The Decision

There are certain drugs in the mental world that tend to bring up quick and fast reaction from those who have taken them. Effexor is one of those meds. This drug maybe the most common talked about subjects on various health boards around the world wide web and a lot of people do not like it. Of course people who do like this drug do not populate the boards for the simple reason they have nothing to complain about. Effexor is one of the stronger acting anti depressants on the market which also means its side effects can be a trip through hell for some people and this is not even including the process of getting off of the damn thing which is known as the discontinuation syndrome.

Here is a list of warnings coming straight from Effexor's manufacture:
* People taking MAOIs should not take EFFEXOR XR.
* All patients taking antidepressants should be watched closely for signs that their condition is getting worse or that they are becoming suicidal, especially when they first start therapy, or when their dose is increased or decreased. Patients should also be watched for becoming agitated, irritable, hostile, aggressive, impulsive, or restless. Such symptoms should be reported to the patient's doctor right away.
* Before starting EFFEXOR XR, tell your doctor if you're taking or plan to take any prescription or over-the-counter drugs, including migraine headache medication, herbal preparations, and nutritional supplements, to avoid a potentially life-threatening condition.
* Taking EFFEXOR XR with aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, warfarin, or other drugs that affect coagulation may increase the risk of bleeding events.
* EFFEXOR XR may raise blood pressure in some patients. Your blood pressure should be controlled before starting treatment and should be monitored regularly.
* Mydriasis (prolonged dilation of the pupil of the eye) has been reported with EFFEXOR XR. You should notify your physician if you have a history of glaucoma or increased eye pressure.
* When people suddenly stop using or quickly lower their daily dose of EFFEXOR XR, discontinuation symptoms may occur. Talk to your doctor before discontinuing or reducing your dose of EFFEXOR XR.
* Pregnant or nursing women shouldn't take any antidepressant without consulting their doctor.
* Until you see how EFFEXOR XR affects you, be careful doing such activities as driving a car or operating machinery. Avoid drinking alcohol while taking EFFEXOR XR.
* In clinical studies, the most common side effects with EFFEXOR XR (reported in at least 10% of patients and at least twice as often as with placebo) were constipation, dizziness, dry mouth, insomnia, loss of appetite, nausea, nervousness, sexual side effects, sleepiness, sweating, and weakness. Ask your doctor if EFFEXOR XR is right for you.

Then of course is the black box warning that seems to be on the box of every antidepressant out there mind you Effexor and Paxil led the way on this one. The problem is there is a chance that your suicidal thinking may increase when starting one of these meds and unfortunately it led to a rather disturbing rise in suicides and suicides attempts hence the black box warning. My theory on this is when your in the middle of a major depressive period the thoughts are there but the energy is no where to be found so after a couple of days on a major antidepressant the damn thoughts are still there but now there is a little boost in energy to actually act on them. The first month of a new antidepressant requires some pretty careful monitoring.

So after that is said and done why would someone basically put themselves in harms way of a potential bad reaction? Simply it is the chance and hope that this may be the piece of the puzzle to pull someone out of the hole that is depression. It is with this last thought in mind that I asked to be put back on Effexor once again.

I took Effexor for close to a year the first time around and my depression towards the end was just getting worse and worse. The problem was along with Effexor I was also taking Wellbutrin, Remeron and Temazapam (Plus about five to six months Zyprexa tagged along til my weight exploded and it had to go) so instead of trying to figure out which med was not carrying its own weight the decision was made to stop all of them and try out a new class of antidepressant. There was also a bad cutting episode that put me into the hospital and then the decision was made regarding the drug therapy switch up.

Back to present time, currently Seroquel is helping with the urges and keeping my brain running at a decent speed but my depression is going the wrong way so I figured it was worth a shot to try Effexor again and the doctor agreed. Now I need to wait the four to six weeks for it to kick in and a couple of months on top of that before I reach a dosage that will hopefully prove to be therapeutic. All I really know is what I have been doing up to this point is not working and it is time for change. Take care.

When The Meds Suddenly Stop

There are many different reasons why people will all of a sudden stop taking their medication and unfortunately like everything else in mental health there is a risk to it. If you think it is time for your meds to be stopped talk to your doctor first and let everyone in your support circle know of the plan so people are aware and will take action if negative behaviors suddenly start to appear.

