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  • AADD Moderators: swilow | Vagabond696

Effexor.

Peakingwithyou said: "Does MDMA work if you are on Pristiq? Got some beans today and want to know."

Really bad idea. You will also risk getting serotonin syndrome, which is very very very nasty. A great way to scramble your head up and give you some nice mental illness.
 
BookNerd said:
The withdrawals are the worst possible feeling in the world. It's easily on par with withdrawal from hard opiates in its severity, duration and the amount you will wish you were dead. :X

The nausea is so unbelievably strong :|, but even if you throw up it doesn't go away. I have heard the only way to stop it is marijuana. Sadly for people like me with no access you are debilitated, you can't do anything except sit there with your head in your hands thinking about how sick you are! And from research this condition of despair lasts for two whole bloody weeks!!!

Let's put it this way: I'm a student and have run out of money and can't afford my Effexor (150mg/daily) and am starting withdrawals (two days off it). Tomorrow I'm going to have to grab whatever valuables I can and go to a pawn shop and sell them so I can stop the withdrawal symptoms. The only other time I have been forced to do this was *very* heavily withdrawing from opiates! THAT is how bad the experience is!!

And of course when the doctor puts you on the medication they say *absolutely nothing* (!) about how you will have to be Superman to bloody well get off it ever again and just how severe ones physiological dependence on it becomes. If they had bothered to mention how severe the withdrawal was I wouldn't have gone near it, but instead they write scripts for this crap like candy and talk about it like it's some harmless and mild medication.

My experience of Effexor (ie: not during withdrawal but just day-to-day use): brain-zaps (can be very unpleasant), dizziness, NAUSEA (varies considerably, especially with heavy physical activity), spaced out feeling, headaches, complete lack of motivation, entire loss of libido (sex seems entirely pointless and not worthy of pursuing), etc. If you miss a dose (pretty much unavoidable at times) you will sorely regret it.

PERSONAL OPINION: Stay the hell away from Effexor. I talked to another GP once and he calls it "Side-effexor", and with good reason!!

:!:!:!:!:!
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Efexor Xr has been the only antidepressant that has worked for me and the only reason you get those kinds of withdrawals brain zaps etc is due to going off without going down slowly. Effexor got me out of my very debilitating depression and is a god send. I had to go without it for a full week once and i did not get nausea or any other symptom except for the brain zaps which of course were untolerable. I take a large dose too unfortunately so booknerd you are only going by anecdotal evidence. It is not on par with heavy opiate withdrawal again i use and have used for over 16 years.
 
canarylove said:
Efexor Xr has been the only antidepressant that has worked for me and the only reason you get those kinds of withdrawals brain zaps etc is due to going off without going down slowly. Effexor got me out of my very debilitating depression and is a god send. I had to go without it for a full week once and i did not get nausea or any other symptom except for the brain zaps which of course were untolerable. I take a large dose too unfortunately so booknerd you are only going by anecdotal evidence. It is not on par with heavy opiate withdrawal again i use and have used for over 16 years.
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That's great news canarylove! Glad you found something that worked so effectively for you.

As for the brain zaps only happening because of tapering dose too quickly - Well..let me just say they are very hard to avoid. At one point I was reducing by a few beads of a 75mg capsule per day (did this over maybe a month) Was stable at the beginning but by about day 7 the zaps started up, and started to feel pretty shit. No where near as bad as reducing by 33mg+ at a time or doing it cold turkey but it still sucked.

Eventually decided it was better to reduce by 33mg and then hold out until I felt well enough to reduce again (about a week), I preferred doing that to reducing so slowly that it takes a year.

Nuh it's not on par with heavy opiate withdrawal but it's debilitating when you come off IME. It's totally doable though, and in the end I'd give it a 6/10 on the difficulty scale. What made it worse was no doctors believing effexor had any withdrawal effects (at the time) and no real warning or explanation of what those brain zaps were exactly.
 
^ you can reduce the withdrawal symptoms a little if you take another SSRI at the same time whilst tapering off effexor (like zoloft), and then taper off that after you've been off of effexor for a while. Always worth discussing with your psychiatrist :)
 
For what it's worth, i'll lay out my experiences with SSRI's and drug use.

I'm 'agoraphobic' by a doctors definition (personally I think my fears/anxieties are completely justified, but that's another conversation...), and have issues with anger as well as depression. My cycle has always been panic, punch, feel fucking depressed later. Anyways, I was on Cipramil (sp?) for about 6 months. It was amazing for the first 4, but the last two it became increasingly underwhelming to the extent that I wasn't even sure I was on it anymore. That was when I was put on Effexor. I've so far been on it for about 6 months, and am only just really starting to feel the effects. The first two months were just shit, side effects etc. but I stuck with it, then coming into the third/fourth I just didn't feel anything. Fifth/sixth (brings me up to now) i'm finally starting to get the benefit from it. I have no idea why it's taken me so long to really 'get' it, but regardless it's doing it's thing now and that's great. Anger and depression have absolutely plummeted, and anxiety is almost non-existent. I swear I feel 200% better.

But here is the negative - as soon as I miss a dose, even for a day, I go completely insane. I properly wig it to the point where even just a fly buzzing past my head can set me off and have me start screaming bloody murder and destroying the closest thing. This initial freakout usually lasts an hour or so and is always followed by an incredibly deep and dark depressive state that can last days even after I start taking the meds again. I have no idea how the fuck i'm ever supposed to get off this stuff, and that's kinda terrifying.

