Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

Hi Amanda,

Ok, this may seem long-winded butI happen to be very opinionated when it comes to Effexor so I hope this at least helps in some way.

I've been on two ADs in my life, Paxil and Effexor. I hated both of them. The Paxil worked better for me but I gained 50lbs on it which was extremely hard to lose. I eventually lost the weight by going off the Paxil and essentially developing an eating disorder. Because of the eating disorder and related anxiety issues the doctors put me on Effexor. Effexor is actually one of the few ADs that tends to not cause weight gain...in fact, anorexia is actually listed as a potential side effect (god knows what my doctors were thinking putting me on it). It has more of an "upper" affect than alot of ADs which can lead to restlessness, twitchiness and in my case, INCREASED anxiety. But everyone is different in how they respond to it.

My main problem with Effexor is that it is extremely hard to discontinue once you start. If you have never taken an AD and really think one will help, I would strongly recommend you start with a different one. Effexor and Paxil have the worst reputation for withdrawal side-effects. The reason for this is because the have extremely short half-lives which means the drug is out of your system very quickly...miss even one dose and you can start to experience withdrawal (sweats, night terrors, sleeplessness, nauseau, diarhhea, anxiety etc). Other ADs have much longer half-lives so when you need to get off them you can do things like go every other day with your dose which just doesn't work with Effexor. It took me months to get off the Effexor of splitting pills open so that I could titre down in small enough doses. It was a joke. Plus, I ended up needing high doses of benzos (think Valium) to get me through it.

So, that's my little soapbox speech about Effexor. I don't want to scare you or anything, it's just the doctors don't tell their patients this stuff. A good pharmacist will...but half the doctors I saw weren't even aware of the problems associated with discontinuing the drug, I had to educate them.

I'm going to give you three good websites to look at...they may help you decide whether you want to chance it or look at another AD. One is actually specifically for Paxil withdrawal but it was started before Effexor came out, and because Effexor is now known as being the only drug on the market WORSE than Paxil for withdrawal they discuss it on that site as well. Here you go:

http://www.join-the-fun.com/effexor-withdrawal.html

Paxil Progress Message Board: http://www.paxilprogress.org/forums/

CrazyMeds: www.crazymeds.org (this site has information on all anti-depressants) AND CrazyBoards: www.crazyboards.org (this is a message board that is linked to crazymeds where you can get some helpful advice about Effexor.

I really hope that helped...if you have any questions feel free to email me or ask here

Kelly

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