Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

Hi everyone. I tapered off Effexor, and I will share how I did it and how it went. The way I see it is that the main problem on why so many people need to talk about this online is that most doctors I have visited just don't know how to taper antidepressants well. They do it way too quickly and each person is different and it is a slow process, but the turtle wins this race! I am going to share my own personal experience so please take this with a grain of salt as it is not meant to be medical advice in any way. You should always consult your doctor first and exercise your own judgment on what level of tapering you need. I was on Venlafaxine SR the generic form of Effexor SR. I was on the SR (slow release) so it wasn't a tablet but a capsule full of granules. I tapered over about 6 months and was only on 75 mg. It took me that long to taper without going totally crazy, and I still experienced strong side effects so please pay attention to my advice. I am troubled there are people on this feed that went cold turkey off of an SSRI. It is dangerous and you will feel like you are dying - you could put your life, job and relationships in jeopardy doing that so please be careful. Here was my gameplan. I dropped 10 granules about every 2-3 weeks depending on how I was feeling. I did this process for about 6 months or so. I literally did this down to taking 2 granules! I'm not kidding. I would open up the capsule and remove the amount I didn't need in a bowl and set it aside in an old pill bottle or Ziplock bag (just for backup if I needed it). This was the only way I was able to taper off this drug, and I still had some rough days but I was able to function through them. During my second to last month, I had vertigo and experienced some nausea as well! I was in a Pilates class and the room wouldn't stop spinning, so that week I had to take it easy. I also had some crying fits (I was numb on the drug, couldn't shed a tear) and it felt like the floodgates opened when I got towards the last two months of tapering. I cried and had some depression and anxiety. I had to talk myself down off the anxiety. I found an app called Abide that had a talk on anxiety that gave me great tools. It was a psychotherapist teaching about worry and anxiety and how to target it. I worked on that through the process. I also prayed or called friends to process when I was feeling depressed. During the entire experience, I did notice I had some restless leg syndrome and achy muscles. I've read about this elsewhere with people having withdrawals from this drug. I'm hoping it goes away. I took my last dose of this about 4 weeks ago. I'm doing ok. I'm out of a job right now so that's a tad depressing BUT I am functioning. I'm journaling and targeting my anxiety by having talks with myself on what is really bothering me - my struggle with depression and anxiety, in general, are dramatically linked. Usually, when I target one the other one chills out more. For somebody who's been out of work as long as I have, I shouldn't even be functioning but I am. I don't believe I would be in such good shape had I gone cold turkey. I think I would have gone mad! I am trying to eat many vegetables each day, and I am trying to exercise. I also started probiotics about 6 months ago and did research on gut health and depression. I believe our diet and food are a huge part of our problem and exercise and stretching can really help you out. I will say that out of all the antidepressants I've been on, Effexor has given me the most side effects during regular dosage and tapering afterward. I had better experiences on Celexa. My main problem is that they all make me super tired, and I just want to sleep. When I was on Effexor, I took two-hour naps every day and it was the same when I was on Zoloft. I just would turn into a zombie, but not all people experience that and many people do very well on SSRIs and these drugs have saved lives. I originally went on Effexor after a major trauma happened in my life. Several years later, I felt it was time for me to try to taper so I did, and it worked so far. Slow slow slow - that's all I can say! And, if it doesn't work for you, there is no shame in taking antidepressants just make sure you are eating well, exercising and providing self-care tools too. Good luck!

