Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

Bright wings here. Please forgive me for my long absence. I get the emails in my gmail all the time. I promise you, I do read each of your posts and pray for you and all of our issues in this withdrawal process.
Today I am 8 weeks venlafaxine free. I feel wonderful most of the time but not always. Please be aware I also have multiple sclerosis so the symptoms may be from either struggle.
So what am I doing that the rest of you are not? The answer is I am going to Sacred Ceremonies and using Sacred plant medicine. I will be making a series of posts in the coming days to share the many techniques I have learned to deal with panic attacks, different withdrawal symptom fixes and so many things I want to share.
The goal is to lead a happy satisfied life and I am almost there.
If you have not read my previous posts, click on my name and it should take you to all of my posts. I don't want to repeat myself because I am typing with one finger on my phone. I plan on learning how to tether my computer to my phone but other things were always more important.
12 months out of the last 15 months I have been going to Indian land 46 miles from my house to attend Sacred Ceremonies. These Sacred Ceremonies are conducted by Medicine men or women certified by Chief Mooney of the primary tribe in Utah. So anyways, this makes the use of Sacred Plant Medicine legal in spite of the government classifying them as the worst drugs out there.
Now I want to say I am 67 years old and if anyone would have told me I would be using these drugs, I would have become enraged and been kicking their rear ends down the street!!!!! While I do smoke the green stuff, that is the med I use for my MS. I had one dose of MS Medication and vowed I would never subject it to another dose of such a terrible drug. I have had MS for 35 years and except for balance problems and a few minor other challenges I am pretty much symptom free in relation to my MS. I do know I am one of the luckiest folks with MS.
Ok back to what is and has been helping me. At the Ceremonies, the 2 Sacred plant medicines I have used are peyote 12 times and ayawaska twice. This is in the last 15 months. I will repeat myself to say that God has been Consistantly leading me to the next step to completely change EVERY EFFECT OF MY HORENDOUS ABUSE. Sacred ceremonies have done things to change the effects of the abuse beyond my wildest dreams or hopes. I can honestly say I have no guilt, shame, hatred, depression or any bad feelings or thoughts of suicide. I had been suicidal for years while going thru all the many memories of being born into a satanic cult and all the things I learned about what my nights were really like when I believed I was sleeping as a child.
Ok Sacred Ceremonies...to find one in your state, Google the name of your state and native American church. That should lead you to folks who can help you find sacred plant medicine near you.
I live in Missouri. If anyone wants to come here, let me know and I will send information. If I was on my computer, I would include so many links. So I will find out how to do it tomorrow.
I have told my personal physician about going to the ceremonies. I teach them all about them if they are interested.
Each time I go to a ceremony, I go with an intention or goal to have the plant medicine assist in changing in myself. Disclaimer: I was a registered nurse for 21 years. I never thought as my daughter stated, "I would be going off into the woods to get high". It is so much more than that.
The plant medicine works on physical problems and mental ones. In all my experiences as a nurse and in my own healing I have never seen anything work like this....remember, I was in therapy from 1986 to 2011 with a 10 year break somewhere.
I used to be on 13 medications, now I take a bp med and a baby aspirin. And CBD oil 3 times a day.

So, I just finished this process with Zoloft (sertraline) and here are some things that worked for me. Your mileage may vary, but hopefully these are low risk for you to try.

1) You may need to ask your doctor for a slower tapering program than other patients. Some people are just more sensitive to dosage changes. Be aware that symptoms will get better, then may reappear each time you taper. AAFMA (practice group of family physicians) says that the symptoms typically last 1-2 weeks and as long as 4 weeks, so I just kept reminding myself that it was temporary.
2) Be watchful for things that make your symptoms worse. For example, caffeine seems to trigger the brain zaps for me (still, even after being off for several weeks), so I cut back my caffeine intake. I didn't give it up completely (because I still need to function), but cut back on how much real coffee I was drinking, mixed decaf with regular, and switched to tea sometimes. In the end, I probably cut my daily caffeine intake in half, and it did help quite a lot.
3) Ibuprofen or other pain reliever can help with the flu-like body aches.
4) Benadryl helped with the brain zaps.
5) Exercise helped with both. Even if I wasn't up to a run, a few blocks of walking would settle down the symptoms for a while at least. (Then, when they come back, just take another walk. We took a lot of walks for a while there).
6) Get enough sleep. As I came down off the meds, my normal sleeping patterns returned, which was great, but it did mean that I needed to plan time to let my body rest.
7) Pay attention to your diet. Your brain uses carbs to make seratonin, so now is not the time to go on the Atkins diet. Eat well and make sure you're getting enough healthy carbs. You may crave sweets; I certainly did. I tried to counteract this by having bananas, graham crackers, and other healthy things I could snack on instead of sticking my head in a birthday cake like I seemed to want.

