Scenario Element 1:
* offend someones belief system/make someone believe something deceitful (false perception of characters -close relatives become evil-, false interpretation of ones own character/personality, false traumatic experiences) *

*** Hello,New to this message board,and currently on 75mgs of Effexor xr for about 3weeks now. I've been having bad dreams and awake remembering everything. Last night I dreamed a group of friends and I rolled our car going at a high rate of speed I remember my blood going everywhere and waking up in the hospital and not being able to see. I remember getting violent at the hospital and yelling alot. My husband also said I have been focal in my sleep. I never remembered my dreams before starting this medicine, and they seem to be bad dreams all the time. Just wondering if this is a side effect that will go away? Am I going crazy on this Effexor??????????

*** I too have experienced crazy and very intense dreams where I wake up thinking that what ever happened in my dream might have actually happened because they are so real. I have not had nightmares or violent dreams just very wierd scenario dreams. And before the effexor I too never can remember having dreams as vivid as these.

*** Forgive me if I said this already, but did I tell you the freakiest thing about my nightmares was their reality? The worst ones were where I really, 100%, thought I was awake. I'd get up out of bed, every day stuff--so when something scary happened, what was so scary was I thought it was really happening, in my home. (Making sense?) But the scariest stuff is that eerie, somethings-not-quite-right stuff. The way they use children in horror films, you know? They look normal and innocent, and then the look in their eye or that demon voice comes out of their mouth? And it's all the more scary not because it was a scary thing--just a child--but because it's something not normally scary at all? That's what's in most of my dreams. (brain is still in a fog)

*** Oh, this is something I can DEFINITELY relate to! My mother died last January, just three months after my father. Her death was painful, frightening and bizarre; she was being treated for a brain tumor or infection, and she was semi-comatose, moaning and in pain. I couldn't do anything for her, and the drs. were absolutely awful. She died the day after I had her transferred to another hospital because of the bad care she was given. The worst thing is that an autopsy revealed she had no tumor or infection - her brain was normal.
The nightmares are that she's dead, in her coffin, and suddenly starts to breath. She comes back to life and goes about as if nothing happened. I try to get her to take care of herself, and she doesn't do it (that's real life, though.) but if I tell her she's been dead, she immediately dies, and it's my fault. Then there are people talking that no one comes back to life, so I wasn't talking to my mother, but a Satanic being, meaning my mother, and my father, are both in hell....
How's that for a nightmare? I've had it twice already, waking up in tears, sweating, in a panic, and frightened to death. I literally spent a day believing this had actually happened. There are other nightmares, just as vivid - with all of them, it's like I KNOW I'm dreaming, but I can't make myself wake up or stop dreaming. it's like a serial that keeps continuing, and I can't make it stop.
Needless to say, I'm not rested when I wake up. I feel more like I ran a marathon. I don't know if others have this experience, or how their nightmares run, but this is probably for me the most frightening aspect of Effexor withdrawal.

*** You hit the nail right on the head with this one. I have nightmares where something odd happens, and I "wake up" to find that I am in another dream, except I don't realize it's a dream until a deer gores one of my kids or something, and I "wake up" yet again...to another dream. I find myself questioning reality for almost an hour after I get out of bed because of this.

*** the worst thing about the nightmares aside from having them is that they totally screw my head up for at least a day, and usually more than that. I almost doubt half the time it was a dream and not real!

*** All last week I was having horrible nightmares. No matter how tired I was, I'd fight going back to sleep so I wouldn't have to dream again. I'm getting better at interpreting my dreams, but at the time they are so graphic and scary. I wish I could learn to recognize that I'm dreaming and tell myself its OK.

*** You know, it's so odd, those darn nightmares! Only you know what scares you, and gol-darnit if that isn't what you have nightmares about! I'm pretty unflappable in the real world...desensitized by horror flicks and the sensationalist media, as well as personal experiences, but man, those nightmares are things that would make Clive Barker, Stephen King, and Wes Craven run home to their mommas. My wife is getting tired of the yelling in the middle of the night, as well as getting socked on occasion. We almost have to sleep in separate beds.
Ever since starting EffexorXR over a year ago, I have been plagued by horrific nightmares every single night. It always involves blood, gore, murder, and other attrocities. The difference is that it starts off totally normal, like I'm driving to work or something. Then, a child's head explodes in the passenger seat and skull fragments pierce my skin. Weird crap like that. I get that from years of watching horror flicks and my general desensitization to blood and stuff. But, like I've said before, only you know what scares you, and nighmares have a neat way of putting your fears "in your face" so to speak.

*** me too, I used to love to sleep and that is still all I do, but the dreams have gotten so bizarre. Part of it is life circumstances and trying to resolve it, I know, but I hate the nightmares.......the many wierd dreams! Sometimes it's hard to distinquish between dreams and reality.......too.

