I am 30 years old and I have 4 children, I have been coming off the effexor for 1 week now... iTS BEEN HORRIBLE... I've had spells where I shake violently and Pain in my head so horrible i wanted to die...
I was never told of these withdrawals....there has been so many withdrawal symptoms that I would be here all day to tell you about them... Please I think we all need to come together and make this WRONG a RIGHT...
kaleshia6@hotmail.com
I was never told of these withdrawals....there has been so many withdrawal symptoms that I would be here all day to tell you about them... Please I think we all need to come together and make this WRONG a RIGHT...
kaleshia6@hotmail.com
Hi, I am on my 12 day off of Effexor and it is frigging hell.
I have had to take sick leave from work and almost destroyed a number of relationships with people before I left cos the drug was driving me crazy.
I would like to join a class action lawsuit against this drug, as I wanted a drug that wouldn't be difficult to get off of, due to other substance abuse issues in the past.
That hasn't happened and now I am wondering if this is what's causing my irritable bowel syndrome as I haven't been able to go places cos I have to stay close tohome.
Is it possible to set up a website so people can sign up without having to post email addresses which get removed by the moderatior.
I have had to take sick leave from work and almost destroyed a number of relationships with people before I left cos the drug was driving me crazy.
I would like to join a class action lawsuit against this drug, as I wanted a drug that wouldn't be difficult to get off of, due to other substance abuse issues in the past.
That hasn't happened and now I am wondering if this is what's causing my irritable bowel syndrome as I haven't been able to go places cos I have to stay close tohome.
Is it possible to set up a website so people can sign up without having to post email addresses which get removed by the moderatior.
hi i have been on effexor for about 5 years. i am having seirous problems with my blood pressure so they have started to wean me off the stuff. This is the worst feeling ever! I have missed refilling my prescription before over the weekend and there was no pharmacy opened and i really felt like i was going to die or at least wanted to by sunday evening. i am only 29 years old with two young children and i have to be so careful about stroking out or having a heart attack because of this drug, let alone the withdrawls i am experiencing after only one day i dont think my family can handle this i am not sure i can handle it. my heart goes out to each and every one of you and i would like to let you know that i am more than excited to help you in your fight against this poison.
I want to be help with this. I am currently on day 3 of "quitting cold turkey" and I wish I had never been introduced to this drug. I so angry that anyone would ever develop a drug that could make a person feel this way.
I too would be interested in any information available regarding a class action suit against the makers of Effexor, in Canada.
My late husband committed suicide while taking a generic Effexor, prescribed for anxiety. He had gone off his medication for a few days, the week before he died, then resumed his normal 75mg. daily dosage for 4 days, before he killed himself . I believe he suffered what the drug companies call an "adverse effect" to the sudden withdrawl and subsequent resumption of Effexor. My husband had no previous history of suicide attempts, had never shown any indications of being suicidal, and didn't leave a suicide note. He was a well-balanced, relatively happy person, with no apparent reason to commit suicide, and his death is a shock to all who knew and loved him.
My late husband committed suicide while taking a generic Effexor, prescribed for anxiety. He had gone off his medication for a few days, the week before he died, then resumed his normal 75mg. daily dosage for 4 days, before he killed himself . I believe he suffered what the drug companies call an "adverse effect" to the sudden withdrawl and subsequent resumption of Effexor. My husband had no previous history of suicide attempts, had never shown any indications of being suicidal, and didn't leave a suicide note. He was a well-balanced, relatively happy person, with no apparent reason to commit suicide, and his death is a shock to all who knew and loved him.
I've been off of effexor for over a year now. I feel it destroyed my life. I was hospitalized twice for the brain freezes. I thought they were angel wings fluttering around my head. My doctor never explained the results of quitting cold turkey(which he suggested). I was put back on it before leaving the hospital, the first visit. The second hospital stay I was sent to a mental hospital via ambulance and get this..........when I left there I was taking 900 mg. of effexor xr daily. My husband couldn't deal with it and divorced me after a 32 year marriage. I lost everything.
This is the second time I've used Effexor and I have noticed when I forget my dosage for a couple of days that I experience SEVERE vertigo, stomach upset and confusion like I'm high or something. It's not cool. I know that to get off the medication you must be weaned off of it, not go cold turkey; this is NOT a recreational drug that one can just go cold turkey from as well some recreational drugs (if taken for a long period of time or very addicted) should not be removed cold turkey due to the reaction it causes. If your doctor is aware that you want off the meds he or she will wean you off just as they weaned you onto Effexor over a period of time. I personally have not suffered any bad reactions while on Effexor except the first time I took it years ago I'd been on it for a year or two and it suddenly just stopped working and my mood went crazy erratic and almost violent. Instead of upping my dosage my physician at the time decided to change my meds. I chose not to do that and weaned myself off the Effexor. However since the medicine does seem to help with my fibromyalgia I decided to go back on it when things in my life went haywire losing my house to mold and such. It was meds again or suicide; I opted for meds.
