hi everyone, I was prescribed venlafaxine a few months ago for General anxiety disorder, due to I think induced menopause, brought on by cancer treatments, my GP thinks they will help up lift my mood and stop me over worrying and over thinking, I keep putting it off taking them, worried about side effects etc… Has anyone else been on this medication? I just want to feel happy again and enjoy life, I feel at present I’m just constantly worrying about everything, I tend to toss and turn a lot through the night too.
Hi Munchkin
Ever since the SSRIs first emerged, I’ve tried them all (I think). Remember everyone responds in their own way so this is just my experience. I lasted about 2 weeks on Venlafaxine. The one that worked best for me was fluoxetine (Prozac). Then a new one came along - agomelatine - and it transformed me. No side effects that were noticeable and a good result with the anxiety and depression. NICE however weren’t impressed and removed its licence on the grounds that it offered nothing different from existing and cheaper SSRIs and that was that. I was fortunate to be able to find a private psychiatrist who prescribed it for me and so I paid for a few years. Then NICE changed its mind but it took another year to get it licensed. Enough to make anyone depressed. I kept waving the relevant documents in front of my own GP but it was pointless. It turned out that Leeds THT has it as a red-flagged drug, meaning it can only be prescribed by a hospital/psychiatrist. So…my GP got me a psych and I have a chat with her every 2 months and get my prescription.
Why am I boring you with this? It’s not one of the common SSRIs and it is a bit more expensive to the NHS but what’s that compared to unpleasant side effects? You can ask. You can ask your oncologist (mine prescribes a sedative for my scans!). You can ask again. And again. There’s no good reason not to prescribe it to a cancer patient! I was also prescribed Pregabalin for neuropathic pain following chemo and radiotherapy. Crap for the pain but my daily anxiety I’ve had since my teenage years just went. Needless to say, I’m not giving that one up.
I may sound like a walking pharmacy (I’m on oral chemo too lol) but anxiety and depression can be so debilitating and if medication helps, then so be it. May I say you are fortunate to have such a proactive GP. Mine hides behind a fortress of dragons and just prescribes. Fortunately I have a great oncologist to talk to.
As for night time, try YouTube. Plug in your earphones and listen to Progressive Hypnosis’s video Cure Anxiety. There are others on healing. You’ll be off before you’re halfway through! Why am I still awake at 2am if they are so good? The chemo! I become alert around 11pm! But I’ll plug in as soon as my eyelids droop.
If you decide to try venlafaxine, maybe start on a much smaller dose than prescribed and see how your body reacts, then build up to the full dose over, say, the first month. Maybe I was just given too strong a dose straight off.
I hope you find some solutions. There is a lot we worry about but that doesn’t mean it can’t be managed to give you some quality of life xx
Hi Munchkin,
I have just been prescribed venlafaxine, still early days for me but no side effects, the only thing I find I’m not really hungry , but I shall see how I go fingers crossed these work tried so many ways to try and self help but I had to cave in and go to the docs which prescribed me these.
fingers crossed love CATT57
Hi there!
Venlafaxine is very familiar to me. I have been on it for probably 20 years for depression, well before I was diagnosed with stage 4 lobular breast bone metastasis a year and a half ago.
For me it has been a blessing. I suffered with depression my entire life. Venlafaxine was pretty easy to start. As I remember, some blood rush sensations starting from my feet and rushing up to the top of my head up but other than that, pretty easy. Maybe feeling the slightest bit out of touch or a small bit behind what was happening around me but not enough to have anyone notice anything happening with me.
I continue to take the highest dose, 300mg. That is the highest dose my doctor is willing to prescribe. Maybe you can go higher, I don’t know.
Because my depression was a pre cancer diagnosis, I can’t speak to how it might feel starting the drug under cancer positive conditions.
I know when I started I can only describe it as lifting that heaviness of heart. I didn’t feel that dark sadness all the time. What I like most is that I think it smooths my emotions out to what is probably quite normal. I am not on a high all the time. I still feel sad when sadness is warranted. It does help me to move on from sadness which was very hard to do before.
Venlafaxine works very well for me but my mom did a trial on it and started having heart palpitations so every story is an individual one. No two cases will ever be the same.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do and I hope you can find peace and comfort as you move forward on your journey.