Hi everyone. I tapered off Effexor, and I will share how I did it and how it went. The way I see it is that the main problem on why so many people need to talk about this online is that most doctors I have visited just don't know how to taper antidepressants well. They do it way too quickly and each person is different and it is a slow process, but the turtle wins this race! I am going to share my own personal experience so please take this with a grain of salt as it is not meant to be medical advice in any way. You should always consult your doctor first and exercise your own judgment on what level of tapering you need. I was on Venlafaxine SR the generic form of Effexor SR. I was on the SR (slow release) so it wasn't a tablet but a capsule full of granules. I tapered over about 6 months and was only on 75 mg. It took me that long to taper without going totally crazy, and I still experienced strong side effects so please pay attention to my advice. I am troubled there are people on this feed that went cold turkey off of an SSRI. It is dangerous and you will feel like you are dying - you could put your life, job and relationships in jeopardy doing that so please be careful. Here was my gameplan. I dropped 10 granules about every 2-3 weeks depending on how I was feeling. I did this process for about 6 months or so. I literally did this down to taking 2 granules! I'm not kidding. I would open up the capsule and remove the amount I didn't need in a bowl and set it aside in an old pill bottle or Ziplock bag (just for backup if I needed it). This was the only way I was able to taper off this drug, and I still had some rough days but I was able to function through them. During my second to last month, I had vertigo and experienced some nausea as well! I was in a Pilates class and the room wouldn't stop spinning, so that week I had to take it easy. I also had some crying fits (I was numb on the drug, couldn't shed a tear) and it felt like the floodgates opened when I got towards the last two months of tapering. I cried and had some depression and anxiety. I had to talk myself down off the anxiety. I found an app called Abide that had a talk on anxiety that gave me great tools. It was a psychotherapist teaching about worry and anxiety and how to target it. I worked on that through the process. I also prayed or called friends to process when I was feeling depressed. During the entire experience, I did notice I had some restless leg syndrome and achy muscles. I've read about this elsewhere with people having withdrawals from this drug. I'm hoping it goes away. I took my last dose of this about 4 weeks ago. I'm doing ok. I'm out of a job right now so that's a tad depressing BUT I am functioning. I'm journaling and targeting my anxiety by having talks with myself on what is really bothering me - my struggle with depression and anxiety, in general, are dramatically linked. Usually, when I target one the other one chills out more. For somebody who's been out of work as long as I have, I shouldn't even be functioning but I am. I don't believe I would be in such good shape had I gone cold turkey. I think I would have gone mad! I am trying to eat many vegetables each day, and I am trying to exercise. I also started probiotics about 6 months ago and did research on gut health and depression. I believe our diet and food are a huge part of our problem and exercise and stretching can really help you out. I will say that out of all the antidepressants I've been on, Effexor has given me the most side effects during regular dosage and tapering afterward. I had better experiences on Celexa. My main problem is that they all make me super tired, and I just want to sleep. When I was on Effexor, I took two-hour naps every day and it was the same when I was on Zoloft. I just would turn into a zombie, but not all people experience that and many people do very well on SSRIs and these drugs have saved lives. I originally went on Effexor after a major trauma happened in my life. Several years later, I felt it was time for me to try to taper so I did, and it worked so far. Slow slow slow - that's all I can say! And, if it doesn't work for you, there is no shame in taking antidepressants just make sure you are eating well, exercising and providing self-care tools too. Good luck!