Good luck with the lawsuits, AK
Good luck with the lawsuits, AK
I am deeply interested in the CAL against the makers of effexor. I have all the symptoms as stated above. I've also looked up information on effexor withdrawel, and they all claim the same ailments. please send more information on the CAL, so we can join together and move forward. I hate that I can't have my normal life back because of this horrid and evil medication!
During the month of January I was on the lowest dose of Lexapro. I had sleep issues so I revisited my doctor to discuss what could be done. I had neglected to take the Lexapro for several days prior to this appointment but was only experiencing some mild-depression. My doc told me NOT to take the Lexapro anymore & she started me on Effexor XR. The first week I took one 37.5mg/daily. On the day (2/11) that I had to start taking two tablets/daily I slit my wrists with a razor blade. I was not severely depressed nor was I suicidal. I did it without impulse control & no rational thought process. I just did it...completely dumbfounded & confusing not only MYSELF but my family. I was lucky I did not hit a vein in my attempt but now have 2 ugly scars on my wrists at the age of 38 that I will have NO REASON how I will explain myself to people that notice them. Having only been on the Effexor for one week I have not had withdrawal symptoms except for some crying-jags. I look back now though & had memory loss during that week & my family said I was "off"...not myself. I was sent to a psych ward for one week & was immediately taken OFF the Effexor. I was not put on any other meds & I hope to keep it that way. I cannot BELIEVE the withdrawal symptoms I have read about this drug!! How horrible. For the woman that lost her husband & him not leaving a note he most likely had no rational thought process or impulse control when he did this. I did not even cry when I slit my wrists. I simply did it as if it was a "normal" thing to do & then I immediately called my sister for help. I am sorry for your loss. I truly believe it was an adverse reaction to the Effexor as I experienced.
I'm a senior in at a university and I've been on Effexor XR for about 1.5 years. I was prescribed it by a general physician during my first consultation appointment with her. I was having panic attacks and the physician obviously felt that I was depressed. It was a fair assumption.This was following a suicide attempt my little brother had attempted while on Acutane. (Should've been a hint that medications are dangerous.) I was prescribed the 75mg and I took that for a little over a year.
It seemed like a miracle drug. I was happy right off the bat. But the drug began to eat at my motivation little by little. I excelled in the arts but could not bring myself to attend classes at the university that I had taken out a $23,000 loan to attend for that year. The first semester I was on it I ended up stopping attendance all together without the blink of an eye. I couldn't fathom why everyone thought I was crazy. It seemed perfectly normal. The second semester I only took one class, and stayed in close contact with the professor barely making it through to the end.
During that year, I basically cut off contact with my friends. When the would call I would want to hang out... but as soon as I said yes - a nervous train of thought began antagonizing me in the back of my head. I grew so paranoid that I could not face anyone except for my very closest friends and that was probably limited to about once every two weeks. (This is not my character at all.. ex sorority, captains of teams, presidents of clubs... In all honesty I never knew what it was to truly be depressed until I was prescribed this medication.)
A boyfriend came back into my life and it wasn't until I had that constant accountability that I realized something was really wrong. I began having worse sleeping problems than when I had started the medication. I was and still am having dreams about terrorist attacks in CA and things of that nature. These dreams are lucid and often last for about 15 hours. Safe to say I was missing a lot of class at this point. I grew so paranoid about a professor during summer school that after missing a few classes because of these night terrors .. I stopped going without a single word and felt that that had solved my problem.
Senior year came around and last semester my friends grew increasingly agitated for my lack of participation at social gatherings or even one on one things. I developed a stuttering problem. (Has anyone else noticed that?) I started crying a lot and having irrational conversations with my boyfriend - alluding to paranoid thoughts and helplessness with a total sense of loss of control.
My mom had a stroke in Sept 08, so I began spending a lot of time back at home. She began to notice the odd sleeping and behavior patterns that may have just seemed like stress over the phone. She repeatedly asked me to go see a psychiatrist to deal with the side effects ... I did.
I asked the psychiatrist to help me wean off of the medication, because I felt that it was no longer working. He felt that I had reached a "plateau" in the medication effectiveness and felt that it would be easier to increase my dose and monitor it than to get off and start from scratch. So up to 150 mg I went.
If I did not have my boyfriend to talk me out of the mental boxes I found myself in during the two months of 150 mg - someone else might be writing this blog for me. I would work through a problem with him, just to be screaming and crying the next moment totally unaware that we'd already reached a solution. My thoughts never stopped racing and all sensation felt dulled - mental and physical sensation.
