Effexor

Medication 💊 Antidepressants
1

Hi,

I have now had dizziness for 8 months (tomorrow), which I know is not nearly as long as many of you. At the 6 month mark, my neurootologist finally prescribed me some meds: flunarizine. I couldn’t even get to the 6 to 8 week mark where the meds were supposed to kick in, b/c I was having tremors as a side effect.

They replaced the flunarizine with verapamil, which after having a dizzy first week on the meds, I thought they had started to kick in and do their thing. Needless to say, I broke out in a full body rash and had to stop taking verapamil. The last 4 days, I have been suffering terribly from verapamil withdrawal…I have had the worst headaches I have ever known. Advil and tylenol don’t help at all.

Today I got back in to see the resident doctor (not my neurootologist) and I took with me the list of medications that Dr. Hain suggested in the Q&A with Dr. Hain. The resident, who doesn’t seem to know much about MAV or anything about my dizziness in general (although my neuro doesn’t seem to really know what I have either), looked at my list and decided to prescribe the Effexor for me.

So, my question for all of you is: Have any of you used or had success with Effexor? I will start my first (low) dose tomorrow morning after breakfast.

Thanks,

Lisa Rebecca

2

Welcome. There are some threads specific to Effexor. I did not have a good experience, but I do NOT want that and other’s experiences to deter you from taking it. Personally, I was just very concerned about the withdrawal symptoms, which is dizziness for non-dizzy sufferers. It also made me feel much dizzier; however, that happens with some meds until your body adjusts. People have gotten better on it; hopefully, you will too. Just wondering - what are your symptoms??

3

Thank you for getting back to me. I looked ahead (or behind) at old posts and found a lot posted about Effexor, so thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I just spoke to a friend who has been taking Effexor for anxiety, successfully, for many years and only has problems when withdrawing.

My symptoms are heavy headedness, I get stiff like a board when I am having a spell, and I cannot turn my head - I need to turn my whole body - or everything moves in what appears to be slow motion. I never know first thing in the morning if it will be a dizzy day. It usually starts an hour and a half to two hours after I wake up in the morning.

I have read about people breaking the pills up and making the dosage smaller. I am VERY med sensitive and am less than 100 pounds. I’m thinking that even though I was prescribed 37.5mg, that I should start this week by taking 1/3 of the dosage, rather than jumping right in.

Any suggestions?

Lisa Rebecca

4

Hi Lisa (we have three of you now!),

Welcome to mvertigo! The dosing with Effexor is typically to start at 1/3 of 37.5 mg –– even less if you are ultra sensitive to the med. Unlike regular non-migraineurs, people with a “migraine brain” are very sensitive to medication.

— Begin quote from ____

“Migraineurs tend to be very sensitive to medications and often suffer many side effects. It is usually necessary to start on sub-therapeutic doses of medications and increase the dose in small steps over several weeks or months in order to achieve treatment success without provoking unmanageable side-effects. Steve Rauch”

“I also tend to attribute extreme medication sensitivity to migraine. Timothy Hain”

— End quote

Effexor can go either way for people with MAV. Some have had a really lousy time on it and coming off of it while others (not many here unfortunately) do well on it and experience average withdrawal symptoms. It’s definitely worth a try I think like all of the other migraine meds.

Best … Scott 8)

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— Begin quote from “Lisa Rebecca”

So, my question for all of you is: Have any of you used or had success with Effexor? I will start my first (low) dose tomorrow morning after breakfast.

— End quote

Hi Lisa,
While I haven’t been officially diagnosed with MAV, I have been dizzy for 3 years now, and could create my own story from copying and pasting from others experiences shared here on the forums. I refused the medication route, trying a lot of other treatments, finally after finding these forums and learning more about MAV I decided to give some kind of preventativie med a try. I’ve been on Effexor for 3 months now, I am up to 150mg a day. Honestly the only improvement I’ve experienced from Effexor in regards to my dizziness, is the internal swaying I always have is narrowed down. Meaning before it felt like I was rocking back and forth three feet to each side, now I feel like I rock back and forth one foot to each side. Mentally, it has slightly improved my mood, so now I am still non functional and dizzy, but just don’t give a crap anymore because mentally I feel better.

I also started Clonazepam a couple months ago (generic for Klonopin). That is what is allowing me to function more often each day than not, downside is that it can make me a bit tired. But I’d rather be functional and tired than non-functional and miserable. If I don’t take the Clonazepam, I’m pretty much useless like before I started any meds.

A disturbing side effect from either of the above, I don’t know which one, but every time I go to stand up I almost pass out now. Anybody know why this may be happening?

Still trying to get a referral to neurologist. I swear doctors here want me to have one foot in the grave before they’ll do anything for me.

