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Any help welcome

Posted , 3 users are following.

james22918
james22918

Hi, I have been given 75mg of Venlafaxine from my psychiatrist for my generalised anxiety disorder, to be taken once a day with food. This is to be increased to 225mg depending on how I react to the tablets.

My questions is does the drowsiness subside?. I've been taking it with food every morning for the past 5 days and within 3 hours of taking it i have to sleep again. Should I take it at night instead? The tablet is working for my anxiety which is good but is this a bad side effect that is continual? Also if the doctors increase it to 225mg will that be split between evening and morning as this isn't going to help me going forward?

0 likes, 5 replies

5 Replies

  • elaine73394
    elaine73394 james22918

    Posted

    Hi Jamie,

    I'm sure the tiredness will wear off. It did for for me after a couple of weeks. Are you on slow release or instant release ? You can take it in the evening if you find it better.. If you go up to 225 on slow release (XL) you will just take it once a day.

    It's an excellent anti depressant but does take a while to really kick in and the get the dose right.

    Good luck

     

    • james22918
      james22918 elaine73394

      Posted

      Thanks for your reply, I thought as much.

      I'm on instant release, when I increase I will go into Extended release. I will switch to taking it in the evening tomorrow and see how that goes.

      Thanks

    • Purpledobermann
      Purpledobermann james22918

      Posted

      It is not advisable to take venlafaxine at night because it may actually disturb sleep patterns and this can add up to making you more anxious if you do not get restful sleep. Please speak to your prescribing doctor before switching to night. I remember my doctor was very alarmed and would not budge when i said I will take it in the evening because of nausea and drowsiness.

      I was then told to take it no later than 3pm. I was also having some trouble with drowsiness for the first 4 weeks or so but not sure if this is how long it would normally take or I stopped feeling drowsy because the doctor then upped the dose. It was a long time ago.

      I do remember that my psychiatrist explained that drowsiness should not be an issue on higher doses. At 150 xr (my final dose) I had no issues with drowsiness or sleep disturbances so all was well.

    • james22918
      james22918 Purpledobermann

      Posted

      Thanks for your reply. That makes a lot of sense. I think I'm gonna stick to taking it in the daytime as I haven't been that bad today more just heightened anxiety symptoms rather than drowsiness which I know is another side effect. It's just a waiting game until the tabs get in my system I guess.

    • Purpledobermann
      Purpledobermann james22918

      Posted

      I remember the start up issues all too well. I know you may be in for a bit of a ride now, so for what it's worth: hang in there smile

      The waiting to see whether it is working or not is awful especially as anxiety increases to begin with....but it helps a little when you know that it is much the same for everyone. Eventually the, sometimes, crazy first few weeks pass and you can gauge and hopefully feel some real relief.

      Wishing you the best of luck on this. I wish it to work as well as it did for me. I never thought i'd be better and then when i was better I never thought i could be as well if i wasn't on medication...then the day came to start tapering off and...fast forward to now - 4 years drug-free. No issues. No hard feelings LOL

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