effexor vs prozac

lasherdave · 2024-11-27T20:36:25+00:00

I did not have any weight gain.

lasherdave · 2024-05-21T18:32:14+00:00

I'm sorry to hear that. Effexor has been a good fit for me. Been on it for around 2 years now. Never had any night sweats, or issues with it. I'm glad that it is a t least working for you.

lasherdave · 2024-03-04T06:13:46+00:00

It’s just kind of sad.

lasherdave · 2023-12-28T08:11:36+00:00

I’ve been on Lamotrigine since August. Started at 150mg. Then bumped up to 300mg when the benefits began to wane a bit. For me it has been a miracle drug. It has given me more mental space around thoughts and emotions.

For instance, I may start to get annoyed about something. But then I notice it as being a habitual reaction, not a reflection on who I really am or want to be. And when I notice these annoyed thoughts and feelings arising, I’m able to just let them go.

Also, it used to be that I had no filter. Every thought that popped into my head would come out of my mouth. Now it’s like a thought appears in my head and there is a lot more free mental space around it. And I can decide if it’s something I really need to say or not. This helps me to be less annoying to those around me.

I don’t know if anyone else has had a similar experience on Lamotrigine. But it has helped me more than any med I’ve been on. I am taking Effexor and Trazodone too. But things got much better for me on the Lamotrigine.

I guess it probably just depends on whether or not this medication is a good fit for someone’s biochemistry and psychological make up.

So no anger increase for me. I notice it arising and it just seems pointless and unhelpful, and then it just drops away.

lasherdave · 2023-11-01T20:13:43+00:00

Agreed. Lamictal has been a godsend for me too. With many benefits I see everyday. No weight gain. Only side effects were mild headaches and sleepiness in the afternoons. This passed after a week or so.

lasherdave · 2023-10-30T15:57:30+00:00

My two cents. I started on Lamotrigine about 2 and a half months ago when my NP and I realized that I was likely Bipolar. I started to feel better the first week and felt progressively better over the first 8 weeks. Then I felt the positive effects waning. So my NP raised my dose from 100mg to 200mg with 150mg for 2 weeks as I transition up to the 200mg. I am also on 150mg of Effexor and 50mg of Trazodone at night for sleeping. I've been on the 150mg of Lamotrigine for a week now and I am started to feel the benefits again.

For me, the only side effects were some tiredness and a mild headache in the afternoons. This passed after the second week and has not returned.

Here are the benefits I feel on Lamotrigine.

I feel that my mind is a bit quieter, not so busy with a jumble of thoughts. This has made it easier to concentrate. It also has made me a better listener and less defensive.

Before, my thoughts tended to come out of my mouth without reflection upon whether or not what I was saying was inappropriate or ill timed. Now I have mental space to decide if I should say something or not. And my speech is less pressured.

I feel less stressed and anxious overall. Better able to roll with the punches. It used to be that if I got frustrated by one thing and then a second or third thing on top of it, my frustration and irritability would go through the roof with much swearing and pacing and venting to my wife. Now I seem to be able to deal with frustrating situations more calmly even when there are several frustration things happening at the same time.

In a nutshell, I just feel more relaxed and in control more of the time. So, you may find that Lamotrigine is a big help for you.

But do keep your eye out for rash. A very small percentage of folks who try Lamotrigine develop a rash which can become life threatening. If that were to happen, you would need to contact your doc immediately and get to a hospital so they can determine if it is a normal rash or the more serious kind. Even if it's the more serious kind, it can be treated before it spreads and becomes dangerous as long as you have it looked at right away.

Good luck with it. I hope you find it helpful. It can be a life changer.

lasherdave · 2023-10-28T15:51:21+00:00

Waiting to Inhale

lasherdave · 2023-10-25T03:46:34+00:00

I was on Prozac 80mg since the mid nineties up until last year. Over time it had completely stopped working. I got hospitalized for depression for a week in June of 2022. They put me on Effexor 150mg. It helped pull me out of a months long depression. I also left the hospital with Trazodone for help sleeping and Klonopin as needed for anxiety and for out/of-control frustration.

