I among you all, recently decided I need to get off of this medication. I dont have a full time job and that doesnt seem to be changing anytime soon, the state is taking months to answer my application for medical help and both the prescriptions I take are like $400 a month my boyfriend is borrowing me, thats more than a car payment!
When I started on Effexor I remember having migraine headaches, bonafide migraine headaches for the first time in my life... light/noise sensitivity, nausea for like a week. Over time my dose has gradually been increased more and more. I used to take 150 during the year and 225 in the winter, now Im 300mg year round AND they added Wellbutrin XL because as many of you have stated i couldnt stay awake, I was napping on my lunch hour etc.
Up until recently Ive been happy with the Effexor, for the first time in my life I havent been suicidal but lately even that is not the case, it varies (I believe hormonally).
So anyhow I cut down to 1 capsule per day, instead of 2, and the Wellbutrin and the withdrawl headaches are killing me! Its been several days since I've just taken the one capsule and like clockwork around 5pm the headache comes. I called the pharmacist and the package insert recommends decreasing in 37.5mg increments over several weeks. That isnt helping my financial situation. Finally today I asked my boyfriend to go get a weeks worth on the way home and I took the pill I didnt take this morning.
I wasnt able to go off Effexor while pregnant, I figured the effects of the medicine would outweigh me killing myself. I think I was on 150mg at the time. He was born 6wks early, according to an ultrasound, but he was 7lbs and I was out of room for him. Going by my period and not the ultrasound he was only 2wks early. At any rate he stayed in the NICU not really because he was unhealthy but because he had reflux problems which i guess is common in premies, i myself had bad reflux as a baby. I asked my doc whether he was actually a premie after so many people asking me over and over if my dates were right because he was so large and he said at birth he did exhibit characteristics of being a premie but didnt elaborate. So to my knowledge the medication didnt affect him.
I find it interesting several posts mention going off the medication because you felt you didnt need it cuz you were fine or better or whatever and the medical background in me questions whether you felt better because you were on the medication.
I dont know but I dont know what Im going to do now Im physically trapped on a medication I shouldnt come off of only to find I cant come off of it or I wont be able to work the 5 shifts I do have the end of this month (the most I'll have worked in several months)
If withdrawl is this bad and this expensive you should be given a free withdrawl kit redemption form or something so Pfizer can pay for this medication while we struggle to reclaim our brains.
How frustrating!
Anyone wanting to email me can do so at _[removed]_
When I started on Effexor I remember having migraine headaches, bonafide migraine headaches for the first time in my life... light/noise sensitivity, nausea for like a week. Over time my dose has gradually been increased more and more. I used to take 150 during the year and 225 in the winter, now Im 300mg year round AND they added Wellbutrin XL because as many of you have stated i couldnt stay awake, I was napping on my lunch hour etc.
Up until recently Ive been happy with the Effexor, for the first time in my life I havent been suicidal but lately even that is not the case, it varies (I believe hormonally).
So anyhow I cut down to 1 capsule per day, instead of 2, and the Wellbutrin and the withdrawl headaches are killing me! Its been several days since I've just taken the one capsule and like clockwork around 5pm the headache comes. I called the pharmacist and the package insert recommends decreasing in 37.5mg increments over several weeks. That isnt helping my financial situation. Finally today I asked my boyfriend to go get a weeks worth on the way home and I took the pill I didnt take this morning.
I wasnt able to go off Effexor while pregnant, I figured the effects of the medicine would outweigh me killing myself. I think I was on 150mg at the time. He was born 6wks early, according to an ultrasound, but he was 7lbs and I was out of room for him. Going by my period and not the ultrasound he was only 2wks early. At any rate he stayed in the NICU not really because he was unhealthy but because he had reflux problems which i guess is common in premies, i myself had bad reflux as a baby. I asked my doc whether he was actually a premie after so many people asking me over and over if my dates were right because he was so large and he said at birth he did exhibit characteristics of being a premie but didnt elaborate. So to my knowledge the medication didnt affect him.
I find it interesting several posts mention going off the medication because you felt you didnt need it cuz you were fine or better or whatever and the medical background in me questions whether you felt better because you were on the medication.
I dont know but I dont know what Im going to do now Im physically trapped on a medication I shouldnt come off of only to find I cant come off of it or I wont be able to work the 5 shifts I do have the end of this month (the most I'll have worked in several months)
If withdrawl is this bad and this expensive you should be given a free withdrawl kit redemption form or something so Pfizer can pay for this medication while we struggle to reclaim our brains.
How frustrating!
Anyone wanting to email me can do so at _[removed]_