I've been weaning for a month .. and have been Effexor free for one week. The withdrawals are intense... pretty much the same as above but i've also had random hearing loss in my right ear. (has anyone else experienced that? Like everything is fine and then my ear just plugs up in a way and I can only hear out of my left ear.)
Looking back I have no idea why general physicians are cleared to prescribe serotonergics in the first place especially one of this magnitude. Secondly, I don't know why I wasn't required to have constant therapy. I would say at least every two weeks at the minimum because that's how closely you need someone (outside of yourself) to monitor the effects of this drug. When inside of it - nothing makes sense but that red flag never gets raised in your head. Effexor mutes the survival gene and it should be monitored as closely as drugs like Acutane or Class II drugs that require triplicates and constant government surveillance.
Please point me in the direction of the Class Action Suit.. no one else needs to suffer from this drug.
_[removed]_
*Lola
It seemed like a miracle drug. I was happy right off the bat. But the drug began to eat at my motivation little by little. I excelled in the arts but could not bring myself to attend classes at the university that I had taken out a $23,000 loan to attend for that year. The first semester I was on it I ended up stopping attendance all together without the blink of an eye. I couldn't fathom why everyone thought I was crazy. It seemed perfectly normal. The second semester I only took one class, and stayed in close contact with the professor barely making it through to the end.
During that year, I basically cut off contact with my friends. When the would call I would want to hang out... but as soon as I said yes - a nervous train of thought began antagonizing me in the back of my head. I grew so paranoid that I could not face anyone except for my very closest friends and that was probably limited to about once every two weeks. (This is not my character at all.. ex sorority, captains of teams, presidents of clubs... In all honesty I never knew what it was to truly be depressed until I was prescribed this medication.)
A boyfriend came back into my life and it wasn't until I had that constant accountability that I realized something was really wrong. I began having worse sleeping problems than when I had started the medication. I was and still am having dreams about terrorist attacks in CA and things of that nature. These dreams are lucid and often last for about 15 hours. Safe to say I was missing a lot of class at this point. I grew so paranoid about a professor during summer school that after missing a few classes because of these night terrors .. I stopped going without a single word and felt that that had solved my problem.
Senior year came around and last semester my friends grew increasingly agitated for my lack of participation at social gatherings or even one on one things. I developed a stuttering problem. (Has anyone else noticed that?) I started crying a lot and having irrational conversations with my boyfriend - alluding to paranoid thoughts and helplessness with a total sense of loss of control.
My mom had a stroke in Sept 08, so I began spending a lot of time back at home. She began to notice the odd sleeping and behavior patterns that may have just seemed like stress over the phone. She repeatedly asked me to go see a psychiatrist to deal with the side effects ... I did.
I asked the psychiatrist to help me wean off of the medication, because I felt that it was no longer working. He felt that I had reached a "plateau" in the medication effectiveness and felt that it would be easier to increase my dose and monitor it than to get off and start from scratch. So up to 150 mg I went.
If I did not have my boyfriend to talk me out of the mental boxes I found myself in during the two months of 150 mg - someone else might be writing this blog for me. I would work through a problem with him, just to be screaming and crying the next moment totally unaware that we'd already reached a solution. My thoughts never stopped racing and all sensation felt dulled - mental and physical sensation.
I've been weaning for a month .. and have been Effexor free for one week. The withdrawals are intense... pretty much the same as above but i've also had random hearing loss in my right ear. (has anyone else experienced that? Like everything is fine and then my ear just plugs up in a way and I can only hear out of my left ear.)
Looking back I have no idea why general physicians are cleared to prescribe serotonergics in the first place especially one of this magnitude. Secondly, I don't know why I wasn't required to have constant therapy. I would say at least every two weeks at the minimum because that's how closely you need someone (outside of yourself) to monitor the effects of this drug. When inside of it - nothing makes sense but that red flag never gets raised in your head. Effexor mutes the survival gene and it should be monitored as closely as drugs like Acutane or Class II drugs that require triplicates and constant government surveillance.
Please point me in the direction of the Class Action Suit.. no one else needs to suffer from this drug.
_[removed]_
*Lola
Hi Im jessica and I was searching for the class of what effexor was and I found this post. I started taking effexor when I was 13 I am 20 now I take 300mg of effexor XL. one day i would like to be off of it. One time my mother ordered the effexor sortof late and we were without it for a week, we were vomiting like 4-6 times a day could hardly walk from the dizziness and we were crying the whole time for no reason other than the depression. and yes the doctor did not tell us of the horrible horrible withdrawal. when I told him about the withdrawel he replied "I guess you shouldnt skip then" with a cheesey smile on his face. I guess he thought my wellbeing is a joke. but I am not happy. BUT, the effexor does work.
