venlafaxine - drinking& sex drive

[smoochie]

hi guys

I'm just coming off citralapram and going onto Venlafaxine at the end of this week and i just have a couple of questions...

With citralapram I could go out and have a few drinks with no side effects or repercussions does anyone find drinking makes them worse on Ven or its just not possible?

Another thing was citralapram gave me little of no sex drive and i was wondering if its the same on Ven, does anyone find they have little or no sex drive?

shame all these meds have to ruin your fun lol

thank you

[deepthought]

Hi. I take Venlafaxine and would say it has definitely affected sex drive for me. Because I am a depressive, I don't actually 'engage' with the opposite sex anymore anyway.

I have heard anecdotal evidence which suggests that the effects of alcohol are more pronounced on anti-depressants. As someone with a habit of drinking to excess, its difficult to know what I would be like doing it without the pills. For me its far better to try and not drink rather than experiment.

I would suggest not drinking at all, although I know from experience how difficult that is - particularly in the UK.

Hope that helps :-)

[Merman]

Hi Smoochie

I was on Venlafaxine for 10 years. It affected my sex drive a little but not so it caused me problems. Actually it was quite nice to be a little less driven if you know what I mean! I never had any problems with drinking on it either, though I was never a binge drinker. I think moderate drinking is OK, but we all have different make-ups so you should experiment with care and wait until after your body has got used to the new drugs.

The worst thing about them is the withdrawal symptoms when you come off them. I have heard from others, and it was certainly true for me, that withdrawl goes in 2 phases. Once you've tailed right down to zero there's a month or so of (for me) relatively mild withdrawl symptoms - brain zaps, dizziness etc. They go away and you think "OK, that wasn't so bad!" But then, 6-8 weeks after you make the first cut the 2nd phase withdrawal kicks in and this time its anxiety and depression. If you're not aware of what's happening (as I wasn't) it really takes you by surprise and you just assume you're having a relapse. I don't think this happens to everybody but be aware of it when you start thinking about coming off.

I'm now changing to Citaprolam but it's being a bitch and making the anxiety much worse. Mind you I'm only on day 5 so I guess it was to be expected.

What made you swicth from Citaprolam to Venlafaxine?

Cheers
Trev

[markswindon22]

I have been on veniflaxine for about a year and half 225mg. I am finding it increasing difficult to drink with them as my headaches get so severe all I can do is go home and lay down for about 12 hours and as far as getting up for work te next day, it is impossible. Where as before i was able to do this all the time. It is important for me to be able to go out for a few drinks with friends as i always have done and I am scared to do this now.

as for the sex drive I am still as active as ever, it did take sometime to adjust to taking them but only a few days.

I do get these headaches without drinking too.

I did try to come off the tablets this week but it is impossible. As soon as I try I get tremors, swooshing in my head, dizziness, confusion, server emotional imbalance and fear, suisidal thoughts, anger. sweating, vertigo, anxiety... the list goes on

not coming off them for now.

The other thing is the sleeping tablets that i take, I am finding myself take these more and more lately.