justAna: Effexor XR side effects are hard to endure

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Saturday, December 27, 2008

Effexor XR side effects are hard to endure

I'm feeling dizzy, migraine and my ears are buzzing. Impossible to concentrate.

18 comments:

Fid said...: This sounds stupid Ana... but it helped me through withdrawal.

Go get a towel

Soak it in very cold water

Wrap it around your head.

Or

Place some ice cubes in a thin towel and place on the back of your neck.

Placing your arms in cold water too.

Hope these help

Fid; December 27, 2008 at 9:45 AM
Ana said...: Thank you Fiddy!
I have noticed that when I get a cold shower it helps.
I wish we really could prevent people being put on these poisons.
I hate complaining but this is unacceptable.
I've spend 2 years of my life in withdrawal hell.
All I had to do was staying on 37,5 mg for a long time because for some people the last dose is the more difficult.
I went back to 150 mg.
Now I want the withdrawal hell again but they took the tablets out of Brazilian market.
I told the psychiatrist last year that side effects got worse.
They don't give a damn.
I'm sorry for the outburst.; December 27, 2008 at 10:46 AM
Monica Cassani said...: so sorry Ana...
I came off Effexor once too but I didn't have to do it with the XR...

wishing you good health very quickly; December 27, 2008 at 11:22 AM
susan said...: Hang in there sweetie. Hold on tight to Nell...

When you feel better see if you can get a Pay Pal button put on and we can contribute towards a new PC (or Mac) for you.; December 27, 2008 at 12:41 PM
Ana said...: Thank you Gianna.
I don't know how to withdraw XR neither.
When I did it the tablets were on the market.

Susan,
I don't have bank account.
Mac is too expensive. Impossible here.; December 27, 2008 at 1:46 PM
Anonymous said...: This will provide little consolation and soothing right now, but maybe it'll provide some hope, too. You've read my article Addiction and SSRI medication I wonder if you read the follow-up "SSRI update..." where I mention that I sent that letter to my congressman and two Senators. Well I got a call back from my Rep's office and one of my Senators office. I check in with the guy from my Rep's office once every month or two. Last time I called I left a message that he should check out Alison Bass's book "Side Effects." He called me back and said he found it online, it looked interesting, and he'd be ordering a copy through the Library of Congress. As I said, it was a guy from my Rep's office, not my Rep. He handles Defense and Veteran's affairs for my Rep. So he was interested and concerned when he got my letter about SSRI addiction, which I wrote in response to the TIME magazine article about combat troops receiving meds to deal with battlefield stress.

Basically, giving the drugs to deployed combat veterans will lead to PhArma's downfall. It's one thing to prescribe these drugs to America's mentally ill and desperate, quite another to prescribe it to America's heroes. Do you think that once reports start coming in from soldiers experiencing nasty side effects and withdrawal that American citizens who normally wouldn't have thought too much about side effects the mentally ill were experience will have a bit of a problem with their fighting brave heroes being given drugs with such nasty side effects? I'm sure complains have already been filed, so now it's a matter of the news media picking up on it, and reporting the truth. That will create problems for the PhArmies, that they messed about with America's Armies. Greed got the better of them, and they made a critical error. It happens all the time, throughout history: The rise to power, then drunk with power, then making mistakes due to overconfidence and being in the tower for too long.

Or maybe it wasn't their error. Someone, somewhere, had the idea to give drugs to deployed veterans, and what was Pharma to do? Say, "ummm.... I don't think that's a good idea. We'd rather the drugs be doled out to poor people without a voice."

Ooops to Pharma, P.S. Thanks for getting caught.

Well, Ana, by Christmas of 2009 you may just get from Santa all you've wished for.; December 27, 2008 at 6:55 PM
Monica Cassani said...: mentaldimensions,
I commend your efforts and certainly it seems you've got an ear in your reps office.

I can't help but be skeptical about your idea that giving these drugs to America's Heroes will change anything...

Veterans have been treated like crap for decades...I've had lots of veterans as clients...nobody gives a crap about a hero after they leave the field. Another depressing reality in this world. Our combat heroes are, unfortunately, in general, poor, uneducated young men and women who have no options but to join the military. And once they get out they don't have a voice just like before they went in.

Of course this does not mean we shouldn't fight for them just as we do all victims of psychiatry...and maybe they'll join us...that would be good.; December 27, 2008 at 7:05 PM
Ana said...: Thank you Andy!
I've send letters to Brazilian mags when they publish how great SSRIs are.
I've sent e-mails to two congressmen.
They don't remember who they are representing.
How I wish I could say "my congressman".
Why do you think I'm blogging in English?
The Pharma is everywhere here.
You're doing a good job.
I'll check your post.
Vietnam vets were treated as "neurotics" and everybody understood that someone who has experienced what these men have in the battlefield is deeply affected.
No medicine can heal it.
It's so obvious!
They are not "depressed". They are traumatized and no pill can fix it.
I'm not sure that the public opinion in concerned with vets but you know it more than me.
I hope they do.; December 27, 2008 at 7:17 PM
Anonymous said...: Hmmm... Christmas may come early. I just came across this in my RSS reader.