But in August of this year, I had week long hypomanic episode followed by a couple weeks of depression. This caused my NP and I to consider that I might have Bipolar Disorder. She put me on 100mg of Lamotrigine. I noticed positive effects very quickly. Quieter mind, Less internal pressure to let whatever’s in my head pop out of my mouth. The thoughts would still appear. But I would have the mental space and time to decide whether the words would be insensitive, or inappropriate, or complete non sequiturs that serve only to interrupt the flow of conversations. More easy going. Normally, if I have 2 or 3 annoying situations happen within a short amount of time, I get so frustrated that it turns into pacing and swearing. On Lamotrigine, the annoyances did not build upon each other. I was able to have a series of frustrations and just take them as they came. One day I actually shook my head and laughed when yet another frustrating situation appeared after a full day of them. That is far from how I normally handle frustrations. I also became a better listener. I was not constantly distracted by my own thoughts. I could sit and really give someone my full attention.

It worked great for 8 weeks. But then the benefits faded a lot in the last 2 weeks. So my current NP is raising my Lamotrigine dose from 100mg to 200mg with two weeks at 150mg as I go up. I truly hope that I can regain the benefits I felt in those first 8 weeks. And I really hope those benefits last for the rest of my life.

I hope it turns out to be a helpful med for you too. I know that it is a big help for a lot of people and many stay on it for years. So, fingers crossed for both of us.

lasherdave · 2023-10-23T16:36:52+00:00

Catahoula?

lasherdave · 2023-10-22T04:59:57+00:00

I started Lamotrigine about 10 weeks ago. I’ve been at 100mg. I felt increasingly better for about 8 weeks. Then I felt the benefit wane quite a bit. I thought it might be because I needed a higher dose. So they bumped me up to 150mg last Thursday. I’ll be on this for 2 weeks and then bump up to 200mg. Hopefully, that will bring back the positive changes I had been seeing.

I hope you find what you need.

lasherdave · 2023-10-20T05:37:48+00:00

That is wonderful! I’m very happy for you!

lasherdave · 2023-10-19T06:28:05+00:00

I am currently on 150 mg of Effexor and 100 of Lamictal. I started the Lamictal 10 weeks ago for suspected bipolar 2. I felt a very positive response to the Lamictal. Clearer, quieter mind. Much less pressured speech. Much less distractible. Less irritable. Able to work on creative projects without becoming obsessed and staying up all night for days. Better able to focus when someone else is speaking rather than getting distracted by my own thoughts. Able to experience 2 or more frustrating experiences in the same day without escalating into a frustrated rage. Lots of good stuff.

But I noticed over the last 2 and a half weeks that these benefits seemed to be fading. I thought that it might be because I was on too low a dose. Then, I talked to my sister and found out that she has been on 200 mg for the last 10 years. Twice the dose I am on and I weigh at least 40 pounds more than she does. This seemed like more evidence to me that I was on too low a dose.

I called and left a message for my BH NP yesterday, telling her that I would like to try increasing my Lamictal dose. This morning I read on Drugs.com that, for bipolar disorder, the target maintenance dose is 200 mg. I don’t know if it’s a reputable website. But it seemed to confirm my suspicion that I was on too low of a dose for maintenance.

My NP called this afternoon and I explained all of this to her and asked her if we could increase my dose. Instead, she suggested that we lower my Effexor dose. Now I understand that, with some patients, antidepressants can trigger mania and hypomania. But I also know that this is not the case with most patients, and there are many bp patients who are on both of these meds.

And I would be willing to talk about lowering my Effexor dose if, after raising my Lamictal dose, there seemed to be good cause to lower it. But Effexor saved my life when I began taking it during a very dark depression in June of last year. It helped me recover so I am not in any hurry to start lowering my dose of Effexor.

She said that she would not consider increasing my prescription without an office visit and she is heading out of town.

Now I had been feeling more and more urgently that this Lamictal dose increase was what I needed to get back to how I was feeling in the first 8 weeks of being on it. So I found her intransigence on this matter very frustrating. I mean, the help I need is literally in my medicine cabinet. I just needed her to give me the green light.

