Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

Hello! I don’t know much at this point. I just called and explained my situation to someone. Someone is supposed to reach out to me. Good luck!❤️

Law suit, shmaw suit. Does money help you heal the years of unnecessary emotional, physical, and spiritual pain of long-term over-prescription of a medication meant to be used for a short time only? We as human beings always have the choice to: heal ourselves with exercise, nutrition, life-style changes that use meditation, prayer, and spiritual tools to help us help ourselves and loved ones overcome chronic illness. Mental illness is a chronic illness, just like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or any other illness that lasts longer than a cold or the flu? What are we doing to ourselves and our families when we depend totally on medical practitioners and Big Pharma as if they are God. Putting our lives and our lived ones' lives in their care, without doing for ourselves what we can do naturally, simply, one day at a time is a form of self-destruction, surrendering our birthright to freedom, health, and happiness to bean-counters and bottom-liners who are indifferent to human pain and suffering. Wake up and smell the coffee, folks! God has given us a brain and a heart to advocate for ourselves and the best possible health care which requires self-care. No pill or doc can do for us what we need to do for ourselves on a daily basis. Let's take back our God-given power to do for ourselves what our Creator has created us to do and spread the word to others still suffering from chronic illness in themselves abd their families. Medicine is only one tool and a crapshoot at that. Makes no sense to make Medicine our Higher Power when we have the internal power within us to heal what can be healed in partnership with God and common sense. As a wise man once asked: "If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If I take no action now, when will I take action?" Hey, if with the help of a humane, spiritually-centered psychiatrist, U could be SLOWLY weaned off Effexor and Depakote after dependency on them for 20+ years with better health at 76 than at 46, you can do this too! Go for it & God bless...

I, too, hate the drug and recently switched from Effexor XR capsules to Effexor immediate release tablets. I did this so that I could more easily adjust the dosage, being that Effexor XR comes in 37.5 and 75 mg, and Effexor immediate release is available in multiples of 25 mg. I now take 25 mg morning and night. After a month or so of being stable on 50 mg per day, I hope to begin my third attempt at tapering with a goal of weaning off entirely with the help of my pharmacist. I know it will take a long time, possibly years, to accomplish this. Best wishes to all who are trying to conquer this drug.

I tried also to kick venlafaxzine, and you’re right about the horror story. Not much physically, but a constant state of crying.
Try weaning with the doctor and take the highest dose of ashwaghanda you can find while you detox, it does help.

Hello! I am right there wit you. I increased my dose slightly to 50mg a day. I was having a frequent headaches and I was concerned so I increased my dose from 31.5 to 500. If you like, we should stay in contact. I’d like to see how we both more forward from 50mg.😊

The proposed class action lawsuit is not about money.

What the manufacturers ought to do is make the drug available in doses of 1 mg through 50 mg so that those of us who are dependent on the drug can obtain it in diminishing doses that make it less of a challenge to discontinue. How do we accomplish this?

@njoys Good idea. I have found that the pen is often mightier than the sword, and have written letters to drug manufacturers, frequently with good results.

As a sidebar, litigation of any kind is tasking mentally, emotionally, and physically. While a layperson may not believe that the lawsuit is about money to them personally, the attorney who files the case does so for monetary gain. I would encourage anyone to research their rights in terms of the proposed lawsuit and find out if they would be forced to pay any fees, although small if the case fails. I understand many may want to "send a message" to drug manufacturers regarding the potential downsides of a particular medication, but in my experience, such cases either fail or take years and years before they are eventually litigated before the courts. By the time the case is concluded one may be off of the subject drug and on the path to a brighter future, free of any kind of stressors such as a class action lawsuit.

Replying to Frances007. A law suit would be futile. Effexor is an FDA approved drug and NOT a controlled substance. Doctors and manufactures would NOT be liable. Law suits would would only bring more stress to individuals filing suit. And you would never see a dime unless laws were changed. I'm going through same situation.

I'm looking for the same answers. I've only been tapering down a few days and I have gotten no sleep and I hurt everywhere. I just want to cry