Morning all,
I was prescribed venlaflaxin @ 300mg probably around 4 years ago. This after many years off and on of many different forms of SSRI's before moving on "The last resort" pharma speaking of the Venlaflaxin. On the upside, it did what it was supposed to, and being no stranger to side effects, I made do.
I am in recovery also for alcohol and some other substances, so it helped. It also didn't.
One of the many sayings in AA/NA/CA is that "one of the good things about sobriety is you get your feelings back" and "one of the bad things is you get your feelings back" With me & Venlaflaxin I didn't get those feelings.
What I experienced was apathy. Utter lack of interest in anything that could illicit any sort of joy. "Fun" was a word I disdained. Instead I engaged in some compulsive behaviour, whether that was cleaning, shopping etc etc. Sitting still and "being" was a hard task , practically impossible.
Of course, everyones response to this stuff is very personal, and underlying issues mixed with a med will illicit a different response.
So, here I am 2 days after completely stopping VNLFN, tapering down one dose (37.5mg) a month from the initial 300. The usual suspects have popped up, brain delay, disturbed sleep, waves of I don't know what going through the old noggin and very, very emotional.
I mean I can briefly think about something , and bingo, tears. A bit inconvenient when your sitting on a beach in Costa Rica, thankfully a pretty deserted beach.
I am grateful for those tears though, I can feel something again, even though it does feel a bit like the Jin has been let out of his bottle. I would rather that than the feeling of being one part removed from a robot vacuum cleaner. Just don't approach me with pictures of puppy's for the time being.