I was on the XR, not all people have a hard time, but many, many, many unfortunately do. Do a search of Effexor and weight loss and you will find many, many posts of people who blew up on Effexor and can't lose.
Yes, I talked with my Dr. about weaning myself off and unfortunately, my Dr. was not well informed of the withdrawal effects.
First time off I tried to go cold turkey from 150 mg a day. Bad idea! I was sick, brain tremors, headaches and got a severe cold.
Best way to do it is to slowly over weeks ween yourself. I went from 150 to 75, did 75 mg for a few weeks then went town to 37.5. Then from 37.5 cut pill in half (they are now generic so you can get in pill form) to 18 mg. Them for a few weeks took 18 mg then every other day took it to nothing at all. The first few days after completely stopping the 18 mg I was very dizzy but bearable. A month later I am still dizzy and have brain zaps and dizziness but not enough to make me go back. Every day I feel better and I could not be more pleased.
I will absolutely try new meds if I am too crazy at any time. I am researching the combination of Wellbutrin and Topamax because they are considered "weight neutral" drugs.
I tried Topamax at a high dosage once but I felt totally dumbed down and my cognitive skills were very bad. If I did it again I would do at a much lower dose.
For now I am in therapy twice a week and have really worked on getting very good nutrition in as a way to do better. I also take lots of vitamins like CoQ10, Omega 3's, B12, Selennium, and multi-vitamins in addition.
__________________ Age 34 Starting Weight 240 Current Weight 195 Goal Hmmm, not sure. Maybe 165? Height 5"7 Surgery Date 06/26/06 starting weight 235 VG 10 cc Band 1st Fill 07-21-06 - 1.5CC - 221 2nd Fill 08-15-06 - 2 cc - 222 3rd Fill 09-07-06 - 3 cc - 224 4th Fill 09-21-06 -1cc - 220 5th Fill 11/30/06 - 1 cc - 218 Current weight as of 01/20/07 - 195 http://www.myspace.com/luxuryfinds
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