Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with effexor

Is it okay to take Effexor without its capsule?

Anonymous — Sat, 16 May 2009 07:22:02 -0800

Is there any particular reason that Effexor comes in gelatin capsules? Inside the capsule there are a number of small pellets.

I'm a vegan so I've just been pulling the capsules apart over my mouth, with my head tilted back, and tossing the capsules in the garbage.

I haven't noticed any difference in mood after doing this for a month or so. The only difference I have noticed is that the pellets are extremely bitter (so discovered after having one of them catch in my teeth).

But why aren't the pellets just one solid pill, like bupropion? Is it the bitterness, or does the capsule actually do something (and if so, what)?

Blue Pill Blues

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:09:51 -0800

Does anyone know any inexpensive methods to obtain Viagra (or an equivalent)? This question sounds like the beginning of a spam email, but I assure you it's not. I was diagnosed with depression in November and prescribed Effexor which has the extremely unfortunate side effect of causing erectile dysfunction. This new year has been great, I've met a girl that I'm really into and I'm feeling much better than I did beforehand. However, the relationship, 3 days in, is moving fast, and last night it got to the point of me fumbling open the condom wrapper only to find myself flaccid as a dead fish in a bucket. I'm not sure if it was entirely the drugs, or partially nerves/anxiety or what have you. I went to the campus clinic today and was prescribed 4 100mg Viagra tablets. They're not covered under my University health insurance program and ended up costing $75! At that rate, I'll be broke by the end of the month. I've researched a bit and found that Cialis might be an alternative, for it can last up to 36 hours (instead of Viagra's 4) and therefore would be more bang for my buck. But it's the same price, and that's still an outrageous price to pay to live a "normal" functioning sex life. It's ironic that these antidepressants I pay an arm and a leg for cause a side effect that I have to go out of my way to pay more for, and since the insurance company considers sex-enhancement drugs to be 'cosmetic', they are not covered.

I'm skeptical of the online spam emails, but if anyone here knows of discount pharmacy's, online or whatever, that are actually reputable (I'm in Canada, btw), then I'd give that a shot. Any other methods other than the drugs would be much appreciated as well, such as dietary suggestions or herbal supplements. Thanks, I appreciate your answers!

how do I recover my medication mess...?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:28:14 -0800

I'm supposed to be taking 300mg Effexor XR every day. Except I've been so grumblingly ill this last week and a half that I've not bothered. What's the best way to get myself back up to speed? Impact load or slow tapering? And how slow...?

Should I stay or should I go, etc.

GleepGlop — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:17:48 -0800

As I increase Effexor dosage should I notice increased effectiveness or do we each have a threshold we have to pass before we start to feel anything? I am at 225 mg, climbing about 37.5 mg every month. I don't feel anything besides side-effects. My doctor claims that I have to pass a threshold before I will feel anything so we have to keep climbing to see what my threshold is. This is costing time and money. What are your experiences with regards to progressing the dosage of effexor?

Nobody told me when I went on antidepressants that my brain might asplode.

GleepGlop — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 11:51:08 -0800

I am getting Brain Zaps from my SNRI (effexor at 150mg) meds and am headachey and I want to get off the meds. Help me figure out how best to proceed... I am taking this stuff for OCD and anxiety. The anxiety was kind of an isolated episode but the OCD with emphasis on obsessive and not so much compulsive is shall we say more permanent.
I am working on CBT and mindfulness as an alternative to medication but I haven't gotten very far. Meanwhile these brain zaps are making a medication which I questioned whether it was even doing anything for me not worth being on.
I think weaning myself will be tricky and as these brain zaps aren't even well understood by the medical community any personal experiences would be helpful.
My doctor is great, but of course I want to compile my own information to supplement her guidance.

What are the implications of long-term antidepressant use?

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:44:42 -0800

Can anyone share or point me towards anecdotal or scientific information regarding the implications of long-term antidepressant use? I know this can be a sensitive subject in the green, but since crazymeds went down, I'm not sure where to look. I'll try to keep this short as possible, but it seems that such personal questions require personal information...

My basic question is: Is there any evidence to show that long-term use of antidepressants can cause any sort of future mental impairment?

The backstory is as follows: I'm 26 years old, and have been on antidepressants since I was 16 for Anxiety/Depersonalisation and OCD. It took a while to find something that worked, but a low dose of Effexor XR at 75mg/day seemed to do the trick after a few months of trying things out.

On medication, I am highly functional, perhaps even superfunctional. I started a new life on the other side of the world, am in a healthy relationship, and am highly regarded and awarded in my field, in which I successfully operate my own business and and a number of self-initiated projects on top of that.

