Fibromyalgia Support Group

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Do Effexor's WILD dreams rob us of good sleep?

ExDiva
ExDiva
After a year of fighting this disease with everything I have, I'm a little better with thyroid meds, hormones, antibiotics, antivirals, imitrex before my migraine sets in. etc....BUT I wonder if the vivid (in my case, anxiety/horror)dreams that occur as a side effect of Effexor (I'm bipolar) might be a critical cause of "unrestful sleep" that most say contribute to fibromyalgia.

WHO takes Effexor?

DO you have wild dreams that wake you up in a panic?

AM I the only one?
ExDiva
ExDiva
UPDATE:

I am taking tramazodone at night to help with sleep. I think I was on the wrong track to stop the dreams. The sleep we need is NON-REM and for two nights I've must have gotten good sleep because I've awakened early two mornings in a row - awakened because I wanted to get up. I haven't felt that way in ages. Tramazodone in addition to the effexor seems to be a very good idea. I have two doctors that agree on it and so far it's been good.

I'm staying on the Effexor and my psychiatrist actually convinced me to increase it. She says I can have fewer depressed episodes and sucking it up is not necessary. We shall see.
deleted_user
deleted_user
as well as being not necessary, i also believe that repeated episodes of depression adds to our fibro problems. all significant physical pain or emotional distress does this (dr mark pellegrino has written alot about this). also, its a proven, well accepted fact in psychiatry that the more depression episodes you have, the more you have.

what keeps me trying to make the medical approach work is the knowledge that my next option would be ECT. no thank you!
ExDiva
ExDiva
Thank you for the validation Mystery....somewhere I picked up the "do on your own" disease. I'm over it. I'll take what I have to take. The Trazodone is a miracle - sleep deep and awaken refreshed. I also increased the Effexor to 225 today and I felt great mentally. Too bad I had a migraine. However one thing at a time. And I have imitrex which chops the headache down to a nubbin. So all in all today was a good day. Saw Cadillac Records - great music good movie.
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