As for drugs, I took Shrooms a while ago and it was one of my best trips to date haha. I had to take about twice what my mates were taking (i'm also a lot bigger than them) to really get the effects, but while they were semi-freaking/bad tripping (we probably took a tad to much in a fairly intense environment), I was fucking loving it. I swear, i'm usually the one that gets into semi dark states while tripping, but for once I was just over the fucking moon joyous. I swear it must have something to do with my brain being a bit more sorted from the meds, so the psychedelics have more positive energy to work off :D. I also smoke dah gunjj 4 or so nights a week with no negative effects. Just chill as per... :).

So yeah, basically take all that as you will. I hope someway my story has helped haha.
 
The withdrawal symptoms from SSRI/SNRIs are severe. I would put them as a bit milder than withdrawing from benzos.

I tapered quite slowly off zoloft, which has a longer half life than effexor. Its not a pleasant experience. sweating, nausea, bad mood, headache, brain zaps, insomnia - I could go on.

Even with a proper tapering regime, some withdrawal from these drugs is inevitable. but going cold turkey is not a good idea.

BTW, I found MDxx gave me nothing whilst on SSRIs. just a bit of stimulation. You have to be very careful with the pills too, particularly if they have DXM in then. then serotonin syndrome may occur which is extremely unpleasant, and potentially deadly.
 
I find effexor to be a great anti depressant, however if you miss a dose you might not feel well. the withdrawals are fucking terrible, I get electric shocks going through my head and neck and body every time I move, terrible headaches, and sensitivity to light and sound.

Also, at higher doses, it fucks with my sleep so bad that I will be awake for days at a time. For this reason, I lowered my dose and now I seem to be okay.
I used to have a problem with lacking motivation and I couldn't have fun no matter what i did. I was always depressed and didn't wanna talk to anyone or do anything or think I would ever be happy. no other anti depressant ever worked for me until I tried effexor and buproprion combined, Now I quit the buproprion a few weeks ago (went cold turkey) and was fine, and I wanna lower my effexor dose to 37.5 rather than 75 mgs.
 
do you think i could take mdma today? 3 days isnt enough for it to build up and block the effects right?
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Venlafaxine's active metabolite desvenlafaxine has a half-life of ~10 hours. After four half times, the elimination process is approximately 97% complete and at this point I believe most drugs are excreted in a zero order kinetics fashion.

So I would wait at least 40 hours between taking it and then taking the MDMA, otherwise there is a good chance there is still enough of the active metabolite in your system to block the serotonin reuptake transporters.
 
hi, I'm new here and would like some advise please, I'm on 150mg of efexor per day,
I have tried taking mescaline twice recently, but it had no effect,
can I increase the dose,
or how long would I have to go off efexor, for the mescaline to work?
I've been on efexor for near 15 years and can handle the withdrawal if I take a few days of work.
 
cider10 said:
hi, I'm new here and would like some advise please, I'm on 150mg of efexor per day,
I have tried taking mescaline twice recently, but it had no effect,
can I increase the dose,
or how long would I have to go off efexor, for the mescaline to work?
I've been on efexor for near 15 years and can handle the withdrawal if I take a few days of work.
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Hi cider :)

You might be able to find the information you seek in the Antidepressants and Recreational Drugs FAQ. It varies significantly between people, medications, and recreational drugs used, but many antidepressants will generally weaken the effects of psychedelics. I strongly advise against going off your meds just to trip - and I say that as someone who thoroughly enjoys/recommends tripping and as someone who has been on several antidepressants in the past (including Effexor). You probably already know this, but the withdrawal from Effexor are notoriously bad compared to most other antidepressants - you may well need more than a few days off.
 
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Im on 75mg XR for social anxiety, if i miss one day i get the brain zaps, disoriented, dizzy. For anyone thats taken too much MDMA and gotten those 'shocks' they are one in the same.Worst 2 weeks of my life though was when i quit Paxil 40mg cold turkey, i had all those symptoms.I havent tried to roll on effexor since its a waste and can be harmful but on the paxil i ate 4 good beans and only had a 2 hour speedy high then went to sleep and wokeup feeling like shit.Drinking on effexor is like asking to be beat with a baseball bat, i get killer gout in my knees and my guts tare out of me the next day its not even worth it for me to get drunk anymore, as soon as i drink enough to get a buzz im in for that awful hangover, but if i pace myself im ok.

I was reading a trip report on errowid where someone insufflated 75mg and claimed to get a high but jesus christ the burning should be enough to make anyone think twice.
 
a lot really makes sense to me after reading the last fw posts... i was in a relationship for a certain amount of time with a lady who was on effexor, and she was one of the least horny girls I have ever met, I couldn't understand why my rockin pingers would not get her high? and she had basical zero - to once in a month sex drive, unless we were smoking #4.

Did not seem to alleviate any of her depression at all.. at least that with another mate trying zoloft in yr 10 for fuckin smokin weed everyday (parents took him to a doctor) realised that anti depressants are not going to ever be something i would willing take.
 
I used to take Effexor XR almost 10 years ago, so I don't remember what sort of dosage I was on back then. I do remember having to taper off my dosages before giving them up though. I believe Effexor can be very effective for some people, but in my case, long-term, it wasn't. Sure, it did help me during the year or two when I was on it, but gradually I realised it was doing me no favours. Somewhere along the line, I stopped feeling anything. Not depressed, not happy, nothing.

Withdrawal was a bitch - about two weeks after stopping Effexor, I ended up taking 2.5 months worth in one go, went to bed, and hoped I wouldn't wake up again. Needless to say I will never touch antidepressants again. It took me some time in psychotherapy before I was able to deal with life again.
 
Thank you all, had trouble finding these answers, navigating the site, have more questions, have to go to work, catch up later, Thanks, Marg.
 
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