I have tried to go off the Effexor about 4 times total. Each time was closely monitored and weaned myself over a number of months. Each time I reached the point where I was totally off the meds, I would be stable for a week, and then I would just lose it, and be basically crippled with uncontrollable anxiety. (That said though, those four times were probably not the best times to pick in terms of other things that were happening in my life, i.e, new job, new house, etc)

I have been in therapy this whole time, and working on alot of other areas of my life such as my overall health (which is basically garbage at the moment) as well as taking up a meditation practice in efforts to reduce my overall stress in addition to making alot of smaller changes across the board.

I have reached the point where I have accepted that I will probably have to be on medication for many years to come while I sort these other things out in therapy, because being able to leave the house is something that I greatly value. While the anxiety can still break through the veneer of medication some days, its manageable at least.

Anyone who has tried to come off meds, especially Effexor, knows the awful withdrawal symptoms as discussed on previous posts. The sheer power of the drug, combined with the overall ignorance of how these drugs 'actually' work and my overall distrust of big pharma, makes me a bit uncomfortable, and ironically, can increase my anxiety levels.

Has anyone here been on meds 10+ years and successfully come off? Are there any studies or other resources I could use to possibly gain some more perspective on the reality of long term use of mind-altering substances? Any input would be most dearly appreciated.

Will going off of Paxil help me lose the weight I gained while on Paxil?

dumbledore69 — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:50:44 -0800

I gained a lot of weight after going on birth control pills & antidepressants. Will going off these make it easier to lose this weight? In college, the year I went on birth control pills was the year I gained 50 lbs. That was several years ago. Two years ago, I went on antidepressants. First I was on Effexor, then Paxil. Right now I am on both Paxil & Wellbutrin. The first year I was on antidepressants, I gained 70 lbs. In a single year. The second year, I worked my ass off and lost about 15 lbs, which I keep yo-yoing with, despite my best efforts to keep it off and keep losing. Note that I have never had trouble losing weight before OR keeping it off with minimal effort. My efforts have been far more than minimal with crappy results.

Three months ago, I went off of birth control pills & am now using non-hormonal birth control methods. So far, I am still struggling.

My question is - assuming that the weight gain was a side effect of the antidepressants, will going off the antidepressants make it easier to lose the weight I've put on?

I'm really interested in personal anecdotes.

I know you are not my doctor/pharmacist/etc & that my mileage will vary.

Anti-depressants: alternatives to bupropion (Wellbutrin)?

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 10:43:03 -0800

I'm starting out on anti-depressants. My doctor has prescribed me venlafaxine (Effexor XR), an SNRI. I strongly suspect a dopamine reuptake inhibitor would be better suited for my condition and personality, but sadly, bupropion (Wellbutrin) isn't available as an anti-depressant in my country: only under the name Zyban (as a smoking cessation aid), which is not covered by insurance and hence very expensive. Are there any alternatives I should look into? I'm a few days into taking venlafaxine, and I think it might help me, but obviously it will take some time for the effects to be determined. However, I'm a little worried about the possible side effects (especially those related to libido and weight) and the eventual withdrawal, which reportedly can be quite bad with venlafaxine.

Any insight would be much appreciated - thanks in advance.

looking for mr. psychopharmaceutical

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:56:16 -0800

how do you know when you're on the right antidepressant? I've been on effexor for... two and a half weeks, and while I'm noticing differences in the way things are, they're not the differences I wanted to effect. I realize I might be being hypercritical or expecting too much or needing more time, but regardless: when and how did you know that whatever you're on was the right thing to be on?

From Lexapro to Effexor -> Well?

punkrockrat — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 15:39:16 -0800

Does anyone on Mefi have anything positive or good to say about the SSRI Effexor?!? Searching through the archives, all I can find are comments about strange dreams and terrible withdrawals. Does anyone have any positive experiences with it?

Help me! I think I'm losing my mind (literally!)

Anonymous — Fri, 26 May 2006 07:01:49 -0800

My dreams and memory loss are starting to get out of control and I'm scared. Some background: I'm a 30 year old male, taking Effexor XR (225mg) for major unipolar depression for almost 2 years now. Prior to that, I had been on Celexa for almost 3 years, which I quit because it just turned into a sleeping zombie.

For almost 4-5 months now, I've been having problems with my sleep (dreams actually) and my memory.

Memory first: I used to pride my self on having an above average memory and normally never had a problem recalling facts, names, words etc. But now, I think my short term memory is just shot to hell. The right at the tip of your phenomenon? I'm experiencing it a little to often for comfort. I also notice that I lose my chain of thought completely in that I'll think of an idea while doing something and if I do not write it down immediately, I'll lose it within seconds and it's impossible to recall it, without going over the entire chain of events in my mind again (like replaying the tape in mind). I know depression does affect memory, but this is getting ridiculous!

