Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

@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.

I have posted extensively about titrating off of several medications. Unfortunately despite my best efforts, daily vigorous exercise, and a very clean diet, I can not shake the discontinuation effects of venlafaxine. About a month after stopping venlafaxine I stopped sleeping more than two hours at a time. I fell into a suicidal depression that no amount of less dreadful medication would lift me out of. On Friday my provider put me back on venlafaxine.

I was on 450mg daily for fifteen years and I believe it is accountable for a lot of the issues I had over that time. My provider just started me at 75mg to be increased to 150mg this week. I am hoping the discontinuation effects will subside without having to go back to 450mg. Right now the situation is bad. I am still not sleeping despite my provider having tried all the usual suspects. Worst of all I am profoundly depressed and hanging on by my fingernails.

Had I done more research I would not have stopped this medication as fast as I did. It seems it can take people years to titrate venlafaxine. Given the length of time I was on it and the very high dose I took, four months was too fast. It is maddening that my provider still believes it was out of my system quickly.

It takes weeks to ramp up and changes the way the brain functions, but after fifteen years it was out of my system in a couple of days. That makes no sense. Maybe it was out of my system fast but the changes it made to my brain could be permanent.

I have talked to an attorney friend of mine about suing the doctor who put me on it. It is easier said than done. My current providers believe I was misdiagnosed and should never have been put on the drug to begin with. Proving that is another matter. The mental health industry is well protected. Every possible side effect including suicidal actions is disclaimed. That we take these medications anyway is an indication of how badly people with mental illness are suffering. What is lacking is informed consent. That is the avenue I am trying to take. It doesn't look promising.

Discontinuation effects are seldom studied; after all who is going to pay for a study of what happens when a patient stops taking a drug? Certainly not the drug companies. I did find an article on Psychiatrist.com about suicidality emerging as the result of rapid discontinuation of venlafaxine, but everything else I've found is anecdotal. It took a decade of patients reporting brain zaps for the mental health industry to acknowledge their existence. Hopefully, it won't take that long for the profession to realize how hard it is to get off this medication.

In the meantime, people suffer and sometimes worse.

I hope everyone lives in good health and peace.

I was on 450mg of Venlafaxine, 450mg of bupropion, 900mg of lithium, 150 of Seroquel, 20mg of Latuda, and 3mg of lorazepam and I was still profoundly depressed. My doctors had tried ECT and Ketimine, but nothing worked. I decided to change my diet and begin exercising. I started titrating meds. Seroqua and Lorazepam were the first to go as I realized they added to my depression. I felt better immediately

Next up were Venlafaxine, Lithium, and Bupropion. The focus was on Venlafaxine because of all its side effects. Once I finished with the Venlafaxine I was still on 150mg of Bupropion and 300 of Lithium. It took about thirty days for everything to go to hell. Before stopping the Venlafaxine I was feeling the best I had in two decades.

They now have me back on 600mg of Lithium, which I think is adding to my depression. 20mg of Buspirone, for newfound anxiety, though they're taking me off of it now that we've restarted the Venlafaxine at 150mg. I'm also still taking 150mg of Bupropion and .5mg of Lorazepam as needed, no more than twice a day.

I am suicidally depressed. I still don't sleep (they've stopped trying to address that) and I now have crippling anxiety. They don't really, know what to do and neither do I. I feel hopeless and just want to end my life. The only thing that stops me is I do not have access to a quick and certain means to do so.

I had two good months out of fifteen years and am not hopeful that I can get back there.

I'm sorry to be so negative. I've been dealing with whatever is going on with me for a long time. I've wanted my life to end for a long time. I am tired of fighting for something I don't even want.

Thanks for listening.

I wish everyone peace and good health.

