Effexor Experiences
Here are some words from Effexor users describing their experiences with the "antidepressant" found on message boards such as pandamedicine.com, the effexor activist's message board, and topix.com.
“I complained to my doctor the first day I took Effexor and was told "you either want to get better or you don't" so I continued to take the drug. I had had depression before in my life but I had never attempted to kill myself until after starting Effexor. I tried to kill myself 3 times because I didn't know who I was anymore and thought I was going crazy. I developed a seizure disorder and they never connected it to the Effexor but I haven't had a seizure in months and I have been off of it for several months now. I still don't feel like myself and I don't know how to make it better. Withdrawl was pure physical hell for about 6 to 8 weeks and I still think I am going through some withdrawl symptoms. I had my doctor tell a while back that maybe I should go on a small dose and try to wean off again and I said NO WAY. When I would tell them I felt more depressed they just kept doubling my dosage. It caused me to have rage, anger, so many things that I had never felt or said before. I have lost everything and am still floundering trying to get my life back or some form of it. I have contacted a lawyer to try and pursue this but thought I would provide you with a quick overview”
“My brothers case is truly tragic. In the 4 month period he was presribed 300mg he became extremely manic. He went into an unprecedented spending frenzy that left him in debt for over $900,000. He is now facing bankruptcy and the loss of his 16 year old fine carpentry business.”
"One day I'm okay, the next I'm planning out my suicide. Today is one of those days, just wrote yet another letter to my family explaining why I have to end my life. I have two small children who I love with all of my heart, but I am in such mental anguish that life is just not worth living anymore. Also, I've become so irritable that I think that I would be doing them a favor in the end. I fear that my brain is permanently damaged.”
"“Ive had all the horrible experiences with effexor, and I was never warned by anyone about how screwed up the side effects of this drug are. Thank God my issues haven't been as serious as the ones I've read about on this board. I suffered from the crazy dreams, inability to wake up, brain shocks, dulled sex drive/function, and a complete lack of concentration. "
“I am on effexor (150) and just tryed to kill myself. I need help, becuase my doc. said that it was becuase of my drug. I am so sacred of my pill and I am getting off, but should I file a lawsuit? Am I justfided at doing this, I can hardly afford the hospital bill as I am only 15 and my parents want me to pay for it what should I do?”
“I TOOK MYSELF OFF EFFEXOR XR ALL AT ONCE. I COULD NOT SLEEP WHILE I WAS TAKING THIS DRUG. ALSO, MY LIVER ENZYMES LEVEL WENT BACK TO NORMAL AFTER TAKING MYSELF OFF THIS DRUG. I FEEL ALOT BETTER NOW. I CAN ACTUALLY SLEEP . ALTHOUGH I DID HAVE AWHILE THERE WHERE IT WAS HARD , I DONE IT. I DON\'T WALK AROUND FEELING DRUGGED UP ALL THE TIME. I BASICALLY HAD NO EMOTIONS WHILE ON THIS DRUG, GOOD OR BAD. IT WAS LIKE I WASN\'T EVEN MYSELF. I HAD TO WORRY FOR AWHILE THAT SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH MY LIVER. THAT IN ITSELF WAS VERY SCARY.”
“I have been on it for at least five years, at this point I know most the symtoms that all of you have mentioned and effexor is dangerous to come off of, I have attempted several times to get off of Effexor and it is not pretty. The side effects that I have while I am on it are just as bad. I would not care if you caught my hair on fire, I dont care about too much. I now have RLS, I can not sleep, some kind of seizures or shaking (not to be confused with brain shivers during withdrawl) if I do sleep, night sweats, leg aches and weight gain are some of the few. I could come up with more but my memory is not as sharp as it was in the past. I have told and asked doctors about this, they act as if I was making this up in the early stages of my encounter with this drug. I guess now they are some what saying that there is a problem. I have gone from 225mg down to 75mg a day over a long time and I still have a way to go, God bless you all.”
