success ☼ Hudgens's story

[Hudgens]

Only 2 hours of sleep last night, but got some work done today and went to see Lone Suvivor with my nephew and a few of his friends-great movie.

No withdrawal symptoms other than the insomnia, 5th day since latest drop, but whose counting?

[Hudgens]

Another good day, slept much better last night, too. Dropped a couple of pounds this week.

[mammaP]

That's great Hudgens. I'm really  happy for you. Hope it continues 

[Hudgens]

Thanks, so far so good.

Took very long time to fall to asleep last night, but then slept 5 hours altogether. No problems today. Feeling fine at bedtime. My ear noise is noticeably worse last 3 days but it did that for a while last drop, too.

[Lexy]

You are coming in to home base. Congrats!

[alex]

GOOD!!!

[Hudgens]

Day 7 since drop, only 2 hrs sleep last night. Anxiety beginning early evening. Just feeling exhausted right now and a little fluish. Not too bad, just worse than usual. Expected.  

[Hudgens]

Not much sleep again. But felt fine until about 3PM when I had moderate anxiety for a few hours. OK rest of evening and at now bedtime.

[Hudgens]

Only about a hour and a half of sleep last night, so insomnia's getting worse.

9th day since drop. Got things done, but had to take a nap this afternoon.

Very tired at bedtime.

Some anxiety but not as much as yesterday.

3 nights of poor sleep is unusual for me. I'll probably sleep better tonight.

Things should be stabilizing soon.

[Hudgens]

I did sleep better last night, maybe 4 hours. No anxiety today. Feeling pretty good in general.

[Sweetcreature]

Great news!

[Hudgens]

Slept better last night, although intermitantly, and not really any trouble today or yesterday.

[Lexy]

Hope to one day be where you are at too.

Unfortunately I am still going through this 24/7(headaches, vertigo, mood swings). Did you ever feel any chest pains.?

Heart palpitations? I am 18 but scares me they are not panic attacks, believe me I've had those, I can tell this is different.

 

Also I'm on the generic immediate release. You erased your sig but were you ever on generic immediate or were you always on the XR?

[Hudgens]

I switched to generic immediate release before beginning my tapper over 3 years ago.

If the chest pains (which I do get) are sharp or stinging or anything other than a heaviness, pressure, vise-like feeling, than it's 100% anxiety, stress or muscle injury. The pain can even be bad enough to bring you to your knees, but unless it's a crushing kind'a feeling, it's not a heart attack or even a warning sign. You're under a lot of stress

from withdrawal symptoms, so that's most likely what's causing your chest pains, if, as I said, they don't feel like a heavy pressure or something similar. I'm intentionally over explaining this to make sure you get the distinction here.

Sudden stinging, sharp temporary chest pain= harmless; any kind of long lasting pessure, crushing, or vice-like chest pain=Bad.

 

How long have you had round the clock symptoms?

[Lexy]

I've had the vertigo for almost a month. I experienced headaches which started in August and had them nonstop till late noveember.

 

My Mom gave me a over the counter acid reflux med which seems to have help chest pain.

 

Contemplating switching to brand name effexor due to all these symptoms. I am not sure if they are wds or side effects. I've read many people's posts in which they say the generic is known to have more side effects than the brand name but it only comes in XR not immediate release.

[Altostrata]

Lexy, please look at your Intro topic -- I need your answer to my question.

[Hudgens]

Well, at least you know that the chest pain is acid reflux.

Fortunately I had no trouble switching from XR to generic Effexor.

 

I'd stay on the generic, your symptoms are probably withdrawal. Counting beads, you can obviously only go down to 1 bead before getting off. But 1 bead can be as much as 1/4 mg. With generic you can go down much further and therefore have a potentially much softer landing, especially if you make your own liquid. Unfortunately I reacted badly to the liquid, but have done fine so far with my own method of "erasing"

the pill on sandpaper, then using a sort of callipers to measure the dose each time. More recently, the dose has gotten so miniscule, though, I've just had to crush the pill into powder and measure each dose by eye. I keep a standard (plus a back up standard) which I use each time for a month and a half to two months. I occaisionally check to see about how much I'm taking by crushing half a generic and dividing that pile in half, then that one in half, again and again until I get to what looks to be my current ammount. Sounds like an inaccurate way of measuring all round, but I get pretty consistent results. Anyway, I think I'll be able to see when the ammount is so small that I can probably do without the drug anymore. The ammount I'm at now is much smaller than the smallest bead I can find in any capsule of my old XR prescription. The next drop or two, I'll be able to literally count the grains of the powder, and I can't imagine I'll need to go any lower than that.

