Antidepressants and Quitting

[MadeyeTony]

I've been vaping for six weeks now, and was able to give up analogs after the first couple of days. I have been on Effexor for the last six months or so. I was able to quit with remarkable ease, although my wife could not, and she still struggles with it.

Anyways, about a week ago my doctor and I decided to cut my dosage in half. Ever since then the old specter of tobacco has been haunting me again. I find myself now going out for one or two a day. I've been experiencing that whole "something is missing" sensation that many on this forum have mentioned.

So, I'm beginning to wonder if antidepressants would be a good idea for those of you who have an extremely hard time letting go of the analogs.

Anyone else have any similar experiences? I would love to hear about them.

 

[Hellen A. Handbasket]

Hi Tony,
You might find this interesting...
This is your brain on nicotine

Turns out we are missing something! I know I've had some issues. Most of us start smoking young too... so these chemicals changes in our brains (since we aren't getting them from tobacco now) are now causing us problems.

Keep up with your doctor if you find it gets worse. It has taken me about 8 months to start to feel normal again... all without smoking. I'm finding that an extra 2000 IU of Vitamin D and other vitamin supplements has helped me feel much better. There are many websites that talk about nutrition and vitamins to help.

 

[beckah54]

Very interesting read, Helen. That would explain why just nicotine alone does not help some people quit smoking.

 

[Madame Psychosis]

Cravings could also be from your Effexor dose reduction. Not necessarily that you need your previous dose, but the withdrawal itself from venlafaxine has a reputation for inducing a kind of unpleasant whiplash and an odd variety of discontinuation symptoms. (If you're getting weird jolts known as 'brain zaps', well, that's also the 'Fex.) The plus side is that those cravings will subside over several weeks if that's the case.

Also agree with Hellen's post.


Oddly enough, the antidepressant I'm on now (high dose MAOI - the old-school stuff with the diet and the Medic-Alert bracelet) makes analogs kick like a team of draft horses. I cut my analog use in half within two days. Wow.
That same drug, selegiline, is now being studied in low (much safer, no-MAOI-diet) doses for smoking cessation. I can see why. I suspect that very-low-dose selegiline could really help people suffering from MAOI withdrawal after stopping a heavy analog habit.

 

[316lvm]

I've been vaping for six weeks now, and was able to give up analogs after the first couple of days. I have been on Effexor for the last six months or so. I was able to quit with remarkable ease, although my wife could not, and she still struggles with it.

Anyways, about a week ago my doctor and I decided to cut my dosage in half. Ever since then the old specter of tobacco has been haunting me again. I find myself now going out for one or two a day. I've been experiencing that whole "something is missing" sensation that many on this forum have mentioned.

So, I'm beginning to wonder if antidepressants would be a good idea for those of you who have an extremely hard time letting go of the analogs.

Anyone else have any similar experiences? I would love to hear about them.

Hey MadEye -
I too, am on Effexor XR 225mg x1 day and Seroquel 300mg x1 day. Just saw my psych doc on the 16th and discussed this nicotine issue with her.
She told me that the higher the nicotine intake, the faster the meds get metabolized out of your system. In essence, you are on a lower dose of meds.

Now, if you lower your nicotine intake, then it has the opposite effect, the meds stay in your system longer and is equal to a higher level of medications.

I noticed that once I quit smoking the craving for a cig is strong. So I upped the nicotine I was inhaling to between 24mg-26mg. This helped ease the craving but I was getting a little daffy.

Went down on the nic, craving is up but mood is better.

What I am trying now is to vape higher dose in the am, switch to 18mg during the day for more vapping, then maybe 20mg before bed.

The long term plan the doc and I have is to either cut the meds down further or d/c it all togethr. However, this isn't going to happen until I'm either nic free or at a "stable" dose of nic.

Since your meds were reduced, you might want to try a higher dose PRN for cravings - talk to your doc about it.
Hope this helps and I wish you well

 

[316lvm]

Just a quickie - read a post with reference to another forum called Wrecked and Bonkers which is open to anyone dealing with medical,mental or having a bad "day" where you can post. I think that woud be a great place to post this type of disucssion. JMHO

 

[sherid]

I've been vaping for six weeks now, and was able to give up analogs after the first couple of days. I have been on Effexor for the last six months or so. I was able to quit with remarkable ease, although my wife could not, and she still struggles with it.

