Added: 11 months ago
From: johnofjack
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  • My aunt is on this medication and it's help her enough that she can actually function. I was on this medication and didn't have any side effects or withdrawals for that matter but I do believe I got lucky. My aunt was in a depression that was so unbareable that she couldn't function in her opinion she weighed her options and she rather suffer than go off because of the amazing change.

  • Been on 150mg for a month. I'm alcohol dependent and I got this "hangover" on Saturday. Started getting panic attacks, couldn't calm down, derealization, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue or drowsiness. Had to pull the drug box from my garbage can and start taking the stupid pill (gradually decreasing). Woke up rested in the morning (what the f). This drug is different peeps. It affects your personality, behaviour and emotions. Don't take it, it's treacherous. Doesn't even feel good so what's the point.

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  • I am so sorry about your experience, but SO thankful you posted this and are so open about it! My husband is going off of Effexor NOW. He acts like a crazy person, he feels very depressed, he cries for no reason, he says he wishes he were dead. I do not know what to do for him!!

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  • i was on it for 3 years prescribed by my GP for ptsd after the war. I shouldnt have it. It never did me any good and the brain zaps were like when a fly hits the blue light on one of those electric fly swats. I feel much better now that ive got off it.

  • brain zaps...lmao...that sucks i experienced that and it really really sucks

  • i've never cried harder and had more depressing thoughts in my entire life than the ONE day i forgot to take my effexor... thank god im off that now.

  • I hated effexor! I had mild social anxiety after a traumatic event in my life and was prescribed a couple other antidepressants before being on effexor. I literally felt as though I had all the life and emotions sucked out of me. I felt not happy, but empty. I started to not eat or sleep and going out didn't even seem at all appealing. I was on it for 2 months, and once I got off of it I started to feel better within a week. The numb feeling of the medicine had gone away.

  • Thanks for detailed account. Been through about 6 drugs & effects and emerg rm visit a yr ago with side effects. Your Dr is incompetent not to wean. Drug effectiveness comes & goes during depression. The suicidal depths are worse than drug side-effects. So getting help is important.

  • but that's a whole problem in it's self

  • in the middle of the night, will amplify said symptoms,

    when you do sleep, it will be for maybe 2-3 hours a night, and likelv you will have vivid and strange nightmares, it's been going on a week now, but I think a month will be needed for complete recovery.

    advice on things to help no1 don't be an idiot like me and quit straight, talk to a doc and taper.

    if you already have, loud cartoons, porn, relaxing music, anything distracting really helps! :P

    Diazepam can also really take the edge off

  • I quit 150mg straight, and yeah, the effects are pretty nightmarish.

    First, you won't be able to focus on anything, and if you do it will be particularly painful even moving your eyes will give you a migrane.

    then you will be constantly adgitated, unable to carry a line of thought and emotional, as in little things will piss you off bad.

    The depression will come back worse than you've ever had, often suicial

    this turture will continue all night as you can't sleep, and being alone in

  • man i just took double my dose and i feel like absolute shit. . i honestly admire you this must have been fucking hard . . these withdrawls sound like the effects of smoking too much pot haha its just not nice

  • Well no im scared i just got prescribes today im 16 Fuck my life

  • Hi i take just 75mg and i get eye and brain zaps bad if i miss one dose! Im coming off them after 2/3 years

  • I still go to work and everything but it's weird...... Your right for the sounds relied to brains zaps. Its like “ssswoop”, kind of relied to one big intense heart beat, like if a car just passed in your head.. and i have a bit difficulty to talk fast and right loll

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  • I stopped Effexor from 150 to zero and now i'm on the end of day #3

    Right now the “brainbuzz” i have is really more intense then day #2. Symptoms are that, and headache, low energy and i need to punch someone.. lol But i hang on and try to keep in mind that its gonna go away, its only a “miss my dose” withdrawal like i would have for any other stuff that i got my body use to. If i'm right, Its gonna be hell for 7 days and get better little by little after that. Gotta focus on positive things to

  • Thanks for sharing your experience.

  • That doctor had NO idea what he was doing...I can't believe that bullshit. I see that this was posted in March of this year, so I hope you are feeling much better by now. I'm going down right now myself, I was at 150, now I'm down to 112. I notice the difference but it's nothing like what you went through. This drug needs to be taken off the market for good...

  • When i was wirthdrawing my AD, it was really really slow. I can't believe that he'd ordered you to stop immediately and change the other dosesage to such a high degree... when it's one thing you learn about depression and the related drugs are, that things need its proper amount of time and you gotta grant it to yourself. Glad you made it through!

  • When I started taking Effexor (300mg/day) my depression was gone, but after a few weeks I got hypomania - not a very nice experience.

  • Your doc was so, so wrong. I'm so sorry. Wellbutrin is not even a 'normal' SSRI, and Effexor is not an SSRI . . . I'm so so sorry. People! Please check crazymeds.us for extra info if you doc messes with your meds . . .

