question about medication????

[Krismf]

I have had anxiety and panic since i was 16, 32 now and have been on Effexor xr for eight years. about eight months ago i decided to lower my dose of 450 down to 300 since things were fine for a long time and i thought it could not hurt. in dec. i started to get very anxious and panicy. also, i have been on a generic of the med. i went back up to 450 of the generic and things were not working. decided to start with the brand again about three weeks ago and things are improving but very slow. i have the typical symptoms of anxiety for no reason, panic as well. no full blown panic attacks but the fear of having one is almost as bad. i go through the day wondering when i will feel bad again and how bad. just seems like i cant stop thinking about this problem. i am usually a very social and cheerful person so i am not scared to be in public places or anything like that. i like people and like to be arround them. i gues i'm seeing if anybody had a similar experience with this? my doc recomended i try abilify in addition to effexor. did anybody try this and what was the outcome? i really appreciate any input or discussion on this topic.

[Chiliphil1]

Hello, I have no experience with effexor, or ability but I just wanted to comment.

I have read that the generics of some of the ad drugs are no good. They are similar to the real thing, but for some reason people just don't get the same effects. I will say that I am on pristiq which is the new " updated " version of effexor, I am on a 50 mg dose which is equivalent to 300mg of effexor I am having great results with it, it is really working wonders. One other thing I've heard is that after taking a med for so long it is possible for it to stop having the same effect. I wonder if the doctor should possibly switch your meds, maybe even pristiq.

As far as ability I have read good things about it, and there commercial is certainly very convincing! I would definitely recommend following the doctors recommendations they know best even though sometimes it doesn't seem like it. I also wonder are you doing any sort of counseling, possibly CBT?

[Krismf]

Thank you for your reply. A few years ago i tried cymbalta and it backfired and i had a hell of a time coming back from that. I am hoping that messing arround with the generic verson of the effexor and lowering my dose got me into this. I know that it takes a while for effexor and other antidepressants to work so im trying to be patient however patients and anxiety do not go together well. If things do not improve i will try abilify with the effexor like my doc said.

[alankay]

In time you will calm back down. You are just a bit shaken up by all this. Abilify would raise the serotonin higher, faster but I bet a short course of a long acting benzo(valium, klonopin, clorazepate) would calm you quickly and as the effexor kicks in, drop the benzo. Alankay

[laurandisorder]

Effexor peaked out for me (at maximum dose for major depression - no anxiety at that stage) after about 3 years.

Zoloft didn't cut it (I got through a year on maximum dose), I then tried Lexapro and am now on Edronax, which isn't available in the states, but I have been taking it for 6 years with complete success. It doesn't have a great reputation in the anti depressant world, but it works for me.

Remember, everyone is different and medications do lose efficiency over a long duration.

[laurandisorder]

Oh and always, always make sure you are under the supervision of a psychiatrist or doctor and psychologist.
My biological make up might mean I'm on medication for the rest of my life, but I have always been in active treatment to sort my issues out and so that my meds can be supervised.

[Krismf]

it looks like the effexor is starting to work because for the past few days i have been much better for no reason at all. anxiety is not all gone but doing much better, i think. i hope things will continue to improve from here on. it was really tough to go through. thanks for the coments from everybody as the discussion does help in knowing you are not the only one..

[mommy.n]

Glad to hear it getting better. Thanks for answering my post......your story sounds like mine......I've been on Effexor Xr for about 12 yrs.....I'm 30. I have had anxiety/dep since about 14. I'm scared now to ever lower my dose again, the last 2 times I did that I went back to square one.
I actually don't know if I am taking the generic or not....
Effexor has always worked for me, I don't think I'll stop taking it ever.....plus the withdrawl is worse than anything I've ever experienced.

I am scared tho that one of these days it won't work like it has before......like right now I'm at 3 weeks of bumping back up the dose....trying to be patient for a bit longer.

[Krismf]

Just an update to whats going on. Have been feeling great for the past week or so except for yesterday. All day i felt like I was in the begining stages of a panic atack. Dizzy, could not focus, disconnected from everything and all the other symptoms. Then i got on the internet and started looking at panicsymptoms and realized that thats all it was for no reason at all. After that i started to feel much better. Not to say that if fixed it forever but its a good solution for me for the time being. Its good to know i am not going nuts and that all it is is a panic attack. Hope this helps someone in the same boat as me. In the mean time the effexor is still building up in my system.

[mommy.n]

Krismf, I feel like we are the same person. I was feeling pretty good this week until yesterday....feeling the same things as you are. I have a hard time convincing myself that this is not me, I feel doomed. Since raising my Effexor XR dose I think it's been about 4 weeks.......
If you want to chat feel free to msg me

[Krismf]

Another quick update to what has been going on with me. Things tend to be going well if not great for a week or so and then again it seems like i hit a wall again. Same symptoms as before, a bit of anxiety and the disconected feeling. More worrying about feeling anxious than actually being anxios. The good thing is that it seems like the wall is not as hard to get over as last time i hit it. I use the wall as example because that is the only thing i can think of that relates to my situation. Please let me know if this sounds familiar as it does help knowing you are not alone in this situation. Thanks for reading and your input.

[inspiration66]

Hello,
abilify is an antipsychotic to treat people with psychotic features.First of all it is very expensive and it will remain you calm but feeling a little bit anxiety is common.The major problem with abilify is insomnia.Maybe it works for you. They are all try and error medications. Don't give up and find your best medication.

[Krismf]

Things have been nice and calm since my last post two weeks ago until today. This morning woke up with a panic feeling which turned into a panic attack that lasted 35 min, not full blown but dizzy for the entire time. Could not focus on anything which made things worse. I have not taken the abilify yet but im going to so i can cure this crap. Hopefully at least. Thanks for reading.