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spacecadet: life after effexor/welbutrin; cognitive difficulties


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So thankful for this website and the online community who "gets it". Can use all the support I can get!

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On 2017-06-05 at 2:23 AM, spacecadet said:

Although improving slowly but surely, I still am experiencing cognitive difficulties that bother me greatly. ...

 

I am fortunate enough to have supportive friends and family throughout this process, but their patience is definitely wearing thin and everyone thinks I should be further along than I am. I did have a temp job for a brief period of time earlier this year, but am not working as of now and am still living at home. Not knowing which direction to take in terms making money is certainly an added stress that is driving me a little crazy. Does anyone have any recommendations for work while dealing with this?

 

There are several topics about work and jobs.  Here are links to what came up as results when I searched for

Jobs.

Work. (this is less precise because the word "work" is used to mean "function", as in "Do these drugs actually work?")

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.
1997-1999 Effexor; 2002-2005 Effexor XR 37.5 mg linear taper, dropping same #beads/week with bad results

Cymbalta 60 mg 2012 - 2015; 2016: 20 mg to 7 mg exact doses and dates in this post; 2017: 6.3 mg to  0.0 mg  Aug. 12; details here


scallywag's Introduction
Online spreadsheet for dose taper calculations and nz11's THE WORKS spreadsheet

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Went to see a psychologist today in regards to anxiety and moving forward. When I told her about the memory problems and concentration issues she recommended seeing a neurologist. Has anyone else done this?? 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Started taking 5htp 100 mg caps two days ago. Almost immediately felt an increase in energy and have a sort of upbeat "buzzy" feeling. This has been a nice change from wanting to sleep all day and not getting anything done. I am hoping the buzzy feeling will decrease over the next few days as I am adjusting to the supplement. It's almost like having had too much coffee, although my mood also seems to have improved significantly as well. Has anyone else noticed immediate effects from 5htp? I can't help but feel like I am more sensitive to it having gone through AD withdrawal this year. 

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On 6/8/2017 at 9:20 PM, spacecadet said:

Went to see a psychologist today in regards to anxiety and moving forward. When I told her about the memory problems and concentration issues she recommended seeing a neurologist. Has anyone else done this?? 


Yes. I went to the neurologist and guess what ? It's "just" the withdrawal. My brain was perfectly healthy, which had cleared my worries about having some serious neurological problem. Withdrawal from medications is something that affects your whole body, which is horrifying.

 

I'm also having cognitive difficulties through my journey, and I'm dealing with withdrawal for a bit more than a half of year. I can say that in my windows, my cognition was good, maybe even very good, still not extremely good (which is my goal, because it was extremely good before) but hey, I felt really smart, and I know that's the thing we all want to when we're having cognitive difficulties. I also have them right now, but I'm still on medications and I'm slowly tapering.

 

It's going to pass, I'm repeating that to myself every day, because I'm zombified and have nothing to lose actually, plus I have no thoughts. When I'm mindless, why not at least do one good thing for my subconscious mind while working on myself by believing and repeating to myself that it's going to be okay ? I mean, I tell myself: "Look how many people got better, you really think you can't do it ?".

Cards, crosswords, writing about what you're feeling, talking about it with someone who understands and who wouldn't judge and... waiting. 

 

I think that the goal of all of us it surviving, as the name of the site says.
Once you see the light, once you see that you can, once you see the progress - you'll have more hope about that all.
There were even people, which thankfully hasn't happened to me, who didn't know how to dress themselves for example, and they're now better.

Good luck :)

My withdrawal journey (click)

 

"If you're going through hell - keep going".

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spacecadet, please be aware that 5-HTP will need to be tapered the same way that prescription psychoactive medication does.

 

5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan) and L-tryptophan.

 

Many people in withdrawal find it helpful to supplement with omega 3 and/or magnesium. Start with one or the other at a low dose and work your way up.

Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil).

Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker.

Edited by scallywag

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.
1997-1999 Effexor; 2002-2005 Effexor XR 37.5 mg linear taper, dropping same #beads/week with bad results

Cymbalta 60 mg 2012 - 2015; 2016: 20 mg to 7 mg exact doses and dates in this post; 2017: 6.3 mg to  0.0 mg  Aug. 12; details here


scallywag's Introduction
Online spreadsheet for dose taper calculations and nz11's THE WORKS spreadsheet

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i take fish oil everyday but have not noticed any significant differences; however, i do trust that it is good for overall brain health. I was also taking magnesium but experienced rapid heartbeat so I stopped taking it. 

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It's possible that you're taking too low a dose of fish oil or that the product you are taking has a low concentration of the Omega 3 fatty acids that are most supportive of neurological health: DHA - docosahexaenoic acid and EPA - eicosapentaenoic acid.

 

Please read the first post of the topic on fish oil (link above) to see our suggestion about the daily dosage that people have reported working for them. If I recall correctly it's over 1500 mg of DHA or EPA or a combination.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.
1997-1999 Effexor; 2002-2005 Effexor XR 37.5 mg linear taper, dropping same #beads/week with bad results

Cymbalta 60 mg 2012 - 2015; 2016: 20 mg to 7 mg exact doses and dates in this post; 2017: 6.3 mg to  0.0 mg  Aug. 12; details here


scallywag's Introduction
Online spreadsheet for dose taper calculations and nz11's THE WORKS spreadsheet

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When I went to get a referral to a neurologist, the gp wanted to run more labs for memory problems and fogginess. Thyroid levels came back normal but my b12 came back at 273. From what I understand this is pretty low... could my symptoms be attributed to this? Not sure why they didn't test for this a year ago. 