I was on 450mg of Venlafaxine, 450mg of bupropion, 900mg of lithium, 150 of Seroquel, 20mg of Latuda, and 3mg of lorazepam and I was still profoundly depressed. My doctors had tried ECT and Ketimine, but nothing worked. I decided to change my diet and begin exercising. I started titrating meds. Seroqua and Lorazepam were the first to go as I realized they added to my depression. I felt better immediately

Next up were Venlafaxine, Lithium, and Bupropion. The focus was on Venlafaxine because of all its side effects. Once I finished with the Venlafaxine I was still on 150mg of Bupropion and 300 of Lithium. It took about thirty days for everything to go to hell. Before stopping the Venlafaxine I was feeling the best I had in two decades.

They now have me back on 600mg of Lithium, which I think is adding to my depression. 20mg of Buspirone, for newfound anxiety, though they're taking me off of it now that we've restarted the Venlafaxine at 150mg. I'm also still taking 150mg of Bupropion and .5mg of Lorazepam as needed, no more than twice a day.

I am suicidally depressed. I still don't sleep (they've stopped trying to address that) and I now have crippling anxiety. They don't really, know what to do and neither do I. I feel hopeless and just want to end my life. The only thing that stops me is I do not have access to a quick and certain means to do so.

I had two good months out of fifteen years and am not hopeful that I can get back there.

I'm sorry to be so negative. I've been dealing with whatever is going on with me for a long time. I've wanted my life to end for a long time. I am tired of fighting for something I don't even want.

Thanks for listening.

I wish everyone peace and good health.

Hello. I am so very sorry for what has happened to your life. I don’t know your financial situation, but if you have the means, I would try Traditional Chinese Medicine. I find acupuncture helps my anxiety. As my finances are limited, I hope to start with herbs next. Good luck. I wish I could take away your pain. ❤️

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.

A psychiatrist started all of this fifteen years ago. He prescribed what I call the big dogs, 450mg, of buproprion and venelafaxine along with 900mg of lithium. I had never been on meds before and these were my starting doses.

I became manic, got arrested. The jail took everything away cold turkey. After nineteen days I got out and went to a hospital where the psychiatrist put me back on the same meds. Two additional psychiatrist maintained the same meds.

The people treating me now, a local Mental Health clinic added the extra stuff and ordered the ECT and Ketamine treatments. My provider there is a psychiatric nurse and a therapist. In June I told them I wanted off the meds, they agreed to help.

Initially I got a lot better, the best I'd been in decades. It lasted two months. Ultimately when I stopped the venlafaxine the bottom dropped out and I've been in hell ever since. They are now bring drugs back online, albeit slowly and painfully.

I don't know what is happening. Am I feeling discontinuation effects, the reoccurrence of symptoms or both? One thing is for sure I came off the medication way to fast and am paying the price for it.

I despair that I will ever be well.

Those initial doses sound high to me (but I'm no expert). The fact that four psychiatrists put or kept you on those doses--I can understand why you trusted the decision, having had it reinforced multiple times.
It's great that you found professionals at a mental health clinic who agreed to help you off the medications; unfortunate that they did not know that one must go S-L-O-W-L-Y down that path.
Now that we know to go slow, however, there is another opportunity to do it right. The important thing now, it seems to me, is to get you at helpful levels of the drug(s), whatever that may be, and stabilized for an appropriate period of time before you attempt a slow withdrawal process.
If you have not already received a caring pharmacist's opinion, you might inquire about possible drug interactions of all your medications--unless your psychiatric nurse is qualified in that regard. Then again, a second opinion is often worthwhile. The pharmacist I consulted happens to own an independent pharmacy that is not part of a chain, though I am sure valued pharmacists can be found at both.
You once wrote "I wish peace for everyone who suffers. It increasingly seems to me that is everyone." Indeed. My grandmother, at 103 and unhappy in the nursing home in which my aunt had placed her, said to me, "I don't know why I'm still here." I suggested she might have something yet to learn or, more likely, more to teach others. We all learn from each other's experiences on here, and I thank you for sharing yours. I look forward to learning from your progress, and wish you the peace and happiness you deserve--which you so graciously wish others.