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I Don't Feel Right & I'm A Little Worried

Posted , 5 users are following.

Guest
Guest

Hello,

I've been taking venlaflaxine for just over 6 weeks & i'm not feeling right at all. I started on 37.5 twice a day, then GP upped to three times a day & four times a day this Tuesday(so 150mg daily). and for the past couple of days i just dont feel right at all. My heart feels like it's beating really hard & i feel as though it makes my body move & tremble/shake/flutter at the same time. It's very hard to describe, but it's constant & i'm very aware of it. So much so that the past to mornings it has made me get up very early as it's so intense & i feel very panicky. I don't know if it's because i have been getting myself in a bit of a state this past couple of weeks or if it's the tablets.

Please help as i am worried & i don't know if this is normal or not.

Thank you in advance

Butterfly

0 likes, 31 replies

31 Replies

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  • totallytiffy1
    totallytiffy1 Guest

    Posted

    Please keep us updated on how your doing . This is tuff to go through. And you will get through it. Just check with Dr on call, I agree with others who suggested this. Or ER.😊😊
  • Guest
    Guest

    Posted

    Thank you everyone,

    I will keep you updated. 

    Please don't be annoyed with me, but i was so scared of how i felt i haven't taken another one since & i feel more like myself already. This is a bad drug isn't it & i can't believe how ill it m,ade me feel.

    My heart rate feels normal again, no sickness, not as lathargic & drowsy. So fingers crossed i have done the right thing. 

    Please all keep in touch.

    And thanks again

    Butterfly x

    • totallytiffy1
      totallytiffy1 Guest

      Posted

      Hi. Glad to hear what you did. That was luke a double dose. But it does work for anxiety and panic great. But I could only take 75mg. And the Dr. Kept pushing me to 150mg. And all the side affects happened. So I kept 75mg. Was fine. Call your doctor though still and rest and keep us posted.
    • amanda25783
      amanda25783 Guest

      Posted

      Hello Butterfly -

      No-one is going to be annoyed with you for not taking your medication - but don't blame everything on the drug - do make sure that you aren't poorly from some other, unrelated illness.  It is so easy to blame all your symptoms on depression, and then ignore the fact that you have an asymptomatic urinary tract infection, for example. 

      One of the problems with this wretched disease is that you can lack the confidence to stand up for yourself with medical people, and there is still a stigma associated with depression, even amongst those (i.e. doctors) that should know a great deal better than to see the illness as such.  Many of them lack the patience to listen.  I am incredibly fortunate that my own GP has suffered from it himself.  It makes such a difference to have someone who cares, and who is able to empathise.

       In my view, despite the emotional and intellectual effects of this horrible affliction, depression is a physical illness, and simply the result of some of us being unable to generate adequate amounts of 5HT in the brain - exacerbated by stress - & really no different from having diabetes and needing insulin. 

      In its own right, depression makes many of the people suffering from it feel terribly inadequate, vulnerable, and bad about themselves - for no real reason beyond brain chemistry - so the last thing that you need is to beat yourself up with a stick.

      In the meantime, just hang in there - I concur with so many of your reply posts that you really need to see a doctor now - not only because of my concerns that there might be another, more obviously physical problem involved, but because you have been taking a fairly aggressive drug to help you, at a recently increased dose. and inevitably it will cause side effects.

      Some of your mails have come from the USA, I think, and so I don't know what the time zone is where you are, and it is Sunday here in England - so very hard to get hold of a decent GP.  Do try, though, if it gets too much.

      Thinking of you again, which I hope helps a little, and I shall certainly keep in touch until you are better and feeling safe.  Take care:

      LOL

      Manda xx

       

    • totallytiffy1
      totallytiffy1 amanda25783

      Posted

      Eastern time zone here. Plus I have a Dr. On call on weekends and eves. For emergencies. Which I have used in case its something else wrong. You never know. My md sent me to ER for my issue. I'll be honest I'm apprehensive about the new one, but I persevere think positive and want a good functioning life again. I love outdoors and people. Of course my cats. I think I need a vacation after I'm put back together 😊
  • amanda25783
    amanda25783 Guest

    Posted

    Hi there

    I agree with Jackie 41 - it is a substantially higher dose than you were on before. 

    However - if you have been getting into a bit of a state - the anxiety symptoms are probably due to the disease, which is probably why your GP raised the dose.

     I was on Venlafaxine for about ten years - it helped my depression and anxiety enormously.

    I know exactly what you mean by your heart pounding - this happened to me recenty, having been off Venlafaxine for a couple of years, and along with all the other symptoms of depression - it got better when I was given Sertroline - which is an anxiolytic SSRI.  I am not there yet, but I am certainly getting better.

    Since writing that, I was so sorry to read your most recent mail - I also know what it is like to retire to bed for days, and to have no energy at all to pull yourself out of that terrible black pit.  IT ALWAYS GETS BETTER - and you must hang on to that fact.  There is so much to potentially enjoy in life - and once your 5HT is back to a reasonable level, your brain will stop hurting you like this, and you can be content and hopefully happy again.

    I experienced nausea with Venlafaxine - I used to throw up about two hour after taking it - a bit like a dog does - in that I was just sick, and then carried on as normal.

