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Trading Tips and Coping Strategies to Taper off a Medication: Meet @texasduchess
Member Spotlights feature interviews with fellow Connect members. Learn more about members you’ve connected with and some you haven’t met yet. Nominate a member you think should share the spotlight.
TERESA: What brought you to Mayo Clinic Connect?
@texasduchess: In 2001, I was put on venlafaxine to control the hot flashes I developed during breast cancer treatment. After 18 years, I thought these were no longer an issue; my oncologist agreed and explained that I should taper off the venlafaxine. I took 2.5 months to taper off 25 mg. Six weeks later, I began having withdrawal effects, as my body had used up all the drug stored in body fat. These withdrawal symptoms were very distressing, and I found Mayo Clinic Connect while desperately researching how to minimize them.
TERESA: What motivates you to take part in the community?
@texasduchess: Other people on the site provided tips and coping strategies that helped me with venlafaxine withdrawal when I couldn’t find a lot of professional help; I want to “pay it forward.”
TERESA: What about Connect makes you feel comfortable to share and to be open with the community?
@texasduchess: Well, you create a username and the site lets you reveal only the details about yourself and your situation that you want to put out there. Other members are there to get and provide help on the same issues you’re struggling with.
TERESA: What groups do you participate in?
@texasduchess: Mostly, I’ve participated in the “Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)” discussion. One of my most distressing venlafaxine withdrawal symptoms is anxiety. I am a two-time breast cancer survivor and I experience episodes of dyshidrotic eczema on my hands, so I have popped into some of the other discussions, such as:
- Do you have to monitor watching depressing movies?
- Question about menstrual cycle stopping then restarting heavily
- Serotonin syndrome
- Long term effects AFTER withdrawing from Effexor
- Episodes of itchy, blistery-looking bumps on the backs of my knuckles
- Throat pain right side only, sore right ear, nose sores 4 months
- Tapering off Lyrica gave me panic, nausea, extreme anxiety
- Rash in Skin Health
- Radiation burns
TERESA: Who has been a special connection for you on Connect?
@texasduchess: I must thank @richyrich for making the original post asking for tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from venlafaxine. Members @jakedduck1, @brightwings and @grandmar have very good suggestions. @farmboy’s extreme anxiety while trying to taper made a strong impression.
TERESA: What surprised you the most about Connect?
@texasduchess: I have been amazed at the number of topics and issues you can explore and how much help you can find here.
TERESA: What energizes you, or how do you find balance in your life?
@texasduchess: Ha, still looking for balance! If I had known the difficulty I’d have since quitting venlafaxine, I’d never have quit. My husband has been a big support and calming influence.
TERESA: Tell us about your favorite pastime or activity.
@texasduchess: I am very much a reader — fiction, especially mysteries and romance. On weekends, my husband and I eat dinner with long-time friends and family, and afterwards play games (e.g., Mexican Train, Quiddler, Hand and Foot). I also love pottery and watercolors, and often go to local art shows.
TERESA: Do you have a favorite quote, life motto or personal mantra?
@texasduchess: “Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones that would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what.” - Maya Angelou
TERESA: What do you appreciate the most in your friends?
@texasduchess: My closest friends have been friends since college. They have supported me through two bouts of breast cancer, hospitalization and surgeries related to that and now, venlafaxine withdrawal.
TERESA: What food can you simply not resist?
@texasduchess: Dark chocolate!
TERESA: If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see cast as you?
@texasduchess: Someone younger and thinner!
TERESA: What do you love about where you live or vacation?
@texasduchess: My husband and I are homebodies, like to sleep in our own bed and must cater to two cats; we don’t often go on vacations.
TERESA: Puppies or kittens?
@texasduchess: Though our best friends have dogs, hubby and I are very much cat people. At one time, we had seven — we adopted a young pregnant neighborhood stray, kept all five of her kittens and then, brought in another neighborhood cat whose owner was put into a retirement home. We’re down to two now, as the others have died.
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Hello @texasduchess
Thank you for the opportunity to interview you and present you to our Connect members! I appreciate all of your contributions to our Connect membership and the opportunity for us to all get to know you a bit better! (By the way, I always admire another cat lover!)
