LOST: EFFEXOR-TESTOSTERONE- PSSD-BRAIN-etc..

[Guest guest]

I was on EFFEXOR XR for 3.5 years. mentally, it made me feel no doubt 100%! but have I known the price I'm gonna pay for feeling right and the complications and facing reality today of permanent damage, god knows I wouldn't have touched it! I have to be honest, it blows my mind and don't understand why DOCTORS DO NOT PROVIDE INFORMATION OF THE RISKS WITH SSRI\SNRI's.. why they don't mention that there is a possibility that your mind and body can permanently get screwed up among the positive side!?!? don't they think a patient need to be properly informed and then together a conscious decision be made..god damn it, if anyone should make a decision of my life that should be ME!!! and only ME!!! I feel brutally 'RAPED'! If effexor was given to me by a single doctor - god knows I'll go back and sue his ass off! .however..it was prescribed to me by many doctors..every time 3 min in and out ,there you go 'stay well' and not a word of the

DANGER.. who do I blame - the system?!? I don't know.. but something isn't right!!! my first experience with antidepressants..was at age of 27 (I'm32now)..I tried Paxil for 2 months, it didn't do anything (as you know we all react differently to this kind of drugs).. then came effexor - and we clicked! I thought it was a miracle..symptoms of depression were gone.. I was focused.. took some courses.. got accepted in a great school.. on my way to a great career! LITTLE HAVE I KNOWN WHATS TO COME on week 3 being on effexor at the same time when i started feeling better mentally I noticed that I started loosing sensitivity in the head of my penis..I tried to be positive about it and remember thinking 'I can last longer'!..not that I was complaining, I was having sex with my girlfriend at the time maybe 5 days a week but every time between 4 and 6 hours.. the other 2 days.. i have to be honest, I just physically couldn't keep up with the

'marathon' but I still needed the sexual relieve..so I would hide and masturbate at least..bottom line..once a day.. if I didn't - I just simply couldn't sleep.. later on when I asked her and talked about it- she admitted she did that too.. BUT ANYWAYS.. my point is - I was a very sexual person.. never had checked my testosterone, but must have been VERY HIGH!!! I did tolerate the symptoms of the medication in order to feel good..and to be focused..always always living with the idea that i can always stop the drugs and side effects will be gone!! and doctors made me feel that it is nothing to worry about - so I didn't! didn't have a computer at home at the time and didn't research the drug on the internet - I CONSIDER THAT THE BIGGEST MISTAKE I EVER MADE It hit me like brick wall in the beginning of the 3-rd year on effexor, when I actually started loosing my sex drive.. neither the severe chest pain neither the hallucinations that I

was having 15min before and after sleep to that very moment were able to wake me up.. LOOSING MY SEX DRIVE WOKE ME UP TO A LEVEL I HAVE NEVER BEEN.. I felt with every cell in my body that something isn't right.. remember looking at beautiful ass with a great urge for sex and satisfaction..and yet my body wasn't' responding.. i thought NO WAY! NO WAY! NO WAY! .. forget the embarrassment i felt in that moment..the psychological impact.. most importantly I realized that I was destroying my health.. It is when my LONG LONG ROAD OUT OF HELL began.. taking viagra levitra and cialis and treating side effects of medication with other drugs..forget it..its messed up.. and it didn't do a thing.. I checked for a first time in my life my testosterone and it was 11. (I was told it is considered normal between 8 and 37.5) I pointed out that its closer to 8 then 37.5.. and a testosterone therapy followed.. doctors met me back in the office with a

big smile thinking they know the answer.. I said..sorry, but this didn't do shit for me! looking at it, it is hard to tell if effexor can decrease the level of testosterone.. but i sure know and this is a fact to me that it does something in the brain..therefore causing PSSD in my case was effexor,but i think it applies to all antidepressants.. If you have people close to you thinking of taking any antidepressants - warn them! tell them to do their homework..their own research.. then decide!! tell them to stick to herbal supplements! antidepressants should be used only as a last resort! and only after you learn of the risks and benefits! then you can make a realistic conscious decision! after I realized that effexor is a creator of many problems I started tapering the drug slowly.. through time and painful experience I learned that you have to taper it even alot slower than your doctor told you.. open the pill..go down by

