alcohol and effexor

Brandon wrote:

I drink every night with effexor and have no problems but I'm on it for anxiety not deppression.

Me either but I only drink occasionally

well i have taking this since 2001 and drink and lose lots of lbs but will like to quit it
but am affraid ill get fat

Finally came off the Effexor...took about a month to scale it down from 75 mg. Thought I wouldn't be able to come off of it.... Felt a little jittery but not too bad. Glad to be off of it. Good luck to everyone

I took effexor xr ( Venlaflaxine ) 225 mg a day for app 1 1/2 years. Miss 1 dose and could not stand up without getting severe brain zaps. I have slowly weened myself off. Still get light zaps ! I now can not get through the day without having a good slug of hooch (booze). I ache all over. Can't get a good nights sleep because of joint pain, which I never had before I started taking E. Also I have went from normal to a full fledged Diabetic , like night & day not gradually. Don't know if E caused it but I am very suspicious. I am taking diabetic medicine but the numbers will not drop. Oh by the way I have tested for 3 or 4 days thinking that the booze was the problem but the numbers would not change. Also I have taken on a healthy diet too.
Over the time that I took E I gained app. 30 #.

roscommonal wrote:

I took effexor xr ( Venlaflaxine ) 225 mg a day for app 1 1/2 years. Miss 1 dose and could not stand up without getting severe brain zaps. I have slowly weened myself off. Still get light zaps ! I now can not get through the day without having a good slug of hooch (booze). I ache all over. Can't get a good nights sleep because of joint pain, which I never had before I started taking E. Also I have went from normal to a full fledged Diabetic , like night & day not gradually. Don't know if E caused it but I am very suspicious. I am taking diabetic medicine but the numbers will not drop. Oh by the way I have tested for 3 or 4 days thinking that the booze was the problem but the numbers would not change. Also I have taken on a healthy diet too.
Over the time that I took E I gained app. 30 #.

I am positive the pain is E induced I have it too but it is much less it take a very long time for the pain to ease sorry to tell you but it is the truth. Epson salts baths and heat on the spine has really helped me. I also sleep with a heating pad and for the first couple of years post E I had a pile of pillows that propped me up at night 45 degree angel seemed to help the pain in my side and kept the gerd down to a dull roar. I am quite sure it affects the pancreas hence the sugar. I had pancreatitis while I was on E. I sure hope you taper is slow and steady. I could not lose a pound and did not do much due to the pain post E gentle walking was about all and many days I could not do that. My sugar was high my thyroid low and liver very sad this past year... I was offered some new meds to treat all this but declined and started following the fatty liver diet from a book I found called fatty liver you can reverse it. No sugar no flour is the basics it is helping you may want to pick this book up and get an ultrasound on your liver... just to be safe.
Good luck to you I hope things work out of you.

I started on 37.5 and have worked up to 150mg. Had some side effects to start with- kind of like the feeling you get when E is about to come on ( I have experience with various psychoactive substances in the past) but very normal now. I sometimes get dizzy or tired if I miss a day, but have had no probs with alcohol etc. I like a drink, and after the initial stage of getting used to efexor, I can drink as much as I did previously. Have found that using MJ can mean I have to take a double dose to balance the depression ( a rare occurrence mind you) no significant side effects otherwise. I have even mixed Effexor, alcohol and Xanax with no significant probs - although I am very in tune with my body's capabilities. Doc tried to give me seroquel to see if it reduced my alcohol intake, but I won't be taking that again! Knockout!

Just to add... Although it was hard the first few weeks, It seems to have helped my anxiety and depression very well, and I am glad my GP put me onto it. For every horror story I'm sure there are people like me who have seen benefits.

