phenomcs: Effexor withdrawls after 3-4 months of being off? Please Help.

[phenomcs]

Sorry for long post, but answers, or anything would be appreciated. Thanks for reading

 

I was off Effexor for a good 3-4 months and felt fine, then started getting bad anxiety and panic attacks at night. I havn't been able to sleep the past week and the anxiety has worsened over the past month. I have had so many weird things happen to me since also. I have been in the E.R. because I think I'm having a heart attack or something, but when I get there I immediately start to feel better, they did ekg's and all was fine, yet I was still telling my self something is wrong.

 

After being off the Effexor I had 6 beers one night and smoked some weed and I ended up getting nasty cold sweats and I went white and lips went blue had to call ambulance and when they arrived my vitals were a little elevated, and I was starting to calm down a bit. I also fainted twice in about a 15minute period before the emt's arrived. I had EKG done at hospital and drug test done, nothing was laced and the ekg was fine...3 weeks after that I had a nasty dream I was in a stroller going down a steep hill and I hit the brakes and the stroller went into this ditch and I flew up in the air and before I could land I thought to my self oh this is going to hurt, so I tried to wake up before it happened but I didn't and when I landed in my dream I landed on my left side and I tried to wake up on impact and I felt all the damn pain associated with the landing the whole left side of my body was paralyzed for like 5-10 seconds, after I finally snapped out of it and realized I was dreaming I was fine, but of course woke up in a panic. I have tried smoke weed recently, but all weed does to me now is give me a panic attack if I try to smoke it, so I stopped that also.

 

I went to the doctor and he gave me 10mg of buspar and 10mg of lexapro (generic) and I took those yesterday and I had such sh*tty side effects about 6 hours in. The first 3-4 hours I felt great and thought wow, this might be what I needed I guess it's just anxiety after all, I'm not touching that **** again. My wife keeps telling me to just take it longer than a day and the sides go away eventually and I told her she just doesn't understand. After not taking the Lexapro or  Buspar in the last 24 hours I have felt alot better, however I still have the digestive sides it was causing me and stomach gurgling. I had no appetite earlier, but I think I can feel it coming back a bit and may be able to eat a little something. My anxiety isn't as bad as it was because after taking the med yesterday, when I did feel good and normal again I realized that it's anxiety that's been the cause of all these problems and that I may be able to just hold out a few more months and it will go away.

 

What should I do? I was thinking about making an appointment with a neurologist or maybe gastro doctor. I od'd on adderall like 8 years ago and ever since then I get random muscle twitches every day. I have learned to live with that, but it seems like the more anxious I get the more I notice them or the more they occur, not sure which one.

[Shep]

Hi, phenomcs.

 

Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants (SA).

 

A lot of members report a delayed withdrawal from antidepressants so getting hit 3 or 4 months after you come off is not unheard of. 

 

Your central nervous system (CNS) is likely destabilized from your withdrawal, as other drugs, including weed and alcohol, is affecting you differently and adversely. I'm glad you stopped smoking weed and drinking, as that will most likely complicate things.

 

I would advise not continuing on Lexapro and Buspar, but reinstating a small dose of Effexor.

 

Please read these threads for more information:

 

 

About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms 

 

Tips for tapering off Effexor (venlafaxine)

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

 

This links will give you information on what to expect during withdrawal:

 

What is withdrawal syndrome? 

 

The Windows and Waves Pattern of Stabilization

 

Brain Remodelling

 

 

Please place your drug history with dates and doses in your signature. Here's how:

 

Please put your withdrawal history in signature

 

Once we know how much Effexor you were taking and how quickly you reduced, we can provide more information.

 

This is your thread for updating your symptoms and asking plenty of questions. I'm glad you found us for information and support. 

 

[phenomcs]

I was on 150 mg of Effexor at the time and weened off fairly quickly, probably over the course of a month or a little more than that. I had the brain zaps and  a lot of irritability, but that went away over time.

 

I felt fine for a few months, then smoked some weed and drank and had a real bad episode (as mentioned in my first post), then started having panic attacks, so I stopped all that. I get off the buspar and my doctor advised me to take just the 10mg of Lexapro instead.

 

That seems to be working now for the first few days and I have had very minimal side effects and feel normal for the most part. I can feel my anxiety lingering a bit here and there, but no more panic attack episodes or anything like that. I am going to schedule another appointment with my doctor here within the next week or 2 and update him on how I am doing.

 

Are there any suggestions as far as maybe questions or thought I could ask him that I may not have already though of mentioning? I see you suggested not taking either or, maybe I could talk to my doctor and see what he thinks about the Effexor idea.

 

I told him the day I went in to see him the first time I thought maybe I was having some lingering withdrawls, but he didn't really respond or give any insight with the comment. If I can I want to get off this stuff, because I didn't really need the Effexor before and just thought it might help with being a little more people friendly, etc. I don't want to be dependent on this **** and deal with this all my life.

Edited December 20, 2016 by scallywag
paragraph breaks for readability

[phenomcs]

Well I just read a message from my doctor that he sent 3 days ago, that I didn't see until now. He said he wants to get me back on Effexor. I have already been taking the Lexapro for 3 days though. I guess I'll just switch. I messaged him back and let him know, so I guess I'll see what he says.

[scallywag]

It may be helpful for you to keep notes on paper of your symptoms for several weeks as you sort through this.  This post has a useful format for a daily log:

Take notes of doses and symptoms.

 

There are downloadable files (PDF & Excel) of a checklist in the first post of this topic:

Glenmullen’s withdrawal symptom list