I have a lot to be grateful for. Three months into a pretty bad withdrawal from Effexor and constantly feeling sorry for myself, unable to see the end of it. I keep reminding myself this is temporary and that there are FAR worse things to experience!! But I think that the fact that effexor affects the brain exacerbates the dark ruminations. Today the dr called with the news I have a UTI, so I started the antibiotic bactrim. Holy cow. I've never itched this badly since I was on a morphine drip post hysterectomy. And the gastric distress, muscle pain, weird feelings....it honestly made me want to be experiencing "only" the withdrawals symptoms! It's all relative. Actually it got so bad that I decided to take the prozac which is supposed to help the withdrawal (supposedly and God willing, one dose can have a positive effect). I had been resisting it but maybe this was the path I needed to take. In any case, no more bactrim for me. And an attitude of gratitude tonight.