very little..slow agonizing proses..over a long long long time.. and when I was finally out of it.. and the nausea and dizziness finally stop after about two months.. I realized that I'm facing a new reality.. my personal 9\11.. I realized that mentally I'm not the same.. something was changed in my head.. the way many here feel their genitalia numb, that's how I feel in my brain as well.. a scary scary thing.. thought proses was and still is disturbed..I was trying to think and I couldn't.. severe problems with short term memory..confusion..a state of trance would describe it best.. must note all this, my very first attempt living without effexor, was in the fall of 2005.. I went on without medication for seven and a half months hoping that with time things will get better.. like I said it took 2 months for nausea and dizziness to go away.. 5 months for chest pain to go away.. by the 7.5month I started feeling some improvement with PSSD

and that made me a bit happy(and i will say more about this later on).. but the mental pain was so severe..the confusion..not being able to function..it never got better..and only a step away to check myself into a hospital..on top of everything doctors didn't make it any easier by not even accepting the possibility that all this is caused by the medication..they just said i was depressed and that's it ..I was left alone..and very very scared!!! I'm asking you..and please be honest.. *how can you have severe pain in the elbow,have check up and x-rays, find no physical cause - but not blame effexor *how can you have very specific type of pain in the chest starting with effexor and all along, lasting 5 months after discontinuing the drug, having check ups EKG etc..and not blaming effexor *how can you have a perfect sex life before.. not having one after (needless to say that don't have a girlfriend no more either)..

and my doctors still refuse to admit that its the drug *how can you be and feel smart and sharp,although depressed, very creative on mind level..with many thought and many emotions.. and then totally feel brain dead..having seriously hard time to think and proses information..not having any thoughts or emotions..simply feeling screwed..and left with numb brain, as well as dick..and once again not blaming the drug.. I don't understand my doctors! 5 of them+1 psychologist+1psychiatrist+1 urologist.. Am I insane or are they insane for not admitting the facts?!? please help me! Soo.. spring of 2006 I went back to small doses of effexor..although in a way crazy to go back to what caused my pain and hell ,seemed to be the right thing for the time being just so I can put myself together..regain some thought proses..think better ..educate myself..analyze..and then decide what to do.. forgot to mention that i tried Remeron and Wellbutrine as an

alternative..thinking that if i have to go back to drugs might as well be something with a low sexual side effect profile, but those drugs made it even worse within days.. so yeah, back to effexor.. and then ironical miracle..within 4hours after a single pill I started feeling better..I could feel how my brain was feeding on effexor.. it was going in so elegant..so right.. the next day i was even better..the day after I felt like I wasn't ever off the drug.. how fucked up that is.. the perfect addiction!! whoever created it..if he had in mind to create such a drug that can be legally advertised and sold as safe and non addictive..and make A LOT of money as one of the most selling antidepressants on the planet.. I have to say - he is a genius It is just too sad to know that someone would build their own happiness over the blood and lives of many others.I did my research and appears that Effexor's manufacturer,

Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories has been hiding information about the drug for years in order to have a great profit of sales. It was only in recent times that they were forced by the FDA to release more information to health care providers.and please note, only a portion! the truth is yet to come! needless to say they ignored my e-mails..a single and inconvenient voice is barely heard..but those of you that have been on effexor might want to check out what 14 000 pissed off people have to say about their experience with effexor at: http://www.petitiononline.com/effexor/ (a small note, some of you might know effexor under a different name, for example the name Efectin in some countries in Europe; the generic name is VENLAFAXINE) more research and i find small bits of information about an absolute horrific rare side effect where once your brain acclimatizes to the drug, you can never quit! you

simply can not function without it! so you stuck with it for life! is this whats happening with my brain?? I'm I one of those 'lucky ones'?? Please PLEASE if you have any information on this..any suggestions..anything..I would HIGHLY APPRECIATE the feed back!!! It is a simple fact that I can not relay on my doctors..they simply either don't have the answers..or they are too afraid to admit the mistake and give me the bad news straight in the face! THANK YOU ALL This last time,better prepared and more informed, i slowly quit effexor by sometime in October 2006 with the help of small doses celexa for a few weeks at the end of the process and homeopathic remedies taken all along. once again the PSSD and altered mental state is persistent! and I've been living like this ever since..hoping for better times to come! or find better solutions..the homeopathic remedies are making me feel 1% better than last time when i quit the drug..i appreciate even