Anyways, about a week ago my doctor and I decided to cut my dosage in half. Ever since then the old specter of tobacco has been haunting me again. I find myself now going out for one or two a day. I've been experiencing that whole "something is missing" sensation that many on this forum have mentioned.

So, I'm beginning to wonder if antidepressants would be a good idea for those of you who have an extremely hard time letting go of the analogs.

Anyone else have any similar experiences? I would love to hear about them.

Don't know about antidepressants and e cigs, but I am very familiar with Effexor. Don't ever try cutting that stuff cold turkey. I did, and it was a six week nightmare. When I started Effexor for anxiety, it seemed like a miracle. Unfortunately, the stuff is designed to make you dependent for life. Get clear instructions from your doctor should you decide to stop taking it. I found even by lowering the dosage gradually, I was plagued with brain zaps, increased depression and anxiety, chronic insomnia, etc. The brain zaps were the worst. I was smoking my usual pack a day at the time, so there was nothing to blame on smoking.

 

[Katmar]

sherid,
I went through the same thing, only mine lasted for several months. It was tough getting the drs. to listen, even though the info was out there on s.s.r.i. discontinuation syndrome. I will NEVER put another effexor in my body, and I am a very outspoken advocate regarding effexor.
TONY, get off the effexor. But do it very slowly. It is not an easy path for many people. Some fare better than others. Prozac is even much safer and easier to get off of. So is Wellbutrin, which is also used for smoking cessation. I used wellbutrin for awhile and it really did decrease the cravings, but I couldn't quit entirely.
Sounds much more like the cut in effexor rathar than the vaping.
Best Wishes

 

[Madame Psychosis]

Effexor can be one of the most effective antidepressants out there and for some it is what finally works. It's indeed notorious for discontinuation problems (and psychiatrists can be totally ignorant of this, amazingly), but I've known people who took six months to taper off and people who took five years to do so -- quite a lot of variation.

A temporary low dose of Prozac helps some people with tapering, but only if one's doctor has experience with this procedure or is willing to research it.

 

[sherid]

sherid,
I went through the same thing, only mine lasted for several months. It was tough getting the drs. to listen, even though the info was out there on s.s.r.i. discontinuation syndrome. I will NEVER put another effexor in my body, and I am a very outspoken advocate regarding effexor.
TONY, get off the effexor. But do it very slowly. It is not an easy path for many people. Some fare better than others. Prozac is even much safer and easier to get off of. So is Wellbutrin, which is also used for smoking cessation. I used wellbutrin for awhile and it really did decrease the cravings, but I couldn't quit entirely.
Sounds much more like the cut in effexor rathar than the vaping.
Best Wishes

I despise the stuff. From the very people expounding on the addictiveness of cigarettes, we get a product that forces most to take it forever. I gained 30 lbs on that crap. It changed my personality, my body, everything. When I went to the doctor for the anxiety, I simply wanted some Xanax since I had taken it a couple of times before and had absolutely no problem tapering off to quit when I no longer needed it. My doctor said that Effexor was so much better and was not addictive....blah, blah, blah. What a load of crap

 

[Madame Psychosis]

I despise the stuff. From the very people expounding on the addictiveness of cigarettes, we get a product that forces most to take it forever. I gained 30 lbs on that crap. It changed my personality, my body, everything. When I went to the doctor for the anxiety, I simply wanted some Xanax since I had taken it a couple of times before and had absolutely no problem tapering off to quit when I no longer needed it. My doctor said that Effexor was so much better and was not addictive....blah, blah, blah. What a load of crap

Ugh. Sorry to hear such a bad experience. I have a huge beef with doctors (especially general practitioners) who prescribe powerful antidepressants at the drop of a hat like that. It's one thing when you really are in the hole and can't get out of bed thanks to the depression, when side effects are just the price you pay for staying alive. (And not everybody has such a bad problem with discontinuation. It's just more common with 'Fex and more problematic with doctors who don't understand how to handle discontinuation properly.) But if your problem is anxiety, Effexor's probably just about the worst first choice I can think of.

