Hi

I'm so bored so I thought I would ask you all about something that's going on with me over the last couple of days.

Just wondering if anyone here is currently or has ever come off of the drug Effexor, and what your experiences were with it.

I had been on Effexor since January sometime, and gradually developed a tremor in my hand, sensations of water trickling down my legs, then into the hands, then my eyes would bounce around when I had them closed (which was fun) unless you wanted to actually sleep! After seeing a neurologist, he suggested coming off of the Effexor before having further tests incase they were just side effects of the drug.

So about 2 weeks ago my GP told me how to ween off of the drug, dropping doses over X amount of days ... yadda yadda She said I could go as slow or as fast as I felt comfortable doing and said that the withdrawl was like a painful violent flu, so if I were to experience that, I should go back to the last dose I was on and take it a little longer. Needless to say I went off fast (I never wanted to be on them in the first place and I don't like being on meds of any sort because of what they turned my mother into - that's another story!) and finished my last dose after only 8 days. I have been off the Effexor for 5 days now - no flu like symptoms have come up. But a couple of days ago I started to get nasty/vivid dreams, I'm getting only 3-4 hours sleep because I feel wired all the time, I'm easily aggitated and irritable (as you may have noticed last week lol). I also have strange jolts in my body and head ... like electricity but not painful or anything. *I sleep with ear plugs in thanks to my loving partner lol* and when I get one of these jolts I literally hear a zap in my head like one of those bug zapper things!

It's not the flu by any means .. but definately new to me since coming off of the drug. Has anyone else experienced this sort of thing .. could it be withdrawl? If it is I'll just ride it out because it's better than not being able to write or hold a fork because of the tremors! If this is withdrawl I'm a little annoyed that both my GP and P weren't a little more informative about what to expect!

I see my GP in a week to talk about how my weening is going (I think she expected me to still be in the process when I see her), so if this is still going on I'll talk to her about it then .. but for the sake of some conversation I thought I would ask you about it in the meantime What are cyber friends for ....

Thanks,

Holly

Holly,
I have never taken the named antidepressant but I stopped taking on when I began having hand tremors. After taking a different RX for more than I year, I began to wean off of it and began having some of the symptoms you mention. I read they were common withdrawal symptoms. I resumed the meds and weaned off at a much s l o w e r pace. This seemed to help. Occasionally, I get the feeling of electrical pulses through my head and worried that an "alter" was trying to find its way out (of which I have never been diagnosed) but anyway, they seem to be less now after 2 weeks of no meds. I was simmering an idea of how to step in the water here when I found your entry. I would like to learn how to quote but have no yet figured that out. If you can give me some pointers, I would like that very much.
DR

Hi DR

Welcome!

I'm figuratively glad that you have experienced similar things as I have. I feel better knowing that I'm not just going insane. Though as I hear the zapping in my head, I laugh out loud because I too have thought that some beast is lurking within and is trying to get out. LMAO

About the quote .. are you looking to add a quote to the bottom of your note (like a signature), or do you mean copying something a person says, into your note?

I'll tell you both things JIC.

SIGNATURE .. In the top left side of your screen you will see a menu .. GO, NEW, FIND etc.
Click GO, then select PERSONAL ZONE, select PROFILE. In profile screen in the top right it will say VIEW/EDIT PROFILE. Click that and scroll down the page to where it says SIGNATURE. Enter your signature (or famous quote) there and you will be done.

QUOTE ... I cut/copy a comment from the post of someone I want to quote and then in the reply window (that you write your post in) you will see " " a set of quotation marks in the menu. Click that and on your reply screen will come up QUOTE /QUOTE with [ ] around them. Paste the stuff you cut or copied between them and that is what will come up as a QUOTE

quote:

I would like to learn how to quote but have no yet figured that out. If you can give me some pointers, I would like that very much.

TADAAAA

I hope it works for you, and thanks again for letting me know that this also happens/ed to you.

Holly

Hi Holly,

I take Lexapro or Celexa off and on, and so I have experienced some similar withdrawal symptoms. I've had vivid dreams, irritability, headaches, and the electricity jolts (I thought I was the only one!). If you find out what the electricity jolts are, please share with us because I've wondered but have never asked. I get those sometimes even when I'm not on meds or weening off of them. They last for a few days and will then go away, and usually when I am stressed.

You could always take an effexor now to see if it minimizes your symptoms. Did you ween at all or just stop abruptly?

OW

Holly,

Thank you for showing me the ropes. As you can see, I found both tips helpful.

[QUOTE] [TADAAAA I hope it works for you]

OW,

My "episodes" last only a second and they come and go. I think stress is a contributing factor. Sharing your experience helps normalize these feelings for me.