 

By the way, I've gone through the headaches and the virtigo and 50 other withdrawal symptoms, and just when I think I've had them all, a brand new one pops up. The nervous system is infinitely creative it seems.

 

BUT things do get better. I went through the "will I ever feel normal again" thing and now I feel normal again. Even with the occaisonal withdrawal symptom, I feel normal--my old self--most of the time and am fully functional in every day terms. In an important way I feel as though I'm already through the ordeal-even though reason tells me I'm not. Fortunately how you feel is everything, both good and bad, when going through this very unique experience.

 

There isn't anyone who cannot get through this. You will get through this. I was an utter mess, and now I'm not.

[Lexy]

Thanks for your words of encouragement.

 

I hope you have a soft landing.

[Hudgens]

Did get much sleep last night, so what else is new? I still got quite a bit done today but now I'm all done in.

Anyway, no real withdrawal symptoms today.

[Hudgens]

A better night's sleep last night, really needed it. Then, a good day. Exercised stayed away from junk food.

[Hudgens]

Slept between 6-7 hours last night, no withdrawal symptoms today. Lost 2 pounds this week.

[alex]

Great news!!

Keep us updated.

At 18 months off, I'm struggling with awful broken sleep.Symptoms during the day have gotten better though.

Is there hope???

 

Hugs, A.

[Hudgens]

I think there's more than hope.

 

I felt perfectly normal all day, although I didn't sleep well last night.

I've had this feeling for a long time that the insomnia would be the last withdrawal symptom to

lift.

 

Tomorrow is 3 weeks since my last drop, that means roughly 3 weeks to go before my next and most likely

final drop. I may go one more after that-an ultra small final dose, but I won't know until I get there.

I just don't want to screw things up having waited so long, 3 years and 2 months now.

 

An important note: The suffering along the way was almost unbelievable, but it seems so forgetable as soon as you begin to leave it behind. There may be more of it before I'm through-even in the post tappering period, but I think that it's an important thing for others to know, at least in my case-that all the bad stuff is easy to let go of. That is, I don't think the memories of it poisons life after the return to normality.

 

[alex]

I think there's more than hope. I felt perfectly normal all day, although I didn't sleep well last night. I've had this feeling for a long time that the insomnia would be the last withdrawal symptom to lift.

 

I believe that also.

Wonderful post Benz.

Thank you for been there for us.

 

Hugs from CR, A.

[Hudgens]

5-6 hours sleep last night. Felt fine all day. Some anxiety late evening. Manageable.

[Hudgens]

No anxiety today, or anything else bad. Closing in on one month since latest drop.

[alex]

GOOD!!

[Hudgens]

2-3 hours of sleep last 3 nights, starting to get to me. Very irritable and lightheaded and legs feel heavy and clumsy. It's not usual for me to have more than 2 bad nights in a row, hoping for better tonight. Bought some ear plugs which work very well. Made the mistake this morning of two cups of coffee so that I could get some work done-too little sleep really effects the judgement.

No other withdrawal symptoms other than these.

[lespaul19]

do you normally drink coffee? im scared to try any caffiene after i drank a soda and had insomnia for the next 3 days a month into my reinstatement.
hopefully you sleep better tonight.

[Hudgens]

I can get away with one cup of instant in the morning. I slept 6-7 hours last night with the foam ear plugs. The problem with this is that I usually end up with an ear infection, sooner or later. Still, I'd rather have that than no sleep. I'm being careful this time to use new plugs each night.

[Hudgens]

4 hrs of sleep last night, no wd's today with the one exception of a few hours of lower mood than usual-OK at bedtime.

[Hudgens]

Only 3 hrs sleep last night, but got lots done today. Tinnitus very loud in evening. No other withdrawal symptoms, though. Tomorrow is one month since last drop.

[Hudgens]

3-4 hours of sleep last night, accomplished a good amount of work, but anxiety and an overall sick kind of feeling began late day and is only a little better at bedtime. The insomnia could be at the bottom of it all, but it's withdrawal in any case, and the important thing is to handle it the right way so as to not add to it.

[Hudgens]

Slept better last night, felt good all day until last hour or so-anxiety, moderate. Worked all day.

[Hudgens]

Another not too bad sleep last night. Followed by a pretty good day.

[alex]

GOOD!!!