“i have been on effexor 150mgs,for over 5 months now. i am currently tapering down,with the help of my dr,even though she was mad that i wanted off of it.it ruined me.turned me into somebody i never was.i quit my job of 4 1/2 years,and went crazy on a shopping spree,bouncing checks,and losing my checking account that i had for 4 years.i now have all of this to pay off,no job.my credit is trashed.i have never done anything illegal in my life,until this damn rat poisoning got into my brain. Tricia”
“I have been on it for a year, I am comming off it now and am in living hell. While on it I bounced checks, ran up credit cards, just didn't care. It was like it created a monster. I couldn't figure out why it made me do this. I was always responsible before. So, now I have to try to peice my life back together and over come the withdrawl."
"My husband lost all senses of reality after only taking this medication after THREE WEEKS which led to suicide. There is no history of mental illness or suicide in his family and has never been treated for any type of mental illnesses. There were no listed side effects with the medication when he started taking it other than possible nightmares. He was only 23 yrs old and left behind a wife and two small children who will not give up until justice is done.”
"I too just shoved my problems in the closet, I've had to learn all over how to deal with my emotions. I was on Effexor for five years...
But I feel great now that I'm off of it! I'm healthier, happier, and more vibrant.
I really feel that this medication robbed me of four years of my life...and I have whole sections of my memory that are missing. My hands trembled, I had chest pains, lost most of my coordination, and forgot entire conversations while taking this medication.
I am so relieved to be free from it.”
“a psychiatric nurse practitioner handed out a 75 mg prescription for effexor to my boyfriend after talking to him for less than 20 minutes. He was doing well on risperidone for an undiagnosed schizoeffective dissorder. He had no complaints, but he trusted the nurse and began taking it. after less than a week the panic attacks, night terrors and feelings of "being posessed" were unbearable. He contacted the nurse practitioner and she told him to just stop taking it and he would be fine by the end of the day. two days later he slit his wrists."
“only took it a short while but the nightmares it gave me caused me to go off it after only a month or two”
“this drug should not be prescribed as it can be lethal and dangerous-My wife Has spent the last 2 years literaly bedridden- From this evil drug-“
“I was told over & over & over again that there was no withdrawal with EFFEXOR. I almost went to jail 2 times, thought of suicide, homicide and lost my relationship with my daughter for a few years over these side effects and withdrawals. I was a horrible mess and I get nauseous at the thoughts of what was and what could have been had I listened to the DR'S & pharmacists.”
“I started at 75 and went to 150 then last april my mom died in a car accident and the docs answer was "up your effexor" to 225. i started having facial swelling and hives and it would come and go. then i started having "blow your brain out" middle of the night 2 a.m headaches that would wake me from a sound sleep and i thought my brain would burst out my eyes. it felt just like someone was squeezing my brain, i could hardly walk, i had slurred speech, could half see and facial numbness. i would make it downstairs get a cup of tea with my husbands help and sit up the rest of the night scared as hell to go back to sleep for fear of dying in my sleep.”
"This is is day 8 of my going off of this drug, called Effexor ( Please Google "Effexor withdrawal". Wish I had before ever taking a single capsule).
After a week, I thought things were improving immensely. My"Brain zaps" seem to have been decreasing in frequency. Those are freaky. Like electrical shocks in your head! And you hear them. Like synapses misfiring. Remember the movie "altered States"? Really reminiscent of those morphing moments. Sure, I was still dizzy, light-headed, short-term-memory for s**t, blood-pressure 149/100, pulse 90 at rest, feel like bugs crawling all over my skin, eyeballs hurt, diarrhea, and my dick completely disappeared!
Also, autonomic stuff, like swallowing, has become a problem. If I'm prostrate in bed i start choking on my own saliva because that flap that sends food to one place and air to your lungs doesn't close when it should! And my speech comes haltingly. Not good for a professional announcer.
Night terrors in the last week are like nothing I have ever thought possible. Violent, ultra-disturbing dreams, usually involving animals and mutilation and unspeakable hereto for unthinkable thoughts of purest horror. Never ..."
