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Dear readers, people who clicked on my name on network, etc,
Today my neurologist decided she really wanted to be able to make triptans accessible to me because of concerns about my abortive therapy availability. This means she has proposed switching from escitalopram, the 6th in a series of antidepressants I've taken for a long time and failed, to effexor, which ... I only trialed for three weeks and then got switched and was about sixteen at the time.
Because it's not an SSRI it's apparently triptan-friendly.
I'm confident I'd stay on Wellbutrin because I need that for executive functioning things too, the escitalopram is largely there just to counter the anxiety that the Wellbutrin makes worse, but --
But, I know quite a few people who read my DW at times take venlafaxine, so please tell me what you think of it, what the onset period was like, how it works in comparison to other things, &c? Much appreciated in advance!
Today my neurologist decided she really wanted to be able to make triptans accessible to me because of concerns about my abortive therapy availability. This means she has proposed switching from escitalopram, the 6th in a series of antidepressants I've taken for a long time and failed, to effexor, which ... I only trialed for three weeks and then got switched and was about sixteen at the time.
Because it's not an SSRI it's apparently triptan-friendly.
I'm confident I'd stay on Wellbutrin because I need that for executive functioning things too, the escitalopram is largely there just to counter the anxiety that the Wellbutrin makes worse, but --
But, I know quite a few people who read my DW at times take venlafaxine, so please tell me what you think of it, what the onset period was like, how it works in comparison to other things, &c? Much appreciated in advance!
no subject
onset side effects were non-existent for me, which was a first. i actually never experienced any side effects whatsoever OTHER than the worsening of my migraines and the worsening of my menorrhagia, which WOULDN'T have occurred if i hadn't gone off birth control, so.
it did not cause me the things that a variety of others (incl. wellbutrin, which, yeah, ANXIETY) did, such as urine retention or tachycardia or worsening crazy. it DID make my migraines worse, but, again, like ~recessional said, it can also make them better! being able to take triptans was a plus. it made my PTSD liveable, at any rate. it also ensured that i had more energy. it made me slightly twitchy, which went away after i stopped taking it.
the flipside is that, yeah, like ~recessional said, it has a half-life of 12 hours and some of the most unpleasant withdrawal symptoms i've ever experienced. they're not dangerously bad, just painful--shocks, nausea, blurred vision, dizziness, hot flashes, etc. if nothing else it reminds you to take it...
i stopped taking it because it was...working, and i assumed i no longer needed antidepressants, and, again, i had nothing to counteract the menorrhagia. once i DID stop taking it, i tapered slowly by 1/4 doses and had no withdrawal symptoms.