DR

Holly,

Whoa...How come the quote I posted did not post inside two lines?

DR

quote:

[QUOTE] [TADAAAA I hope it works for you]

HI DR

I just did something that I haven't done before I highlighted your attempted quote from your message to me, THEN I hit reply .. and the quote was already in the reply window ready to go. So now we both know something new!!!

As for how you tried to quote .. it looks like you just put your 'paste' in the wrong place. When you hit the quote thingy in teh menu of the reply window .. you will see something like {quote} {/quote} come up (except instead of {'s it will have ]'s). so what you want to do is 'paste' the words you want quoted right between the 'words' quote .. not actually between the quotes .. if that makes sence. EX: {QUOTE} HollyBaby0 is a nut job! {/QUOTE} .. do you see what I mean? Try it again

Holly

Hi Holly...

I've changed AD's many times...and never really weaned myself off any of them. I just quit and start another...or just quit. I'm don't pay much attention to the side effects but I do have "other" factors that keep me from being able to sort it all out. *smirk*
Now with the benzo's that's a different deal there. The schedule for me to withdraw from the amount of Xanax I was on was spread out over 18 months. YIKES!!!
I didn't end up doing it that way...I ended up having a surgery that put me in a coma for a week and that effectively withdrew me from all medications. The coma sucked...but it was sure an easy way to withdraw from all medication.

Right now...I am not on an AD. I have been considering it, but most of them increase my potential for migraines so it's a difficult balancing act.

I do know that the increase in your vivid dreams is most likely related to your withdrawl. It will get better, keep in mind it could be a good opportunity to take a good look at those dreams and even keep a dream journal.

I've always had the electrical jolt aberration. I think it's just a mind/body disrhythmia, when the mind sleeps before the body is relaxed (or the other way around) they are out of sync...and when they sync up...the result is an electrical discharge of sorts. I dunno...just my thought on it.

OH...and you might talk to your "loving" partner about a sleep disorders clinic. If snoring is keeping you awake and is excessive, she may have a sleep apnea and may benefit from treatment for that. It can be a very serious problem.

SD

Hi OW

I've been reading ALL day about these "Brain Zaps/Electric Shock Sensations". I can tell you that I'm getting more and more annoyed with my GP for not telling me about other withdrawl symptoms to expect besides 'flu like' I'm pretty sure I've never had buzzing in my head with the flu. Apparently there is a name for these symptoms we are having "Antidepressant Discontinuation Syndrome". Go figure!

Last week, when I told my P I was coming off of the Effexor I asked her how long before it gets out of your system. She said she could look for specifics, but guessed (which I said I was okay with) at 2 weeks. So hopefully this goes away in the next week. CRAZY CRAZY STUFF! She also only told me about the Flu-Like symptoms.

You and D.R mentioned that when you feel stress you have the symptoms too? That's interesting. Something I found today in my readings sort of confirms what you say. I copied it here ...

Anxiety symptoms - Electric Shock sensation/feelings
You feel like your body (or any part of) has just been jolted or electrified. It also may feel like a sharp and quick tremor or vibration. This can happen at any time and sometimes it is more common when trying to relax,go to sleep, or during stressful periods. It also may feel like a head buzz or tremor. It can also be accompanied by prickly sensations throughout the body. It may be infrequent or frequent in occurrence.

quote:

OW wrote: You could always take an effexor now to see if it minimizes your symptoms. Did you ween at all or just stop abruptly?

I was at 150, so I went down to 112 for 4 days, 75 for 3 days, and 35 for 2 days. I didn't feel 'sick' so I kept on track. Both Dr.s said I would feel VERY ill if I came off too fast, so if I started to feel sick - to go back on the previous dose for a few more days. I was never sick .. it was about 3 days after that I started feeling the symptoms I described earlier. So I did wean (ween sp?) off some quickly (because I needed the use of my hands lol). So your other question about going back on to see if they stop .. NO WAY! I'll wait it out a couple of weeks and see what happens before I do that .. I like being able to use my hands again. LOL (and that's not even 100% yet).

I'm scared to even consider getting off of the Wellbutrin (it falls into the same category as Effexor) .. I've been on that almost a year now. No rush to get off of that seeing as it has never caused any side effects for me.

Okay, I thing that's enough writing for one evening!

