what have others experienced in the following?

[durn]

I have been on effexor rx 75 for ten or so years.  In '97, when I moved home to care for aged parents, I was on Paxil, but my parents thought it made me too talkative and I got off it.  Cold Turkey (the doctor didn't know about slowly changing dosage) - talk about emotional WRECK . . . I was angry/nervous/crying/and felt on edge and zappy. I was later, after a couple of years depressed, placed on effexor rx 75 and had ten years there with no problems; however, I lost my job and can't afford the costs, so my doctor put me on citalphram, 20 mg, which I can pay for with my unemployment insurance. I went straight from all those years on 75 mg effexor rx to this: my two days so far have been filled with a couple of days of bad headaches, first day treating with asprin (worked) and today, advil (worked); my question is . . . do you know of other symptoms I should expect? Can Citalopram replace effexor, since there isn't a 'generic' effexor'?  I've actually had brain zaps while on effexor, but didn't have a name for that effect through the years until I started reading about withdrawal problems. I am also having 'nerve-tingles' in my lips which was a signal of getting off Paxil years ago - when I went cold turkey by mistake.  Uggg.
Any suggestions about how to head off these headaches would be nice.

[durn]

Thanks for the reply. Actually, I had considered coming off all meds myself, just to save money. I think I'll try that now.  It would save 18.00 a month at a time when I don't have ANY income :)   thank you for the reply and I hope you (and my instincts) are correct. It would be nice not to have any pills.  The headaches, by the way, are not worse than before and I don't have any worse things than feeling unusually jumpy and some extreme 'anger' but it's controllable :)

[whodunnit]

Hi,

Sorry there's no way to avoid the agonies if you are getting them already. Maybe 2 weeks or a bit longer. All sorts of possible aches and pains, all unidentifiable. Possible vision distortion, bowel issues, tiredness, angry. All the usual side effects you might get going on to a med in fact.

Having been on it for 10 years it is likely to hurt a bit coming off as your head is used to it and FX is one of those drugs that lets you know it doesn't like leaving!

Any med can replace any med but they don't all do the same thing and they don't all work for all of us. I;ve had quite a few I thought were sugar pills doing not a thing for me.

I have to say too that 10 years on one med at one dose is not likely to be helping at all actually so I'm wondering if you really need a replacement.

I'd actually suggest you wean off and have nothing to see how you go before trying another. That way you know for sure if you need it and also can identify which one is doing what to you.

Effexor at 75mgs is actually a small dose, the second lowest so if that held you for 10 years I'd strongly suggest your depression is reasonably light and you could likely progress with talk therapy and no meds. But I'm not the doc looking at you, just a fellow sufferer.

Give it some thought though as meds do not cure depression.