Normal side effect?

Hi Danielle,

Sorry you are having such a rough time, sometimes I think that the drugs they peddle do more harm than good. The sleep disorder is really what caught my attention, as this can cause further isolation and lack of motivation. Venlafaxine normally causes one to have a hard time sleeping or staying asleep. It CAN cause headaches, but the migrane aspect is what would concern me. Migranes can run in families, but seeing as how you never had one till you went on this stuff, I would point to Venlafaxine. Going off caffeine suddenly can cause pretty bad headaches but if you are still taking it in then that is a dead end.

In my opinion and having been on ADs for 5 years now, Venlafaxine should not be a first choice by doctors. It is strong and has very heavy withdrawl symptoms. There are many other great ADs out there without these side/withdrawl effects. If the Propranolol is a new one for you it could be the culprit of your sleepiness. You should be waking up ready to start your day with your wonderful partner and and great life, not wishing you could dream it away . To me this sounds like either the meds you are on aren't working or they are causing the opposite effect (which has been known to happen).

If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't hesitate to get back in to your doctor/psychiatrist and insist a different combination or just try one med first to see how you react. Then, if needed, start on another to debate other symptoms. I'm no doctor, but being through my own trial and error and reading many many posts about this stuff, you get to see patterns and similarities. Please listen to yourself and react when your body and mind say "this isn't right and isn't me". I hope you can resolve this and get on living soon.

Best Wishes,

Chad

Hi Chad, thank you for the detailed feedback, its really put some insight into what's happening.

venlafaxine is actually the 2nd AD I've been on, i tried citalopram but i had very very bad side effects with it and I'm kind of settled on venlafaxine now and a little reluctant to change again, but i spose its worth telling my doctor and asking.

I've not changed my intake of caffeine so I'm not sure what it is. It's not everyday in waking up with migraines, just every other day, I've tried to pinpoint what it could be but I've not found the culprit yet.

I've been on the propranolol almost as long as the venlafaxine (about 6 weeks) and this is the first time in having side effects like this, is that normal?

Usually i had trouble sleeping, getting very little, only about 2 to 3 hours a night, its only over the past 2 weeks I've been sleeping longer, but now i can sleep up to 12 hours without waking up once, this is what i mean by sleeping my day away because then i don't wake up until after 12pm, where as before the meds I'd naturally wake up between half 9 and 10am and still get 8+ hours sleep.

I don't know why I'd rather dream away rather than wake up to be honest. My dreams are very real and very detailed and i remember almost all of them, and to be honest their a bit weird aswel, not at all like previous dreams i used to have. But i really do feel down over the fact I've woken up instead of still dreaming and always wish i could role over and go back to sleep and to be honest i could but i always force myself to get out of bed and get on with what day i have left. It's like before i had the meds i knew i had to get up and do things, but now when I'm dreaming like i am I forget all the responsibilities i have and my body just stays asleep as long as it can. I honestly believe if i had zero disturbances then i wouldn't wake up and that worries me, not as in I'd die during my sleep, just that I'd stay asleep.

Also whenever i have to get up for work early in the morning, no matter how much sleep i get i always feel tired, and then i feel tired for the whole day.

I don't know how to make this better, I've tried changing my sleeping pattern but nothing seems to work.

Could you perhaps elaborate on opposite effect, i don't really get what you mean?

I'm not due to go back to the doctors for another 2 weeks yet but will try make an appointment for next week just to get some advice from my doctor.

Thank you again

Danielle x

Hi Danielle,

Looks like you've been trying to figure it out, but with so many variables it is hard to pinpoint, I totally get it. I'm afraid for you that if you tell your doc about these problems they might try to add yet ANOTHER pill to the mix. I would resist that personally but you must do what works for you.

As far as the "opposite" remark, sometimes (although mostly in teens and young adults) the ADs can disrupt the mind in a way that causes abnormal thinking. Sometimes they way one drug works (even in the same family) can differ greatly on the mind as another. That is all I meant. You have to look everything and decide the next steps. Wlhether it is to continue, and hope you even out, or change meds, or whatever. It really comes down to what makes you the most comfortable because as you know, change can cause anxiety as well. I know I'm all over the map here, but I guess I am just telling you to watch over yourself, decide for yourself (not the docs or me), what the best path is for YOU. Only you know the subtleties and intricacies of you. Don't forget to listen to yourself, trust yourself.

I truly hope you find the answers, and I'm always here to lend an ear.

Take care Danielle

Hi Danielle, sorry to hear you're having some problems with your meds. I don't know about the Propanolol but as someone who has been taking Venlafaxine for 16 years @ 300mg slow release I do know a bit about it. Everyone reacts differently and the combination of drugs will make a difference. Therapeutic effects of Venlafaxine take time to build up, months rather than weeks and you've just had a doubling of your dose so side effects can be expected for a while. The headaches are interesting. I'm now withdrawing from Venlafaxine (very slowly) and each time I reduce my dosage I start waking up in the middle of the night with a banging headache (I'm not a headache person and I've never had a migraine). When it happens, I get up straight away and take two Paracetamol. The headache begins to subside after about 20 mins and I go back to sleep. In the morning I still have a dull headache which takes most of the day to recede. A couple of days later it happens again. This continues for about a week, along with other side effects of withdrawal, then disappears.

Your symptoms, altered sleep patterns, headaches, 'seeing' things, incredible fatigue and needing to sleep are all 'normal' side effects and also withdrawal effects! You need to decide if you can persevere until the side effects die down (some may never completely disappear) and the good therapeutic effect kicks in or if it really feels too much. Either way you need to discuss it with your GP or Psychiatrist.

Don't panic - give it time - and try to focus on the positives the meds are giving you.

Good luck and take care,

Sue x

Hi Sue,

I knew that there would be side effects with upping my dose of venlafaxine i just thought that they would be like what i had when i started it, the constant fatigue and migraines are new. When i first started taking it i couldn't sleep and always felt sick, its like a whole new set of side effects.

With the migraines I get them every other day when i wake up, i also immediately take 500mg x2 paracetamol and try relax in bed for a while, only issue with this is sometimes i end up going back to sleep for another 5 hours meaning im not getting up till 3-4pm which again gets me down about the fact I've slept my day away, plus I wake up again with the exact same migraine.

Recently it seems the paracetamol aren't having any effects on it, they aren't even dulling it down so I tried a little experiment, yesterday when i woke with a migraine I got up, came downstairs, had breakfast and a brew, took my venlafaxine and propranolol and waited..........It took about 3 hours but to my surprise my migraine disappeared without the use of any pain killers. I'm a bit dubious about trying this again as I couldn't do anything for them 3 hours, any movement was instant pain, I am also left wondering if this was coincidence or if not taking the paracetamol actually did something, like i said I don't really know the in's and out's of migraines.

As for feeling the therapeutic effects of venlafaxine I started feeling this around week 3 or 4 of starting them, it's not until the end of week 6 I started feeling some anxiousness again and decided to up the dosage. I am still benefiting from the therapeutic effects of the meds but also getting these side effects, I've been on the new dose now for just over 2 weeks now, so hopefully in another 2 weeks the side effects will have subsided.

Thanks for the advice

Danielle x