Has anyone tried to stop effexor cold turkey??? WOW!! not cool!!

oh dear sadeyesr4ever

stopping any SSRI med cold turkey is scary.....ALWAYS titrate down

hope you are feeling better

Cold turkey Even not being able to get the script for a week will kick you to the curb and run you over with a leaky garbage truck.

NEVER-EVER stop SSRI or SSNI cold turkey.

If you have any questions about discontinuing a drug, ALWAYS-ALWAYS talk to both your doctor AND your pharmacist. AND, read here: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/ They explain in very great detail how to SLOWLY titrate down off of this class of drugs.

I developed severe skin-picking as a result of being cold-turkied from Prozac 5 years ago -- STILL paying for that.

These drugs actually change the way the chemicals in your brain work. You have to be VERY SMART about knowing what you're putting in your body. After my little Prozac fiasco, I would never start taking a drug without knowing the side effects and implications BEFORE I start taking it. I always ask for the clinical notes from the pharmacist when I get a new prescription and I read that over before I start taking the drug. If there's a possibility of a bad side-effect, I always tell someone that I've just started a new drug.

To be perfectly honest, a lot of the doctors that prescribe medications do not know the long-term side effects of what they prescribe. This is why I'm scared of this rush to embrace Gardasil. No one knows anything long-term about this drug.

I probably would not be alive today if it weren't for this class of drugs -- SSRI/SSNI. I thank G-d every day for them. But, you have to BE SMART about what you're doing to your body.

In my two withdrawal experiences off of Effexor XR (couldn't get to the pharmacy in the winter due to snow and transportation problems), it takes a week to go into major withdrawals and about 6 weeks to get body leveled back up to total functioning.

Good luck.

Barb

Barb, that was such a valuable post....thank you!

The experience we had with the awful withdrawal my son went through with Luvox, Zyprexa and Haldol and the short & long term effects that they had on him, has made me very very very cautious of all drugs, but specifically ones that impact the neurological system, I extend this caution even to natural supplements if my research indicates they can impact the brain or nervous system

I recognise the vital importance of these meds for so many people, but as you have said, one MUST only take them with an awareness of what they can do, how they interact with other drugs or supplements and what happens when you want to go off them

Doctors in general are truly not forthcoming (or knowledgable?) enough to educate people correctly on so many meds and instead the patient finds out the hard way.

ok I am off my

sadeyesr4ever.....hope you are doing ok

Yes, it was a very bad idea to do what I did. I had no idea that would happen. I am back on my medication and doing much better. Thanks

so glad to hear you are doing better sadeyesr4ever

sadeyesr4ever,
I'm really glad to read you're feeling better. I was taking Zoloft many years ago for a terrible time I was having with constant panic attacks that were even waking me from sleep. This was long before I had internet. Then I did something I knew not to do. I knew not to do it but I did it. I stopped it myself and I was taking a pretty hefty dose. I just got so fed up with some side-effects. I was ill, absolutely ill. The worst symptom I had was almost as if my muscles had ceased up and I could hardly walk let alone all of the other symptoms. Anyway, to cut a long story short, it wasn't until I got the internet and stumbled across information about discontinuing medications when researching things for my children and I became aware of all the information about Antidepressant Discontinuation Syndrome.

http://www.primarypsychiatry.com/asp...?articleid=625
Primary Psychiatry. 2006;13(10):23-24
Antidepressant Discontinuation Syndrome
Donald S. Robinson, MD

http://www.aafp.org/afp/20060801/449.html
American Family Physician
Vol. 74/No. 3 (August 1, 2006)

Lara were you able to get off of it on your own? How long did it last?

Yes. I actually didn't go back on it, although that would have helped fix the way I was feeling. I remember being given vitB12 shots and also some muscle relaxants temporarily. Remember this was a long time ago. It took me weeks before I felt better, but my main problem was what happened with my muscles and also feeling really spaced out... more so than usual lol The "spaced out" feeling is very uncomfortable and similar to how I get with my anxiety sometimes. Hard to describe in words.

I've learned a lot about the actual mechanism of panic attacks and that's helped me a lot when they're fairly infrequent. Helps to know what's really happening and that I'm not really going to die and I can knowingly put in place some tactics to prevent things from going over the edge. However, sometimes I'll have a few months here and there when the panic attacks are somewhat crippling and not too much seems to help and it's very isolating.

It's a real pain, but I just don't want to take those medications again. I know that might not sound responsible, but that's how I feel. There have been a couple of times since that incident I was talking about when I stopped the Zoloft cold turkey when a doctor would have prescribed me similar medications for my anxiety, but I continue to battle it out without them. A lot of my anxiety is social stuff, always has been. It fluxes though and when I'm good I'm really really good and when it's bad it's horrid.

(((sadeyesr4ever)))

I understand about the anxiety and panic attacks, that was one reason I went on the Effexor. (((Lara)))