@lisalucier No, I want off venlafaxine. It hasn't worked for my depression for a long time and for the past year I've been taking it only to avoid the withdrawal. The side effects aren't immediately serious but I recently realized that the persistent extreme fatigue and sleepiness I've been trying to get my doctor and psychiatrist to address for over a year might be caused by the med - it's on the label even but no one said it's possible as a cause. I don't trust doctors anymore. I've been burned too many times now. It feels like all mine do is bill me and tell me I have depression. I know that! I want to actually live instead of struggling through every hour of every day.

It's just worse because I'm tapering very fast since I can't seem to get refills, rather than by choice. I haven't heard anything from my PCP. No response in almost two weeks.

I'm scared because twice now I've had severe problems with withdrawal. Once I stayed at a friend's house for a holiday for 2 days and after 48 hours, I started to go into medical shock and was pretty sure I was dying (nothing at all like a panic attack). Recently, I had a small seizure and smell hallucinations. The recent event was from stepping down to 75mg suddenly from 150mg. I don't want to lose what little dignity I have.

I have read several pages of this thread (the oldest ten or so and the most recent 5 or so). It seems like the people who succeeded all had a cooperative doctor (and the financial ability to see them) and support, usually from a spouse. I want to know if I can do this without having those. Or maybe I'm doomed to fail.