Always something… sorry for the negative overtones to my post… I’m just having one of those really rough days, too much stress and even the Clonazepam doesn’t seem to be helping. One of those days where I feel like giving up and jumping off a cliff… my boyfriend won’t let me though! :slight_smile:

Take care,
Crystal

6

Hi Crystal,
I too have severe rocking all the time which is incredibly debilitating. I am glad to hear you have found a mix of meds that makes you a bit more functional and improves your mood. With regards to your feeling dizzy when standing, this could be a side effect of the Effexor as in some people it can cause postural hypotension. Maybe you can try getting up slower to give your body time to adjust? Just a thought.

I was also wondering how much clonazepam you were taking? I am on clonazepam as well, but don’t find it to be of much help.

Thanks,
Lisa

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— Begin quote from “MAVNY”

I was also wondering how much clonazepam you were taking? I am on clonazepam as well, but don’t find it to be of much help.

— End quote

Hi Lisa,
I’m prescribed 1mg twice a day. How much are you taking? I have had a couple days where I felt I didn’t need to take it, until late afternoon. I also have had a couple days where I felt I needed more, such as today, I have taken 3mg so far… I know I’m not supposed to do that but it helps me so I do it anyways.

For me the clonozepam seems to dull my senses… for example I am super sensitive to lights. After starting the clon. I am now able to go into grocery stores and last more than ten minutes. I can also tolerate sounds and motion more too, and have been able to go out to eat in restaurants for the first time in a long time and actually have a decent experience, while feeling almost normal and forgetting about my head. Before I was always extremely uncomfortable, sometimes with tears streaming down my face, while sitting at table ‘fighting’ the horrible feeling of dizziness and fighting urge to just run out of restaurant and wait outside. I’ve had to ditch my boyfriend so many times in the grocery stores, and other stores… I’m so grateful he is understanding and puts up with me!

Crystal

8

HI Crystal,
I take 0.125 mg four times a day (total 0.5 mg/day). I was put on this long before I received a diagnosis of MAV. I haven’t found it to help much, but I don’t want to change anything right now as I am slowing titrating my dose of verapamil. I have similar experiences as you… running out of grocery stores, etc, although I would not attempt a restaurant at this point. I’m glad you are finding a bit more functionality with your med mix and hope it gets even better with time.
Lisa

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Crystal,

I just wanted to mention that I can empathize with so much of what you have said. I rarely go to restaurants (I used to love eating out and also loved to cook). When I have gone, on many occasions, I was crying or nearly crying at the table. I have also ran out (well I should more say walked out with great difficulty) many times.

Are you able to function with the klonopin? Unfortunately, I tried it in the past. I believe only .5 at night, and was still sedated the next day. I am so med sensitive.

lisa

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— Begin quote from “MAVLisa”

Crystal,

I just wanted to mention that I can empathize with so much of what you have said. I rarely go to restaurants (I used to love eating out and also loved to cook). When I have gone, on many occasions, I was crying or nearly crying at the table. I have also ran out (well I should more say walked out with great difficulty) many times.

Are you able to function with the klonopin? Unfortunately, I tried it in the past. I believe only .5 at night, and was still sedated the next day. I am so med sensitive.

lisa

— End quote

Thanks Lisa,
For me I think it is the Klonopin that has allowed me to do a lot more than before. I’d say it i’m functioning 25% more each day than before… so I’m functioning at 50% to 75% on good days. But then again, last week, I had 3 days in a row where nothing seemed to help and I was at 0% all those days. It’s so frustrating. I don’t believe this combo of meds is my cure, just a temporary solution. But I am grateful for those days I can actually do more during the day, and maybe go to a restaurant to eat, or run errands when I need too. But still sometimes it’s a struggle to do even those things. I still don’t feel really good though, or even close to normal, but I have to say I have definitely improved from where I was before, and i’m pretty sure it’s the klonopin that’s helping.

Last year I finally decided to refuse to go anywhere or do anything because I knew that I would just be suffering the whole time, and have a poor experience so why bother? My family is now used to me being a flake, LOL. I’ve learned not to make plans, I always tell people it depends on how I’m feeling that day. I have given up so much of my life and feel my life is wasting away. I’m in my mid thirties and these are supposed to be the years I’m supposed to be on the road with my career, and raising a family. Now I just don’t know if that’s ever going to happen for me. I miss traveling and going to concerts. My whole life has changed. I think somebody once mentioned on these boards that they were grieving for their old self or their old life. That is where I’m at now. I want to feel ‘normal’ again, but I don’t think that will happen. I’m slowly learning to accept that this is my new ‘normal’ for now. The only good thing out of all this is I have really learned to appreciate the small things in life, like smelling the roses in my backyard, playing fetch with my dog… Haha. My perspective in life has definitely changed and continues to everyday.

I’ve been unemployed this entire time, had to quit my job because of this, and I still don’t feel like I would be able to handle sitting in an office again, with the office lighting and working on a different computer. I feel I could work from home if I could just find a job that would allow that, and would allow me all 7 days of the week to do 40 hours worth of work.

Well sorry for rambling, I usually don’t contribute much to these forums, mostly try to keep up with other’s experiences here. Thanks for listening everyone :slight_smile:

I hope you start to feel better sooner than later Lisa.

Take Care,
Crystal