Thaks for sharing your experiences with me

Holly

Hi SD

LOL I read your comment about my partner's snoring. With all of the hours I lay awake at night I've never heard her breathing skip a beat so I don't think she has sleep apnea. Besides, I'd rather wear earplugs at night than have to roll over to her in a mask and sounding like Darth Vader LOL Talk about nightmares!! LMAO

What kind of surgery did you have that put you in a coma!? Sorry, you don't have to answer that .. I was just thinking I could get past these symptoms AND lose a few lbs if I went into a coma for a week or two! LOL

I think that if I didn't have so many commitments this past week (where I couldn't have taken the chance on having 'flu-like' symptoms), I would have just stopped too and taken my chances. I hate taking drugs so much so that I've had a few surgeries and been given scrips for pain meds, and never filled them. But I guess when you can't stop crying and your mind continually races a hundred miles and hour, you'll take anything to make it stop ~ and that's how I got here .. dealing with withdrawl and having bugs being zapped in my head LOL. I'm not suffering from the symptoms I'm experiencing, they are just more annoying than anything, especially the insomnia .. OMG there are only so many suduko pages to do, video games to be played and Psychcafe posts one can do in a continuous 24 hour never ending period!!

quote:

I've always had the electrical jolt aberration. I think it's just a mind/body disrhythmia, when the mind sleeps before the body is relaxed (or the other way around) they are out of sync...and when they sync up...the result is an electrical discharge of sorts. I dunno...just my thought on it.

This is interesting - thanks for your thoughts. I hope I won't have to always have the jolts and hear the zaps, it would really get annoying!

Good idea on the dreams .. I'm going to start that tonight.


Thanks for your comments! Good Night

Holly

quote:

Try it again Smiler

Yea! It worked. Thanks Holly for your help...again.

DR

quote:

I'd rather wear earplugs at night than have to roll over to her in a mask and sounding like Darth Vader LOL Talk about nightmares!! LMAO

OMG....that's too funny. But I know exactly what you mean. I have sleep apnea and my S.O. has gotten so used to the sound that she can't sleep without it anymore. So...whether or not I am in bed...she runs the machine for the white noise. LOL....
I have an MP3 download suggestion for you. It's extremely hypnotic and very useful for sleeping. It's called Structures from Silence....by Steve Roach. The track is 28 minutes long and well worth the download. We set it to repeat play all night long and it works great. It has been helpful to everyone I've ever suggested it to. However...it doesn't always work for me. Currently...I am sleeping better @ about 6-7 hours a night or day...whatever. But when I started posting here...I was on a 8 month run of sleeping less than 3-4 hours a night, frequently going up to 72 hours without any sleep. It got so bad that my Dr. put me on an anti-psychotic. OK...that knocked me out...BAD!!! And OMG...what a hangover. I'm not doing that anymore (except when I'm highly agitated/activated)...but it did help break me out of the insomnia cycle.

quote:

What kind of surgery did you have that put you in a coma!? Sorry, you don't have to answer that .. I was just thinking I could get past these symptoms AND lose a few lbs if I went into a coma for a week or two! LOL

I did a gastric bypass...needed to do it, to make the liver transplant list. I have HCV (Hep C) so my liver is not in great shape. Well...the surgery was complicated and high risk for me and I knew it, but I did it anyway. I had post surgical complications and bled out....BADLY!!! YIKES...In the two days, before I went back into surgery, I went through 30 units of blood. They couldn't pump it in as fast as I was losing it.
My friends and family were totally freaked out. They actually wanted to kill me...once they knew I wasn't going to die! Isn't life ironic? LOL... I, of course, was oblivious to most of it. I do have some weird coma memories.....another long story there. *chuckling*
Anyway...after they repaired the leak I improved pretty rapidly, I'm pretty resilient. But now...I need another surgery to repair the hernia that developed as a result of the double surgery week. It's a pretty simple procedure...but I am feeling a bit freaky about it. I also need to have my gallbladder taken out...which should have been done with the bypass. Complications prevented that from happening as planned. I hope they can do it with the hernia repair. I have lost a ton of weight...(well...not literally a ton) But I've lost about 120 pounds. I still need to lose another 50 before they will put me on the transplant list, but this hernia deal is making losing that weight very complicated.

So...that's my (physical) disaster story...all things considered...I'm pretty lucky. I just hope my luck holds. *keeping my fingers crossed* Sometimes I wonder if doing all this therapy is going to be wasted. What good is mental health when your body fails you? Hmmmm......

