Stories of the Effuxed. Meet Jessica.

One goal of this blog is to centralize all the disparate tales of sorrow and grief that surrounds this drug and other antidepressants of it's ilk. There are far too many.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/youropinions.php?opinionid=19018&p=13#thread

Effexor RUINED My Life

posted by Jessica on 25 Jun 2010 at 1:03 pm

I will try and keep this brief, but it's a lot to explain. I have always suffered from mild depression. But have always had trouble finding the right anti-depressant. Finally my doctor put me on Effexor, I think I started on 75mg, later increased to 150mg. (This all begin in Fall 2007, so the details are a bit foggy now) A year later I got married, my husband later told me I changed the day I started taking Effexor, and that he just sat back and hoped it wouldn't last. Shortly after the wedding, I wanted off Effexor so that we could start our family. I wish some one somewhere had told me about going off Effexor. EFFEXOR SHOULD BE A PERMANENT MEDICATION, OR ELSE DOCTORS SHOULD NOT PRESCRIBE IT AT ALL!!!!!! Like everyone, I went through hell. Months of trying to get off. My husband finally realized on bad days, when I couldn't take the withdraw any more I woud just go take more. So he tried to help me regulate them by keeping them from me(I was fine with this)Except I would refill my pills and hide them. It was like crack to me. I remember laying in bed crying for more to make the symptoms of the withdraw to go away. I lost my job during all of this. Then one day I went for it and went cold turkey(JAN 2009). It was hell. As the weeks went by the symptoms gradually lessened. But NEVER, to this day went away completely. At random, I have very bad days with massive symptoms, and then I can have weeks straight with next to none. However, the biggest issue was my emotions went completely haywire. It was like they were all magnified times a million. I suddenly hated my life and wanted to run away. I started counseling and seeing a new psychiatrist. They all told me a was very bipolar. I started taking 600mg Lithium and 100mg Lamictal in August of 2009They adjust my meds up and down, different times of day everything, and still I will be better for a week or two then I crash. My husband tried so hard to care for me. But one day I loved him, the next I hated him and pushed him away. He couldn't take it anymore, he left. My son from my first marriage is hard for me to care for. My mom is talking about taking him for a while because I can barely care for him most days. I am 120% I am not bipolar. I know the effexor 'broke' me. If I were truly bipolar the meds would eventually help. My doctors all say the effexor has a way of doing that to people, bringing out the underlying bipolar. Then they told me this is how I will be FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. Part of me feels like I would be better off going back on Effexor. But I am too stubborn to do that. Anyone who knows anything about this, I would love some opinions.