Starting Venlafaxine

[honeyp1e]

Am so scared taking any medication it took me 6 months to take my first ever citalopram but now been in them years I’ve been weaned off them as my anxiety went sky high and still is now I have been like this since July 😭😭 to be honest I just don’t see my life going anywhere am hardly eating / not going out door etc I just want a life back.. am still taking propranolol 80mg everyday but they don’t settle anxiety.. so doc has gave me 37.5mg venlafaxine and am so so scared to take the first one.. ( I have a phobia of vomiting so always worry they will make me sick 😭&#128557 so iv Been off my citalopram for over a week now and my anxiety is AWFUL.. am sat constantly crying and just don’t wanna be here anymore.. I’ve been back and forth to my docs / crisis team and A&E and they basically do nothing
I really wanna take these tabs but I just can’t

[Ethansmom]

If it makes you feel any better, I did not get sick at all from the tablets. I had acid reflux for awhile, but that's slowly going away and I took over the counter tablets for that.

[Carys]

Hiyer, I also have your fear, big time! Mine isn't about being sick, but having a 'reaction' of some sort.

However, to add to that......I've been on venlafaxine now for 19 years, and have never had one side effect even on the max dose possible (apart from during reduction phases). I am now on the smallest possible dose. This of course won't help you to know that, such is the nature of the fear, BUT the following has worked for me -

Is the prescription they have given you for the small orange tablets, and not the slow release capsules? Just a suggestion, and I would run it by your gp or whoever prescribed them - what has worked for me in the past with various meds I've had to take - is that I take off a teency eency bit and try the smallest amount I can. After 30 mins or so, I take another tiny bit until I've had a partial dose. The next day I then feel able to take the proper dose, when I realise that a tiny amount hasn't caused a side effect/sickness.

You can only do this with certain meds though, as some are not meant to be split, however, I was told the ven tablets I had were ok to do this with.

[honeyp1e]

If it makes you feel any better, I did not get sick at all from the tablets. I had acid reflux for awhile, but that's slowly going away and I took over the counter tablets for that.

I suffer awful gastritis anyway don’t want to make it worse... I was put on sertaline for a while and they made my gastritis ten times worse so had to stop them

---------- Post added at 16:20 ---------- Previous post was at 16:15 ----------

Hiyer, I also have your fear, big time! Mine isn't about being sick, but having a 'reaction' of some sort.

However, to add to that......I've been on venlafaxine now for 19 years, and have never had one side effect even on the max dose possible (apart from during reduction phases). I am now on the smallest possible dose. This of course won't help you to know that, such is the nature of the fear, BUT the following has worked for me -

Is the prescription they have given you for the small orange tablets, and not the slow release capsules? Just a suggestion, and I would run it by your gp or whoever prescribed them - what has worked for me in the past with various meds I've had to take - is that I take off a teency eency bit and try the smallest amount I can. After 30 mins or so, I take another tiny bit until I've had a partial dose. The next day I then feel able to take the proper dose, when I realise that a tiny amount hasn't caused a side effect/sickness.

You can only do this with certain meds though, as some are not meant to be split, however, I was told the ven tablets I had were ok to do this with.

Thanks for ur reply..
this is how I started my citalopram years ago I started off by cutting the tab in half and started with that for a week then after a week I went to 3/4 tabs then go to full tab etc I hate this fear of vomiting and worrying about any side effects that may happen.. the venlflexine are little circle pinky/white looking tablets