Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

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.

Jump to this post

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

Jump to this post

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.

Jump to this post

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.

Jump to this post

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.

Jump to this post

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

Jump to this post

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.

Jump to this post

in reply to @depressedbutnotdead I think I am nearing the end of my tapering, although my PCP did prescribe the Prozac so I could taper off more easily. I may try it because now the nightmares are starting again. I thought I was doing really well measuring out the bead in the capsules, as I was not having the brain zaps, just total insomnia. It's not so bad, as I can stay up and work on my art for hours on end. Hmm. You think I should try the Prozac and taper off that?

Jump to this post

@texasduchess your story is exactly one of the reasons I decided to jump off at the dosage I was on (about 68 mg). 68 mg is not a dangerous dose to cold turkey from, in my opinion, and the longer I continue counting beads slowly, the longer of a time the effexor is in my system....I will probably experience WD symptoms either way I do it, so best for me to just begin the healing instead of prolonging the agony. I don't know what happened but one day I was just like "enough is enough". It's been a week now, since my last dose. Some vertigo, labile emotions such as rage and crying jags catch me totally by surprise but they pass like a cloud going across the face of the sun.
With that being said, this week has brought its challenges. Including an argument with my husband over my lack of financial contribution and my neediness. This topic rears its ugly head from time to time but this time a trust line was crossed for me when he verbalized the D word. To me once you say this, the marriage dynamic is completely changed forever. It is unfortunate that he has made comments, "in anger", that I will not forget.
I teach a few hours a day online, I have done it for 3 years which is about my limit to stay at one job, and I am over it. I vascillate between gratitude that I can make money from home, to feeling like an absolute prisoner when I am forced to sit and smile and engage no matter what. I have a lot of regular students and I can never, ever have a bad class. I am over it. I took a break from it for a few weeks hoping I would be rejuvenated when I returned but, the opposite happened. Have no desire to do anything to bring money in. At a standstill with all of that.
Then on Wednesday I had a spot on my face that I recognized immediately as MRSA (I have had it several times but not for years) and am now on antibiotics, with the possibility of another dr visit if they have to (GOD FORBID) drain it. Just the thought of this makes me nauseous. Since I could not teach with my face looking this way, I'm having to scramble for documentation so that my cancellations will be "forgiven" and I can keep my job.
Am I the only one who finds irony in this entire situation?
I hope you are all having a great day!

Jump to this post