Andrew is correct. The only painless way to withdraw from Venlafaxine is to use the "Prozac Bridge." Stop Venlafaxine and start Prozac immediately and then withdrawing from Prozac is quite easy. But do this under the supervision of a doctor.

HI, I just received IV ketamine Infusions for chronic daily migraine pain and depression. I'm on Effexor ER 75 mg. twice a day. I started taking it once a day after the ketamine. I'm having frequent weird headaches that don't feel at all like my usual migraine, and lots of low grade annoying nausea that Zofran isn't really helping. The pain doc said he thought it was from the Ketamine on the phone. In his office he said I could come off Effexor now. I don't think he knows how hard that would be....So I came to this site to read other people's experiences. Your advice sounds logical. What do you mean by overlapping the last Effexor? I don't have Prozac in the house, but I do have Trintellix which is also a SSRI and works I believe on norepinephrine too. What do you think I should do? I also have ketamine lozenges which I've been blaming for the nausea, but it definitely could be from cutting the effexor dose in half. Help!

Can you explain what you mean by overlapping?

Hi Andrew,
I'm desperate to come off Effexor having tried (including counting the beads in the capsules) unsuccessfully several times with the withdrawals symptoms being crippling. Can you please advise what dose prozac to take during the three days overlap. I would be so grateful to know. Is it the same dose of prozac whether you are on the 75mg or 37.5mg capsules of Effexor?