Venlafaxine Stopped working after 6 months?

Hi, I've tried mirtazapine but I didn't get on with at all it just me made sooo tired and lethargic all the time with little desire to do anything. 

Waiting for an appointment with my psychiatrist so hopefully it won't be too long to wait, GP on Monday and she knows her stuff after previously being a psychiatric nurse. 

 

Hi Caroline, I've been severely depressed for 8 months with suicidal thoughts and I will try anything now to get better.  I've just had my venlafaxine dose increased to 300mg by my psychiatrist.  Why was it the worst med you've been on or was it just the withdrawals were terrible?

Was there an antidepressant that you did find worked well for you?  So glad you're well enough to try a more natural product.  Gen x

Hi Gen, so sorry to hear you've been feeling bad for a long time. What you have to remember is that serious clinical depression is just that, SERIOUS and takes a long time to heal. As you know medications react differently in different people. Brain chemistry is still not understood and we must be careful what we take. But quite honestly when you are feeling suicidal you will take anything that gives you a chance to feel better! I think there are far too many scare stories about Venlafaxine withdrawal. It can have effects but again this will vary person to person and depending on how fast they expect to come off it. Venlafaxine gave me back my life. I was expecting to be on it for life but now my age, hormones and life situation has changed I feel I can try to go without it. But coming off has to be done sensibly! I started down from 300mg to the 150mg I'm on now, a year ago. That is slow. I have had only very minor withdrawal symptoms (sweats, the odd brain zap but nothing bad) until I went down to 112mg too quickly and began to feel unwell. I just put it back to 150mg and have stayed there for three months. I'm about to try knocking another 37.5 off and see how that goes this time.

I found 300mg Venlafaxine and 800 mg Lithium suited me and enabled me to live a 'normal' life most of the time. I always think having to take these kinds of medication to rebalance my mind is no different to a diabetic having to regulate their insulin. Alternatives to medication do not work for people with serious mental illness. They are fine for milder conditions and worth a go if someone recovers and doesn't need a heavier treatment. Wouldn't we all love to live life without drugs but at the moment they're the best thing we've got. Psychiatrists let you take a much higher dose of meds than your GP will. They are trained to know the effects etc. GP's aren't. They also know that in more severe cases most people do not respond to a lower dose or if they do initially it invariably happens that breakthrough symptoms start after a while and a higher dose is needed. Trust your instincts and how you feel and if you know your Psychiatrist reasonably well then trust them to know their job!

Sue x

Thanks so much for the message Sue.  I feel very confident in my psychiatrists hands and will follow his advice regarding the medication that I need.  I'm really not worried about withdrawal symptoms, I'm so far off being in any position to withdraw from medication that I can't even think about that aspect.

I just pray that this dose increase starts to do something for me soon.

I recently had a run of 10 ok/good days but went backwards again last Saturday.  This has left me feeling very confused and scared that no medication will work for me.  My psychiatrist wants me to give the 300mg four weeks.

I think next steps will be lithium if this doesn't work.

Would you mind terribly if I stayed in contact with you, I have a lovely husband and friends but no one that's been through this.  I understand if you'd rather not x

 

I would be happy to stay in touch with you Gen, as you say even if you have supportive family and friends (as I have too) it can still feel very lonely as it's impossible to adequately describe how you're feeling to someone who hasn't been through it. I also used to find that I didn't want to keep talking about it, boring everyone (as I saw it) and somehow reinforcing the fact that I wasn't 'normal'.

A few times for me suicide felt like the only way out. I just wanted to stop feeling that way, to make everything stop. At the time it would have seemed like a relief but when you begin to feel better you cannot imagine not being here, not giving yourself the possibility of becoming fully better - which you will.

I don't know what your diagnosis is or how old you are but I began with depression in my late teens, increasing in severity and how often. I then had severe depression after the birth of my first child, culminating in 18 months off work but eventually retirement on health grounds. After the birth of my second child I found I was getting a lot of mood swings aswell as depression and was eventually diagnosed as bipolar and put on Lithium. Personally I have found my best combination to be Lithium and Venlafaxine and have stayed with that.

Be kind to yourself now, sleep as much as you need and remind yourself that you won't feel like this forever!

Stay in touch if it helps,

Sue x

 

Sue, is there a way to private message/email? Gen x

I've looked but can't find any way of doing it privately and obviously we don't want our emails splashed all over the site! Are you on facebook? if so I can search for you and be 'your friend' and private message you! x

Hi, would rather not give my full name on here either (for you to find me on facebook).  I think I've found a way.  If you go into 'my account' in the top right hand corner, the under 'forums' select 'manage your settings', then under 'privacy settings' you can 'enable private messaging'?  Gen x

Hello

Excuse me butting in but want to help you to private message. At the top where it say your name there should be a small grey envelope, just click that and you should be able to send a private message. I might be a different set up depending on what divice you have so just look for the envelope

Thanks Michael, that was really helpful. Think I've got the hang of it now! Sue

Thanks Michael 

Well done

Your welcome

I have tried prozac, fluoxetine, citilopram etc & they all work for a while but if i ever forgot to take them for a couple of days i never had the same feelings that i had if same thing happened with venlafaxine, it is frightening lessening the dose and coming off them but another problem i had which may not be your case is that i had a full hysterectomy some yrs ago which means i have no oestrogen in my body, Women need oestrogen, if deficient in oestrogen you are lacking a natural hormone produced by your ovaries, so i am on very low dose of ven for a couple of wks and am now wearing hrt patches for the oestrogen. oestrogen deficency causes depression, tiredness, low/nil libido etc. xx