“Effexor XR is the most one of the most dangerous drugs out there. The withdrawl is horrifying. Now my husband is going through withdrawl and his anger is intolerable. This could break up our marriage. All I can do for him is read what others have to say on the iternet. Let's get Wyeth to come clean!!!”"
“I too am a victim of this horrible drug--a so-called 'medicine' which was passed by the FDA for public consumption on the strength of (count 'em) 2 clinical trials. Both were only short-term (3 months) and involved between 2-5000 people. It took me 3 tries to get off effexor and many horrible symptoms. Before I took effexor I was a healthy man who seldom saw a doctor. Since, I am almost constantly sick with something or other. My health hasn't been the same. "
“Wyeth has insidiously turned trusting consumers seeking relief from depression into drug addicts that are forced to take their product. Personally I worry more about having enough Effexor than about having enough to eat. Oh, and I am back to taking the Effexor XR. I found myself at work crying because I felt so bad and one of the MD's I work with told me to restart it...”
“I doubt one single person on this whole earth would have ever put one single pill in there mouth if they had been told about the withdrawel effects. Don't give up..it will end..sometime...WITHOUT suicide so don't give up...fight it out, fight it hard...you have it in you. Just take every SECOND at a time, not every minute, every second and you'll get through it...you'll come out on the other end...we all can't give up..we have to get through this to stop the drug companies that made this and knowingly never took it off the market even after they knew what was happening. 2 days ago, I wouldn't have been able to offer any support..but now almost into my 14th day..I'm hurting bad emotionally, but nothing compared to where I was at 40 hours ago... I'm getting better...some people have gotten better faster then me, some longer, but I keep reading of people getting better.”
“..all suicide thoughts are now gone, my head feels completely clear of the chaos and the anger is gone. I'm on Celexa now for depression, which has taken awhile to "kick in" but today I feel way less depressed, but no less ready to fight against this drug company.”
“I complained to my doctor the first day I took Effexor and was told "you either want to get better or you don't" so I continued to take the drug. I had had depression before in my life but I had never attempted to kill myself until after starting Effexor. I tried to kill myself 3 times because I didn't know who I was anymore and thought I was going crazy. I developed a seizure disorder and they never connected it to the Effexor but I haven't had a seizure in months and I have been off of it for several months now. I still don't feel like myself and I don't know how to make it better. Withdrawl was pure physical hell for about 6 to 8 weeks and I still think I am going through some withdrawl symptoms. I had my doctor tell a while back that maybe I should go on a small dose and try to wean off again and I said NO WAY. When I would tell them I felt more depressed they just kept doubling my dosage. It caused me to have rage, anger, so many things that I had never felt or said before. I have lost everything and am still floundering trying to get my life back or some form of it. I have contacted a lawyer to try and pursue this but thought I would provide you with a quick overview”
“My brothers case is truly tragic. In the 4 month period he was presribed 300mg he became extremely manic. He went into an unprecedented spending frenzy that left him in debt for over $900,000. He is now facing bankruptcy and the loss of his 16 year old fine carpentry business.”
"One day I'm okay, the next I'm planning out my suicide. Today is one of those days, just wrote yet another letter to my family explaining why I have to end my life. I have two small children who I love with all of my heart, but I am in such mental anguish that life is just not worth living anymore. Also, I've become so irritable that I think that I would be doing them a favor in the end. I fear that my brain is permanently damaged.”
"“Ive had all the horrible experiences with effexor, and I was never warned by anyone about how screwed up the side effects of this drug are. Thank God my issues haven't been as serious as the ones I've read about on this board. I suffered from the crazy dreams, inability to wake up, brain shocks, dulled sex drive/function, and a complete lack of concentration. "
“I am on effexor (150) and just tryed to kill myself. I need help, becuase my doc. said that it was becuase of my drug. I am so sacred of my pill and I am getting off, but should I file a lawsuit? Am I justfided at doing this, I can hardly afford the hospital bill as I am only 15 and my parents want me to pay for it what should I do?”
