I used to say that my brain was like a bank of televisions at a store. Some were understandable, some had just snow or static, but all were on at once and on different channels. Effexor made less channels so I could concentrate. For awhile, just after starting Effexor, it felt very quiet. Very odd. Then things "normalized".
I'm wondering now exactly what the Effexor did/does and if those were really 'channels' or if they were others all talking at once.
Some of us would say there isn't a whole lot of difference between the two. :) Anyway, your experience on Effexor sounds similar to ours on Prozac. Every time we went off it, the feeling of 'lots of people talking at once' would return. One of the reasons we were afraid we were going 'insane' when we were younger was that we couldn't stop feeling that there were others around. Prozac didn't make them all 'go away,' but the feeling of 'less channels' sounds very, very similar to what we felt. Less channels, and you had to listen a little harder to hear them.
When we started actually trying to hear each other again, it didn't occur to us for a long time that the medication could be what was making it difficult. It did help us to focus better, especially since we had some sensory/CAPD problems going on in the first place, but we finally decided that the side effects weren't worth it, and decided we needed to find other ways to cope. (It turned out that we didn't, in fact, need to 'take it for the rest of our life' as our psychiatrist had claimed we would; we're actually doing better now than when we were on it.)
From our own experience, and many others that have been reported to us, I think any kind of psychiatric drug is going to affect in-system communication in some way. It might be subtle enough that you don't realise it, as it was with us. Even non-psychiatric drugs can mess with communication. We once took an over-the-counter sleep aid and couldn't talk to each other for a few days afterwards.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-12-06 09:19 pm (UTC)I'm wondering now exactly what the Effexor did/does and if those were really 'channels' or if they were others all talking at once.
Some of us would say there isn't a whole lot of difference between the two. :) Anyway, your experience on Effexor sounds similar to ours on Prozac. Every time we went off it, the feeling of 'lots of people talking at once' would return. One of the reasons we were afraid we were going 'insane' when we were younger was that we couldn't stop feeling that there were others around. Prozac didn't make them all 'go away,' but the feeling of 'less channels' sounds very, very similar to what we felt. Less channels, and you had to listen a little harder to hear them.
When we started actually trying to hear each other again, it didn't occur to us for a long time that the medication could be what was making it difficult. It did help us to focus better, especially since we had some sensory/CAPD problems going on in the first place, but we finally decided that the side effects weren't worth it, and decided we needed to find other ways to cope. (It turned out that we didn't, in fact, need to 'take it for the rest of our life' as our psychiatrist had claimed we would; we're actually doing better now than when we were on it.)
From our own experience, and many others that have been reported to us, I think any kind of psychiatric drug is going to affect in-system communication in some way. It might be subtle enough that you don't realise it, as it was with us. Even non-psychiatric drugs can mess with communication. We once took an over-the-counter sleep aid and couldn't talk to each other for a few days afterwards.