SD

holly:

my ex was on about 300mg of effexor. there were a few times when she couldn't take it and it *always* ended badly. she would have very vivid nightmares, jolt in her sleep, wake up in cold sweats, and would generally be in an extremely agitated state. she weened herself down to about 120mg and that's what she was on when we broke up. i don't know if she ever finally got off it or what, but what you describe sounds similar to what she went through when she had to skip a day without it. i've had drug problems and have known people w/ major drug problems and i wouldn't wish effexor on my worst enemy.

the only anti-depressant i've ever taken was zoloft (which is an SSRI as opposed to effexor, which is an SNRI). i took it once when i was 18 and then when i was 24 (i'm 28 now). the first time it gave me some gnarly side-effects (debilitating had-to-basically-live-in-the-bathroom nausea, tremors, etc), but the second time, when i was 24, it gave me something that would change my life: my first, full-blown bout of mania. i had been totally depressed for months, then was put on zoloft, then felt infinitely, inexplicably better. i moved to a different city in a different part of the country where i knew no one, was able to get a job and a place to stay within a week, went on tons of dates, had a lot of sex, made a lot of friends, slept next to nothing, had seemingly endless amounts of energy, worked on a friggin' documentary, lost about 30lbs, and felt like *anything* was possible. of course, i had no idea i had bipolar disorder. i didn't really know what bipolar even *was*; i just thought i had depression w/ anxiety. until last year, i didn't know that SSRIs could trigger mania. i saw my first ever psychiatrist last year and he sort of put it all together for me. then he put me on a low dose of lamictal which worked very well in stabilizing my moods, but it gave me a serious, but interesting side-effect: it eroded my short-term memory. if you've seen the movie memento, then you have an idea of what i'm talking about; haha, it wasn't THAT bad, of course, but my computer was covered in post-it notes reminding me to do crap. stuff you usually take for granted. and talking was even a problem because i would totally forget what i was saying mid-sentence. i'm not on lamictal anymore, but i still haven't completely regained my short-term memory. it's still a bit of an issue, although not as bad as it once was. for example, i forget that i even write posts here! summer used to send me PMs and that would remind me to come back to the forum; otherwise, i'd probably forget. it sucks because i used to have a really, really good short-term memory, too.

anyway, pharmies are weird and not things to be taken lightly. the only pharmie i've ever used that gave me no side-effects was ativan. mmmmm, ativan. sweet, sweet ativan. :P

SD!!

How are ya woman?! Sleep .. sleep is funny! I used to need 7-8 hours but this withdrawl stuff is really cutting that down. I get about 3hrs a night right now. But I don't feel tired at all during the day. I'm just super wired, which is funny too. Even though I have a very short fuze (because of the drug), I laugh at the stupidest things! Last night I was laying in bed at 2am (which sucked because I had to work at a marathon this morning for 8am) reading and there was an intro to a chapter that said something about being psychoanalitical (CG ... sorry if I spelt {is spelt a word - now you have me paranoid woman!} that wrong ) I laughed my head off because the word was so bloody funny at the time.

Gastric Bypass .. I would do that if I could afford it. Well maybe not now - but before for sure. How fast did you lose the 120lbs? I've lost 60 since September (I needed to turn 40 to realize that I needed to do something before I ate myself into an early grave), I just need to lose another 50 to be where I want to be. But I worked my freakin ass off 2-3 hours at the gym a day (I was on stres leave from work so had LOTS of free time)and eating meals off of a salad plate (the only way to control portions for me). Now I'm addicted to the gym and to boxing, and I feel better than ever! You must feel great (other than your liver, hernia and gallbladder)! The only crappy part of losing weight is having to keep getting mew clothes, and getting rid of things you hardly had a chance to wear! LOL

One thing I've learnt is that therapy is never a waste I won't tell my P that, she'll think I'm cured and kick me to the curb! LMAO technically if thats the case, mental health is useless to worry about whether your health is bad or not .. I mean really! A person could get hit by a bus, a penny from heaven (or the 13th floor of a highrise) could fall on your head, a psychotic werewolf could attack you .. tomorrow. LMAO Keep your eyes open out there!

Well tata, off to the next post

ME

Hi PM ..

I don't think we've chatted before(or maybe we have, and I forgot!) so I'll say: Hi and welcome to CyberCafe

Thanks for your note.

I'm asking myself .. did you break up because she had turned into a freak from the withdrawl symptoms? I feel like a freak .. especially when I start laughing at things I probably shouldn't be, or when I'm wanting to tear the head off of someone that stops in front of me at the grocery store. I'm normally just a moody BI--H, so this laughing stuff is really throwing me for a loop and my spouse might leave me because she doesn't deal well with change! Okay - I'm officially a freak!

Thanks for your story. Sounds like you had a pretty hairy time (ups n' downs) with the Zoloft. Drugs are scary things .. I've had enough of a hard time dealing with forks/pens and knives jiggling or flipping out of my hands (no one wanted to sit at the table with me for some reason!), I can't imagine losing any short-term memory due to a scrip. YIKES It would be kind of good though ..like I could be nasty to someone .. here for example .. and be able to say "What, what did I say" and mean it! LMAO

Thanks again for your note,
Be Well!

Holly