A few weeks ago, I mentioned on Facebook that I was thinking about going off Effexor. I went on the anti-depressant due to my increasing anxiety back in 2009, about 6 months or so before Neal and I got married. I was happier than ever, but as my doctor told me, even good change can be stressful.
I don’t regret going on Effexor. It was necessary at the time. I was having trouble getting myself out the door to go to work, the store, for a walk, and luckily for me, I recognized that this was not something I could allow to continue. The last thing I wanted was to become a recluse. So I went to therapy for a little while, and I started the lowest dose (37.5 mg) of Effexor. My doctor warned me that chances were good that I would have to keep increasing the dose until I found one that worked for me, but fortunately I was good with the lowest dose, and I stuck with it for the last five years. It’s not that I never felt anxiety over the past five years, but it took the edge off, and allowed me enough clarity to calm myself down when those anxious thoughts plagued me.
But the thing is, I don’t want to be on medication for the rest of my life. I never want that, but certainly not when I am only 34 years old. Obviously, there are some situations that call for lifelong medication, including depression, anxiety, thyroid diseases, etc. And if I try going off Effexor and I start feeling that same level of anxiety that I felt before and find that I am unable to leave my house with ease, then I will have to give some thought to going back on it and maybe staying on it for the rest of my life. But I want to see if I can handle it now. I’m sure I will have moments of anxiety, because that is just how I am wired, but if at all possible, I would like to try to find other ways to deal with it.
So I went to see my doctor last Thursday to discuss the best ways to go off of Effexor. The thing with this drug is that there are definite withdrawal symptoms. I had felt them before when I would forget to take my dose. I used to take it after supper, and by noon the next day – at the latest – I would know I had forgotten. My head felt heavy and fuzzy. If I turned my head too quickly, it sometimes felt like it would take a couple of extra seconds for my vision and my brain to catch up. My chest and stomach felt fluttery. I fumbled more when I picked things up. I would usually find myself counting down the hours until I could take that day’s dose so that I would know that within a few hours of doing so, I would start feeling normal again.
As mentioned above, most people end up on much higher doses than me, so they gradually taper down their doses. As I am on the lowest possible, and as they are capsules that can’t be cut in half, I have to go to taking the medication every second day. I took my dose on Thursday night because we had our work summer party on Friday and didn’t want to feel awful that day, but I didn’t take any on Friday night at supper. I then decided to switch my time of taking it from suppertime to after breakfast to try to reduce the amount of time that I am awake during withdrawal, so I took it early in the afternoon on Saturday, nothing on Sunday, took one on Monday morning, nothing yesterday, and so on and so forth. I am to keep this up for about two weeks and then if I’m okay, I could go to every third day, but my doctor said that chances were that I’d be okay with going to nothing at all.
I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised at how well I am doing so far. I do have moments when I feel jittery and fuzzy-headed. There are times when I look down and feel mildly dizzy, but it is not as bad as those days when I had forgotten to take my dose. My guess is that I’m prepared for it this time. I chose to do this, rather than having just forgotten.
I just hope that I will do as well when I stop taking them altogether!
