't feel you're also not processing the emotions and experiences that contribute to your mental illness. Medication, (the correct ones) are a part of your recovery, but so is therapy, exercise, eating right, and being able to share yourself and your emotions with others as you have done so plainly here.
Hope this makes sense,
Scooterb