No lie - it's a painful process, but this did really help make it easier. Also, at a certain point, when I was down the below the normal starter dose, I just ripped off the bandaid and went to zero. At that point, it felt like each taper was just prolonging the suffering. Don't just go cold turkey from your current dose, though, as that can be dangerous. Also, don't add any supplements or substitutes for the SSRI without talking to your doctor first (also dangerous).

And of course, watch for the return of depression / anxiety type symptoms. For a while it was hard to tell whether I was tired because of the change in meds or because my depression was returning. I figured as long as I felt okay enough to function and wasn't thinking about being harmful to myself or anyone else, I could play it out and see. It turned out to be the meds and on the other side, I can see that I was more worried about it than I needed to be.

I wish you the best of luck and a healthy life.

Mardee

Hi. I have been trying to get off Effexor for a few weeks now, and it’s been a nightmare. Absolute living hell. After decades of being diagnosed with depression, my doctor and I finally got to the root of WHY I have never gotten better. My life has remained stagnant. I’m unable to hold a job, have difficulty finding and staying in romantic relationships, and I’ve always had trouble in social circles because drama follows me everywhere (which I’m well aware is drama that I create).

My doctor diagnosed me as bipolar. Now granted, he didn’t diagnose me with depression, nor did he initially prescribe me the Effexor. I began seeing this doctor because my other one passed away. I told the doctor everything was fine with the Effexor because it did do well in hindering my depression even if my life was going absolutely nowhere. I never figured that my personal issues were because of a drug or misdiagnosis.

My doctor took me from 225 mg to 150 mg for one week, and then 75 mg the following week, and then STOP. (He also put me on Lamotrigine for the bipolar disorder, but it can take months to get to the right dosage and take effect.) But I was fine for a couple of days after stopping the Effexor, and then started to feel weepy. By the fifth day, all hell broke loose. Full mental breakdown that had my parents wondering if they should take me to the hospital. I could not stop crying, and I was so disoriented that I could barely walk. I felt practically paralyzed, and nothing interested me whatsoever. I wanted to lie there and cry and cry forever. It was the weekend, but my mom got in touch with my doctor, and he said to start taking 75 mg per day again, and we’d go from there.

Well, I had noticed the side effects that went away right along with the Effexor, most notably terrible and almost daily headaches, horrendous sinus problems, tooth and gum pain, and the most surprising of all, I went from being able to climax in minutes whereas it could take up to two hours on the Effexor. I just always assumed I was unfortunate and didn’t climax easily (or at all), but even in my worst days of withdrawal, my libido was so high that I could have an O like three or four times in under 15 minutes. Which was heaven sent for someone who never had that.

After a week of being on 75 mg again, I was unable to climax at all. I decided to quit the Effexor again and just try to barrel through it. I don’t work right now, so I figured I could just rest and cry and wait for it to pass. I was breaking down on the fifth and sixth day, but I soldiered on. The seventh day wasn’t so bad, which I have no explanation for. The eighth day, however, TODAY, was another breakdown that had me wanting to just absolutely die so badly that I gave in and took 150 mg.

Big mistake. Got nauseous, threw up my dinner, and although I feel okay now regarding the mental breakdown, I’m disappointed that I didn’t just rest and let it pass. I honestly don’t know whether I’d rather have my days of hysteria but an incredible ability to orgasm, or feel better and not have that ability at all. At least not until I can get off this terrible drug for good.

