Amber84: Effexor I need your help

[Amber84]

Topic title:  Effexor I need your help asap

 

I was on effexor 6 years and Gott off for 4 months and was great. Dr gave me prednisone for a chest infection. I couldn’t sleep, had panic attacks, anxiety bad. Doctors put me back on effexor 7 weeks ago. Cut down to 17mg because it’s making me really sick.

i need to get off it or it will kill me basically. I’ve lost to much weight.

 

how do I get off now? 

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by ChessieCat
added topic title

[Amber84]

I need help getting off Effexor! It’s killing me!

 

Hi I need help getting off effecor. I’ve been on it. 6 years and got off without withdrawals.

Then crashed when I had prednisone. I couldn’t sleep, had panic attacks, anxiety and paranoia.

 

dr put me on quertiapine and effexor.

i got off quertiapine but effexor is going to be the death of me.

I haven’t felt stable once.

I’m on 14mg roughly and it’s killing me.

i feel like my insides are being ripped out, I can’t sleep, I’ve lost weight, I’m anxious.. depressed. 
my head shakes at night and my heart pounds. 
 

how do I get off this l? Can I switch to something less activating? Will it help stop withdrawals? What can I do to ease my suffering?

 

Edited August 18, 2022 by ChessieCat
added Intro topic title before merging with intro topic

[Onmyway]

Hi @Amber84

welcome to SA. 

 

Did these symptoms start with effexor or with the prednisone or when you tried to come off of the effexor?

If they started with the effexor then why didn't you stop sooner? 

 

As you lower your dose do your symptoms get better or worse? 

 

You have having an adverse drug reaction to effexor. The problem is that if you have been on a drug for over a month (in general) we recommend a slow taper - no more than 10% of your previous dose every 4 weeks. That means 2-3 years of tapering. 

 

You have been tapering fast and it is not clear which is causing your issues - the withdrawal or the adverse drug effects. 

 

You may want to cut down on the vitamin D unless you have a deficiency  - it is an activating vitamin. While sleep is an issue, I would recommend not taking sleep aids other than melatonin. 

 

Looks like because of your previous withdrawal (even if uneventful), your brain has become sensitive to psychoactive drugs and steroids can have MH side effects so they have set you off. Steroids can cause similar symptoms in people who have never taken psych drugs as well. It was a mistake by your doc to treat it with an AD as it has nothing to do with ADs or serotonin. Because your nervous system is now sensitized the introduction of effexor made you even worse. When that happened s/he should have taken you off immediately but didn't and now you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Because of the sensitive nervous system these extra sleep drugs/antihistamines may be also making things worse. You can try melatonin instead (there is a thread on it in the symptoms section if you want to read more). Alcohol/pot/street drugs can also make things worse with a sensitive nervous system. Many of our members find that alcohol sets them back pretty badly even late in tapering/withdrawal. 

 

If lowering your dose is making you feel better you may choose to lower fast (the way you are doing now) but it is also possible that this fast lowering of your dose is causing these effects - Adverse drug reactions and withdrawal symptoms are very similar. In the end it is up to you what risk you want to take - the risk of withdrawal or the ADRs. 

 

 

 

Have a look at the above and see if that describes your situation well. 

I am so sorry you are going through this, 

OMW

Edited August 25, 2022 by Onmyway

[Amber84]

Thank you, I’m off it again but I don’t feel mentally great. Depression and anxiety are still there. I feel better being off the effexor.  But when I’m not sleeping I feel really bad. I’ve only been taking melatonin now.

 

Did these symptoms start with effexor or with the prednisone or when you tried to come off of the effexor?
 

I felt great to I took the prednisone and then things started getting weird for me. I got paranoid, anxiety, depressed max Insomina, panic attacks, suicidal.. 

but up to that point I felt ok. I got a little anxiety when my chest hurt and was worried about it. But nothing extreme. 

 

 

If they started with the effexor then why didn't you stop sooner? I never felt these on the effexor the first time. I dunno even why I stayed on it 6 years. I guess I felt fine and never thought about it.  My mental health wasn’t that bad before it to be honest. Had a relationship issues and the doctor knew how to solve it for both me and the kids dad with antidepressants.. said it would be easy coming off. 6 years passed quick.

 

2nd time going back on to try to fix myself I have every side effects and the the doctors were like it’s normal, once you get use to it most side effects will go.. keep pushing through..  for 7 weeks. But 

 

As you lower your dose do your symptoms get better or worse? When I was lowering and the hole time I felt like crap really. Once I got off this time I felt a lot better but still I don’t feel great and it worries me. 

 

I also have the worst gerd I’ve ever had. I had this since prednisone but it has just kinder got worse and worse. I was on nexium for it and it helped a little and I started sleeping better but I got off it because I’m worried about long term side effects and I need to test for hpylori. 
 

im just scared because I’ve never been this sick, never had sleep issues, never had relfux and now I have both of those. Having both of those really is effecting my mental health and well-being because if I don’t sleep I just feel like crap the next day, I feel uncertain of life or how bad my mental health will get without sleep. 
then with my gut I dunno what damage it will do. It’s causing me a lot of pain so it scares me. 
 

the kids dad has also been in zoloft 6 years and I’m scared for him. If anything I worry so much because I don’t want him going through hell of getting off them. We were never warned of this. The doctor sold us a fairytale of how easy it is to get off “ taper a few weeks and you’ll be fine “ 

now I carry such extreme guilt and stress because I dunno why we both agreed to it. Im scared of him suffering   We have four kids so I keep wondering how I’ll get though this hell to watch them grow up.. if I’ll ever be normal again, who will they have if something happens to me and if I got worse.. if something happens to there dad or he’s struggling then what?

 

we weren’t that bad we needed meds now I know what mental health issues are.