missed meds once days ago and I still feel it

[clay]

Thursday night I forgot to take my effexor. I didn't even realize it until half way through the work day on friday when I felt a MASSIVE headache all day, was nauseous, felt panicky and had to practice breathing, couldn't concentrate, diarrhea, etc. realized I had forgotten to take my meds the night before. I'm on like the lightest dosage of effexor! how can missing 1 cause so much havor. the missed dose was thursday night, it's now sunday evening and I still feel severe anxiety!!! I felt so anxious all day today I actually went back to bed half way through the day because I couldn't stand how I was feeling. omg. how am I ever going to wean off these pills if missing ONE makes me feel this bad!!!
background: I'm 30, female, happily married, been on effexor since Sept 2010 when I had such severe anxiety that I stayed home from work for 2 weeks. was seeing a psychologist but she seemed to feel like I was doing fine and I didn't feel like the sessions were really doing anything.

[clay]

I had really hoped that I'd only be on anxiety meds for a short time... my psychologist said that no one should take anxiety meds for fewer than 6 months the first time they are on them. I don't know the whole reasoning behind that but my family doctor seemed to agree that I shouldn't come off the meds before 6 months. both my psychologist and my doc told me that I would only be on the meds temporarily.
now I'm afraid that I won't be able to come off these meds! at least not any time soon. If missing one stupid pill can throw me off this much, I'm afraid of trying to wean off these.
my dose of effexor is the lowest dose available and comes in capsules so they can't easily jsut be split in half for smaller doses as I wean off, know what I mean? so how do I get off them?
my doctor told me these were non-addictive.
it was a really hard day at work. I felt anxious without cause. I felt like an elephant on my chest. I felt like my throat was swollen and I was choking. I felt a little like I might pass out. for no reason!!!!!! I was fidgety. I sometimes would zone out and stare into space. I notice when I'm like this that I lose all concept of time. 6 hours and 6 minutes don't feel all that different to me (which sort of makes for a nice short work day in a way LOL).
tomorrow I have a staff meeting in the board room. I'm always THE WORST in there. I will need a tall glass of water. drinking water helps me with that choking feeling I get.
see how I'm anxious about just being anxious!!?

[clay]

forwell - I forgot to respond to you. thanks for your explanation. I semi-understand your explanation. not super-well but it helped.

[Robbed]

my dose of effexor is the lowest dose available and comes in capsules so they can't easily jsut be split in half for smaller doses as I wean off, know what I mean? so how do I get off them?
my doctor told me these were non-addictive.

I am not sure if a liquid is available to make it easier to gently taper in order to get off the drug. But this is a possibility. Another possibility would be to buy a small digital scale that would allow you to measure out dosages. If no liquid is available and you are already taking the smallest pill available, then this might be the only way to go. Just remember that a pill contains more than the active ingredients. This means that, to halve the dosage (for instance), you need to take half the weight of the whole pill (and NOT just half the weight of the active ingredient).

As for Effexor being 'non-addictive', the whole issue of addiction to antidepressants is a controversial one. In fact, lawsuits have even been filed when it comes to this. The problem here is that the pharmaceutical companies have an interest in being able to say that antidepressants are non-addictive. After all, most people tend to shy away from drugs that they know they could become addicted to - especially if the benefits are uncertain (as is the case for antidepressants). So the pharmaceutical companies changed the definition of 'addictive'. Most people consider a drug to be addictive if you cannot just walk away from it without experiencing withdrawal symptoms. But the pharmaceutical companies consider a drug to be addictive if it causes a 'high' which the user craves. In other words, the drug must be psychologically addictive (and possibly physically addictive). Antidepressants are not psychologically addictive, but ARE physically addictive (ie they cause physical withdrawal when discontinued, but the user does NOT crave the drug). So this change in definition essentially 'allows' the pharmaceutical companies to advertise antidepressants as non-addictive. Although this is VERY deceptive, this is unfortunately the way addictiveness is defined for prescription drugs.

[clay]

Robbed - my sister explained the addictive definitions to me last night the same way you did. :( she said that I need to ask doctors if meds are psychologically addictive and/or physically dependent.

Forwells - I didn't quite understand your last question, how anxious am I? today I'm not so bad. I called into work sick today because I woke up anxious and I was afraid that I would get to work and have a panic attack or break down or something. Last night I was really really bad. I was even crying over it. I think it scared my husband to see me so worked up. It was one of those episodes where I think something is wrong with me. Know what I mean? Like a stomach cramp must mean that I'm going to die of something serious and I want to go to the hospital. That's what I was going through last night.

this morning I left a voicemail for both my family doctor and my psychologist saying what I was going through after missing just one dose so many days ago. neither doctor has called me back yet. I don't imagine there is anything they can do... just keep taking the meds and eventually the anxiety symptoms will clear up again.
I'm on the 37.5 dose of venlaflaxine (effexor) so this is as low as you can go, as far as I know. it might be unusual to have such severe "withdrawl" from such a low dose but I don't know.

[Robbed]

I don't really agree with this . They are both . Not only do you get side effects but you also get anxiety from the thought of not having them to get you though life once you are withdrawing .Nicotine , alcohol , heroin are all the same they have both these effects . It is super common for a person on these drugs to question what life is going to be like when they are removed .How will i cope?? Does that not say that they are psychologically addicted to them in some way . Sugar pills are psychologically addicted for gods sake.

Once again, it's all about a play on words. 'Psychologically addictive' in this case is what Big Pharma decides it wants the phrase to mean so that they can maximize sales. Now there may be some differences in the way someone might think about taking a street drug vs Effexor. For instance, someone might say that their E-trip, cocaine high, or experience smoking weed was AWESOME. But this is something we really don't hear about someone taking Effexor or Lexapro - most people taking these drugs would rather NOT be taking them. So people taking drugs like Effexor and Lexapro are not really motivated to continue taking them because of a 'high' that they get. And, based on this definition, antidepressants could be said NOT the be psychologically addictive - at least if this is what you WANT the definition of psychologically addictive to be.

On the other hand, antidepressants are VERY psychologically addictive in other ways. Specifically, people are driven to take them because they are afraid of withdrawal. They're also afraid of losing any benefit that they might derive (or feel that they derive) from taking the drug. They, as you say, worry about how they will cope without the drug. And, as you say, it's also a reason why people continue to take drugs like heroin, cocaine, cigarettes, alcohol, etc. The only REAL difference between this aspect of psychological addiction and the addiction to a 'high' is that one is a fear of negative consequences and the other is a desire to feel desirable effects. One is a stick and the other is a carrot. But they are both forms of psychological addiction. And the bottom line is that Big Pharma is simply using a play on words to make an inferior product seem good.