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spacecadet, different people have different responses to omega 3 supplementation.  I was taking a high quality EPA product before I started to taper so I can't offer an opinion about how it has affected me while I decrease dose.

 

Did you read the topic on fish oil?

 

Blood levels, B12 among them, are usually most meaningful when compared with an individual's baseline measurement. Your level before you started taking the medications or before you started tapering may have been the same. If you don't have a previous assessment, you may want to ask your doctor for another test in 6 months.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.
1997-1999 Effexor; 2002-2005 Effexor XR 37.5 mg linear taper, dropping same #beads/week with bad results

Cymbalta 60 mg 2012 - 2015; 2016: 20 mg to 7 mg exact doses and dates in this post; 2017: 6.3 mg to  0.0 mg  Aug. 12; details here


scallywag's Introduction
Online spreadsheet for dose taper calculations and nz11's THE WORKS spreadsheet

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Good to know, as I stopped Zoloft a week ago and also have been experiencing some brain frog (sic)! I thought it was from 80mgs of hydroxyzine I took 3 weeks before, because the feeling is similar. And yeah, the insomnia too seems to aggravate it. But it's good to know it lifts eventually, as it made me consider reinstating (still am considering the method suggested by mammaP). By the way - omega3 is also in canola oil in big quantities, I like to stir fry with it, as it can sustain high heat.

1 year risperidone, 1 year olanzapine (10 mg). attempted first withdrawal cold turkey, failed. 2 more years olanzapine, switched to abilify which was very disruptive so attempted quitting cold turkey, failed. then 4 years amisulpride at 150 mg and about 3 zoloft at 150 mg. attempted withdrawal from both in 3 weeks, failed. reinstated zoloft and bridged to olanzapine (10 mg), successfully withdrew it over 10 months. tried withdrawing zoloft over 12 months, failed. bridged to prozac, at 40 mg,  now at 12 mg.

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2 hours ago, SpecialAgentDaleCooper said:

By the way - omega3 is also in canola oil in big quantities, I like to stir fry with it, as it can sustain high heat.

SADC: Canola oil has a significant % of Omega 6 fatty acids, which most of us in Western Europe and North America do not need to supplement.  The current research supports DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) as supportive for brain and neurological health. Those specific fatty acids are either very low in seed oils such as canola or not present at all. Here's an article about Dow's efforts to engineer DHA into canola oil.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.
1997-1999 Effexor; 2002-2005 Effexor XR 37.5 mg linear taper, dropping same #beads/week with bad results

Cymbalta 60 mg 2012 - 2015; 2016: 20 mg to 7 mg exact doses and dates in this post; 2017: 6.3 mg to  0.0 mg  Aug. 12; details here


scallywag's Introduction
Online spreadsheet for dose taper calculations and nz11's THE WORKS spreadsheet

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I don't have a baseline to compare it to but have read that it should be between 500-700. Hoping that this has something to do with it. 

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  • 1 month later...

Is it withdrawal or alcohol use that is making me feel awful. I still feel "dumb", having difficulty processing information, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, and feel uneasy being around people I don't know for extended amounts of time. I've been considering going back to 37.5 mg venlafaxine because of how awful I feel. I've been trying to get off AD's for one year now, and thought my issues would be resolved by this point. I just moved to a new city and need to start working to pay the rent, but I just don't feel like myself which is preventing me from putting myself "out there". On this medication I was very social, could talk to anyone about anything, was very confident, and now I am panicked in ANY social situation. 

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Before updosing it would be a very good idea to stop drinking alcohol all together and give your body a couple of months to detox and readjust.  Drinking alcohol during ADWD can cause a myriad of problems and really intensify any symptoms you may be having.  It is very unpredictable in it's affects and the hangover can be delayed for several days and last for weeks.

20 years on Paxil starting at 20mg and working up to 40mg. Sept 2011 started 10% every 6 weeks taper (2.5% every week for 4 weeks then hold for 2 additional weeks), currently at 7.9mg. Oct 2011 CTed 15oz vodka a night, to only drinking 2 beers most nights, totally sober Feb 2013.

Since I wrote this I have continued to decrease my dose by 10% every 6 weeks (2.5% every week for 4 weeks and then hold for an additional 2 weeks). I added in an extra 6 week hold when I hit 10mg to let things settle out even more. When I hit 3mgpw it became hard to split the drop into 4 parts so I switched to dropping 1mgpw (pill weight) every week for 3 weeks and then holding for another 3 weeks.  The 3 + 3 schedule turned out to be too harsh so I cut back to dropping 1mgpw every 4 weeks which is working better.

Final Dose 0.016mg.     Current dose 0.000mg 04-15-2017

 

"It's also important not to become angry, no matter how difficult life is, because you can loose all hope if you can't laugh at yourself and at life in general."  Stephen Hawking

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  • 1 year later...

Update. One year has passed and I am doing extremely well. Although unfortunately being off medication entirely did not work for me, I am successfully off of effexor, welbutrin, lorazepam, and ambien. I do take 10mg of citalopram and am happy with that decision at this particular stage of my journey. I tried for many months to be drug free, but ultimately decided that I couldn't function the way that I wanted to entirely on my own. 

 

At this time, I am still coffee and mostly caffeine free. I have strange and unpleasant reactions to caffeine (which I never thought would be an issue for a coffee lover such as myself). I still have some food sensitivities, but am in a remarkably better physical and mental state in comparison to last year. Just wanted to check in and share my experience with those still in the depths of tapering and withdrawal. It does get better.  

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