“I TOOK MYSELF OFF EFFEXOR XR ALL AT ONCE. I COULD NOT SLEEP WHILE I WAS TAKING THIS DRUG. ALSO, MY LIVER ENZYMES LEVEL WENT BACK TO NORMAL AFTER TAKING MYSELF OFF THIS DRUG. I FEEL ALOT BETTER NOW. I CAN ACTUALLY SLEEP . ALTHOUGH I DID HAVE AWHILE THERE WHERE IT WAS HARD , I DONE IT. I DON\'T WALK AROUND FEELING DRUGGED UP ALL THE TIME. I BASICALLY HAD NO EMOTIONS WHILE ON THIS DRUG, GOOD OR BAD. IT WAS LIKE I WASN\'T EVEN MYSELF. I HAD TO WORRY FOR AWHILE THAT SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH MY LIVER. THAT IN ITSELF WAS VERY SCARY.”
“I have been on it for at least five years, at this point I know most the symtoms that all of you have mentioned and effexor is dangerous to come off of, I have attempted several times to get off of Effexor and it is not pretty. The side effects that I have while I am on it are just as bad. I would not care if you caught my hair on fire, I dont care about too much. I now have RLS, I can not sleep, some kind of seizures or shaking (not to be confused with brain shivers during withdrawl) if I do sleep, night sweats, leg aches and weight gain are some of the few. I could come up with more but my memory is not as sharp as it was in the past. I have told and asked doctors about this, they act as if I was making this up in the early stages of my encounter with this drug. I guess now they are some what saying that there is a problem. I have gone from 225mg down to 75mg a day over a long time and I still have a way to go, God bless you all.”
“i have been on effexor 150mgs,for over 5 months now. i am currently tapering down,with the help of my dr,even though she was mad that i wanted off of it.it ruined me.turned me into somebody i never was.i quit my job of 4 1/2 years,and went crazy on a shopping spree,bouncing checks,and losing my checking account that i had for 4 years.i now have all of this to pay off,no job.my credit is trashed.i have never done anything illegal in my life,until this damn rat poisoning got into my brain. Tricia”
“I have been on it for a year, I am comming off it now and am in living hell. While on it I bounced checks, ran up credit cards, just didn't care. It was like it created a monster. I couldn't figure out why it made me do this. I was always responsible before. So, now I have to try to peice my life back together and over come the withdrawl."
"My husband lost all senses of reality after only taking this medication after THREE WEEKS which led to suicide. There is no history of mental illness or suicide in his family and has never been treated for any type of mental illnesses. There were no listed side effects with the medication when he started taking it other than possible nightmares. He was only 23 yrs old and left behind a wife and two small children who will not give up until justice is done.”
"I too just shoved my problems in the closet, I've had to learn all over how to deal with my emotions. I was on Effexor for five years...
But I feel great now that I'm off of it! I'm healthier, happier, and more vibrant.
I really feel that this medication robbed me of four years of my life...and I have whole sections of my memory that are missing. My hands trembled, I had chest pains, lost most of my coordination, and forgot entire conversations while taking this medication.
I am so relieved to be free from it.”
“a psychiatric nurse practitioner handed out a 75 mg prescription for effexor to my boyfriend after talking to him for less than 20 minutes. He was doing well on risperidone for an undiagnosed schizoeffective dissorder. He had no complaints, but he trusted the nurse and began taking it. after less than a week the panic attacks, night terrors and feelings of "being posessed" were unbearable. He contacted the nurse practitioner and she told him to just stop taking it and he would be fine by the end of the day. two days later he slit his wrists."
“only took it a short while but the nightmares it gave me caused me to go off it after only a month or two”
“this drug should not be prescribed as it can be lethal and dangerous-My wife Has spent the last 2 years literaly bedridden- From this evil drug-“
“I was told over & over & over again that there was no withdrawal with EFFEXOR. I almost went to jail 2 times, thought of suicide, homicide and lost my relationship with my daughter for a few years over these side effects and withdrawals. I was a horrible mess and I get nauseous at the thoughts of what was and what could have been had I listened to the DR'S & pharmacists.”
