I'm a little confused...

By your choice of words:

Originally posted by Icon_xof
I'll keep it short and sweet...

Seems... Odd... Under the "circumstances."

Dude, do you actually have anything concrete to back up the claim that effexor is a bad drug? I take it myself and I thought it was a pretty common anti-deppresant. If there is something more to it, I really want to know.

many of the newer anti-depressants have warnings on them referring to the fact that a very serious side effect, particularly in teens, is suicidal tendencies. Ironic, for an anti-depressant.

I'm so sorry to hear about your family, my sincere condolences


I took effexor, it was horrible, I had suicidal thoughts on a daily basis. I came to know the thoughts as my demon, and I would just tell him to go f off

I'm 40, I can only assume it's tougher on the younger folks

I take cymbala and wellbutrin now, things are sooooo much better

My two cents, I don't know much about law type stuff. But I would find people who have had similar problems with the drug to help gather evidence, for one thing. Then you would have plenty of evidence and testimony to present.

Also, not to discourage you, because the drug companies do deserve a "black eye" for all the crap they push on us on a daily basis, understand you are dealing with very "deep and dirty" pockets.

You need to be prepared.

This is my idea on it. Good Luck!

Troy

I know one thing for sure- it takes a long time to taper off these drugs, especially if you've been on them for a long time. The drug companies keep this a secret and the doctors are clueless. If you try to stop abruptly you will get so wacked out anything is possible, including suicide.
My heart goes out to you, and my prayers. I lost my only brother, a twin, a few years ago.

I have a cousin who was on one of the newer antidepressants, an SSRI, and about a week or so after she started taking it, she started having very strong thoughts and images of 'cutting' herself. She never had them before this. It finally got to the point where she refused to take the antidepressant anymore because she knew that was what was causing this 'cutting' fixation. About a month later, most of the thoughts and urges to hurt herself, to 'cut' herself, were gone. She is now on an older antidepressant, a tryciclic (sp?). She is doing fine on it.

These drugs seriously mess with your brain chemistry and can be very dangerous. God Bless you and good luck with proving it was the drug that caused the suicides. They make it very very hard for you to do so. It is like the 'dirty little secret' they refuse to admit to.

Laurie

As I mentioned, my cousin was on a SSRI, but she was on Zoloft. I don't know if anyone noticed, but lately, on t.v., the Zoloft commercial that was so prevelant, has been pulled. But, the new commercials, for Cymbalta, has been modified to include the info that it may cause suicidal thoughts in 'young people'. Well, my cousing was in her early 30's when she took the Zoloft and it still made her highly suicidal. I don't think it's just teens or young people that can become suicidal while on these drugs.

Laurie

The research data cover up on SSRIs (in particular Paxil) (which was exposed by either 60 minutes or 20/20 back about 7 or 8 years ago) is bigger than anything the tobacco companies ever did. I can't understand why people aren't in jail for murder, let alone falsifying data to the FDA. The pharmaceutical companies hid the fact that research showed extremely high percentages of patients either had homicidal or suicidal side-effects from these drugs, but they reported to the FDA something like 2%...when the numbers were more like 80%.



[edit on 11-10-2007 by Valhall]

Sorry to read about the lost of those close to you.

I'm not going to us this post to debate the use of psych meds. Just to point out that for the most part they work differently in each of us. I ask everyone to research side effects of these meds and how they may interact with other meds you are taking before you start using them. I know from personal experiences that some work good and others will put you in the hospital or worse.

I gotta give my own personal reaction to Effexor. I was on it twice. The first time was when I was 14. I was on it for three months. About two months in to it my dosage was upped to the maximum. I started to have pain in what may have been my kidneys or liver. They felt sore like they were bruised or something. So I just quit cold turkey. All that happened was that I slept constantly for a few days (when I got home from school) and that my depression returned. None of these other more extreme side effects or any jonesing that some people have experienced.

The second time I was on it I was on it for much longer. Maybe two years? I told my doctor about the side effects that I had been having earlier and he said he had never heard of that happening and that at my weight I shouldn't have been having that side effect. He basically didn't listen to me. I went on it again. This time I had major insomnia (I had that before I went on it the first time). I would constantly go to sleep at later hours until I had to pull an all nighter and then go to school. After which I would crash once I got home, only to wake up and start the whole process over again. I became much more uninhibited, to the point of being a little unsettling. But this was partially just due to being messed up. I ended up going off it because I got a girlfriend and couldn't get it up. The withdrawal was the same as last time. I just was really tired for a couple of weeks then went back to being depressed.

The whole time I never had suicidal ideation or homicidal ideation. I can't really say it was entirely good for me, but neither can I say that it was entirely bad for me. At least it didn't cause me to go psychotic like I did later on Wellbutrin and Remeron combined.

I will give a word of warning though to anyone taking anti depressants: Don't smoke grass (not just because it's illegal), and especially don't do anything with DXM in it (cough medicine, any type of DM pill). I did both of those in combination with my anti-depressants and I had a manic psychotic episode and now my brain is destroyed. I can't even have a normal conversation anymore and because of that, human contact is almost worthless to me. In short, I ruined my life by being unaware of the dangers of drugs combined with anti depressants.