WHY do THEY LIE TO US?!?!??!?!

[loriv19]

Morning Kinkay,

If you don't mind me asking, what is the dose that your on? I took from 37.5 to 150 and am back down to 75. Give it time for the meds to work. It usually takes a good week or two to really feel the results.

Than you can discuss how your feeling on this med with your dr and see if anything else can help or if this alone is enough. I needed the combination of Welbutrin too. And wow what a differnece. I still have my moments of sadness and anger but I doing 99% better. I don't think their is really anyway to be 100%. You have to have these feelings, their normal but they don't have to run your life. That's not a typo, they do not have to RUN you life, for if they do it will only RUIN your life. I don't like feeling like that but it does make the good times that much sweeter.

Hoping you have a good day.

[Kinkay]

Hello Loriv,

I'm still on 37.5 but I'll be moving onto 75 tomorrow. Actually, the first three days I couldn't eat or sleep but I definitely didn't have any fear attacks nor did I think suicidal thoughts. Although, that may be attributed to the lack of sleep and food.

I agree with you on the feeling 100% part. I just want to wake up and feel the need to live another day.

Glad to hear it's working out for you!

[2big4mysize]

how you doing with your new dose?
Are you feeling better?

[Reveal]

I had the same reaction when I started Lexapro, but I've lost 40 pounds in the 8 months since I started it, so it was fine for me. Again, I think feeling better helped me work harder and eat less for emotional reasons. Like everyone has said, see if it works for you, but give it time. I had a friend who was on Effexor and she gained in the first month (a bit) and then it sort of settled in and she's actually lost about 70 pounds in the year since. So give your body some time, okay?

[killerbombshell]

I took Effexor for about a year with no weight gain. The first two months it supressed my appetite quite a bit. I ended up stopping it due, instead, to severe sexual side effects.

If you're very concerned and notice problems, I would talk to your doctor about working with another kind of drug therapy. I know my doctor was always willing to take my concerns about weight into consideration when prescribing medication. I have had excellent success on Wellbutrin.

[2big4mysize]

so how you doing now? Feeling better?

[hollirrose]

I took Effexor for almost 2 years. For the first few months I dropped quite a bit of weight....probally because I had more energy and I just felt better about life. I have nothing about good things to say about it..... well excpet when you try to get off the stuff. Headaches...shock that run through your body. ....but still well worth it!

[ttdriver]

I have nothing about good things to say about it..... well excpet when you try to get off the stuff. Headaches...shock that run through your body. ....but still well worth it!

DON'T GET ME STARTED ON EFFEXOR. What an EVIL drug it is. I'm now getting over the withdrawal, and I swear, as God is my witness, I will NEVER take any anti-depressants again. The withdrawal is downright EVIL. It is NOT worth it. NO WAY NO HOW.

Betty

[kibskix]

I saw the Effexor and just had to have my 2 cents.
I have Borderline Personality Disorder and wasn't RXed to take effexor as much as I had it just shoved in my hand and told "you NEED this asap cause you're a quack." That was some regular doctor who was kind of a jerk anyway. My psychiatrist (who I only saw about 3 times) told me to stay on it, and upped the dose to twice what I was taking.
If anyone knows how it is to have BPD, being on effexor really freaked me out. I felt -nothing-, I was a freaking pod person. I was used to feeling everything and anything, so it was crazy weird to be on the total opposite, but it was a bit of a relief for my brain. I don't think just TAKING the pill makes you gain weight, but I think my lack of caring about anything at all anymore did that. When I started taking it I was at my lowest weight on atkins, 180. Almost immediately I started gaining because I wasn't caring as much about what I ate, and got up to 13lbs heavier that I was the first time I started atkins.
A word on withdrawal.... I can't say a lot. I only stayed on effexor a few months before I had to wean myself off it super fast because I couldnt afford it. The same exact time I was going through withdrawal, I also found out I was having morning sickness and was pregnant. So I felt like absolute **** for over a month. I worked at starbucks at the time and I had to be at work at 4 every morning. So every morning I'd get up, throw up, go to work, throw up at work, repeat. Horrible horrible stuff.
I gained most of my weight after I was OFF Effexor, so I wouldnt worry about it being the sole cause.

[gardengoddess]

Kinkay, there are two classes of depression - typical and atypical. (Doctor's classification, not mine.) "Typical" is characterized by lack of appetite and inability to sleep. "Atypical" is sleeping all the time (or more than normal) and increased appetite. I have atypical depression and I believe that antidepressants are formulated to treat typical depression, resulting in increased appetite and sleepiness. I have been clinically depressed on and off for most of the past 13 years. I also believe that in the same way that carbohydrate over-consumption has goofed up my pancreas' production of insulin, it has also goofed up my production and re-uptake of serotonin. (The combination of natural serotonin plus the serotonin produced by sugar/carb consumption has caused my brain to produce less, relying on the carb serotonin.) This may be my theory only.

Many doctor's are reluctant to tell a depressed patient that their medication may possibly cause weight gain because they want you to take the medicine to get better, and like you said in your post, many people will not take it if they think that they will gain (even more) weight. However, people suffering from depression (especially severe depression) don't recognize how imperative it is to stabilize their mood to save their life. They can be totally self-focused and unable to see the "big picture." So, doctor's choose the lesser of two evils - weight gain over a possible tragic end.

But, as many people in this thread have pointed out, taking your medicine may not cause you to gain weight. In fact, taking your meds may help you to become motivated to do the things that you need to do to lose any excess weight that you may have - eating "good for you" food, exercising, etc.

I would also suggest reading the book, "Feeling Good - the new mood therapy" by David D. Burns to ANYONE suffering from depression. It's been a great help to me in understanding my thought process.

I hope that you feel better soon.