But when I click the link and get led the the Washington Times, I get a page not found error. It's showing up in Google News though.

This is the link I'm led to from Google News (It currently leads to a Page Not found error on the Washington Times).

Vulnerable veterans face mental traumas as agency seeks to remedy ...

So all I can see from Google News and in my RSS reader is the following excerpt:

"Veteran James Elliott says the Veterans Affairs Department did not warn him about new concerns from the Food and Drug Administration that Chantix was linked ..."

All I can find on the Washington Times when I do a search (on their site) for Chantix is EDITORIAL: No 'de-booting camp'
[...]
"The Department of Veterans Affairs already has shown a propensity for using veterans as guinea pigs (as a series of articles by The Washington Times on the anti-smoking drug Chantix proved). Foisting a mandatory "de-boot camp" upon an ill-prepared VA bureaucracy and military hospital system could bode ill for all parties. Mr. Filner seemingly has the best interests of the fighting men and women at heart. He should think long and hard before pushing for policies that have the potential to do more harm than good."

This last article is completely different from the first, dated December 2, 2008. In the first article, do you think the following words would have been "to increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior?"

Pfizer Sales Reps Downplay Chantix Side Effects; December 27, 2008 at 7:18 PM
Anonymous said...: Washington Times, December 28, 2008: VA grapples with veterans' mental traumas

From page three of the article:

Mr. Elliott said the VA didn't warn him about new FDA concerns that Chantix was linked to psychotic behavior and nearly 40 suicides until nearly a month after his disturbing incident occurred earlier this year.; December 27, 2008 at 9:06 PM
Ana said...: I did not see Gianna's comment.
I've heard so much on the way how badly vets are treated when they come home that I cannot help feeling skeptical too.
I hope it changes.
Chantix is being sold in Brazil and nothing is said about any side effect.
Nothing is said about any harm.; December 28, 2008 at 5:32 AM
Anonymous said...: I guess I'm forced to agree with you both. Vets have been treated horribly for years and there's no reason that should change now. Unless you count the new "Change" guy, whom I voted for, but I think it's really to early to see if he'll live up to the hype. Thanks for making all those valid points and reminding me how things really are.

I'm far too optimistic for my own good, but the strange thing is, it's all done without drugs! Wow!; December 28, 2008 at 3:22 PM
Ana said...: We have to be optimistic.
But I confess that I'm not. I'm avoiding watching the news lately.; December 28, 2008 at 4:12 PM
Anonymous said...: By the way, the fellow who's ear I have been works for Congressman John Kline. In US Congressional District 2 if anyone is interested. http://kline.house.gov/. Mailing address is at the bottom of the home page. As long as they heard from me, they might as well hear from some more people. Wake them up a little hopefully. I guess I'm not authorized to give out the guy's name whom I spoke with, but hopefully it'll run across his desk. He of course took interest in what I wrote because it specifically pertained to Veterans, so I don't know if he'd see letters generally related to SSRI side effects and addiction/physical dependence/discontinuation syndrome.; December 28, 2008 at 4:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Sometimes avoiding the news is a good idea, especially if it's how you feel.

I understand how you feel.; December 28, 2008 at 4:25 PM
Ana said...: Thank you Andy.
It's good to hear it you cannot imagine how much.; December 28, 2008 at 4:45 PM
Anonymous said...: I can imagine if I want to, and you can't stop me!

This was one of my first attempts at news satire, and I wrote it a few months after I got off Stelazine (Trifluoperazine), a drug which I'd been on since 1992, a drug with stole part of my mind and my life.

But anyways, something for your amusement, hopefully.

From October 2003, Mental Health. We’re Listening. What?

It's interesting -- at least to me -- to see how much more sophisticated and creative my writing has become since I stopped taking Stelazine.

Now, if I only knew the difference between an en-dash and an em-dash and when to use which, I'd feel much more confident and less depressed.; December 28, 2008 at 4:57 PM
Ana said...: Good post!
It's amazing that the 15 minutes to prescribe is a world phenomena.
This is sad because they don't make the patient history.
I've been prescribed Stelazine an took it for four years.
I was "diagnosed" by another psychiatrist that didn't asked since when I was feeling that way.
It started when I was prescribed Tofranil to help me withdraw Klonopin.; December 29, 2008 at 3:38 AM

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