I have been diagnosed with anxiety/depression

[Big Jim]

and I am taking Effexor XR--I can't sleep at nite since I started this, I have weird dreams when I finally do, and it takes me longer to get off.
Anyone else ever take this drug, and when will I feel it start to kick in? Ive been on it for about 9 days now.
Thanks.

I would REALLY love a new sig pic from some creative person out there!!!!

I love you all,
*BIG

[Tall_James]

Jeez, I hope this wasn't brought on by that sexual episode with that chick.

Seriously, good luck with this. I know that a lot of people have problems like this and get through it unscathed.


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[CrazyClare]

im on it. is anyone surprised? it takes 2-4 weeks as do most psychotropic drugs. There plenty of other ones if the getting off problem is bad but they usually make you wait it out until the drug starts working before they let you switch.

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either love me or leave me alone.

[Alice S. Fuzzybutt]

Hey Jim!

Glad to see you back!

Effexor is a great med. Give it some time. What's your dosage? I've been on it for a while (my dosage is high-- 225mgs). The side effects vary. I sometimes get a leg or arm twitch. Weird dreams are common; my dreams are a Fellini wet dream. Be careful not to skip a day; it has a short half life. When I have skipped, I get the "zaps." It's a literal feeling. It's kinda like that feeling the instant you realize you lost your wallet, but it's involuntary.

Again, give it some time. If the sexual side effect out weighs your mood benefits, then ask your doctor about Wellbutrin. There are fewer sexual side effects.

Good luck, Jim! My best to you!

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This message was edited by Alice S. Fuzzybutt on 11-18-03 @ 8:23 PM

[Johnny Fontane]

It's kinda like that feeling the instant you realize you lost your wallet, but it's involuntary.



Wow, that's an interesting description. To have a feeling like that out of the blue for no apparent reason has got to suck.

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"The principal benefit acting has afforded me is the money to pay for my psychoanalysis."

This message was edited by Johnny Fontane on 11-18-03 @ 9:07 PM

[sr71blackbird]

I was on effexor too, and if I went off it and got these shakes and strange phaze feelings and it lasted about a week or 2. I was off it about 6 months and then started having problems sleeping again and they gave me trazadone which seems to not be so weird if I didnt take it for a day. Its all anxiety.

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[Alice S. Fuzzybutt]

Wow, that's an interesting description. To have a feeling like that out of the blue for no apparent reason has got to suck.


It also kind of feels like when you test a 9-volt battery with your tongue.

It's manageable.

EDIT:

I was on effexor too, and if I went off it and got these shakes and strange phaze feelings and it lasted about a week or 2. I was off it about 6 months and then started having problems sleeping again and they gave me trazadone which seems to not be so weird if I didnt take it for a day. Its all anxiety.


Did you go "cold turkey?" NEVER GO COLD TURKEY ON ANY MEDS!!!! The "zaps" are part of the withdrawal symptoms and I get them a few hours after I've missed a dose.

I was on trazadone when I was on Prozac to curb the anxiety and the "hyperness" I experienced on Prozac. How is the trazadone working for you? Paxil is very effective to curb anxiety. I LOVED Paxil. Unfortunately, I had AWFUL night sweats (I'd soak my PJs and the sheets. I had to sleep on towels.)


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This message was edited by Alice S. Fuzzybutt on 11-18-03 @ 9:23 PM

[CrazyClare]

ugh the twitches are the worst they are so embarassing. Im on soo many meds, im on wellbutrin too wellbutrin is good. I get awful night sweats too, so gross and sweaty palms, it sucks but at least im sane.

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either love me or leave me alone.

[furie]

am I the only person not on something?

Welcome back Jim



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[Bill From Yorktown]

am I the only person not on something?

Welcome back Jim



<img src="http://tseery.homestead.com/files/bod6.gif" height=100 width=300>


um, maybe you should? :-)

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[Bill From Yorktown]

am I the only person not on something?

Welcome back Jim



<img src="http://tseery.homestead.com/files/bod6.gif" height=100 width=300>


um, maybe you should be? :-)

was on Zoloft 9 years ago - jury still out on the results.

hmm fricking edit button acting up????
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This message was edited by Bill From Yorktown on 11-22-03 @ 6:34 PM

[Mike Teacher]

Wow, that's an interesting description. To have a feeling like that out of the blue for no apparent reason has got to suck.