So here are some reasons why medication is stopped:

1. The person no longer feels like they need the additional help - This area can be an amazing goal as it could mean that the individual has finally beaten their own person demon. The problem is the meds could be the reason why you are feeling so wonderful and you may be setting yourself to finding out the hard way how important the drugs are to your mental well being.

2. The freaking side effects are just to much - This is the category that causes a lot of people from no longer taking their meds. Zyprexa allowed my brain to stop racing, limited both the urges, flashbacks, nightmares and shut up the little voice that was up to no good. Sound great right? I also managed to gain over sixty pounds in under six months even though I barely ate. Mental health clarity and stability is a wonderful thing but won't mean much if you drop dead of a heart attack. A common side effect is known as the zombie effect which basically feels like your sleep walking while your wide awake, a normal conversation goes like this "Hey Untreatable how are you doing?" and a couple of minutes later my brain has realized that A) Someone is talking to me B) An answer is required. You get a lot of funny looks when your in zombie mode but the good thing is your in such a daze that you really do not notice. Sex is another big one. You are finally feeling good enough that you want to engage in bumping uglies but the problem is vital parts of your anatomy do not want to cooperate which then tends to lead to a deeper depression. Nardil, the MAOI anti depressant I came off of recently had its own scary level of side effects such as eating the wrong food or taking another drug on the no no list would send your blood pressure through the roof possibly to the point of causing a stroke and the no no list is very long. When I first started the diet it was like playing Russian roulette as I always wondered if the next meal would be my last. Thankfully my wonderful resources over at crazyboards helped me to figure out the diet.

3. Cost - One of the benefits of being deemed long term disabled is my plan covers the cost of all of my medication. Also being Canadian means my drug costs would be no where near to that of a neighboring American but for a lot of people the choice comes down to keeping a roof over their head or medication. There are a lot of generics out on the marketplace but you need to do your homework first as the chemical components in some differ a lot from brand name to generic and the best example is Wellbutrin. My doctor believes the generic version of Wellbutrin is nothing but a problem so he made sure the hospital would provide me with samples as my plan always goes for the generic version. Too many people suddenly stop their medication because of financial reasons.

Well there are the top three reasons why people stop taking their medication. Certain anti depressants will send a person straight into the discontinuation syndrome which is a fancy way to describe withdrawal and it can literally be hell on earth. Many experts claim that stopping a drug like Effexor or Paxil brings up the same response as someone going cold turkey off of heroin. Drugs like Valium and Xanax keep millions of people nice, calm and stable but when all of a sudden the meds are discontinued the person may end up in a tornado full of anxiety which can lead to very poor choices made and a lot of people at risk. The last two shooting tragedies in the USA included the following statement "The shooter suddenly stopped taking his medication".

Chantix Quit Smoking And Welcome To Hell

A new FDA warning came out on Friday, February 1, 2008 that Chantix may cause psychological programs in some users. Apparently the FDA has received reports that 39 people have taken their lives and close to 500 people made a serious attempt at suicide do to exposure to this drug. The company Pfizer Inc has added a new warning to the box so people know that quiting smoking may potentially kill them or at least want to. The non smoking aid Zyban has a similar warning on their box and as most people already know this drug is also called Wellbutrin a top selling antidepressant out on the market place.

I wonder about the research trials that goes with each new drug and have to question how accurate these studies are. Why is it that every few months another drug is being banned or forced to add additional warnings to the box because people are showing up dead or in great stress due to the medication. Is it not the purpose of these trials to make sure the drug is safe for the public? There is a drug called Trovan which is a drug created by Pfizer to battle meningitis but during the last part of testing in Nigeria a high number of children either died or were disabled due to their alleged interaction with this med. The country of Nigeria sued the makers of Pfizer then went one step forward and criminally charged executives from the company. The other odd part about Trovan is that it is allowed for limited use in the US for adults but Europe has completely banned this drug, at one point the receptive audience for Trovan was much larger in the US but people started dieing and liver damage began to show up in increasing numbers so the FDA restricted this drug. But not everything is negative in the Pfizer world as they are responsible for Viagra and that has made a lot more people happy then Pfizer's antidepressant Zoloft, a drug that is getting its butt kicked in court as people believe that it increases suicidal ideation and actions. Nice eh.

