bg, how did you know your blood pressure went up? could you feel it? or did a dr. test it?

yes, i went cold turkey off effexor and it nearly killed me. we will see, i am up for three months of glory though, i need something!! so you like lexapro? as much as the good times on pristiq?

will read on it, this is the fourth try, she said she'd do effexor if this didn't work, since i know i can do that one.

i have got to keep pushing through, but, i do think there could be a medical help for me. with my family history, chemical issues certainly ring true...geeezz!!

thanks blanket girl, glad you found something to stay on. the stories on the internet can really scare you!!

prozac really wired me up...no sleep, wellbutrin has much the same effect, not as wired, but sleep issues....

onward! thanks, jill

hi jill,

I've never taken that particular AD, and in general, ADs make me feel emotionally flat, which is a feeling I really don't like.

But I did want to comment on your comment about crying really easily in therapy. This is just my own personal experience, but for me, being able to cry - in therapy or not - is a gift. For me, it's proof that I'm feeling something, and I'm feeling it so much that I'm having a physical response to it, as opposed to keeping it locked inside where it can do who-knows-what all to you.

What's the nature of your symptoms? Is it sadness, or is it something altogether different?

Either way, I hope it works out for you.

Russ

This is interesting. I do take Pristiq. And I also take medication that helps with HBP. It never ocurred to me or my Dr. apparently that this could be an adverse event with the AD -- I may think about going off it now.

My problem with most ADs is that I would swear they don't do anything for me.

The only one I had a severe reaction to was Cymbalta. OMG. I felt so sick and dizzy, strange in the head - not sure how to describe it. I stopped it after 3 days.

anyone try effexor? that is what i took for years with no problems, but p thinks this 'new and improved' version should be tried, although if it doesn't 'work' she'll put me on effexor.

questions?

anyone have better luck (or any) on effexor?

does pristiq tend to make you sleepy? in other words, should i take it at night? seemed it made me yawn a bunch, and i am having such sleep issues i don't want an activator taken at night.

thanks, as of yet, i am holding off on it til i get the wellbutrin out of my system and my sleep under control.

thanks, jill

Hi Jill -
Forum stalker here, but figured I would weigh in. I have been on Effexor for about 2 months now with no relief of symptoms. My P kept increasing the dose but nothing. It is making my hair fall out in massive amounts. Going bald wasn't worth it for me. Am have a heck of a time getting off of it too. Haven't tried Pristiq but the way I am plowing through these meds, I am sure I will get to it sooner rather than later. Similar to you and others, I have yet to find something to offer any real relief. - FD

Oh and I can add that I am currently on Wellbutrin as well with relief other than an increase in energy, but it just makes me feel crazy viligant rather than normal and productive.

ok, only on day four, but i feel really 'dumb'. like i can't contain a thought in my head. and a bit 'rapid firing' in my thoughts, kind of like this stuff is making me even more ADD than before. or, it could just be me.

dang, i had such a good ride on effexor, i wish i were trying that again, but, this 'new and improved' stuff...really, it's just a patent issue...don't know if it is the same stuff.

and taking mirtazapine/remron, too, which helps with the ruminating thoughts.

a real anti-depressant cocktail...but, i don't know that i feel really any better. i hate all this trial and error bit. so hard to tell what is the meds and what is just a couple of bad days strewn together.

this hair falling out is a real scare, too.

wish there were a blood test, y'no?? jill

interesting, about a week into this new rx, and i feel a bit better i think, the other day at dbt t, i didn't really know why i was there. not much to say, not much good to be had in session. not her fault, am i a bit 'flat' on this? i take it at night, as the first time i took it, around 5pm, it seemed to make me yawn, so, i take it before bedtime, and every morning i am SO SLEEPY, i just get up to make kids breakfast and get my husband off to work, then i go back to bed for an hour or so, and just lightly doze/daydream/stretch....

is that due to the pristiq?

p said she would put me on effexor if this didn't cut it, i was on 75mg of effexor xr for quite awhile years ago, so i might make the jump. this one seems ok, idk, it is really so hard to tell. i mean, no major 'bads' like headache, etc, but awfully sleepy in the am...

