Roller Coaster Redux
I’d upped my Effexor XR recently, and was achieving nice results at 112.5, but went up to 150 at the recommendation of my shrink. Two weeks in, I was feeling even bouncier. And then … anxiety in whole-body washes of hot, and cold, and tingles. Hyper-focused attention, impatience, inattention to idle conversation, and spaciness–verging on what I associate with my hypomania. Nausea and acid stomach if I ate more than 1/2 cup of food at a time. Nightmares. Ugh. No thank you. I called my shrink and left a voice mail with my symptoms and that I was going to knock it back down to 112.5 and see how I did. 12 hours in, I am feeling less verge-of-hypomanic, not so nauseous, and able to eat 3/4 cup of food at a time. Whoopee! I need a plateau, I really do.
Republished from BipolarLawyerCook.
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:02 pm
I wasn’t taking any where near the dose of Effexor that you are and begged my doctor to change me off of it. Severe stomach pain after taking it that would make me so nauseated. I would have an anxiety attack just trying to take the pill because I knew how much it would hurt my tummy. You have my total sympathy, a little tummy hurt empathy and my complete support!
October 4th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
I hated Effexor, and I’m BP2. We’re all different though. I think I was taking 150. I don’t think it did much of anything for me, but make me feel like absolute shit if I missed a dose. Going off of it, slowly, I told my doc, “I can see why drug addicts don’t want to quit. It actually hurts.” She agreed.
A friend of mine said Effexor made her feel like “a fork in a microwave.” I always thought that was funny.
But, I know it works for some people. Someone else I know loved it. Me, not so much. Did nothing for the hypomania.
October 5th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Can we call each other every day? Thank god I get to read this, I feel less crazy. I am thankful for this place. I love Leah.