It can be something indescribable. A futile attempt:

Imagine walking along a beach, and you feel a bit nervous, and you try to walk it off, but the adrenaline is now pumping a bit, so your heart is going a bit faster. A dislocation with the larger picture occurs, and your world shrinks to this bubble around you.

The level of anxiety builds, and now a sense of dread, that your heart might literally explode, that you can't stay in your skin. That you are panicing, and you have absolutely no controol over it.

You stand up? You feel panic. You lie Dow? panic. Go outside? Nothing. The sense of dread, of some impending doom, but the literally feeling of 'if I remain in this state I will surely die'. And it is realler then any reality that you know.

And then, for some reason, after a while, sometimes a few minutes, sometimes much much longer, you begin to regain a sense of control of your body; the feeling of dread start to subside as mysteriously as it appeared, and after a bit more time you feel ok, not relaxed, but back in control.

Welcome to the world of Depression and Anxiety Disorders, and I include both as overlapping magesteria.

Some never get a second attack. Others do. For these, a spiral of Anticipatory Anxiety can literally turn a person into someone who is scared to death of being scared to death. Can't leave the house scared. Suicide scared. Living, breathing Hell on Earth Nothing must be better then this scared.

--------------------------

Why us? Why now? Why? Anyone claiming to know, doesn't. We have made some successful stabs, and found the things you hear about: Clinical depression and anxiety, the role of seritonin [still mostly unknown still], the role of drugs use, Situational Anxiety, past abuse, and so many other variables that we end up knowing that we really do not know shit.

There is good work being done. Amazing strides have taken place. For all of it's overprescription, let us remember that the Prozac Nation has a state called It Saved My Fucking Life. Dont hear about those too often, they tend not to make the low numbered pages. But pharmacology has given back the lives of people who lives have for some reason, have turned into a literal Hyeronimous Bosch painting.

And more then anything, the real revolution in ALL of this, from this wannabe scientist; is the change in worldview of these disorders.

Meaning: In the past, all mental disorders were thought to be the fault of the person who had them. It follows logic beautifully actually. If the person is having these feelings, there must be some horrific personality fault with them.

The revolution in BioChem in this century, was also the revolution in modern Psychiatry. A begining of a sweeping series of developments and discoveries that basically boiled down to this:

The brain is the seat of feelings and emotions and the sense of self, and everything else that we now know it is. We know that the brain works, somehow, using electrical and chemical reactions. To even begin to compare it to a computer is utter folly. Absolutely Nothing at all like it. We are talking a loom of neurons and electro-chemical cascades, and biochemical pathways that we are only beginning to understand in the Slightest.

And somehow, sometimes, people brains develop whatever it is they do to give us the spectrum of behaviors we see today. They are not abnormal. They are what they are for that brain. A person doesnt choose to have the structure such that autism or OCDs or panic attacks or depression or what have you. Neither am I saying is the brain solely at 'fault' [bad term], as we see how the persons life, their structure, their Ego, not the Ego of bragging, the Ego of: The Sense of Self. This Is Me. Cogito Ergo Sum.

The drugs developed are fantastic. Fantastic in that they work, and also in that, for the most part, we have absolutely no idea why they work. And before bringing up the T

[Big Jim]

I missed a dose yesterday and they said to just wait til the next day. I felt all jumpy and antsy and overall weird. I am going on my 4th week on this and am starting to feel better. I think I have been able to control the sexual issues, in fact is has increased my climaxes, since they are delayed (im sure you all wanted to know this) but my sleep schedule is still fucked up, as I am writing this at 6am without sleep.

I would REALLY love a new sig pic from some creative person out there!!!!

I love you all,
*BIG

[sr71blackbird]

Hang in there Jim! With mine, it also deeply effected my sleep patterns and nothing helped and I tried everything, even walking for miles at 3am. Also with mine, as Im sure you have noticed in yours, youll be laying there in bed and no sleeping all night and your suppose to wake up at 8am say, and you wont get sleepy until 730! It sucks but the meds will help control that over time.
Alice, I didnt stop cold turkey, the doctor just wouldnt renew prescriptions. Theyll get you on it and give you a 3 month supply and after the three months you go back and they ask you how your feeling abd you say "better" and they say, "well, you dont need it anymore" and even though I feel that Id be better of taking them, the only way I can get a doctor to give me more is to go to a new doctor! These bastards dont want you to get 'addicted' to it or dependant on it (at least the doctors I go to, maybe thats my problem-going to regular GP's). The trazodone has been a godsend for me because I take it at night, and it makes me sleepy right before bed! But, because I take it at night, if I was away from home for a night or got home super late, I might forget to take it, and it doesnt have the zap effect that the effexor had on me if I skip a dose.