Hi everyone. I tapered off Effexor, and I will share how I did it and how it went. The way I see it is that the main problem on why so many people need to talk about this online is that most doctors I have visited just don't know how to taper antidepressants well. They do it way too quickly and each person is different and it is a slow process, but the turtle wins this race! I am going to share my own personal experience so please take this with a grain of salt as it is not meant to be medical advice in any way. You should always consult your doctor first and exercise your own judgment on what level of tapering you need. I was on Venlafaxine SR the generic form of Effexor SR. I was on the SR (slow release) so it wasn't a tablet but a capsule full of granules. I tapered over about 6 months and was only on 75 mg. It took me that long to taper without going totally crazy, and I still experienced strong side effects so please pay attention to my advice. I am troubled there are people on this feed that went cold turkey off of an SSRI. It is dangerous and you will feel like you are dying - you could put your life, job and relationships in jeopardy doing that so please be careful. Here was my gameplan. I dropped 10 granules about every 2-3 weeks depending on how I was feeling. I did this process for about 6 months or so. I literally did this down to taking 2 granules! I'm not kidding. I would open up the capsule and remove the amount I didn't need in a bowl and set it aside in an old pill bottle or Ziplock bag (just for backup if I needed it). This was the only way I was able to taper off this drug, and I still had some rough days but I was able to function through them. During my second to last month, I had vertigo and experienced some nausea as well! I was in a Pilates class and the room wouldn't stop spinning, so that week I had to take it easy. I also had some crying fits (I was numb on the drug, couldn't shed a tear) and it felt like the floodgates opened when I got towards the last two months of tapering. I cried and had some depression and anxiety. I had to talk myself down off the anxiety. I found an app called Abide that had a talk on anxiety that gave me great tools. It was a psychotherapist teaching about worry and anxiety and how to target it. I worked on that through the process. I also prayed or called friends to process when I was feeling depressed. During the entire experience, I did notice I had some restless leg syndrome and achy muscles. I've read about this elsewhere with people having withdrawals from this drug. I'm hoping it goes away. I took my last dose of this about 4 weeks ago. I'm doing ok. I'm out of a job right now so that's a tad depressing BUT I am functioning. I'm journaling and targeting my anxiety by having talks with myself on what is really bothering me - my struggle with depression and anxiety, in general, are dramatically linked. Usually, when I target one the other one chills out more. For somebody who's been out of work as long as I have, I shouldn't even be functioning but I am. I don't believe I would be in such good shape had I gone cold turkey. I think I would have gone mad! I am trying to eat many vegetables each day, and I am trying to exercise. I also started probiotics about 6 months ago and did research on gut health and depression. I believe our diet and food are a huge part of our problem and exercise and stretching can really help you out. I will say that out of all the antidepressants I've been on, Effexor has given me the most side effects during regular dosage and tapering afterward. I had better experiences on Celexa. My main problem is that they all make me super tired, and I just want to sleep. When I was on Effexor, I took two-hour naps every day and it was the same when I was on Zoloft. I just would turn into a zombie, but not all people experience that and many people do very well on SSRIs and these drugs have saved lives. I originally went on Effexor after a major trauma happened in my life. Several years later, I felt it was time for me to try to taper so I did, and it worked so far. Slow slow slow - that's all I can say! And, if it doesn't work for you, there is no shame in taking antidepressants just make sure you are eating well, exercising and providing self-care tools too. Good luck!

Hi! I was on Effexor XR for a few years and got off it several years ago. It was a very difficult process, so I fully sympathize. You MUST wean off
VERY SLOWLY. I don't remember what my dosage was at the time (225mg?), but it took me about 9 months. Please do not let that long time scare you, it's worth going slow, that will be your biggest help w/ withdrawal. At the time I had a very difficult time finding any doctor with experience getting people off it.
Luckily I was advised to to find one and luckily I did. It is considered harder to get off than heroine. Not trying to scare you, just want to make sure you go as slow as possible. Mostly, I was moody/angry, had headaches, and some brain "shivers". The brain shivers I already had while on the meds.
I think we went down in 25mg increments over several weeks for each reduction. Keep us posted and good luck! Just give yourself some time and it will be over before you know it!

Lost insurance and had to stop Venaflaxin XR cold turkey. Also take buspirone in tandem and have some remaining am now taking one pill only to make it last but obviously having withdrawal symptoms from not taking the Venaflaxin(Effexor). Nausea, dizziness, just feel awful. Unable to function well. Can I take St John's wart as a substitute EITHER to rid symptoms or to use as a replacement for. Venaflaxin ? Thank you in advance.

Lost insurance and had to stop Venaflaxin XR cold turkey. Also take buspirone in tandem and have some remaining am now taking one pill only to make it last but obviously having withdrawal symptoms from not taking the Venaflaxin(Effexor). Nausea, dizziness, just feel awful. Unable to function well. Can I take St John's wart as a substitute EITHER to rid symptoms or to use as a replacement for. Venaflaxin ? Thank you in advance.