Hi, @stlouisgmajenn - so sorry to hear you had these serious rages when you tapered to the 75 mg dose of venlafaxine (Effexor). Are you feeling better now that you went back up to 150 mg?

Noooo. Definitely don’t try on your own. Tried twice and experienced the unstoppable rages. Think low dose withdrawals over a long period of time plus finding strategies like cognitive based mindfulness, meditation and stress reduction to offset some of the triggers. I’ve been withdrawing for a year but that is long and that’s me with family,

Others have been able to rid themselves of it with less protracted effort and that shows it can be done. For others, however, symptoms like flash rage is a clear signal that our brain chemistry doesn’t like the abrupt change and can’t keep level.

I agree that a different md is worth checking. It’s not necessarily a slight against them nor is it answer shopping. Instead, it’s finding a well qualified physician acquainted with neurobehavior and psychotropics. Doctors disagree with one another all the time. You simply need to feel comfortable finding one to help you remove a destructive element from your medical circumstances. You can always challenge a doc by asking why you need to remain on a particular medicine that is terrible for your quality of life.