effexor xl?

This is not really a personal issue so you'll get moved to long-term illness there in a while.

I remember the day my psychiatrist first put me on Effexor XL. He had Effexor notepad, pen, paperweight and probably underwear. So I was sceptical to say the least...
But, to be honest, I've never looked back. So much so, that when I emigrated last year, I took a load of effexor with me. I was on 225mg but now take 75mg in the morning. I had no problem stepping down either.
The only side effect that I've noticed ever is that if I forget to take it, then I will get little surges in my head and later I'll experience depersonalistion/derealisation.
A bit of advice, that I rarely take myself, is that maybe you shouldn't bother reading the side-effects and stuff like that.
There have been other posts about effexor before so you can search them using the search function in the blue bar above.
Good luck!

tallulah_crack wrote: »

new OP

was just wondering if anyone out there is also currently taking effexor xl at the moment and what side effects they might be having?

having taking many ssri's over the years (cimpromil, lustral) i find having been on effexor for a few months that its much different.

night sweats is the main side effect, also insomnia.

the main difference is that if i miss a pill i feel really dizzy and dioriented, a feeling that wouldnt have come into play after afew days after missing a dose on other meds. i know i should just take it at the same time everyday but im worried about what will happen if i go away for a few days and forget it.

after reading reports online im worried about its addictive qualities

hey OP,

i have to say i dont think too highly of effexor xl. i ended up taking them for a while and between side effects and then trying to get off them it was terrible.

just to give you some background, i had originally gone to my EX-doctor becuause i was actually looking for some xanax or valium. (long story i wont go into here). i told the ex-doc i had problems sleeping and that i had bundles of excess energy that was causing serious anxiety, so a perfect candidate for an anti anxiety prescription like xanax. within 10 seconds the ex-doc told me i was severely depressed and prescribed 75mg of effexor xl. the thing was i didnt feel unhappy or depressed in any way at all. when i asked the ex-doc questions about the effexor like what did they do, any side effects, etc the ex-doc said i would have to take those questions up with the pharmacist. anyway, being young and naive i decided seeing as i hadnt any luck getting the valium or xanax i would try these effexor which i did. tbh i would have taken anything if i thought i could get a whack out of it so i started taking them and to be honest couldnt see any difference.

so a few weeks later i went back to the ex-doc to try again for valium and xanax, same thing happened. i was told i was depressed and obviously the effexor hadnt started working yet so here is a prescription for some more of them. bummer.

again a few weeks later went in to try again and this time was told i must be severely depressed so here is a bigger prescription. i kept asking was ex-doc sure as maybe some sleeping tablets would be more beneficial (thats all i was really after). but no, "i was severely depressed so this was the ONLY answer". the odd thing was i was never told to see anyone like a councillor, which i think if i was genuinely depressed i would have prefereed. i was never told to try herbal alternatives to help me sleep. i was never told to just go and take up a sport or go for a swim or run in the evenings. it was prescription for anti depressants, €50, and see you in 4 weeks.

now at this stage the side effects had really kicked in and the ex-doc had me up to 150mg per day. the side effects were nasty, serious sweating to the point where i would get to work and my shirt would be 90% soaked through like i had stood under a shower, vomiting in the morning if i took them before i ate (which sometimes i had to becuase the side effects for not taking them was 1000 times worse, but i will come back to that), strange buzzing in my head, i actually really couldnt sleep now which i know i had told the ex-doc was the problem in the first place but now it really was a problem, sexual side effects i wont go into, my appetite went completely out the window, and if you drank even the smallest amount of alcohol on them you would spend the next day seriously vomiting. they are the side effects i can remember but this was over 6 years ago. tbh they didnt do my memory any favours either and my long term memory is still really bad to this day. trying to remember anything before i started taking them is quite difficult. i will meet someone i havent seen in a long time and they will say "remember the time we .........." and i will remember it, but i will have had no memory of it until it is said to me. it is like a blank canvas being filled in. i used to have a great memory before the effexor.

now the worst part. you may be thinking why didnt i just stop taking them if they were that bad. the reason was because i wasnt able to stop taking them. the ex-doc at this stage had me up to 225mg per day, becuase if i took any less then the withdrawals kicked in. i was still complaining about not being able to sleep and being anxious (for real this time).

