Thank you so much for sharing that experience!! I just discovered this platform today. I will share my experience in hopes it may help someone else.
I’ve been on Effexor 7 years (to help with Tamoxifen & Femara induced hot flashes & depression symptoms). I weaned off as directed by a clinician I recently began seeing (my psychiatrist retired 9 months ago) & the weaning process was too fast (should’ve listened to my gut & not that clinician) I got the typical brain zap, dizziness, sleeplessness, anxiety & irritability side effects that one gets from weaning too quickly off this type of med. What I didn’t anticipate was the excruciating headaches & body pain which also came over me. I have NO DOUBT that Effexor was masking a lot of the pain in my case. In fact-My oncologist kept asking me about my pain since I had begun “Femara” almost a year ago-which is known to cause bad pain as a side effect & I was wondering why I WASN’T getting the bad pain it commonly causes. Now I am convinced Effexor was keeping all of this pain under control.
I don’t know what I will do yet since it has only been a few weeks since stopping the Effexor. I am afraid to go back on Effexor in case I ever have to “come off it” again. I have a very physical job & cannot live like this so I must find an alternative to manage this pain. I’ve already maxed out the Advil doses per day & have added Tylenol so it is worrisome. I may simply have to go off the Femara & take my chances with the cancer returning. The irony is…there doesn’t seem to be many options to help these days.