CurlyNight said:
Effexor is a rough one to get off of if you're on it long enough. Gives flu like symptoms if you miss a dose once it's set in. Some are on Seroquel. Therapy is always a must but as for meds, it's trial and error hopefully for short term. I just see the name Effexor and cringe. Nasty side effects should you miss a dose or go off of it later on...
Wife has been on Effexor for years. I'd love for her to be able to get off of it (as would she) but do fear the effects of doing so.
Oh wow. Years? If it's working then maybe she should stick with it. My cousin wanted to try something else after years of being on Effexor thinking it would be easier down the road if she stopped it now. Her dr did a lateral transition to Pristiq which shouldn't have created much of symptoms but it did for her though I think less than just slowly going off Effexor. Once she got used to Pristiq she wanted to try Celexa which is common and isn't as wicked as Effexor, which imo is the worst with side effects. She would forget to take Effexor and by 3:00 she felt like she had major flu. It would take an hour after popping the pill for her to feel ok, not great, but ok.
Then in 2010 she felt she was doing great and wanted off Celexa. She had heard on Dr Oz (I know...) that hey, you may not need meds at all even if your dr says you do. I think fish oil was the tooting du jour on that show. I had a feeling she shouldn't do it as she is and has been clinically diagnosed as major depressed and generalized anxiety. It's not just a fleeting or take for a few months because your life sucks at the moment and you need a boost thing. But she didn't listen and with her dr. she slowly tapered off Celexa. Man, she sounded like and felt like she had a stroke in a way. Her cognitive functions were off. She needed even more help at work to do her job. Her speech at times sounded slurred and she was out of it a lot. She was determined to go through the side effects and do the fish oil thing. She had found this forum where folks were doing this alternatively to taking their rxs for depression/anxiety issues. This was all from July through Nov.
Dec came and she realized she needed to get back on. Her depression/anxiety worsened and she felt like #### too. My bro has a psychiatrist friend who gave her Zoloft 50 mg (which is considered starter dose but I beg to differ...). That night she had major electrocution type senses from head to toe, her muscles she said were heaving some, and she thought she was going to die literally. Got the call and took her back to her dr and got her slowly back on to Celexa. But the damage was done in that to this day she has burning/over heating sensations on her right side of her upper body from her ear down her neck and her stomach, sometimes the left side but not near as much and bad. She is miserable most of the time even with ice on it, it doesn't work that way. Summer is the worst of course.
She wound up falling rock bottom and was hospitalized 3 months later. Now she doesn't miss a beat with her Celexa and if she does miss a day, no bad side effects. Two days I suspect she'd feel something but not too bad.
I just helped her get approved for social security disability which is a ##### to try and get approved under 50 and on the first trial. Majority of people wind up facing the judge a couple years later before getting approved. I had found this gem of a website with knowleged people on the process so we were more prepared and knew what to do the correct way.
Anyway, it's a ##### but I would caution highly on just wanting her to go off the med. She may really have the issues that require meds and believe me, you and her don't want to go through what I went through with my cuz..... By the end of this all, I felt like I needed a few meds myself no joke!
Men in particular tend to 