  • i went empty on my pills on friday, didnt know this. now my brain is zapping as hell.. with the metallic every 10 second or so. i was sure some whisky would cure it but nooooo.. this is gonna be a hell of a night until the doctor opens tomorrow.. never felt this before

  • please don't knock the drug, it just doesn't work for you.

    its a wonder drug for me

  • Good God... My Dr. just prescribed this to me for my agoraphobia and anxiety/panic attacks.

    This sounds horrible. DO NOT WANT.

    I am so sorry this happened to you. Glad you are okay now. This honestly scares the hell out of me.

  • Doctors and patients need to be made WELL AWARE of the things that these drugs do to our bodies. Unfortunately, it's a profit driven industry & things like this are bound to happen over and over.

  • I am so sorry that you had to go through this bullshit. I have been tapering off of Effexor, with surprising success, for a few weeks. I am down to 75mg from 300mg, and the withdrawal symptoms are becoming unbearable (I was actually doing really well until now). I am terrified that I'm going to find out what brain zaps are.

  • ) people who had sprained things got to go before you when you were sitting in the waiting room for hours not being able to open your eyes or else surges of every symptom would erupt.

    4. that no one has commented you a comment of sympathy yet!!! this whole experience makes me very upset with humanity for the way you were treated.

    p.s. your description of the brain zaps was the most accurate i've heard, that's exactly how it is for me.

  • @yummmmmbles People have sent messages of sympathy, but most of them weren't posted as comments. It's okay, really. I just wanted the video posted as testimony to my experience getting off the drug. I've seen a number of pages and even entire sites presenting a very rosy picture of what it's like to go off Effexor, and I don't think it's very accurate.

  • @yummmmmbles (continued) My coworker, tapering off, suffered bouts of intense dizziness which would cause her to have to stop whatever she was doing and grab onto something until it passed; my friend (also tapering off) suffered the brain zaps for about two weeks.

  • @johnofjack That makes sense an it's a noble thing to do, but I'm glad that you've gotten messages. What happened over the course of the next week? I hear that it's supposed to get worse and worse every day...and I can't imagine it getting worse than what you experienced on day 2!

  • @yummmmmbles I had the brain zaps for about a week and a half and then that was it for withdrawal symptoms. I'm glad it's over.

  • @yummmmmbles i too am 35 and am dealing with trying to stop taking this. what a hassle. thanks for sharing with us.

  • ohhh my god. i am so sorry that you experienced this. i was gaping the entire time at the level of pain you experienced and the idiocy of everyone who was supposed to be helping you.

    i cannot believe:

    1. that that "doctor" told you to go off cold turkey.

    2. that he didn't call you back because it was his birthday. um...you were dying over there because of his stupidity and he knew this and chose not to call you back because it was his birthday? what a truly awful human being.

    3. that (continued

  • i keep putting off buing the shit.. i feel its done a good job with my depression.. problem is the withdrawl symptoms kick in after just a few hours of missing a dose.i'm currently 13 hrs late but its killing me.no open pharmacis right now, ill just have to brave it out. i generally try to watch what happens duuring the withdrawl 2 take my mind of the suffering. it.the lesson 4 me2o learn from this is not 2 procrustinate & get things done on time

  • i have been adicted to the maximum dose of effexor for 2 years, hardest thing i ever had to quit, anxiety and panic is crippling afterwards, ironic because thats why i started effexor in the first place, word of advice for everyone planning to quit, do not cold turkey!! you will get seizures which can become permanent, you have to taper off for a long time!!

  • @IcePhixia2000 What are you considering the max dose? Some people say 225mg is the max dose, but some people say 600mg is really the max. I used to be on 150 as well. Tried to convince ppl I wasn't depressed. no one would listen so I went off the 150 cold turkey. However my anxiety skyrocketed, panic attacks several times a day&at night. I've also had a really bad vomit phobia almost my entire life. Currently I go to an anxiety clinic that has confirmed my suspicions that I have Panic Disorder..

  • @IcePhixia2000 I've just started going there to get treated for PD in combination with the phobia. The fact that when I'd skip this med for like 3 days, my anxiety would skyrocket, I'd take another one before it got any worse, then it'd make me throw up -- ok if you have PD+the phobia I have, you do not want constant panic attacks+nausea&vomiting! lol. Last fall I went back on Effexor and I'm now on 300mg/day-been@that dose for about a year now. I don't want to be on this damn drug for the rest

  • @IcePhixia2000 of my life, I've tried going off it twice (first time though, tapered over 5 months! relapsed ~1-2mos later), and I don't want that shit happening again. Hopefully if I get the PD/phobia issues treated I can go off it for good. lol I can go into a LOT more detail about this than I have already, but I'm already spamming LOL. I also had like a libido rebound effect LMAO that also exacerbates panic... :/ but right now I pretty much need this med to function! trying to stop benzos...

  • I've been off of Effexor the past 4 days b/c i keep forgetting to pick it up at the pharmacy (and they close at 9pm). I'm a college student and I have to walk to the pharmacy, so it's rather inconvenient for me to do so. Unfortunately, I'm dealing with major withdrawal symptoms but none of the nausea that a lot of people describe. Thanks for your video.

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