Becoming a Better You

[Draco_Argentum]

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Draco, seriously, keep it to yourself.

Wow, dude, way to read too much into a post. You honestly think I wasn't making a jaded internet surfer joke?

Effexxor is pretty lame. Didn't really help me at 150mg and as Crissa mentioned the discontinuation effects are crap. I got off it by stopping when I had such a bad flu that I couldn't notice the effect. I'm not sure if the wolly headed effect has ever fully left and that was over a year ago.

[Koumei]

The first few days were completely awesome. It felt like I wasn't me. It seriously felt as though I was playing a video game, playing as the person who was having a shit time. I really noticed the effects like light-headedness just as I was heading home from buying a big back of charcoal BBQ fuel. Crappy timing. If it'd been 10 minutes earlier, I wouldn't have wasted money buying the stuff, seeing as I was only getting it for the carbon monoxide, generally considered best way to go if you lack both heroin and cyanide.

After a few days, it was just a general, light "I don't really care too much" feeling, which was nice, but it took literally forever to get off, which was annoying. It lowered my sex drive in general, really - even now.

But then, for maybe a month after, the "nothing really matters" started to wear off, but it gave me really intense orgasms, so I had something to occupy myself with to make the world seem better

But now... it's more or less "Normal, except it sort of helps life not be totally shit, but occasionally fails". Still, I'm hoping that upping the dose will give those starting effects again.

On one occasion I missed my dose, and the next morning felt really dizzy and light-headed. I try to always get the repeat filled out early these days.

[Draco_Argentum]

Bah, all I got the first few days was nausea. Skipping a day really did suck. I'd turn my head and then the world would catch up half a second later. Didn't make me feel sick, just very disoriented.

For extra hilarity a few months in I heard this:
"In June 2005, the FDA announced that several recent scientific publications suggested the possibility of an increased risk for suicidal behavior in adults being treated with antidepressant medications, including Effexor. The FDA advised that adults taking antidepressants, particularly those being treated for depression, should be watched closely for worsening depression and increased suicidality. Monitoring these patients is especially important when treatment begins, and when doses are increased or decreased."

[Crissa]

However, the number of suicides in treated population is still lower than the untreated population.

So I'm not sure why they're forcing the warnings.

Although it is totally true that mood swings when one is being medically treated can be worse - the patient is totally more capable, and therefore more likely to succeed at a suicide attempt. And increase that if there's an allergic reaction or the med is only quasi-working.

Still, like I said, the suicide rate is lower in the treated than the placebo pool, or the untreated population.

And yeah, miss a bedtime dose and by next nightfall it'd feel like someone was randomly hitting my head with a mallet. I'm not even sure how to exaggerate, as a mallet being fully whacked upon the head isn't really enough to equate... I know, I've tried.

-Crissa

[Judging__Eagle]

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Wow, dude, way to read too much into a post. You honestly think I wasn't making a jaded internet surfer joke?

Jocularity doesn't really carry that well with text alone. Intonation, body language and facial expressions all help convey that.

It seems that a some people here could probably relate to Motion City Soundtrack's "everything is all right".

I know I did, except I didn't have anyone prescribe me anything and 'self-medication' really isn't my thing. Mostly since it takes a lot of booze to really alter my mood and I resist all the way and despite the fact that I can count the number of times I've been utterly sloshed on one hand, I can tell you with perfect recollection what happened.

Austrian-German/Easter European on one side, Italian/Irish/Scottish/Spanish on the other. Nope, nary a legacy of temperance among those people.

[Koumei]

I didn't get headaches or anything. Just the dizziness and light-headedness when I missed the dose.

[tzor]

1196129659[/unixtime]]You seem to know a lot more than most 'celibates' I've met.

I blame NaNoWriMo. But seriously after a very bad first year, I decided that my best approach to victory was an erotic novel. (Make Dr. Ruth a Halfling!) On the NaNo erotic pages I found the best website ever. I can't directly mention it here. No really I think the filter still works on that word, even in the URL part.

So check out for a site called "the-[female anatomy part that starts with a c].com" It is not pornographic, but they do talk a lot about sex and other things as well. Stuff you won't find in Gray's Anatomy because for the most part because these areas weren't really studied as much until recently.

[CalibronXXX]

I was on oxycodone after I had rhinoplasty to correct a deviated septum caused by a car accident, and let me tell you, oxycodone is not a fun drug to be on. Made me feel absolutely horrible in a variety of ways. I got off the damn things as soon as I could stand the pain.

[JonSetanta]

Some here already know my trouble with painkillers after the appendectomy earlier this summer.
But when I filed an 'anonymous complaint' about the nightshift nurses there, 2 weeks later there came in the mail a letter from the director of that hospital wing, to me personally. It was a counter to everything I told the clerk... anonymously.
She claimed I had 4 doses of morphine, which was not true: I had 3 half-doses, and then a full dose (injected hastily, which.. well.. hurts. like a migraine.) on the night after surgery while the instructions said no more morphine.
You see, I had bruised my knuckles by punching the plastic bed-arm-grip things. That was from the intense pain and delerium, you know, from having your guts opened up and the previous painkillers wearing off. All I wanted was quiet, after about 60 something straight hours of being awake: the IV pump kept me up, and I turned it off twice only to have a nurse threaten me.
That's probably why I lost my cool... don't remember, since I had some kind of 'bad reaction to morphine', but the IV was out by that last morning (I had pulled it out overnight), and another nurse argued with me, called in the specialist to reinstall it. That's when I called the doctor and my parents, since he had told me in person the night before that since I was eating, IV wasn't needed., and the extra fluids were causing pain in the incision area (had to pee every hour).
Someone.. like a whole department.. didn't get the memo. Or remember. Or listen.
The doctor was pissed at those nurses, but not nearly as much as I am even to this day.

[Crissa]

You probably shouldn't turn off the IV pump.

-Crissa