I just started Venlafaxine xr 37.5 mg to be increased in 7 days. I'm 2 days in and am already having some difficulties... chills, nausea, muscle tension and twitching, weakness, emotionally fragile.
My questioin is... has anyone experienced this starting the medication and then had it balance out into positive results?
Hi Anie,
Yes!
It is perfectly normal for you to get these side effects when you start. I was increased to 150mg two weeks ago on Ven from having been on 75mg for two months and earlier this week, I was suffering with increased anxiety, feeling a bit yucky and tearful etc.
I have felt much better the last couple of days.
Apparently, when you start a new med or increase the dose, it can take a few weeks for your body to adjust.
Please hang on in there - it will get better!
Let us know how it goes! X
I appreciate your quick response and encouragement. I want to find what works and knowing that waiting out the adverse effects might bring relief is helpful. Thank you for your advice.
It takes a while to get used to it..few weeks for symptoms to even put. Stick with it..it does get better.
thank you lorrainr71866 for responding. It's difficult to balance additional drug responses with already exisiting issues, so to have someone say it get's better after the initial symptoms means a lot.
Im on day 2 of 37.5mg an only thing is insomnia. Eye twitch off an on. Im also on Klonapine 0.5mg as needed for anxiety. This is med #8 for me though so I knew I was goin to get side effects fr any new drug until your body adjusts. Some worse than others. Any increase also is like starting over. Im praying this is the med for me!
I went through the EXACT symptoms - plus a boatload of even more that were more like WITHDRAWAL symptoms - during my first month of being on venlafaxine. I kept telling myself, "this is going to make you better, you've been through worse than this," etc. I laid in bed, my sheets wet from unstoppable sweat, my mind in one hallucination after another, too ill to eat, twitching, having no control of my muscles, crying, tired, hopeless and helpless, on and on. I had to make it one day to the next, failing to sleep for days at at time. 'This will make me better," I kept telling myself. And my body and mind finally adjusted to the point of tolerating the drug, and as months passed I got better. I started on 75mg per day and have been at 225mg for about 6 months? I can't get enough of my friends now. I am interested in life again. It's a beautiful thing.
Today I had so many neighbors in my apartment that some had to stand in the bathroom.
And it did - and does - make me feel better, because, yes, I had been through worse.
And today I can laugh again and make others laugh. I still have physical issues that suck but my depression is gone. It's a strange thing to say... I waited for months, thinking that this was just a 'lite' manic phase that would pass. But, no, that wasn't it. I was actually leaving my apartment each day to sit outside in the SUNSHINE with my NEIGHBORS and although I'm not the same person that I was 20+ years ago, I like myself.
I no longer beat up on myself. I asked forgiveness to those whom I hurt the most and, with a single exception, I have been forgiven and I have forgiven myself. With a partnership of a wee bit of psychotherapy and a larger part of my time on venlafaxine, I have realized that I'm not - nor ever was - an evil monster.
All of those bad things that I couldn't get out of my mind, each tiny mistake that I made, none of those things made me bad. All of the losses that I blamed on myself? I wasn't responsible for at all, not at all.
So, yes, I experienced all of those things that you're feeling - and much, much worse - when I started the drug and the 'cure' didn't happen in the first or second month(s). Not even in the first year. I consider CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) to be a sort of accepted form of Scientology - but, yes, I tried it (CBT, not Scientology) but couldn't stop giggling at the premise -> change the way you think and you'll change the way that you feel?
Peachy.
My recovery from depression was due to venlafaxine and a slow-to-realize realization that my feelings were unrealistic - not so much the way in which I thought. My way of thinking was logical, it made sense, it led me to true conclusions that could be verified by every shrink that I had over a 31-year period. Had X happened? Yes. Had I hurt Y intentionally? Of course I had. Did I realize that the only outcome would be Z? Yes, but my hope was that I would not be found out. There were twists and turns before feelings got in the way.
But I can't say that the expectations of my thinking were faulty; only the expectations of my feelings. And, yes, both CBT and Scientology can destroy that myth. But it worked for me. Along with the venlafaxine, it worked and is working for me.
Oh - yeah, the 'additional' drug responses! I worried about the contraindications of my 27 'other' drugs. My chemist (pharmacist - not certain where you are!) knows me so well and ALWAYS makes certain that there either are no, or that there may be, contraindications when I begin a new drug.
My chemist has some compurtised method that alerts him to any possible contraindications -> you should ask yours to see if he/she has something similar. lorrainr71866 is so right! I was turned into a newt, too, but I got better!
As to other issues... I have a number of issues, mental and physical, that I still have to deal with... I have no legs, I had a stroke on 12/25/2016 that introduced a number of new issues, I'm diabetic, I have congestive heart failure, I can't be tested with MRI's because of my ICD implant, I have two different dermatology diagnoses, I've had malignant cancers polyps in my colon and three (surgically removed!) malignant tumors in my liver, problems with my eyes... I'm just going to stop there because I'm beginning to sound as if I'm bragging!
But I live in a wonderful and fairly new handicapped designed apartment, pay non-subsidized rent, utilities, groceries, etc., and I get by.
I'm only saying this because I know what,it's like to deal with many different issues at once (oh, yeah, the anxiety... oh, the anxiety - been treated for anxiety since 1986 - my first psychiatric diagnosis and the 'psychotic features'? Gone but not forgotten!), yeah, I do. Most of my meds are not meant to 'heal' but rather 'maintain' and, yet... I'm going to continue the venlafaxine for one year and if I'm still okay then my shrink and I will begin a slow withdrawal.
But you shouldn't be thinking about a withdrawal - you need to get on the stuff to see if it works for you. I tried so many types of antidepressants and, before venlafaxine, only one had worked - Nardil. I was hospitalized when given Nardil and it had an immediate joyous effect. It also drove my blood pressure up to stroke levels.
Maybe you won't have a month of misery. I have to say that venlafaxine was key to my recovery, though, and that I can't imagine what I would be like had
I not persevered.
Prepare for hell but don't be surprised when the hellish fog begins to lift.