Steve wrote:

Just to add... Although it was hard the first few weeks, It seems to have helped my anxiety and depression very well, and I am glad my GP put me onto it. For every horror story I'm sure there are people like me who have seen benefits.

this is known as the honeymoon period Steve... we all had it nice and happy high as a kite call it what you want it does not last best you keep reading and a couple of good places to start are
survivingantidepressants.org
paxilprogress.org

hello there, I have been on a couple antidepressants on and off for years. I started taking effexor xr 2 years ago. It never did anything for depression, but helped with body pains. I decided to quit cold turkey due to Never feeling good and getting brain zaps even when taken regulary. Withdrawl has been pure hell, but no regrets. I can feel for the first time in sooo long!! Now to the topic at hand. Effexor most definately makes you crave alcohol!!!!!!! I was drinking heavily every other day and it was never enough. Since being off for 3 weeks I have no desire to drink. What a relief not having that powerful need that was not only destroying my marriage, but my health as well. This stuff is poison and probably turned me off to medication for the rest of my life!

pikiniki wrote:

hello there, I have been on a couple antidepressants on and off for years. I started taking effexor xr 2 years ago. It never did anything for depression, but helped with body pains. I decided to quit cold turkey due to Never feeling good and getting brain zaps even when taken regulary. Withdrawl has been pure hell, but no regrets. I can feel for the first time in sooo long!! Now to the topic at hand. Effexor most definately makes you crave alcohol!!!!!!! I was drinking heavily every other day and it was never enough. Since being off for 3 weeks I have no desire to drink. What a relief not having that powerful need that was not only destroying my marriage, but my health as well. This stuff is poison and probably turned me off to medication for the rest of my life!

the hard withdrawal can take much longer to hit then 3wks so it may get worse yet
Reasons to taper off antidepressants slowly
When we start taking a ssri /snri (or short form for me ads for antidepressants
ssir increase the amount of serotoin in the synapse as it stops serotonin from being taken back up again (reuptake inhibitor) so the body thinks it has too much serotonin so the body starts to shut down receptors and slows the production of serotonin.
This all takes some time as the body works slowly so when the honeymoon feeling of being on an AD wears off this is likely the reason.
Now if you quit taking and Ad too quickly or stop cold turkey your body cannot quickly make more serotonin or grow new receptors to receive the serotonin... it can do it slowly but not quickly... so when you quit too quickly or ct you have a situation where the body is actually depleted of serotonin perhaps for the first time you will feel what serotonin depleted depression feel like... it is bad.
Withdrawal can be slow to hit delayed is the word coined delayed withdrawal can take up to six wks or more to hit so you quit taking your pills today and a month and a half from now withdrawal hits you go to the doctor and he gives you a different pill to treat withdrawal often not an ssri but sometimes it is. You never get off the drugs because the withdrawal is causes depression anxiety sleeplessness and an entire list of things too long to write.
The reason a slow taper makes this process one people cans stand is this it takes 4-6 wks for the effects of a drop to be felt... so you know if you can handle another drop by how you feel if you can't you stay at that dose a bit longer. By decreasing you dose by 10% it gives your body a chance to say hey I am low in serotonin and it can start to ramp up production and grow new receptors this is a very slow process.
You will reach peaks where you are not recovering as quickly as you did before when this happens give your body more time to recover from the drop or do a smaller than 10% drops from there on.
Using this method keeps people more stable and more sane less sick while they go thru the process.
Cold turkey withdrawal is painful and can be debilitating I spent the first three months of my ct in bed the next mostly in bed the next year non functional the next year a bit better... and so on.
Cold turkey or too fast withdrawal causes protracted (lasts a long time years) withdrawal more often than the tapering method. It also is much more painful physically emotionally psychologically...Many

I hear ya, but after second day there was no way I was putting that poison back in me. My family totally agrees with you. I still am feeling withdrwal, however, it is doable now. I am stubborn and figured to myself when I decided to quit, why prolong the agony? Also, I never experienced withdrawl from prozac or wellbutrin. This stuff is totally different.

pikiniki wrote:

I hear ya, but after second day there was no way I was putting that poison back in me. My family totally agrees with you. I still am feeling withdrwal, however, it is doable now. I am stubborn and figured to myself when I decided to quit, why prolong the agony? Also, I never experienced withdrawl from prozac or wellbutrin. This stuff is totally different.

