I’ve been taking Venlafaxine (an SNRI anti-depressant) to help with Tamoxifen hot flushes. I forgot to renew my prescription so haven’t taken any since Friday evening, and today has been murder with withdrawal symptoms - headaches, dizziness, nausea, chills and flushes gone mad.
DON’T forget to renew your prescription as you could find yourself feeling ghastly pretty quickly. I have a prescription to pick up in the morning and I know they get into your system pretty quickly so I’ll be fine, but today’s been truly horrid. I even called the out-of-hours GP service for some advice, but not expecting to feel any better this evening.
Just thought I’d mention this in case anyone else is taking them, I wouldn’t want anyone else to feel like I’ve felt today. Right then, off to bed with my sick bowl. Night all.
Thanks WG . Managed a few hours with the weirdest dream. Doc said that 20mg of Citalopram might help a bit (I had some left over) and that with paracetamol and ibuprofen got a bit of a hold of the worst of it.Not fun though.
That sounds awful. I have been prescribed these but i still haven’t taken them - too scared as i have read about the terrible withdrawal symptoms ansd that they may make you feel sick when you first take them. I don’t want to feel sick again so iam not sure what to do about them x
Beardie, I didn’t feel sick when I started, and they really did the trick for both the flushes and the low mood. The problems I’ve had this weekend are because I wasn’t taking them properly (no, I wasn’t taking them AT ALL!!) and if you’re on a low dose, it’s not a big deal (apparently) to come off them when you don’t need them any longer. Or so I’ve been told. The problem with withdrawal cold turkey is that when the body metabolises it, the two active metabolites both have a short half-life so your poor system gets a bit of a shock. If you’re taking a low dose for hot flushes then the problem should be a lot smaller.
Thanks for the tip CM. I hope it isn’t the same for Mirtazapine as i’ve just run out of tablets and have decided to try without them. First missed dose was last night, so I guess I might find out today if there are any bad side effects from suddenly stopping. Fingers crossed…
x