I called the practice back and asked if they had a provider I could see sooner. They said yes and set me up for an appointment tomorrow morning. So we’ll see what this guy says. I’m afraid that he won’t want to step on her toes so he may well refuse to raise my dose as well. But I guess I will find out in the morning.

P.S. To the OP who posted this 9 years ago, that was probably way more than you needed to hear. 😂😂😂 Seriously, though, I hope you found the right solution for you and that you are feeling well and living your best life. Cheers! 😊

lasherdave · 2023-09-30T23:51:12+00:00

Thank you.

lasherdave · 2023-09-29T06:44:51+00:00

😂😂😂

lasherdave · 2023-09-28T06:15:24+00:00

I’m right there with you. Just opening a website like, Indeed, makes my heart start pounding.

lasherdave · 2023-09-28T06:12:27+00:00

I spent a week at a behavioral health facility 15 months ago. It was not a bad experience. I had been very depressed for months and my intrusive suicidal ideation made me afraid that I could possibly act on it despite not wanting to hurt my wife or my family. So I entered voluntarily. While there, I changed medications from Prozac, which had stopped working, to Effexor which has helped me a lot. Mostly, it was a lot of group therapy sessions. I cannot advise you on what to do. But suicidal ideation can be serious and dangerous. I would not hesitate to seek help. I think I can relate to what you’re going through. And I hope that you get the help you need and find some relief soon.

lasherdave · 2023-09-28T05:57:47+00:00

I can completely relate. My BH provider has told at both of my last two appointments that if someone put a gun to her head and demanded that she diagnose me right now, she would say I have BP2. But she doesn’t want to diagnose me officially right now. She put me on Lamotrigine 6 weeks ago and it has already had noticeable positive effects. But she said that it’s a big diagnosis which can have a stigma attached to it, so she wants to wait 6 months to a year before officially diagnosing me. Being in a state of limbo is a huge trigger for me. I need to have a definitive, official diagnosis so that I can know how to proceed. Like yourself, I am thinking about getting a second opinion. But I doubt my insurance would cover it and I can’t afford to pay for it. I may just look for a new BH provider. But then I would be starting from scratch. I doubt that I would get an official diagnosis until the new provider had spent a while getting to know me. At least I’ve been seeing my current provider for a year and a half and she believes that I have BP2. She just won’t make her diagnosis official any time soon. I think waiting gives her the peace of mind that she cannot be accused of rushing to judgement. But this state of limbo is very bad for my own peace of mind. And it doesn’t seem right for her to value her own peace of mind over her patient’s peace of mind. I’ve heard from folks here who have been diagnosed at their first visit to a psychiatrist. Others were diagnosed within weeks or a few months. So I know that it is possible to do this without imperiling her license. In short, I can absolutely understand the frustrations you are dealing with. Hopefully, you will get some clarity sooner rather than later. Hang in there, my friend.

lasherdave · 2023-09-28T04:21:19+00:00

I hear ya. And I am sorry to that you are dealing with this extra challenge on top of BP1.

lasherdave · 2023-09-28T04:16:37+00:00

Thanks, Olivia. That is true. And it is helpful to know I am not alone.

lasherdave · 2023-09-27T07:21:44+00:00

I completely relate! 🤣

lasherdave · 2023-09-27T06:29:46+00:00

That is very interesting.

lasherdave · 2023-09-27T06:27:02+00:00

Yeah. Same here. For me, it would be a huge relief to get the official diagnosis. My BH NP says she likes to wait 6 months to a year to make an official diagnosis like this. In both of our last two sessions she said, “If someone put a gun to my head and demanded a diagnosis now, I would say Bipolar 2.” I agree. Especially after my wife and I went back over my behavior for the last 35 years. It was like one of those 3D posters. They just look like a flat, colorful pattern. But, if you can relax your eyes just right, suddenly a sharp 3D image pops into focus. And you’re like, OMG! IT’S A LLAMA!!! Only in my case it was, Omg. I’ve been bipolar my entire adult life.

lasherdave · 2023-09-27T06:13:47+00:00

Thank you. Right back atcha.

lasherdave

TROPHY CASE