if i didnt take the tablet at the same time everyday then all hell would break lose. literally within a few hours of missing a dose the shudders would start. it was like electric shocks in my brain that would just shock me and shudder through my body. it felt like someone had a zapper and they were shocking me. and i am not talking about a shock every couple of hours, i mean every few minutes. i would be in the middle of something and zap, a shock with go though my head and down through my body, making my whole body shudder. the longer i went without them, the worse the shocks became. then i would start getting dizzy and disorientated, and eventually i would start 'coming down' so to speak, bascially going on a downer. it was hell. many times i tried give them up but the withdrawals were so bad i just had to start taking them again within 24 hours. it was impossible even to plan a few days away because you had to bring spare doses with you everywhere you went in case you ended up spending an extra night somewhere and you were stuck without a dose.

eventually with a lot of hassle and with absolutley no help or advice from my ex-doc i managed to get my dose down to 75mg per day but i couldnt get any lower than that without completely losing the plot. (my ex-doc kept saying i couldnt be getting withdrawals from them and it was obviously becauce i was depressed that i "thought" i was experiencing withdrawals. in other words, it was all in my head).

i was stuck on 75mg for ages as trying to get off them was too painful. i then decided to bite the bullet and i started taking the 75mg every 2 days. i reckoned i could try asnd reduce my dependecy this way. (the doctor and chemsit both said that effexor only came in capsule form so i couldnt break it down into daily doses). i did this for a while which left me very disorientated, but it seemed to be doing the trick because then i dropped to 75mg every 3 days, which was making me more disorientated again but i was determined. i was completely all over the place now and having to take a lot of time off work to sort this out and get off these and i was nearly always disorientated and dizzy, so realistically i couldnt do much in the way of normal day to day things. and the electric shocks were getting worse and worse.

through doing a few searches on the internet i got the name of a really good phyciatrist or phychotherapist (i cant remember exactly what his title was) in the blackrock clinc. i made an appointment and went to see him. he was the nicest guy i have come across in years, a completelty striaght talking gentleman. i was straight up with him and said my original motive for going to the ex-doc was to get prescription drugs but had ended up with this effexor problem instead and he seemed very aware of the problems i was experiencing and not at all surprised at anything i was telling him. he basically said by taking the tablet every 2-3 days i was causing myself serious damage as i was teasing my brain. it was like i was feeding my brain a dose and then teasing it for a few says and then feeding it another dose, and so on. as far as he was concerned this was doing serious damage to body. the result was that he instructed me to go to the chemist, demand the effexor in a tablet form, which he said does exist, and if they told me it didnt that they were to contact him. he said to split the tablet and take a half tablet a day for a few weeks, and then half the half tablet (a quarter tablet) and take that for a few weeks, and then half the quarter tablet, and so on until i was taking barely anything and the need for them was gone.

i left there and did exactly what he said, the chemist again saying the tablet form didnt exist, i told them it did and i wanted it NOW. they eventually gave in and ordered me in these tablets and i went about the plan of reducing the dose. and low and behold within a couple of months i was fine. no more need for them. so that was that.

the end result? well, i never went back that doctor again (hence ex-doc). i learnt my lesson on the misues of prescription drugs. (i havent exactly led a sheltered life so i have done pretty much every drug under the sun at some stage in my life and at that point in my life i would class anti depressants as the most physcally addictive. infortuanelty since then i have found more phycially addictive drugs in the illegal variety, but i would still probably rate effexor xl as the 2nd or 3rd most physically addictive drug between legal and illegal drugs. and i am not exagerating when i say i have tried pretty much everything). i really feel that i lost some of my personality from using effexor. it was like something inside me died. and i believe they kind of contributed to other problems i developed some time later. tbh i have just never felt the same since i took them, i cant put my finger on what it is but just something has always been differnt since. and i still get the odd 'shock' to this day. only 2 days ago i was getting ready for work and 'zap', i got a shock. it isnt a constant thing or anything like that, it just happens every now and then, mostly in the morning times. its nothing too serious but it happens all the same.

so there it is. that is my extremly long story about effexor xl. but remember, it is only MY story so that is not to say this will happen to everyone. i have never tried any other anti depressants so i coudnt say if they are better or worse than any other. it taught me a lesson on lying to the doctor to get meds anyway so i learnt something from it. ironically nowadays due to other problems, i actually get a constant supply of valium, xanax, and sleeping tablets from my new doctor (who is great by the way), so no more lying to doctors.

i hope this ramble in some way helps. feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

al the best.