Been off the venlafaxine for over a week now.
Still a bit dizzy and suffering brain zaps
Stomach is a bit better, nightmares were much worse but seem to be easing. Well, easing back to normal levels, not easing in any teal sense.
Getting emotional, suddenly feeling tearful, have been short tempered too.
And mostly sleepless, normal for me
Ugh. I don't envy you going through the infamous anti-depressant withdrawals.
I hope they start to ease soon.
I was wondering if the meds were good for you, based on what you were describing here for some time.
"Just" reaching normal levels of nightmares again sounds like a realistic, excellent goal to me. For me normal levels of nightmares can be extremely rough though bearable, but when they go too crazy my body can become so exhausted my startle responses become stronger too. So nightmare maintenance is crucial.
I hope the withdrawal symptoms are treating you as kindly as possible.
I only took the meds as the psych was persistent.
As I need to cooperate with the psych for legal reasons I gave them a try.
The side effects were bad enough while I was taking the meds, much worse afterwards.
I'm not going to mention I've stopped, gave them longer than the time I was told they needed to start working, they didn't do much so time to move on.
Lesson learnt, just because big pharma market some poison as an antidepressant doesn't mean I have to take it.
lots of courage showing here, rain. i'm so very glad you're mostly thru the withdrawal, and definitely glad it wasn't worse. i hope you eventually find something that helps rather than hurts you. big warm hug.
Thank you San!
Brain zaps and dizziness subsiding now, headache is occasionally ferocious but nothing i m not used to.
Over the worst I think
i hope so for your sake. you've done a great job getting thru this.
Thank you!
What I don't understand is why I'm still a bit dizzy and brain zapped.
The meds would have completely been metabolised out of my system a few weeks ago, so why am I still wobbly?
Bit weird really.
Maybe your brain is still learning to adjust its neurotransmitter levels on its own, to balance them back - like a muscle that hadn't been used in a while and now needs to be rebuilt?
Ooh,
That makes sense, venlafaxine increases serotonin and nor something so maybe that's it.
Could be some rough times ahead I guess.
Oh well
norepeniphrine, another of those feel-good chemicals that clinical depression dictates our brain isn't making enough of on its own. everything i've heard about getting off venlafaxine is that it takes its time. your brain was hit with some powerful stuff. what ah said makes sense to me, too. hang tough, sweetie. you'll get thru this. big hug.
Thank you!
Its getting easier each week.
It was nasty stuff to be sure.
Hope you are beginning to feel better now and the 'side effects' are wearing off. I had a friend who took this drug and it made her just the same, worse even.
Don't want to trigger anyone, so I won't say any more.
It's awful how the psychs pressurise people to take these drugs. I wonder whether they're getting paid for each new customer?
I think the prescription was genuinely about trying to help.
Must be tough to be a psych, years of training to join a profession which has only two things to offer. Some chemicals which don't seem to work or talking therapies which don't seem to work either.
Must be dispiriting, like training as a doctor in the middle ages, a jar of leeches and that's you trained, off you go and good luck.
And they can't even administer electric shocks any more to amuse themselves.
Got a letter to go and see my psych today, he doesn't know I've binned his pills. I feel bad for him in a way, nice chap and all that but he is as much use to me as a chocolate teapot.
Like going to see a chiropodist after a shark has had your foot off.
My bunion is no longer bothering me but....
Hi Rainagain,
It's good that you can keep a sense of humour about the ineptitude of modern psychiatry, and the draconian approach to helping people with CPTSD.
QuoteI feel bad for him in a way, nice chap and all that but he is as much use to me as a chocolate teapot.
QuoteLike going to see a chiropodist after a shark has had your foot off.
:rofl:
You've got me in stitches!
Yeah, it must be embarrassing working in a profession with caveman-like tools for treating people.
I don't know whether they still administer electric shocks to people. I met a lady the other day who has PTSD (rather than CPTSD) and she said she'd received ECT a few times in the seventies and eighties in a hospital in my town. She described how it worked and the effects, which seemed to be of a short-term temporary nature. Pretty barbaric, I think.
They probably don't use electricity or freezing water treatments any more, but it feels like the idea of experimenting to see what happens is still OK, I'm sure many of the meds are a bit of a guess.
In medicine they had a breakthrough with the germ theory of disease, before that I think it was all blamed on 'animalcules' or vapours or something.
I think psychiatry has yet to have that kind of breakthrough and to me its all a bit poor.
I had nearly two years of counselling during the time I developed cptsd, you would think the counsellor would have noticed......her subsequent report mentions the areas we 'worked on' but doesn't mention any deterioration in my mental health.
I don't mind people who admit to having no idea about something, the people who pretend to have understanding though, that is different.
Maybe I'm too negative. Trust is hard.
Rainagain,
I wrote something here, then erased it in an attack of self hatred. Oops.
You cracked me up too. I know that deep, deep cynicism that comes from long experience with the sharks (human variety, sadly).
The psychiatrists whose views on mental health are common nowadays may be living in an ivory tower with the sort of power, respect, finances, security and comfort I can't even imagine. So who are they to tell me my pain is pathological and meaningless? Can I trust their views on pain?
I personally think you've got a completely understandable shark allergy.
And counselors and psychiatrists can be impressively blind. I kept showing up with a severely abusive FOO for evaluation. Did even one of all those esteemed specialists with a keen eye for pain spot anything? No.
(Well not true, one did. My FOO instantly fired them. Figures.)
Maybe we should all start wearing the bird masks from the 14th century to protect ourselves from cptsd vapours. Who knows? It won't hurt, will it? Just like meds? :whistling: :doh:
Interesting
Instead of a bird mask I've gone for big mad hair and a beard.
Its my warding costume, let's people know I'm not the usual sort....
I went to a big supermarket and noticed people looking twice at me, made me smile inwardly.
Bird mask as well would be over the top.
Quote from: Rainagain on February 19, 2018, 03:45:57 PM
Bird mask as well would be over the top.
Yeah, it might get you back to a psychiatrist much sooner than you'd like. :bigwink:
Thank you ah,
You just made me laugh.
Nice one.
I think humour helps me a lot.
Had a text conversation with an old mate yesterday
Him 'hi, are you still mad as *'
Me 'well, I've gotten worse since we last met, but I think I might have gone right round the clock now so I'm not as bad as I was'
I use humour a lot when I can, defuses things for me.