The last few days have been hell in a handbasket.
My doctor discovered that the blood pressure problems I was having was directly related to the Effexor I was taking, so she decided to discontinue it. I am ok with that mainly because I'm not depressed, I'm just an anxious little weirdo.
Effexor is an SNRI, a drug that helps block the re-absorption of serotonin and norepinephrine. This creates a physical dependency. Of course, when you build a physical dependency that means when you decide to stop taking it you will go through withdrawal, even though the doctors will call it discontinuation syndrome.
The symptoms vary from person to person in severity, but they generally involve flu like symptoms.
My doc discovered the bp thing last week and decided to put me on a lower dose of Effexor to taper me off, because you can't just stop taking it because of the physical dependency you develop. I was on 75mg a day, which is moderately low. Some people I've seen on three times that. To taper off, she was supposed to send me a scrip for 37.5mg.
That scrip didn't arrive at my pharmacy.