*** Yes, T... I had lots of odd dreams, and very bloody dream, one night i dreamed that my son was all cut up and blood was everywhere, i was upset for days about this, I spoke to Dr. Ann Tracy about it and she told me that sometimes peoples dreams while on the drugs can turn into reality, I guess thats like the comidian Phil Hartman, His wife killed him and then she thought it was just a dream, she called her friend to come and check if she really did it because she could not tell reality from dream state anymore............... and thats when the friend came and confirmed that Yes she killed her husband and so when the friend went in the other room she laid down next to her husband and shot herself......................how sad....... but i guess the dream state of mind is very effected by these drugs........

*** My dreams are becoming more violent every night (I have dreamed of being raped twice in the past week - under different circumstances and as a different 'me'). I wake up when I call out to people, or hit people, or reach out to take something from someone else, or I can't breathe because I am being chased or am frightened.

*** I know those dreams have to suck pretty bad. My dreams haven't been about any harm coming to me, it's just been deaths, deaths and more deaths, all very violent deaths, and mostly about my family. I wish there was a way for us to stop this from happening, it does get to ya after a while.
All I know is, that I want them to all go away. I am tired of dreaming /seeing all my family killed. It always has to do with death. I do not know how much more I can take of it.

*** I've had dreams of people hunting down my children and shooting them in front of my eyes--execution style, while I held their hand and tried to calm them. I've seen (in dreams) my baby boy repeatedly thrown into water (he can't swim) and resuscitated until he drowned. I've seen a woman thrown into the sea and devoured by sharks. All in the same night. And that was just one night of many such dreams.

*** Is anyone else getting nightmares while on or coming off efexor. Every time i have been to sleep last week, ive been woken by nightmares.All have been very frighting and very graphic.I then become unsteady on my feet and have fallen into walls. Any comments?

*** I had some weird dreams when I upped my dose. I had some ugly dreams the other night but I was coming off Trileptal which was supposed to help my Effexor work better. I can't remember the whole dream but it was I dead or was dying, it seems to me it was some stupid accident with a knife. I cannot remember very well. I did not have a good nights sleep that night even though I had only 3 hours sleep the night before and I took a sleeping pill.

*** I am on day 4. I am starting to wonder myself if I will ever be right. I have mucsle spasms, jerky hands. Last night dreamt that my brother was killed, and no one told me. Tomorrow will be my first night without trazodone.

*** B... has had hundreds of terrible dreams, he wakes up in tears at times, when I see him at the hospital, I will have him write them down if he can remember some. By the way, Our daughter, me, his mom and dad, all seem to turn into bad guys....he even told me one morning, he understood how people could think their mates were the bad guys if I had just seen his latest dream, it had been so real, had he been out of it, he says he might have thought it was real....

*** Hi everyone, I have read a lot of messages regarding nitemares while using SSRI drugs, I had a lot of them, the interesting thing is that they were always about the same thing, I always had nitemares of venomous snakes by the thousands around my feet ready to strike, I would walk through them without being bitten, I also have not been able to watch horror movies since either, it just proves ounce again that these drugs are Lucifer's workshop.

*** Most of my violent dreams are of animals attacking me. It's different every night. Sometimes snakes, cats, dogs...last night it was alligators and fish. (I think they have something to do with my neurotic inhibitions about sex.)

*** My dreaming has changed on Effexor. The dreams are far more life-like, more vivid. I didn't notice an increase in bad dreams as you describe, but all my dreams were fuller. I do remember dreams every morning. They seem to have become major Hollywood productions complete with elaborate plot twists. I also notice that I frequently dream about that day's events - including TV shows. Do you watch those reality programs or work in a hospital? You'd be suprised how a subtle suggestion can turn into a monster in a dream.

*** I have a recurring nightmare about tornadoes when I get in over my head and I might be in trouble. The nightmare I had last night about the tornado was far away and it went very quickly, I even said in the dream, it looks toonish because it went so fast. Usually I get sucked up in it or it passes near me.

*** Ive noticed that like M..., I have "nightmares" when Ive missed my meds. The strange thing is that overall my dreams have become much more detailed and vivid than ever before in my life. On the nights that I forget to take my pills, I tend to have extremely long complex dreams that leave me exhausted in the morning.
Im also a little bit psychic (not like Madame Cleo on the commercials) so Ive had a couple of strange clairvoyant dreams which is a little unsettling. I always wonder if the meds open up some part of the brain that isnt normally active...

*** I've also had very violent, terrifying dreams. Right now I'm on 75mg, but when I first started Effexor I had them alot. Also when I've either decreased or increased my dosage from what it is now. They have been so scary that I get afraid to go to sleep sometimes. What's really scary is how powerful this medicine is on our minds.

*** I had a weird experience the other night. I'm wondering if it's related to this drug. (-Effexor-) This happened a few days after I increased my dosage. I was asleep and dreamed it was morning. In my dream, it was daylight. I got up on the side of my bed and took off my gown. I threw it over on a chair by the bed (that's my idea of putting it away). Anyway, that's all I remember of the dream. When I woke up, it was 4 AM and I was in bed without my gown. It was on the chair. I guess the closest thing I can some up with is that I was sleepwalking (or sleepundressing). Has anyone ever heard of this drug doing this? Thanks.