Interesting I had withdrawal from prozac and it was much later in hitting sleeplessness and pain were the big ones with prozac as I recall it was a long time ago. You need to keep in mind the more drugs(ads) you have been on the more apt you are to have withdrawal issue. Again I will say the real withdrawal from effexor and most of these type drugs is delayed... you may not think it is withdrawal when it hits you wks or months later. It is a tricky little beast. Many times when I thought I was done withdrawal it came back :) it comes in waves and can last years and years.
part of withdrawal is psych issues so many docs just redrug you to treat what they think is old or new symptoms of psychiatric disorders all the time it is withdrawal all dress up in sheeps clothing. It is not my place to talk you into anything it is my place I feel to warn you of what I know already that many people don;'t know you make your choices from there. good luck to you

This is my 6th day taking Effexor XR and I have to say I feel wonderful. I wanted to die a week ago, but today I am another person. Yet my understanding is that the med should kick in 2 weeks, it's working great for me, already. I hope I dont go through those horror stories I read here.

i have been of effexor for around 6 moths i started with 37.5 and was upped to 75 now i take 112.5 i have onyl experienced black outs when i drink when i started drinking on effexor i had a hangover for like a week then i drank again and only had a hangover for a few days but now i am used to it and i just have a normal hangover when i drink is it true that its hard to get off the drug and that you have to slowly decrease your dosage

ive been on effexor for 6 months now and i feel good wondering if i should stay on it or quit

taylor wrote:

ive been on effexor for 6 months now and i feel good wondering if i should stay on it or quit

QUIT!!!!!
the american psychiatrick association suggests being on these meds no more than 9 months...(4-9) get off now while you can.

Effexor Taper Schedule
This schedule is taken from the experience of people at paxilprogress.org where people have been joining together and helping each other learn about these drug and get off them since 2004. You are about to benefit from all the suffering and mistakes made by other people who have been where you are. So listen up… it can save you a world of hurt.

To taper off E rules of thumb know you are an individual and how you are responding to the taper trumps everything else even the tapering schedule.

Reduce your dose by 10% wait 4-6 wks depending on how you feel. Reduce your current dose by 10% wait 4-6 wks repeat.

If you feel bad stay at dose longer or reduce the amount you taper.

The point of taper is to feel as well as you can and still get off the drug it is not to endure more and more pain and distress. There will be some for sure but this limits it to a tolerable level otherwise what is the point.

add on
The last word I have heard on this is to taper down by 5% rather than 10% due I suspect to the horrid withdrawal effexor causes. You may find ten ok but if not try five.
Smaller drops lessen withdrawal symptoms and has been advocated for anyone that cannot tolerate 10% drops in the past or when you are down to a very low dose drops are more problematic with more severe withdrawal.
At the end of the day listening to your body and brain is your best bet.
This is not a race there is no hurry if you are not ill from the drug take your time you will be glad you did
Rest of this thread found here:
http://www.topix.com/forum/drug/effexor/TH0D6...

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

http://davidhealy.org/out-of-my-mind-driven-t...

back to alcohol

bit from the link above sounds a bit like my old life only I was much more daring
To begin with I was concerned about drinking alcohol on the medication. I checked the patient information leaflet which gave, what seemed to me, to be a mild warning that “although it is always advisable to avoid alcohol whilst taking medication there is no known interactions with Paroxetine and alcohol”. This reassured me that it was safe enough to have a few drinks with friends.
At first I was only having a few glasses of wine but slowly over time I drank more and more. I began saying and doing things I had no memory of later. I got banned from restaurants and bars in my local town and became an embarrassment to my friends. Eventually some of my close friends and family distanced themselves from me. I was losing everyone around me and losing control of my life but I just didn’t care. I felt like I was in a dream and that none of this was real.
I became verbally aggressive and my behavior was reckless. On one occasion I climbed out of a velux window and onto my roof. I was not trying to kill myself. I didn’t even consider the dangers of what I was doing."
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