and, DUMB. i just feel kindof dumb. loose my train of thought alot. kindof 'bored' and probably 'boring'...

hmmmm....

i did hear from t that the 'topamax' p tried to put me on is nicknamed 'dope-a-max' as it does make word retrieval hard...no thanks, don't need any help that direction!!

seem to grip my jaw kindof hard, y'no? is this related?

jill

i think i am going off of this stuff. i feel like i am clenching my jaw constantly throughout the day, and my t doesn't think i am depressed or in need of anti-depressants. t thinks therapy is my need.

i dunno.

but, the pristiq seems, and i have only been on it a week, to make my teeth and jaw clenched, and makes me a bit emotionally numb? maybe?? could be my imagination. i felt in t, that i didn't have the 'emotional buy-in' to my problems like i had, not that i WANT to be emotionally caught, but, i don't know, i just couldn't 'feel' as concerned, not really in a happy way, moreso in a 'ADD' way of, 'oh yea, what we're we talking about?"

sticking with the remeron, which i have been on for a year, and it helps with sleep, is super cheap, and is supposed to help with the ruminating thoughts at night.

i wish i could find an anti-depressant that seemed to just click, and i am sure y'all will advise me that a week isn't enough time to tell, but, i feel like i am making that fish-like puckering and jaw clenching throughout the day on this pristiq, and it is bugging me. and this t knows me pretty well, has seen me up and down, and still thinks i don't need a a/d.

and, i think i might try just sticking to a regime of some of this vitamin B-6, which is supposed to make your serotonin receptors 'ripe' for whatever it is they do, and the htp, or some of that stuff that y'all have recommmended wholistically.

just rambling here, but, i think 'not' on the pristiq...

going off cold turkey, those pills look tough to split, but, if i see side effects of withdrawal, and they are not supposed to be bad, although i quit effexor 75 cold turkey and went nuclear....if that starts to happen, i'll get a chain saw and split this pill in half.

back to the drawing board. but, i felt shaky and tense throughout my body...and a bit numb emotionally. dang, where is the balance in feeling too much and not enough?? is this therapy??

ok, pals. day seven or so on effexor xr (yes, a regular pharmacy of drugs my liver has met this fall!) and, started with the 37.5 for six days, no bad, but not anything great. i dunno, yesterday was morbid. but upped to 75 (my old dose that carried me for 5+ years) and, the sun seems to be shining. again, i have had many placebo honeymoon phases, ((collective majority eye-roll)) but, we shall see. i will tell you tho, pristiq and effexor are NOT THE SAME!!!

more later, just had to tell someone!! jill

i think this effexor 75 xr makes me sleepy, at times throughout the day, i just want to take a nap, and sometimes do. and want to go to bed early. the mood is ok, maybe a little bit flat? at t, i was a rattlebox, but not alot of emotional buy-in, if that makes sense. it is funny, i guess this is the bpd trait speaking, but, there is something that WANTS to feel the emotions intensely, and feels insincere to NOT feel deeply. kindof like the link to my soul is dulled a bit. good, for when it is bad, but, bad, for when it is good. if that makes sense.

i really hate drugs. i will stay on this and see how it plays out, i KNOW i don't give any of them much time, but probably wrongly, i feel meds so sensitively, that, i dunno, it seems to show its effect quickly.

still at it.

jill

i dropped 12 little pellets out of the capsule, to adjust the dose and see if the sleepiness abates.

will anything attend to my depression??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

jill

life is just passing me by and i am in a whirlwind of depression and now guilt about being depressed, which just pushes the depression down a notch.

i order the holistic approach book recommended on another thread.

ok, gotta function, enough belly-aching. robot-mode, smile, breathe, work.

bye, jill

Pristiq had absolutely no effect on me, like all the other SSRI's. I'm starting MAOI's now.

The only med that helped kill my low moods was Abilify. However, it left me feeling numb (couldn't cry and I usually cry everyday) and I gained 10 pounds.

ugh, jill, I don't know. I'm going to try meds I think, who knows maybe it will help. ( I know it's not the answer) WHAT IS THE ANSWER???

BB

reeny, what are MAOI'S?