@jaev69
Hi,
You mentioned “how bad could going cold turkey be.” VERY BAD, you definitely don’t want to find out. Stopping Effexor cold turkey has caused seizures, hospitalizations, permanent disabilities and even death. I wish I never found out how bad going cold turkey could be. At 15 I was having so many seizures daily I stupidly felt why not stop my anti-convulsants since the’re obviously not helping, how wrong I was. I quit all my seizure medication. I ended up in the hospital in Status Epilepticus and was put into an induced coma for over 2 months. When the doctors woke me up, every second of those 15 years was gone and those memories never came back.
If there is an expert on getting off Effexor they are hiding very well. A couple researchers have mentioned decreasing Effexor by 5-10% every 2-6 weeks. Also, you have been on this a long time and the longer you’ve been taking it the slower you should take to reduce it. The manufacturer never studied going off it so no one has any dose reduction charts. Do you really believe it’s worth the potential risks involved. I don’t think you do, I believe your smarter than that. There are many people on this thread who went cold turkey and who regretted doing it, others went back on on their meds to get some relief. When did you start feeling bad? Didn’t you ask your doctor why s/he felt a 100 percent increase in your medication was necessary instead of titrating it up slowly?
Please decrease your medication very slowly. I want to read another success story.
Best of luck,
Jake