I think there needs to be a worldwide standard when it comes to medication so if it is good enough for the people in Europe then it is good enough for me. The drug trials sound like they need to be a lot longer then they are currently and larger in numbers to make sure that all side effects are known before the med is made public. The side effects that are showing up when it comes to Chantix did not take that long to appear so how did this get missed during the trials? I would like to think that all drug trials are a hundred percent accurate and safety reigns over profit but I also think that maybe tomorrow I will wake up and all of my problems will have disappeared.

Do your research on any and every drug before you swallow it. Start at crazymeds.us as the webmaster has done a lot of work for you already.

What Your Doctors Fail To Mention About Antidepressants

A week ago I went to my dentist and they were unable to treat me do to the antidepressant I was on at the time Nardil. So I took my dental health into consideration and I put it against my mental health then decided which was more important and the physical pain won. I took myself off of Nardil and called my doctors office to let them know. The next day I was called into his office and pretty much received his blessing and a small lecture on stopping my meds on my own.

For the last week I have had a headache and at times I must have given the impression that I was manic, out of control running on impulse, to be completely honest at times I was. All of this is connected to the fact that my brain no longer had the assistance of Nardil. When you are talking to doctors about antidepressants they basically sell it like they are trying to convince you to buy a Lexus so everything is positive and inflated. When the patient asks about side effects they play it right down with the old "Oh don't worry they only last for a few days then disappear plus the positives outweigh the negatives" and as a patient you believe them until you start to do your homework and reveal the piece that the doctors never seem to talk about. A lot of antidepressants have discontinuation syndrome when you stop taking them which in english means your brain is going through withdrawal and oh is it not happy about it. The side effects range from headaches to feeling ill to sudden mood switches to brain zaps and many more. Brain zaps catch people right off guard as everything could be going smoothly then your brain basically feels like it blinks, this does not hurt but it is annoying as hell for it comes out of nowhere with no warning. The range of severity for the symptoms have a couple of factors: A) Which drug you are on. B) How slowly your taper process was while stopping if any. The two kings of discontinuation syndrome are Paxil and Effexor that has people comparing it to coming off of heroin and is so bad that both companies are being sued because of it and for not properly warning the patients before they started the med. Some people suffer more then others when it comes to the withdrawal process and I know more then a few people who were still suffering months after they came off of the drug. The taper process differs from person to person and from med to med depending on how fast their brain can adapt to a lower dose. For some the process may take a few weeks where others it requires months it really varies from situation to situation but the best advice is the slower the better. At one time there were Paxil and Effexor taper programs all across the web but now people are charging others for access to it, go to healthboards or crazyboards and someone there will help you through it free of charge.

So why do people still turn to these meds especially Paxil and Effexor? Normally they are unaware of the process in coming off of the meds and the other reason is when you are in the middle of hell you do not think long term just on the immediate situation and both Paxil and Effexor are two of the strongest meds out there plus they are prescribed in huge numbers so it looks very appealing. If you want a great med review ask someone who is still taking Paxil or Effexor and if your looking for a bad review ask the same people when they come off of the med. The Lexus looks like such a beautiful car but the salesman fails to mention it explodes when you reach your destination.

On a personal note I really do not go through a high withdrawal period as my body destroys meds so I guess there is some positive to being drug resistant. When it was time to stop Effexor plus a couple more meds I was hospitalized, yes there were other circumstances, and my wonderful doctor stopped the meds after a three day taper but I was also under twenty four hour surveillance at the time normally the recommended reduction program is at least six weeks if not longer. As far as the Nardil goes I just need to keep track of where I am mentally at all times and when I start to slide in the wrong direction I know what I have to do and I just need to make sure I do it.

I am not a pharmacist or a doctor so don't take what I say about meds as gold. Every time your doctor suggests a new med question every single aspect and when possible do your homework. In cases of severe depression an antidepressant is needed but there is a right way to come off the med when the time is right but unfortunately a lot of doctors think the discontinuation syndrome is not real. A quick search on Paxil and Effexor lawsuits say differently.