I've taken Effexor XR for years now and it's worked well for my anxiety, but near the begining of the year, I started having some problems and for several months, I have been going to a regular doctor for them, thinking that something else was wrong. The only thing they've found so far was a very low vitamin D level. More tests even while taking vitamin D and still nothing. Blood tests, heart tests, stress tests, etc. I'm fine. Anxiety causing it? Not likely. I had these symptoms trigger anxiety attacks a couple of times in the past few months, but the anxiety was caused by these symptoms which I'll get to. My Vit. D is back to normal. I'm taking multivitamins.
Anyways, here is a list of the things I'm experiencing.
Rare dizzy like feeling
fatigue (usually not real tired, but more tired than I really should be. This can vary. The past couple of days I have been extremely tired. Sleeping in longer. Not able to function, even when I want to.)
Running out of breath very easily after a jog or bike ride.
dry mouth (probably the most annoying and problematic thing. It's not severe. As the doctor noted not noticing any speech problems which come with dry mouth. Apparently the people that complain the most about it have more severe issues with dry mouth. Still very unpleasant and water doesn't work well. sugar free kool-ade and diet pop work better than water.)
Not being able to find a certain word when I want to use it. Like a memory problem.
Headaches
Chest pain
back pain
not being able to sit comfortably in one position
slight dryness in eyes
I could probably go on. I've had Sjorgen's Syndrome ruled out. I wear a BiPAP mask at night, so my sleep apnea is taken care of. The machine reads that my apnea does not exist while using the machine.
I have seen my psych doctor and a couple or maybe 3 weeks ago I had my effexor lowered and a slightly lower dosage of xanax. That hasn't helped. Really the last thing we want to do is change my anti-depressant, since it works, but if it comes down to it, then I will drop that and try something else, but like I've said I've used it for years now without problems. I finally noticed online that long-term use was never really given any study, which kind of explains why my psych doctor is a little hesitant to change my med as well. If course if you look around the net you may find people saying they had problems only years after having been on a certain anti-depressant. I guess wha tI'm looking for aren people who have had issues not just with effexor, but any anti-depressant and then only years later, having the same issues.
08 Aug 2014, 5:20 pm
