Effexor Class Action Lawsuit

I DID NOT WRITE WHAT WAS CHANGED HERE? NOT GOOD

Why is someone going on to this site and changing the words that I wrote? This concerns me big time!

That's really bizarre!

If you are doing ok on 150mg....just stay there for awhile. This garbage is a lot harder to get off of than the medical community realizes. My doctor giggled when I told him I was counting the beads in the capsules when I got down to the 37.5mg capsules. He didn't mean any disrespect, he just really doesn't get how difficult it is and how nasty this drug is. Our society is used to having things quick....fast food and email, faxes and microwaves....getting off this drug will NOT BE QUICK. IT WILL TAKE SOME TIME. I know as much as anyone here, how badly you want this garbage out of your body. Truthfully, even being off of it completely now for just over a year, I still have lasting effects from the drug. Some of which may be permanent but I'm still working that out. What I CAN tell you all, is that the most common side effects that I've read about here, that most of us are dealing with, have almost completely gone away. But I firmly believe, if you try and rush through it because you just want it to be over with so you can move forward, you will most likely go back to them. This has to be done SO GRADUALLY! It will take months at the very least. It can take over a year or longer. You just take each day knowing that eventually you will get there. Instead of dropping a full capsule as your next decrease, pull the capsule apart an decrease the amount of granules in your capsule. You can estimate the number of granules or you can count them. I noticed each time I decreased, I had more physical pain. As time went on, the pain would level out and I'd get my brave girl boots on and remove say another 10 granules. Pay attention to what your body does in reaction to your decreases but you have to be willing to experience the side effects to get through to the other side of it all. If it's just too much to handle? It's OKAY. Next dose, take fewer granules out of the capsule, and stay at that level until things mellow out a bit again. If you take your time, you CAN be successful.

I attempted suicide on effexor and it ruined my career. I am now on disability.

I used 150 mg and it is destroying my life

I have been taking effexor for 3 years at a dose of 225 mg. I tried to come off of them last summer by tapering down as was told by Dr. I was sick as all get out, 3 weeks later still sick. I started back on it because I couldn't take it any more. occasionally feel sick and have brain zaps even when taking med as usual. Help! I am all for the lawsuit. Sign me up. Also, my MD never even told me that I would have these issues if I began this medication. Mad as hell!

If you are Australian please join a couple of groups on face book. Theres lots of discussion going on about antidepressants. Check out Australian antidepressants class action on face book and ***edited by moderator*** web addresses not allowed
They are trying to lead the way for other class actions in Australia the first one is for children.

I also highly recommend surviving antidepressants website and Cymbalta hurts worse on facebook, although a different antidepressant, withdrawals and taper is similar.
They always say do not taper more than 10 per cent at one time. Drop ten cent and stabilize, then drop ten per cent again, DONT RUSH WITH ANY OF THIS. Open the capsules and take out the granules out step by step.. Please go to the pages I mentioned for support. This has to be addiction?

Yes, this is what I am trying to relay to people.....take your time. Wean yourself slowly! Slower than what the doctors recommend. It's the only way to be successful. I too pulled the capsules apart, pouring out small percentages out. My doctor kinda giggled at me but I didn't care. He said at the rate I was going I was never gonna be off of them. It took almost a year but I was taking 425mg daily.
For 14+yrs. I'm on the other side of it now.....well, I'm not on antidepressants any longer....now I struggle with healing the permanent damage it has done to me. I'm on year three of recovering from this mess. But I DO have a sense of gratification that I no longer need to put that garbage in me everyday....

That's fantastic, keep up the great work :)

If only....wish I were you.

I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to be in my shoes....while I CAN feel good about not taking Effexor/Venlafaxine anymore, it has done considerable damage to my nervous system and brain. I'm not without reminders daily. I'm in considerable pain everyday. Although, I feel strongly that if I continued on the path I was on, it would have been worse. I'm headed to the Neuroscience Center at the University Hospital in Utah in a couple months and hope there is something they can do for me to manage the pain. I'm looking to correct the problem rather than using more drugs to mask it. The drugs aren't beneficial plus I tend to experience the rare side effects of the drugs like seizures and blacking out to name a couple. The ER wants to chalk it up to my body's reaction to stress but I know better. Having the seizures and ears ringing so loudly I couldn't hear anything, blacking out, vomiting....that certainly caused some stress. So I was stressed from having seizures, not having seizures because I was stressed.
I feel like if people would take their detox a lot slower, they could be successful. It was still a really tough path to take but I'm still here.

I just am not able to get off...I've tried...at 37.5 IR....my head feels all scrambled since it stopped working one and a half years ago,,,now on Mirtazipine too......they just say all my problems are anxiety....have been up and down on meds endlessly last year....head feels like its going to explode...but doc says just anxiety...Im going to lose my mind.

How long have you been on the 37.5? I DO agree that there is a certain level of anxiety and stress these situations cause us. However...I also believe that in many cases, the drugs are causing the very problems we are trying to rid ourselves from. I believe, in my case, that over time it was increasing my depression, making my body think and react like it needed more of the drug to be ok. I spent a fair amount of time online looking at different methods people were using to get the drugs out of my system.....I found that with each decrease, I experienced more physical pain. But after some time it would kind of level out again and I took that to be my cue to take the next step and decrease more. Keep in mind, these decreases were very small. Sometimes for a while I pull the capsule apart and remove only 10 granules....no joke. I felt terrible all the time but I felt worse taking it I think, when I hit a certain level. There ARE supplements that these drugs tend to bind to that can help get them out of your system. It can be tricky figuring out whether you are feeling like c**p because of the meds or because you are decreasing.....you just got to pay close attention to your body, how it reacts each day, each week, each month and write it down so you can refer back. With the angst and dread all of this causes, it can be hard remembering how you felt after a decrease as compared to the week before the decrease. Because it tends to feel like a big whirlwind of constant hell. It helps gauge when you feel like you can handle another decrease.....even if it's 10 tiny granules, ITS STILL A DECREASE.....When did you start the Mirtazapine? Is it possible you are having side effects from that drug complicating the issue?