Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

in reply to @depressedbutnotdead I have been following the Effexor comments for some time. I am currently tapering down from Effexor XL 37.5 mg, measuring out the tiny beads inside the capsule. Since doing so I have found that I have become an insomniac. Did you experience this type of reaction when you stopped taking this drug? I am not having "brain zaps" as described by others, but I am experiencing more tearfulness than "usual." While I do have a lot going on, I usually don't have this kind of ongoing and sorrowful reaction to whatever it is that is upsetting to me.
Thank you very much.

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.

Perhaps you can find information here that will help: https://withdrawal.theinnercompass.org/learn/primer-psychiatric-drug-dependence-tolerance-and-withdrawal
Wishing you well.

My reactions have not been like yours. Insomnia hasn't been an issue, and I only had a couple of moments of surging emotions, so I can't offer much insight into what you're experiencing. I am still having brain zaps sixteen days out, although not as severe or as frequent as the first week or so off the drug.

I feel doctors don't inform patients about how powerful this drug is. I also think it drove my depression, which stems from bipolar 2. The data on using venlafaxine for bipolar depression is weak, and the studies indicate it might flip people into their cycles. I can't prove that this happened to me, but I can say that it hadn't been working for a very long time. My decision to quit was abrupt and not thought through (I made the choice while cycling hard, so it was an emotional response, not an informed one), but I've felt like I've recovered myself. I would consider reintroducing the Abilify, but not the Effexor.

Thank you. Can you please describe the "brain zaps?" On a few occasions I have thought I have seen flashing lights out of the corner of my eye, but thought I was imagining this, or that it was related to migraines, which I do not presently have today. I am not clinically depressed per se, and my psychologist who was also a MD, encouraged me to get off of the Effexor if I did not need to be on the drug. I began tapering after getting horrible pain behind my eye, which led me to the patient information sheet about the drug, which mentioned this was a side effect of the drug in question. I have been on it for years, but was generally on a low does of 150mg capsules. Any further help would be greatly appreciated.

Brain zaps are a sensation of some sort of electrical current running through your skull. They're very distracting and unpleasant. 17 days out I'm still feeling them, although nowhere as strong or as often as the first week off the drug. According to the studies, they're not serious, but there's no definite explanation for why they occur. The condition seems to be common but not universal among those seeking to quit the drug.

why do doctors NOT warn us about the side effects of taking and going off or tapering Effexor ,Xanax and other such meds ? I did n ot take Xanax for 3 days and wound up in the ER with horrid head pain, 300 BP and very high blood sugar . Thought I was dying Wish I had known

Brain zaps are a sensation of some sort of electrical current running through your skull. They're very distracting and unpleasant. 17 days out I'm still feeling them, although nowhere as strong or as often as the first week off the drug. According to the studies, they're not serious, but there's no definite explanation for why they occur. The condition seems to be common but not universal among those seeking to quit the drug.