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6 ReactionsHello @texasduchess -- I really enjoyed reading your spotlight and getting to know you a little better. I especially like your favorite quote by Maya Angelou about family isn't always blood but the highlight for me was finding another cat person here....yippee! We have 3, 2 dropped on me by our daughter when she moved out and my newest by a neighbor who found out her son was allergic to cats.
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6 Reactions@texasduchess, I have enjoyed reading your interview and I am happy that you found Connect when you were searching. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us on Connect because you inspire all of us to "pay it forward" by sharing our tips when we meet someone in need.
No cats or dogs, but Yes to dark chocolate!
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7 Reactions@texasduchess Thanks for letting me know you and your likes like Maya Angelou her poetry and other writings I belong to diff. groups so won't touch base that often but it's always nice to read what others have accomplished
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6 Reactions@texasduchess - Thank you for sharing your story and also helping others on Connect. We've spoken before and it is nice to speak with you again.
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6 ReactionsI want to taper off Benzos. I take them because I have PTSD and insomnia. Please , can someone help?
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5 ReactionsRe: tapering off Benzos. My psychiatrists just don’t seem to know what they are doing. I’m lost and addicted. 69;years old. Have been on Benzos for 7 years
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4 ReactionsHi @texasduchess It’s so nice to get to know you ‘virtually’!
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6 ReactionsYou don't say why you have PTSD, why you want off benzodiazepines, or what you are taking and how much. I am not a doctor, just someone like yourself with a problem who found the Mayo Clinic Connect forum. YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE to learn more and get help.
I am sorry you are suffering and not finding help; the NORM is that doctors don't know how to get someone off a drug. Here's an article where two doctors are bucking "accepted" psychiatric guidelines for getting patients off drugs and recommending a different way-- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/health/depression-withdrawal-drugs.html.
SleepFoundation.org says, "Treating patients with PTSD for sleep disorders has sometimes been heartbreaking. Until the past few decades, people with PTSD were not treated for it, because the condition had not even been described. Today, treatments have evolved and patients can benefit from them.
"Treatment should be coordinated by an expert in treating PTSD, most often a psychiatrist. The therapies that may be effective are the 'talk therapies,' often in concert with medications. Two drugs have been approved by the FDA to treat PTSD: sertraline (Zoloft®) and paroxetine (Paxil®).
"In an exciting development, recent research shows that an 'old' drug, prazosin, originally used to treat high blood pressure, may be effective in reducing the nightmares in PTSD patients. It is believed that norepinephrine may play a role in causing sleep disturbances and nightmares in PTSD, and prazosin reduces the levels of norepinephrine in the brain."--https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/ptsd-and-sleep
You can get help. It won't be easy, but online sources have opened the world to us. Those of us here on these Mayo Clinic Connect forums weren't satisfied with our doctors' responses to our issues, or couldn't find help locally. Let me encourage you to look around this site--type in PTSD, insomnia and benzodiazepine withdrawal (or tapering off of), see what pops up and READ IT ALL. Good luck and healing to you, bubberonnie.
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4 ReactionsIt’s an endless loop of hell. I developed PTSD when I almost died from an Afib attack, in Feb. 2013...they gave me blood thinners, cuz I had TIA’s (suspected) and I started internally bleeding. Nightmare...that’s when parasthesias and insomnia started. No ne knew what to do. I found a psychiatrist who started me on Xanax, which did the trick. Since then, more doctors, changing recipes and...still addicted. Endless loop. Try to get exercise, but meds put on weight and I got Mor depressed. Very long, involved mess. Meditation doesn’t work. CBT therapy doesn’t help. I’m so fed up. Tried alternative therapies...acupuncture, etc. nothing. 69 years old. Retired at 65 on total disability, because of the heart, the PTSD and being almost deaf. My profession was speech pathologist...so, really needed my hearing. I’m so fed up. New psychiatrist trying new recipe with Klonapin, Spread out through the day. Works sometimes,,... not others.
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