 

[sherid]

Ugh. Sorry to hear such a bad experience. I have a huge beef with doctors (especially general practitioners) who prescribe powerful antidepressants at the drop of a hat like that. It's one thing when you really are in the hole and can't get out of bed thanks to the depression, when side effects are just the price you pay for staying alive. (And not everybody has such a bad problem with discontinuation. It's just more common with 'Fex and more problematic with doctors who don't understand how to handle discontinuation properly.) But if your problem is anxiety, Effexor's probably just about the worst first choice I can think of.

It worked for the anxiety, but the anxiety was a reaction to a temporary situation. I did not want a lifetime dependence on the drug.

 

[Katmar]

Well,, thanks to my experience with effexor, an antidepressant is the LAST thing I will go for if my depression rears its ugly head again. It was a time of pure hell getting off of it.

 

[sherid]

Well,, thanks to my experience with effexor, an antidepressant is the LAST thing I will go for if my depression rears its ugly head again. It was a time of pure hell getting off of it.

That's two of us. I wonder where the class action lawsuit against Effexor is.

 

[Katmar]

It should be around somewhere, I bet. When I finally recovered, I just shut myself off from any references to it. I hear that name and I still cringe. Glad, but also sorry, to find someone who went thru the same thing. I was on a forum about it for awhile. The stories were horrible.
Here's to a stable mind!!!!

 

[mergryphon]

Thankfully I'm not on Effexor, but I'm almost afraid to ask what a "brain zap" is exactly.

 

[Madame Psychosis]

Thankfully I'm not on Effexor, but I'm almost afraid to ask what a "brain zap" is exactly.

They're a term for an odd little jolt of tension and "electricity" in your skull that quickly passes. Rapid discontinuation of certain antidepressants is known to cause them in some people. Not harmful, just annoying as [bleep].

As for disliking all antidepressants...what can I say? Hard to make generalizations. They are one of the few success stories of modern psychiatry, and the choices have exploded in number in the last fifteen years. They're a highly varied group of medicines with different mechanisms of action and different side effects. They're overprescribed to many people, and occasionally underprescribed to those who need them. If you really need them (for true depression and not just sadness), you just have to keep trying until you find one that's tolerable. If you don't need them, you can toss them aside, and count your blessings. I mean, it sucks to have diabetes or lupus or cancer and the medications can be awful for those too, but if you have a chronic life-threatening illness you don't have a lot of choices.
[/rant]

 

[whimzkool]

I have struggled with depression since I was 15. Name an antidepressant and I have probably been on it at one point or another. Effexor was probably the worst. The only problem with the e-cig is that plain nic. gives me too much anxiety, yet I tend to chain-vape, searching for that something that isn't there... the calming side. I weaned myself off antidepressants as I was tired of being a zombie. I prefer depression to a life of mechanical, zombie-like living, devoid of emotion. I do make an extraction of passionflower that I add to my e-cig. It really makes a huge difference in the level I vape. I get much more relaxation, much like a cig. As a result, I vape less than I did at first. I am not sure if any manufacturer uses PF, though some do use valerian, but that makes me too sleepy in the daytime.
I don't know, but since adding the PF (which acts as an mao inhibitor), I have been in a much better mood overall. There is a discussion here in the forums about it (do a search on MAOI, or passionflower). If you are currently on anti-depressants I wouldn't add it, as it could be too much. However, it is completely legal, and gives me the "calm" effect cigarettes provide.

 

[snap6cat]

I was taking 1 75 mg Wellbutrin/day for quite awhile. I quit smoking 10 mo ago when I switched to e-cigs, everything was going along great. A month or so ago I started to get very depressed and called my doc. He said the wellbutrin you are already on is an antidepressant try taking 4 a day. I think the nico from the e-cigs and the meds did not get along and had to cut them down to 2/day. Now I feel OK. Has anyone had similar experiences?

 

[Madame Psychosis]

I was taking 1 75 mg Wellbutrin/day for quite awhile. I quit smoking 10 mo ago when I switched to e-cigs, everything was going along great. A month or so ago I started to get very depressed and called my doc. He said the wellbutrin you are already on is an antidepressant try taking 4 a day. I think the nico from the e-cigs and the meds did not get along and had to cut them down to 2/day. Now I feel OK. Has anyone had similar experiences?

Yep. Wellbutrin taken alone (without something anxiolytic like an SSRI) can cause anxiety and agitation (it acts similar to a stimulant), and 300mg is a pretty high dose, especially in combo with nicotine.


Okay, sooner or later I'm going to just bite the bullet and create a social group for those of us with depression...