Did Effexor cause anyone else to have problems climaxing? And did you notice a strong increase in ability to climax again even if tapered off the Effexor slowly? I was so happy to be able to climax easily for the first time I can remember that it’s killing me to go back on this awful medication because it might literally do me in if I don’t take it.

I’d appreciate thoughts, ideas, advice, personal experiences, etc. Whatever you got. Thank you!

I’ve been on Effexor for 16 years at 225 mg. I’m starting to get headaches and feeling a little Grumpy. I’ll try to stick out this doseage till I see my psychiatrist in July. Best to others on this path.

Hi. I have been trying to get off Effexor for a few weeks now, and it’s been a nightmare. Absolute living hell. After decades of being diagnosed with depression, my doctor and I finally got to the root of WHY I have never gotten better. My life has remained stagnant. I’m unable to hold a job, have difficulty finding and staying in romantic relationships, and I’ve always had trouble in social circles because drama follows me everywhere (which I’m well aware is drama that I create).

My doctor diagnosed me as bipolar. Now granted, he didn’t diagnose me with depression, nor did he initially prescribe me the Effexor. I began seeing this doctor because my other one passed away. I told the doctor everything was fine with the Effexor because it did do well in hindering my depression even if my life was going absolutely nowhere. I never figured that my personal issues were because of a drug or misdiagnosis.

My doctor took me from 225 mg to 150 mg for one week, and then 75 mg the following week, and then STOP. (He also put me on Lamotrigine for the bipolar disorder, but it can take months to get to the right dosage and take effect.) But I was fine for a couple of days after stopping the Effexor, and then started to feel weepy. By the fifth day, all hell broke loose. Full mental breakdown that had my parents wondering if they should take me to the hospital. I could not stop crying, and I was so disoriented that I could barely walk. I felt practically paralyzed, and nothing interested me whatsoever. I wanted to lie there and cry and cry forever. It was the weekend, but my mom got in touch with my doctor, and he said to start taking 75 mg per day again, and we’d go from there.

Well, I had noticed the side effects that went away right along with the Effexor, most notably terrible and almost daily headaches, horrendous sinus problems, tooth and gum pain, and the most surprising of all, I went from being able to climax in minutes whereas it could take up to two hours on the Effexor. I just always assumed I was unfortunate and didn’t climax easily (or at all), but even in my worst days of withdrawal, my libido was so high that I could have an O like three or four times in under 15 minutes. Which was heaven sent for someone who never had that.

After a week of being on 75 mg again, I was unable to climax at all. I decided to quit the Effexor again and just try to barrel through it. I don’t work right now, so I figured I could just rest and cry and wait for it to pass. I was breaking down on the fifth and sixth day, but I soldiered on. The seventh day wasn’t so bad, which I have no explanation for. The eighth day, however, TODAY, was another breakdown that had me wanting to just absolutely die so badly that I gave in and took 150 mg.

Big mistake. Got nauseous, threw up my dinner, and although I feel okay now regarding the mental breakdown, I’m disappointed that I didn’t just rest and let it pass. I honestly don’t know whether I’d rather have my days of hysteria but an incredible ability to orgasm, or feel better and not have that ability at all. At least not until I can get off this terrible drug for good.

Did Effexor cause anyone else to have problems climaxing? And did you notice a strong increase in ability to climax again even if tapered off the Effexor slowly? I was so happy to be able to climax easily for the first time I can remember that it’s killing me to go back on this awful medication because it might literally do me in if I don’t take it.

I’d appreciate thoughts, ideas, advice, personal experiences, etc. Whatever you got. Thank you!

My daughter is trying to stop taking Effexor. She went to an "urgent" care doctor for the prescription - then again to get off (not same urgent care). The doctor told her to start taking every other day for a week and then stop taking all together. She is a MESS - dizzy, depressed, lack of energy, etc. I'm not sure if she should go back on the meds and then start taking the weaning process again. Also - not sure what qualified doctor we can get into soon to help oversee the process.
BTW - what is CBD oil?