I only took this drug for 4 months and let me tell you getting off of it was very hard even from that short time. I started having heart issues from this drug blood pressure went up and had to be hospitalized. Coming off of it you do have the chills ect. Your body wants you to give in to this durg but i asked GOD to help me and never looked back every time my doctor want to put me on new meds i take the paper but at the same time let him know i don't even want to take a pill for anything anymore thats bad isn't it take care
Hi all,
I was using efffexor and welbutrin for 5 .5 years and requested taken off of it due to serious side effects. Fortunately i was aware of the withdrawal symptoms. I had to be off of it cold Turkey once before. (went on vacation and left my dosage at home it took 3 days to get more as I was across the country)
I to feel it destroyed my life. At the time I went to my lowest dosage my (then ) wife asked me for a divorce , I had to move away from my beautiful 7 year old son, sell my house and somehow I manged to quit smoking during withdrawals (dont ask me what I was thinking then) .... Talk about anxiety issues
Regardless I know its hard to quit but IT IS IMPERATIVE YOU GET THROUGH THE WITHDRAWALS. Quitting is the most important thing to do right now. chances are you will live even though it feels like you will die at any moment . I was having withdrawals 6 weeks after I took my last pill. That stuff is EVIL. Body Shocks, weight gain 30 lbs, I had High cholesterol and blood pressure, loss of libido, and erectile dysfunction.
My blood pressure and cholesterol are back to normal, My depression is back (never left just forgotten while on effexor welbutrin mix) and my anxiety is worse and I am still having impotence problems....
The good news is I'm in the process of getting diagnosed with "secondary hypergonadism" I say good news because it explains my depressions and anxieties, my erectile dysfuntion and a host of other issues I thought were partly caused by the depression ( erectile dysfunction I thought was caused by effexor but it never started to function after having been off of it almost 2 years later) buyt were really the symptoms of something else.
After some basic blood tests at a physical it was discovered I had low LH and Testosterone levels.These issues cause the syptoms for which we are medicating with anti depressants and I would suggest to anyone to get blood tests before they ever go on these drugs. Check your hormone levels before you start supplementing with chemicals like saratonin and other such drugs. Make sure your symptoms arent caused by something else. It seems like DR.s will prescribe anti depressants as if they are flavor of the month.
So if you can afford to get some blood work done check your basic hormone level to make sure you aren't medicating the symptoms of something much more serious.
I was using efffexor and welbutrin for 5 .5 years and requested taken off of it due to serious side effects. Fortunately i was aware of the withdrawal symptoms. I had to be off of it cold Turkey once before. (went on vacation and left my dosage at home it took 3 days to get more as I was across the country)
I to feel it destroyed my life. At the time I went to my lowest dosage my (then ) wife asked me for a divorce , I had to move away from my beautiful 7 year old son, sell my house and somehow I manged to quit smoking during withdrawals (dont ask me what I was thinking then) .... Talk about anxiety issues
Regardless I know its hard to quit but IT IS IMPERATIVE YOU GET THROUGH THE WITHDRAWALS. Quitting is the most important thing to do right now. chances are you will live even though it feels like you will die at any moment . I was having withdrawals 6 weeks after I took my last pill. That stuff is EVIL. Body Shocks, weight gain 30 lbs, I had High cholesterol and blood pressure, loss of libido, and erectile dysfunction.
My blood pressure and cholesterol are back to normal, My depression is back (never left just forgotten while on effexor welbutrin mix) and my anxiety is worse and I am still having impotence problems....
The good news is I'm in the process of getting diagnosed with "secondary hypergonadism" I say good news because it explains my depressions and anxieties, my erectile dysfuntion and a host of other issues I thought were partly caused by the depression ( erectile dysfunction I thought was caused by effexor but it never started to function after having been off of it almost 2 years later) buyt were really the symptoms of something else.
After some basic blood tests at a physical it was discovered I had low LH and Testosterone levels.These issues cause the syptoms for which we are medicating with anti depressants and I would suggest to anyone to get blood tests before they ever go on these drugs. Check your hormone levels before you start supplementing with chemicals like saratonin and other such drugs. Make sure your symptoms arent caused by something else. It seems like DR.s will prescribe anti depressants as if they are flavor of the month.
So if you can afford to get some blood work done check your basic hormone level to make sure you aren't medicating the symptoms of something much more serious.
I've been taking 300 mg for 7 yrs. I've been able to reduce the amount down to 150 mg per day but cannot get off the drug completely. Please advise on who I need to contact. Thanks,
I am looking for a law suit against Wyeth and Effexor. I am hooked on this medication and I can't get off of it because the withdrawls are so horrible. i want to file a suit against the company that makes this drug. Can anyone help?