    I was changed to the slow release 150mg per day - so much better from the sickness front - perhaps you might ask your doctor for this?

    Meanwhile - you will be in my thoughts, as I know only too well what absolute hell this disease can put you through. 

    Do you have an understanding partner?  I imagine that helps - I have a great support network, partly because I had breast cancer last year - and those people mean the world to me.  I hope that you have the same.

    Take care xxx

     

    • totallytiffy1
      totallytiffy1 amanda25783

      Posted

      Hi Amanda good post, effexor 75mg. Years back put my anxiety and panic on track great .. You feel like your in a dark hole. Now I seem to have a serotonin syndrome issue. Not from effexor. But group support is great. I wish you well.
    • amanda25783
      amanda25783 totallytiffy1

      Posted

      Hi there

      Thanks for that.  I hope you are feeling better - and it such a relief that someone else sees it, and understands it as a black hole or pit, just as I do.

      Serotonin syndrome is very serious, and usually results from taking a new SSRI within two weeks of stopping the previous one - I hope that you don't have this but if you do, you really must seek medical help now. 

      I haven't disclosed before this post that I am a doctor - and yes, some of us doctors get it too - but I cannot bear to think that someone is suffering from such a dreadful consequence of SSRIs, if it is preventable.

      Please let me know that you are OK?

      I wish you the best, too.

      M xxx

       

       

    • totallytiffy1
      totallytiffy1 amanda25783

      Posted

      Hi. Yes I got the serotonin overload recently. Start new med this week. Thanks I did seek medical and Er help recently.
    • amanda25783
      amanda25783 totallytiffy1

      Posted

      Hi there

      I am so pleased that you had some help, and hopefully that it was useful, and stopped the serotonin syndrome from taking hold.

      I think this site is really very useful for people like us.

      I find it helpful to feel that I might just possibly be helping someone, too.

      Thunder and lightening here - my little springer spaniel is oblivious, though.  I hope it is peaceful where you are, and that you have a good day.

      LOL

      Manda xx

       

    • totallytiffy1
      totallytiffy1 amanda25783

      Posted

      Hello. Thank you. I never heard of it in my 27 years of having anxiety. Until after over fifteen years of good quality high functioning life, I had to change due to vision problems. Sadly. So its been a learning and scarey process. As it wears you out. Fingers crossed I have no problems with new med. I'm getting to know everyone in ER.😊 But just saw Dr again. That serotonin is the strangest and scarey feeling. I felt like I stopped breathing. And felt unlike anything I ever experienced. I have two Bengal cats I enjoy and its sunny here. Wish you well.
  • Guest
    Guest

    Posted

    Hello Everyone,

    Thank you so much for you're replies & support.

    Well in the end i decided to just stop these tablets & that was 2 weeks, hense why i have only just replied as i've been ill in bed coming off this awful drug. But hey i got through it. I must say though it has left me with no energy at all & i feel so hungry all the time, not to mention dizzy & full of headache.

    Does anyone know how long it will take to come out of my system & of you're experiences coming off this drug.

    Butterfly x

  • daveTTT
    daveTTT Guest

    Posted

    Fly Butterfly.

    I recognise everything you have described.Everything. I' m now on day 17 completely off Ven ( and everything else ). Still getting bad headaches, sore, dry eyes, nausea, dizziness, sleeplessness, not much sweating now, emotions all over the place, happy, sad, tears for no reason etc. Can feel quite deppressed one moment the in the clouds the next. ( bought a car yesterday, now I wish I hadn't ).

    My family and freinds are amazed by my massive improvement, my daughters say they have their " Fab Dad " back again.

    Butterfly, it is still a struggle and some days I struggle but on the whole ai am optomistic about the future now and WILL get through this.

    Good luck, DaveTTT.

    ( If you think I look like George Harrison, I don't, it's a photo of him. I have found him such an inspiational man through my life I look at him and gain strength.)

     

  • Guest
    Guest

    Posted

    Hello Dave,

    Thanks for you're message. So you are very much where i am, i'm still sweating like crazy & feel so shattered & keep crying for no reason at all. Have you any idea how long we will feel this way? I do think i am past the worse, it's now more emotional for me.

    I'm really glad for you that you're family have noticed an improvement, just shows how bad thesew tablets are doesn't it.

    Butterfly x

  • daveTTT
    daveTTT Guest

    Posted

    Fly Butterfly,

    Had a long chat ( 30 mins.) would you beleive with my phycatrist 2 days ago. With all modesty I think I know more about Ven than she does! I printed off a couple of comments from this site and showed them to her and she was surprised and seemed to take the horrendous problems with Ven in. ( someone has to tell them!!!).

    She explained that because I had been on meds. for so long now that, now I have come off everything, my brain is panicking and sending out distress messages to all parts of my body hence the sweating,emotions,anxiety etc. She assures me that my brain will eventually adapt and get back to some sort of normality. Fingers crossed!

    Hope this helps,take care

    DaveTTT.

     

    • totallytiffy1
      totallytiffy1 daveTTT

      Posted

      First the best of luck to you. Your right and food for you for showing your Dr. I sure bet you know alot more. We all do, were going through this not them. We read read read. Maybe they should see the other side to these ven meds. Good luck to you, have a nice weekend 😊
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