“I started at 75 and went to 150 then last april my mom died in a car accident and the docs answer was "up your effexor" to 225. i started having facial swelling and hives and it would come and go. then i started having "blow your brain out" middle of the night 2 a.m headaches that would wake me from a sound sleep and i thought my brain would burst out my eyes. it felt just like someone was squeezing my brain, i could hardly walk, i had slurred speech, could half see and facial numbness. i would make it downstairs get a cup of tea with my husbands help and sit up the rest of the night scared as hell to go back to sleep for fear of dying in my sleep.”
"This is is day 8 of my going off of this drug, called Effexor ( Please Google "Effexor withdrawal". Wish I had before ever taking a single capsule).
After a week, I thought things were improving immensely. My"Brain zaps" seem to have been decreasing in frequency. Those are freaky. Like electrical shocks in your head! And you hear them. Like synapses misfiring. Remember the movie "altered States"? Really reminiscent of those morphing moments. Sure, I was still dizzy, light-headed, short-term-memory for s**t, blood-pressure 149/100, pulse 90 at rest, feel like bugs crawling all over my skin, eyeballs hurt, diarrhea, and my dick completely disappeared!
Also, autonomic stuff, like swallowing, has become a problem. If I'm prostrate in bed i start choking on my own saliva because that flap that sends food to one place and air to your lungs doesn't close when it should! And my speech comes haltingly. Not good for a professional announcer.
Night terrors in the last week are like nothing I have ever thought possible. Violent, ultra-disturbing dreams, usually involving animals and mutilation and unspeakable hereto for unthinkable thoughts of purest horror. Never ..."
“Effexor XR is the most one of the most dangerous drugs out there. The withdrawl is horrifying. Now my husband is going through withdrawl and his anger is intolerable. This could break up our marriage. All I can do for him is read what others have to say on the iternet. Let's get Wyeth to come clean!!!”"
“I too am a victim of this horrible drug--a so-called 'medicine' which was passed by the FDA for public consumption on the strength of (count 'em) 2 clinical trials. Both were only short-term (3 months) and involved between 2-5000 people. It took me 3 tries to get off effexor and many horrible symptoms. Before I took effexor I was a healthy man who seldom saw a doctor. Since, I am almost constantly sick with something or other. My health hasn't been the same. "
“Wyeth has insidiously turned trusting consumers seeking relief from depression into drug addicts that are forced to take their product. Personally I worry more about having enough Effexor than about having enough to eat. Oh, and I am back to taking the Effexor XR. I found myself at work crying because I felt so bad and one of the MD's I work with told me to restart it...”
“I doubt one single person on this whole earth would have ever put one single pill in there mouth if they had been told about the withdrawel effects. Don't give up..it will end..sometime...WITHOUT suicide so don't give up...fight it out, fight it hard...you have it in you. Just take every SECOND at a time, not every minute, every second and you'll get through it...you'll come out on the other end...we all can't give up..we have to get through this to stop the drug companies that made this and knowingly never took it off the market even after they knew what was happening. 2 days ago, I wouldn't have been able to offer any support..but now almost into my 14th day..I'm hurting bad emotionally, but nothing compared to where I was at 40 hours ago... I'm getting better...some people have gotten better faster then me, some longer, but I keep reading of people getting better.”
“..all suicide thoughts are now gone, my head feels completely clear of the chaos and the anger is gone. I'm on Celexa now for depression, which has taken awhile to "kick in" but today I feel way less depressed, but no less ready to fight against this drug company.”
