u/MissHissss

I’ve been on venlafaxine (XR) for over 2 years. It’s worked better than the myriad of other medications I’ve tried over the years but I’m getting brain zaps today for no apparent reason.

I KNOW with 100% certainty I took my medication yesterday. But I woke up brain zapping every time I move my head. I took today’s dose an hour early just to get it to stop but nope, it hasn’t stopped and that was 2 hours ago. I can’t even stand up it’s that bad. Has anyone had this? Should I be worried, or…? I’m used to getting a brain zap or two when it gets close to the time for my next dose but this is something else.

I take 225mg once a day.

Thanks!

It’s been a long journey for me. For two years I tried to lose weight using every method under the sun. I lost some, I gained some back, I lost a bit more, and when all was said and done I had lost 15lbs. Which is 15lbs less than I was, but given the effort I was putting in it was way less than I’d hoped/expected. In fact, my tracking app says I should be at my goal weight and yet I had 85lbs to go.

Then two months ago I was diagnosed with a cocoa allergy. Chocolate is and always has been my treat of choice. I didn’t eat a lot of it but I did eat some every day (usually 150-200g that I’d worked into my daily calories). Since I can no longer eat chocolate I decided instead of replacing it with something else that I don’t really want, why not cut out sugar completely. So I’ve been sugar free for the last two months (except for a pack of hard candies I keep in my bag because I have insulin resistance and my blood sugar occasionally drops unexpectedly but I use them so rarely I don’t count them).

And I’ve lost 1lb per week since then, exactly as hoped. I cannot tell you how excited, and frankly relieved I am to see my effort finally working. I was feeling so hopeless and defeated and I honestly didn’t think having a few squares of chocolate each day was affecting me at all, since I was within my calories. I underestimated the extent to which insulin resistance was sabotaging me and now that I know hopefully I can keep the weight loss ball rolling!

I’ve been recently diagnosed with a cocoa allergy, and as someone who loves chocolate I’m struggling with it. But when I mentioned it, everyone around me said I’m being weird about it. They said “but you can still eat all these other desserts”. Yes I know, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that I can’t eat chocolate ever again. My mom, who is on a diet, was like “well I can’t eat chocolate either”. No, you can but you’re choosing not to.

I know it’s not the end of the world, and life will go on, but I’ve still lost something I love and they’re making me feel crazy for feeling this way. Is that wrong?

This is more of a complaint than anything, I’m not genuinely asking, though if you happen to know the answer I’d love to learn!

So I have CIU and had full body hives for almost a year. After 7 months on 300mg of Xolair every two weeks my hives went away and have been pretty much fully controlled since then.

The issue is that I’ve been having an allergic reaction to an unknown food. My allergist booked me in for prick testing but the results were invalid because I had no response to anything including the histamine control.

So Xolair is suppressing my IgE levels enough that my CIU is controlled, enough that I didn’t react to a skin prick of histamine, but not enough that I’m still reacting to whatever food I’m allergic to. Why?!

I’ve recently started trying to take care of my hair after a severe years-long depression. But I’m having an issue where all the products make my hair smell burnt. They all smell perfectly lovely right out of the bottle but after 10 minutes or so it smells strongly of burning (funnily enough not burning hair, just burning in general). I don’t use any heat on my hair so it isn’t that.

The products I’m getting this with are:

• L’Oréal dream lengths no hair-cut cream

• Marc Anthony coconut and shea leave-in conditioner

• Marc Anthony strictly curls curl defining lotion

• Dove invisible dry shampoo

I’m not sure if it’s a specific ingredient that’s causing it? I don’t recall ever having this issue before with hair products but I did get it with several perfumes. Is scentless probably my best bet?

Thanks!