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[Johnathan H Christ]

im gonna get yelled at for this but...

by treating these things instead of just letting the people kill themself (thereby weeding themself out of society) arent we just insuring that more people in the future are going to have to deal with the drugs, and the bad feelings that they have?

nobody is perfect...we all have problems. and i admit that i have no idea what im talking about, cause ive never had to deal with that kind of feeling. but i have had to deal with family members who cant seem to get their shit together no matter what medication they were on. in fact this family member seemed to embrace their disorder(s) and tried to use their imbalance as an excuse for not functioning in society like the rest of us have to.

personaly i think pot levels my mood a bit... but other than that ive never been on medication.

maybe im just an insensitive bastard.

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"his very conception was an act of animosity, why shouldnt his entire life be one as well?"

This message was edited by Johnathan H Christ on 11-26-03 @ 2:10 PM

[Furtherman]

Jesus H Christ! You insensitive bastard!

I agree with you. I have been depressed, down, and overall blah numerous time. Even for long periods of time. Even when I was a kid, I was suicidal.

But I shook it off. Maybe some people can't shake it. Just think, you could be worse. You could have been born in India. Or Iraq. And then your biggest problem would be finding clean water and just staying alive.

Keep your chin up everyone. If these prescribed drugs help ya, then good for you. However, I think doctors are too quick to diagnose depression these days. I wonder how many of them are compensated by companies such as Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline.

Big Jim, just be warned that Effexor XR was shown in clinical studies (by Wyeth actually - oh my, is there hope that these corporations care?) to create a higher incidence in children of hostility and thoughts of suicide. No children actually committed suicide, but there was a percentage who thought about it vs. the group who received a dummy pill. 2% to be exact, but I'd rather not have anyone considering suicide.



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[TheCosmicCircus]

I like bacon cheeseburgers from the 29 diner also.
they sure do give lots of french fries.
Once, the coke tasted funny, so we got sprite.
Do you hear where I'm going with this?




identical hearts are broken

[Katylina]

Depression is a mental illness that you can't just shake off, as you put it. Would you ask a Cancer patient to shake off their symptoms? Good luck Big Jim...

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[CrazyClare]

actually Ive struggled with my survival. If I had been born 50 years earlier I would have killed myself at 13. Im a defect, an unfortuante genetic mutation. If Darwin was right then i should have killed myself so that I wont have crazy kids. I cant have kids anyway so we dont have to worry about that. But I dont understand that a creature is born and survives to adolescence and then wants to take their own life. Maybe we all should just kill ourselves, maybe thats whats mean to be.

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either love me or leave me alone.

[furie]

Would you ask a Cancer patient to shake off their symptoms?


only if they're faking


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[Mike Teacher]

If Darwin was right then i should have killed myself so that I wont have crazy kids.


Or perhaps, if Darwin was right, a person who otherwise might have been called 'crazy' may have had that tiny bit of difference such that we developed launguage, or math, or art, or any of a million artists or painters or musicians or authors or poets who were thought of as crazy, and by many societal standards may well have been, but were, as a by product, able to build a bridge between the possible and the impossible.

This is apart, of course, from a strongly suicidal person. For that, there is no easy answer, not from here. I would hesitate to call anything effecting anyone in 2st century indutrialized civilization 'Darwinian' however, as that would imply natural selection; and in my opinion, this society is set up such that often the selection is Most artificial, if not random; we're in a new territory here, a brand new thing. The studies above regarding possible hostilities and increased risk of suicide are small correlations at best; None has been shown to have a cause-and-effect. There's too many variables; like the pharmaceutical lab in your head that manufactures drugs that we can only begin to copy.

The two main problem with all of these drugs:

-They are over-prescribed, and,

-They are under-prescribed.

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