Mental Health Coming off venlafaxine

[dopamimetic]

I've started the first SSRI at the age of 17, it made me hypomanic. Switched to venlafaxine, the madness faded but remained above baseline for at least some months. Got my first girlfriend. Was careless, tripped on DXM while on the AD and eventually found out that low dose DXM along the venla would bring back an even more blissful variant of that Initial hypomania, completely erasing my social anxiety. Just that I couldn't sleep (and did some minor shit), so I began to use z-drugs and to drink together with them. Desaster waiting, drove into a police control and my life was fucked.

This was after 2,5 years on ADs the first time I tried to live sober. It was awful and all the shit came back of course, with new stuff on top. Managed 9 months and relapsed.

Now I remember that even after just 1,5-2y on AD I faded into blues when not using at least a tiny bit (75mg) DXM but I didn't realize back then.

Now these things are all subjective and just in my mind, after all I numbed my emotions with the AD and they return upon cessation?

Wrong. SSRIs cause permatolerance similar to many drugs. You can spot it on the sexual dysfunction the majority gets more or less intense. At first I thought to be actually happy about, that I could last longer - but in retrospective I realize that the overall intensity was already impaired.

Over time my problems progressed as well as the sexual dysfunction, the notorious single I am it took ages to realize that. They tell you it's about dopamine or whatever, bullshit. Take some serotonin releaser and boom all is back. A more optimistic, warmer mindest and body feeling. More balanced energy. Less anxiety. Shifted sensitivity and sexual functionality.

Fuck big pharma. I bet they knew, know and hide. Maybe long term use of S/NRI can lead to similar dysthymia than excessive MDMA use after all? Because it can't just be an overexpression of SERT, otherwise any SSRI would help.

So or so, it appears to be almost permanent and I know of no possibility to reverse or improve that crippling condition. Guess I'd trade the sexuality for an absence of anxiety but that's not under my influence.

I know I'm an advocate of things like NMDA antags for opioid withdrawal or stim tolerance but these are drugs I've started using when my brain was adult. Guess I realized today that it's not the whole picture

How are your experiences and impressions?

 

[HeadphonesandLSD]

SSRIs are horrible and every doctor I've had over the years attempts to throw them at me for off-label reasons. I was on them for awhile for an off-label condition and suffered similar problems that you're going through. I weened myself off of them and while life isn't perfect it's a lot better than when I was on them. These type of drugs blunt you emotionally, you don't feel the lows but you don't feel the highs either, you're just existing not living.

You need to stop taking them and try not to focus on these effects. Things get better and these bad side effects eventually go away. If you dwell on this stuff you'll over analyze yourself and feel like the changes are permanent. You need to distract yourself with life and just give your body/mind time to adapt to not having the drugs in your system at all times. I don't have the answer for beating social anxiety but I do know that answer isn't drugs. To deal with that you're just going to have to go be social until you get numb to the anxiety. Don't treat the anxiety like it's always a bad thing either. Sometimes anxiety is your body telling you to pay attention or to get the hell out of whatever crowd you're in at the time. Humans feel social anxiety because it's natural to feel it and a trait that helped us survive in groups for thousands of years. Sometimes it's irrational but most of the time something is setting it off for good reason. Most people feel it that's why alcohol is the most widely used substance on the planet.

 

[clubcard]

Venlafaxine was designed to be an opioid analgesic. When that failed, so Wyeth cast around for other activities. Now I may well be wrong but with the exception of a couple, antidepressants do not stop you feeling bad, but they DO produce an effect so with judicious testing... suddenly it's a treatment for clinical depression! People feel DIFFERENT so they are open to giving misleading answers and it's a con that's been around since someone found an alternative to a tricyclic. Believe me, when that class was developed, treatment > profit. That is a LONG time and I remember it.