My doctor put me on Effexor for anxiety and after a couple of years, I decided to go off of it. I had these electric shock feelings everytime I turned my head (head zaps) and my anxiety went through the roof!! I had to wean myself off of it and it took almost 6 months. I will NEVER go on anti-depressants again! I have learned other ways to deal with the anxiety.
I was on them too for a long time until my son said I was taking too many pills and I thought about it and decided I was setting a terrible example. So I went off everything, the migraine meds, the asthma meds, the anitidepressants. Yes I am better off in so many ways. You have to be able to learn to just deal with the pain and discomfort and dissatisfaction of every day life.
Doctors are prescribing antidepressants for all sorts of conditions beyond depression. I have chronic arthritis and have sleep problems due primarily to pain, and doctors keep trying to give me all kinds of meds from antidepressants to anticonvulsants and I keep refusing. I have seen what these meds did to some of my adopted kids.
Too many doctors are just pharma salesmen. I am tired of having various Frankenstein’s cocktails pushed on me. Yes, I’m in pain—a lot at times— but the answer isn’t likely to be found in contracting cancer (#1side effect) or becoming addicted to a chemical that loses efficacy in direct relation to increased dependence.
You don’t have to be a conspiracy nut to see neither the pharmacy companies nor the federal government have our interests at heart.