Labels: abuse, abuse of power, brutality, commercialized, exposure, fear, medication, psych, PTSD, sleep disordered, truth
posted by VictoryGrey at
6:45 PM
5 Comments:
Been there, did that, Will never take Effexor XR again. It may help some people but funnily enough, not me or any one I knew that has taken it.
how long were you on it, dee? did you have a hard time getting off of it?
unfortunately, jace has been taking effexor for five years. can you imagine what that shit has been doing to his brain all this time? there's no way to even know.
he'd been on it for two years when he started this blog. in the first post, he writes, "I never lost control of myself, my reason, my sense, my words, until the 10th of September 2005. I wish that I could blame it on the overdose, but the more painful truth is that it comes from a mis-directed desire to "hurt back.""
here is the expression of pain so deep that he lost control of himself and sought suicide. what effect did effexor have in that? it certainly didn't stop him from trying to kill himself. but effexor CAN cause suicidal ideation. i have to wonder how much this drug has negatively influenced jace's emotional state and agitated his condition over the years.
i watched my mother go down the same shithole. the drugs didn't help her. she was on three: one anti-depressant, one for anxiety, and one for sleeping. she still tried to commit suicide while on them. several times in fact, before i was even born and while i was a teenager.
one day she decided to quit the medications cold turkey. her personality became increasingly shaky after that. she started having manic episodes and talking to a portrait of jesus on the mantle. a couple of months later she successfully killed herself. if she had not been on the meds (that weren't improving her condition!) all those years, she wouldn't have had the intense withdrawal that i believe led to her suicide.
that said, i have a friend who is successfully taking effexor, if successfully means he doesn't seem to be suffering noticeable side effects from it. i'm not sure what benefit he's getting from it, but i will ask and post another comment when i have his answer.
i don't want to give the impression that i am anti-medication. i think that anti-depressants DO have useful properties when used short-term and when they are not highly addictive.
but we live in dark times when dangerous prescriptions are handed out left and right with little forethought. why aren't we allowed to grieve anymore? if a loved one dies or a spouse leaves or a boyfriend/girlfriend betrays, or one's livelihood is lost, one should be able to grieve for as long as necessary without having a bottle of fucking "happy" pills shoved into their hands by so-called loved ones.
we've replaced community support with multi-colored milligram support in this country, and it makes me want to puke. but i guess that's just another adverse side effect of capitalism. speaking of, anyone know a good doctor who can taper me off of THAT?
I have been the route of antidpressants, getting out of the situation albeit by death was what in the end "cured" me though there is no cure for depression. Effexor after one yesr did little to nothing for me and I went to have a reveiw. The doc said we were getting low on options maybe we should up the dosage. I believe its in my blog either in Live Journal or here. Side effects were exacerbated by upping the dosage and I became anxious and had panic attacks and I couldn't sleep. Slowly changing to citalopram, the recommended antidepressent for auties helped. Paxil withdrawal was the worst though, was like having electric shocks.
i find a lot to be depressed about in this world, dee. maybe the cure to depression is changing the things that cause depression (American me me me individualistic, capitalistic, selfish anti-society).
today i am depressed about the drug companies that run their own short-term clinical trials and declare their meds safe for use. i am depressed about the cut-throat sales reps who hawk harmful products to doctors for a six figure salary. i'm depressed about the industrial assembly line healthcare system where doctors meet quotas (via double-booking and 10 minute appointment timeslots), patch patients up and pass them down the line to the next doc instead of finding the cause of the patient's troubles and solving the problem then and there.
of course, the result is an even bigger waste of time and money, and patients often get worse instead of better. but i've made this argument before about technical support centers and call times. it comes down to what looks good to the shareholders. common sense isn't even a factor.
at any rate, dee, i'm glad to hear you found something that works better for you. have you tried coming off the meds completely to see if you still need them?
in a previous comment, i reported that a friend of mine successfully used effexor, and i promised to post with more information regarding his experience. i was mistaken about him still being on it. here in his own words was his experience:
"at times thought I saw some benefit from it, but it was always kind of hard to be sure ro to quantify, much less or at least different benefit than I get/got from Dextrostat or Adderall, though lot less side effects too... Only side effect I ever noticed was the withdrawal symptoms when I forgot to take it, and that was little more than nausea. I was on it from, let's say, summer 2006? maybe? until this past winter I think?"
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