Venlafaxine (Effector) and extreme, vivid nightmares?

[kutuup]

Hi all,

I've been on Vanlafaxine for several years now, and I just wondered whether the effects I get if I miss a dose are a common thing.

I find that missing a dose results in really nasty anxiety, sweating, nausea, confusion and head zaps. If I go to sleep without a dose, that's when the fun starts.

I get dreams that are so horrific in nature I would put them as beyond nightmares. I don't tend to be hurting anyone myself or being hurt in them, but I just witness scenes of indescribable violence, gore, mutilation, cruelty and just beyond anything I can normally imagine. I'm a big horror movie fan, and this is probably a contributing factor, but whereas with a horror movie there are normally limits to what you see and youre aware its not real, these dreams are just without limits and feel intensely real, to the point where I feel extremely disturbed and anxious for most of the next day.

It's scary because I'm genuinely a super gentle, loving person, I just find it disturbing that what I see in those dreams could be coming from my brain, and it only seems to happen when I miss a dose of my meds.

At this point I really just want to get off them as I only take them these days because that happens when I don't take it.

Does anyone else get this when they miss a dose, and have you managed to get off them without going through this?

I sometimes wonder whether it's seriously messing up my brain :(

James

[Benjammin69]

Hi this is pretty normal with missing a dose of venlafaxine.... the half
Life is very short approx 5 hours and it normally takes 5x the half life for a drug to be out of the system.... there for 25 hours and your body will enter withdrawal.... they do an extended release version which half life is 12 hours or diarise and make sure you don’t miss your dosage.


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[Carys]

James, I think it sounds like you are a bit erratic with taking them.If you are missing days and then having some more on another day, it will be messing things up for you more than it might if you do a slow and careful withdrawl. Stopping venlafaxine suddenly causes lots of the symptoms you are describing, you are having a sudden 'cold turkey' set of problems. I think if you want to come off this medication then discuss a good time-frame for reduction with your doctor. Ven is a really hard drug to come off and I have been on another thread where we've talked about head zaps thing, so I know it can feel dreadful. I started on 6x37.5 mg daily and am now on 1x37.5 daily and I'm about to start cutting them in half every other day to do it really slowly. I do think you should get advice on this, it's not a permanent brain change thing, so don't worry about that....but it is does need careful reduction.

[nomorepanic]

Hi

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your post was moved from its original place to a sub-forum that is more relevant to your issue.

This is nothing personal - it just enables us to keep posts about the same problems in the relevant forums so other members with any experience with the issues can find them more easily.

Please also read this post:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=213239

[roxy46]

James

This sounds completely normal to me. Except the blood/gore thing. If I miss a dose I get all the symptoms you described and really intense weird dreams. Not usually distressing but weird. I’m not a horror film fan though lol.

All I can say is try not to miss doses and take them at the same time each day. Save yourself the trouble.

They are hard to come off, not impossible though you just need a really slow taper, I’ve done it before. If the times right for you to come off then see the doctor and put a proper plan in place. Don’t even consider going cold turkey I did that once and ended up back where I started.

Try not to miss your pills. Those dreams sound nasty! X

[ana]

I have extremely vivid dreams on Venlafaxine too.

[kutuup]

James

This sounds completely normal to me. Except the blood/gore thing. If I miss a dose I get all the symptoms you described and really intense weird dreams. Not usually distressing but weird. I’m not a horror film fan though lol.

All I can say is try not to miss doses and take them at the same time each day. Save yourself the trouble.

They are hard to come off, not impossible though you just need a really slow taper, I’ve done it before. If the times right for you to come off then see the doctor and put a proper plan in place. Don’t even consider going cold turkey I did that once and ended up back where I started.

Try not to miss your pills. Those dreams sound nasty! X

Yeah, they're certainly no kind of fun. I won't go into the gory details of what was in them, but it was BAD. Certainly not stuff I would like to witness again.

I like blood and guts in horror movies when you know it's all make believe and special effects designed to gross you out. When you're vibidly dreaming it and it feel that real and raw and visceral, that messes me up.

I think tapering off the meds is the best option. I wouldn't want to just quit cold turkey if this is what happens.

I was more just worried there was something more wrong with me with the severity of the withdrawals I get and the horrible stuff that comes out of my brain when I'm asleep when I miss a dose. It sounds like I'm not alone. That's comforting at least.

You know that horrible feeling like you're going crazy and you're the only one who gets these nasty symptoms? That's what I'm trying to get on top of.

[roxy46]

James

Your definitely not alone. Keep posting if you’re concerned it will stop any unnecessary worry. There’s a thread here http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=110037 It’s a long thread but still active. Lots of people happy to help there.

X