Theseus
27th October, 2007, 12:05 AM
Hello everyone. Im new here. :dance:
Im a male, 24, and was on paxil between the age of 18-23. I used paxil @ 40mg /day to combat anxiety and panic attacks. These both came from social situations, or even the thought of being in a social situation. In HS I hardly slept, and was working myself up daily just at the thought of school, or leaving the house. I came to the point at 18, where I felt that I had no control over my own thoughts, and I was going crazy having panic attacks weekly, or more often. So there was paxil, it helped. I later switched to Effexor XR, and have been using 150mg successfully for the past year. Ive had no panic attacks while on effexor and the sexual side effects are tolerable.
I do sweat like a pig though, but im also a decent size bodybuilder (250lbs @ 10% bf) and I eat a lot of calories (very clean food, high protein, mod fat healthy fats, low/trace carbs), but I know sweating is part of the SSRI's. Im a personal trainer so I have the fitness aspects of anxiety down.
But, recently ive found myself without health insurance, and do not want to pay $400 for 3 months of drugs, plus $100 each doc visit now that im out of school and broke :(
So im doing this without a P-doc, as I dont have the money right now.
So, after reading about 5-htp, ive ordered a bottle. Its 100mg by Now, a company ive ordered all of my vitamins from in the past.
I also ordered GABA and RR, just to have some of those on hand as needed. But Id like to come up with a protocol for 5-htp along with an Effexor Taper.
As I mentioned, ive been on 150mg of Effexor XR for more then a year. Last week, I took some pills and divided them into a bunch of 18.17 + 25mg capsules. Right now, im taking less then 75mg a day, with success. This is the best taper method ive ever tried. Some headaches, and general tired feeling, but its not too bad. Today was second time Ive had brain zaps, so its working so far! Usually id be in bed (ive tried other methods of getting off these drugs before).
Basically I take 25mg at 9am, 18.75 (or 25mg) at 4, and 18.75 (or 25) at bed. Sometimes if I miss a dose, like today I slept until noon and woke up feeling all drugged out and pretty much like any other time ive missed a dose. But overall, i've gone from 150 to less then 75 in a week. Actually, ive been doing this dose for a week. So ive been taking 75mg all week.
Now, I couldnt imagine waiting until all of the Effexor is out of my system before jumping on 5-htp. But, im wondering what an effective up-ramp protocol would look like.
Also, should effexor and 5-htp be taken at different times? Im not exactly sure how I would take them seperately, since im dosing effexor 3x a day as it is.
I think my protocol would be as follows starting this w-th or whenever my pills arrive.
time effexor 5-htp
8am 25mg 100mg
4pm 18.75 100mg
11pm 18.15mg 100mg
For the first week, and see how I feel.
Each week id like to taper down the effexor to just a daily dose of 37.5, or off completely. From there I might need to add in GABA or RR, based on how my anxiety is doing.
Any thoughts??
Thanks!
Im a male, 24, and was on paxil between the age of 18-23. I used paxil @ 40mg /day to combat anxiety and panic attacks. These both came from social situations, or even the thought of being in a social situation. In HS I hardly slept, and was working myself up daily just at the thought of school, or leaving the house. I came to the point at 18, where I felt that I had no control over my own thoughts, and I was going crazy having panic attacks weekly, or more often. So there was paxil, it helped. I later switched to Effexor XR, and have been using 150mg successfully for the past year. Ive had no panic attacks while on effexor and the sexual side effects are tolerable.
I do sweat like a pig though, but im also a decent size bodybuilder (250lbs @ 10% bf) and I eat a lot of calories (very clean food, high protein, mod fat healthy fats, low/trace carbs), but I know sweating is part of the SSRI's. Im a personal trainer so I have the fitness aspects of anxiety down.
But, recently ive found myself without health insurance, and do not want to pay $400 for 3 months of drugs, plus $100 each doc visit now that im out of school and broke :(
So im doing this without a P-doc, as I dont have the money right now.
So, after reading about 5-htp, ive ordered a bottle. Its 100mg by Now, a company ive ordered all of my vitamins from in the past.
I also ordered GABA and RR, just to have some of those on hand as needed. But Id like to come up with a protocol for 5-htp along with an Effexor Taper.
As I mentioned, ive been on 150mg of Effexor XR for more then a year. Last week, I took some pills and divided them into a bunch of 18.17 + 25mg capsules. Right now, im taking less then 75mg a day, with success. This is the best taper method ive ever tried. Some headaches, and general tired feeling, but its not too bad. Today was second time Ive had brain zaps, so its working so far! Usually id be in bed (ive tried other methods of getting off these drugs before).
Basically I take 25mg at 9am, 18.75 (or 25mg) at 4, and 18.75 (or 25) at bed. Sometimes if I miss a dose, like today I slept until noon and woke up feeling all drugged out and pretty much like any other time ive missed a dose. But overall, i've gone from 150 to less then 75 in a week. Actually, ive been doing this dose for a week. So ive been taking 75mg all week.
Now, I couldnt imagine waiting until all of the Effexor is out of my system before jumping on 5-htp. But, im wondering what an effective up-ramp protocol would look like.
Also, should effexor and 5-htp be taken at different times? Im not exactly sure how I would take them seperately, since im dosing effexor 3x a day as it is.
I think my protocol would be as follows starting this w-th or whenever my pills arrive.
time effexor 5-htp
8am 25mg 100mg
4pm 18.75 100mg
11pm 18.15mg 100mg
For the first week, and see how I feel.
Each week id like to taper down the effexor to just a daily dose of 37.5, or off completely. From there I might need to add in GABA or RR, based on how my anxiety is doing.
Any thoughts??
Thanks!