that!! Now, in respect to all here that have gathered mainly because of PSSD, I want to share my experiences. If i help one single person, I'll know I have achieved something! the first time when I went off effexor for 7.5 months I tried very hard to find an alternative solution , i wanted my mind to work, i wanted the side effects gone.. I decided to go natural and went to see a naturopath..spent a lot of money on it with no results..vitamins shots..vitamins..omega 3-6-9 oils..herbs.. aaah forget it.. but one interesting thing happened though, after consuming st.johns wort, which is normally taken for depression and some people swear by it, personally mentally I found it that makes me worse.. it just seems that effexor made my brain very sensitive to anything else that isn't effexor..but something that might be found interesting by people here is it triggered something in my brain and my sexuality started coming back somehow hardcore.. it was

different..even painful..it would come and go but those times were getting shorter.. sensation of the penis occasionally would go up to 90% of what it used to be.. and although weird sexual experience to what i know from before..it made me somehow happy ..and was promising..doctors ofcourse are too busy and ignorant to all the details i wanted to share.. and ironically, after all, as i mentioned before i couldn't tolerate the mental pain anymore and went back to small doses of effexor.. those small doses were strong enough to kill my little very hard earned success.. sex drive back to point zero.. sad..sad..sad.. you have to be very strong my friend I said to myself to go through this and not put a gun to your head.. the conclusion though, my own theory of PSSD is that SSRI\SNRI medications block something in your brain..and your sexuality gets into a dormant state..and this is a good news, ITS NOT DEAD,BUT SLEEPING..sometimes with time it returns

on its own..then other times you have to go and bring it back yourself.. as we all respond differently to antidepressants..the same way,i feel, a different agent would unlock whatever is locked in the brain our sexuality.. my advice, don't waste time and start experimenting with homeopathic remedies and herbs ANYTHING THAT IS CONSIDERED SAFE.. anything that you know for a fact that will not hurt you - try it!! I got no proof but my six-th sense is telling me that if you stimulate the brain and hit the right button, your sexuality can return from the dead lands!!! i already have found some evidence for this theory!..you'll be the judge of all that! now,speaking homeopathy, in more recent times i found some success with THUYA OCCIDENTALIS which i took of 10 white balls once a week, and the other one which I'm actually suspecting for doing the trick is GELSEMIUM SEMPERVIRENS.. the effect lasted for just about two weeks and then was gone again.. but

yet i was pleasantly surprised to find out that I'm not sexually dead and woke up a few times in the middle of the night with a good amount of sex drive and noticeably returned sensitivity..although didn't stay that way and it wasn't 100% to what it used to be..it did seem promising at a glance,present time: my personal analysis and dissection of sexuality *sex drive-gone most of the time ,occasionally would send me a postcard(the experience of general arousal,when more blood is sent to the penis,or even 95%hard erections,tingling in the balls *urge for sex-which i define as different from sex drive,is the need and urge to stimulate the head of the penis- rare, came back just a few times during those night mentioned above,as a result of homeopathy *the pleasure of ejaculating - here i must say that when on effexor i could feel only 5% of the pleasure i knew from before, today it is around 80% ..in this department to me was

dose related, although now off the drug is still not 100% *the pleasure in the head of the penis in the moments before ejaculating- great improvement 80%-90% as a result of the homeopathic remedies in that particular department, didn't disappear but stayed the same *sex drive on a mental level- always has been 100% and still is! *masturbation-everyday..although sex drive is next to zero or non present most of the time, i experience pleasure in the head of the penis in the moments before the ejaculation as i mentioned above as well as the pleasure of ejaculating.. I know it is messed up..doctors don't get it.. how can you not have sex drive but still experience some kind of pleasure..to them it is all one thing..you either have it or don't have it.. details mean nothing to them.. well, the reality is, its more complicated than that I don't think I'll need to convince people in this forum

about that! and to all ladies here, i know this is more of a male an inside point of view, but I'm sure it is all somehow relevant to you too.. anyways.. too all here, once again, any kind of info and feedback is welcome on ssri\snri long lasting side effects,effexor in particular, altered mental state as a result, as well as anything on PSSD..anything..about anything..will be appreciated! i do apologies for any spelling mistakes and wrongly structured sentences,english is a second language to me. I wish you all to find a cure and a way out of this mess!!! I do hope that my experiences would give at least a tiny piece of valuable information to someone out there and make a difference!

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