I could not find a documented case of death or even serious medical complications from quitting either drug, just serious discomfort with Effexor. The brain zaps, which researchers don't seem to have a confirmed explanation for, I find disturbing. If the mechanism causing them isn't understood, why isn't this a red flag on the drug? I am more concerned at this point by concerns about the physiological impact of having taken it for so long than I am about quitting it.

There is an enhanced suicide risk to abrupt withdrawal, but I was already dealing with that level of depression, and the drug combination was doing nothing to relieve it, it was only causing me to lose any joy in life. The bad days used to be balanced out by good ones. After treatment, the good days went away, but the bad ones didn't. The best I could hope for were flat days that I sleepwalked through. Five days after quitting the two drugs, I felt my sense of humor resurfacing after a long absence. Hopefully that's an indicator.