Now the dreams: Maybe it's the Effexor or who knows what, but I have the most vivid, violent and eerily surreal dreams possible. Add to it the fact that of late, I've started talking loudly, so loud that I wake myself up and a few days back, managed to smash my hand into the headboard of the bed, so disturbing was the dream. I have a hard time now figuring out if my memory of an event is real or if it was something I had just dreamt about. Like I said, I feel I'm literally losing my mind.

So this is the predicament I am in. Has anyone experienced anything remotely similar? Is this something I should be really worried about? Are these signs of a deeper malaise? I did speak to my doctor about it and he gave me something for the night sweats but didn't have explanations or medication to help with the dreams.

Can getting off my SSRI cause weight gain?

Anonymous — Tue, 02 May 2006 06:23:10 -0800

Can going off an SSRI (in this case, EffexorXR) cause me to have an enormous increase in appetite? Under a doctor's supervision, I'm going off Effexor in preparation for getting pregnant. I had been taking a dose of 150mg for about a year, and last week she cut my dose to 75mg, which I'll take for three weeks. After that, I'll take 37.5mg for three weeks, and then be done. Also, I started taking .5mg of Klonopin twice a day about a month ago, and now am up to .5mg three times a day. The Klonopin is for anxiety.

In anticipation for trying to get pregnant, I've lost about twenty five pounds. (I'm still overweight, but working on it.) I have been counting calories, eating small meals, and I do 50 minutes of cardio exercise four times a week. I'm thinking of making it five times a week. Once I started taking the Klonopin I felt like my weight loss stalled. Before that, I'd been steadily losing one to two pounds a week. When I asked my doctor about it she said that the lowering of anxiety could cause a bit of a slowdown in my metabolism, or it could just be a plateau that's non-related to my medication. I should also note that I feel like I've gained back about four pounds in the last month, when I've actually increased my exercise level and my food intake is the same. (A month ago I was closer to thirty pounds lost.)

Since I lowered my dose of Effexor, though, I have had the craziest increase in appetite. I started my new dose on Thursday and on Friday and Saturday I had what I considered two dinners -- two evening meals of about four hundred calories or so. The meals were about five hours apart both nights. I've also been craving sweets. I haven't been having many side effects of the lowered SSRI dose except for dizziness, and I feel like the sweets help with that, but I realize that shoving saltwater taffy down my maw for the next five weeks isn't exactly the best plan of action.

Please realize that I know part of my problem is my anxiety. However, I would like to know if anyone else has had such an increase in appetite or weight after going off of an SSRI, and if it was something permanent. I've worked really hard to lose this weight and it's upsetting to me that I might be backsliding.

I have tried to put as much detail as I can in the post, but if any further details would help, you can email me at ssri.anon.2006@gmail.com.

Tapering off EffexorXR

madmath — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 12:29:45 -0800

I've been taking Effexor for at least 5 years. Twice my doctor has tried to wean me off of it, but only horrible side effects happen- I cry, shiver, feel like I'm floating, become irritated, etc. The lowest dose is 37.5 mg. For about a month I was opening it up, dumping about half of the "sand" out, and swallowing the rest like my doctor suggested. I just got worse and worse. Has anyone successfully stopped taking Effexor?

Where do you go from here?

Anonymous — Sun, 08 May 2005 22:52:09 -0800

I'm 33. I'm attractive. I earn a good salary. I live in a beautiful apartment. I drive a convertible. I'm intelligent. I've read tons of books. I've travelled a great deal. Women like me. I'm good in bed. I've driven fast cars. I've been an alcoholic. I've abused drugs. I've smoked 20 a day. I've seen shrinks at various points in my life. But still... ...people and relationships drive me crazy. The pain they cause me far outweighs the pleasure they bring, so now I use Effexor (an SSRI which (clearly;-) doesn't elevate my mood but does kill my sex drive) to defuse my physical needs, and live a highly reclusive life.

Of course, the reclusive lifestyle's getting a bit dull as I increasingly bore myself, but the only alternative I see - what feels to me as the inevitable negative equity of human relationships - seems none too appealing.

What other alternatives are there...?

Effexor Alternatives

arse_hat — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 22:27:20 -0800

Does anyone know of an alternative to Effexor (Venlafaxine)? It is not a tricyclic, MAO or a SSRI. (MI) Effexor has just moved to a time-release formulation, which for physiological reasons my girlfriend can’t use. Has anyone found a useful replacement for Effexor (also non time-release) or know of a generic form (even foreign)? (I have tried to search Google for info but with drugs it is next to impossible to get past drug company hype and spam-web-pharmacies for any info)