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Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)
Depression & Anxiety | Last Active: Nov 11 7:38am | Replies (6363)Comment receiving replies
Well I got down to taking just 37.5mg a day and was okay after a few days of feeling a little dizzy. So after two weeks of that and now running out of pills, I decided to not take any yesterday (there's no lower dose available). Big mistake! I took my pill at about noon today after waking up very confused at noon instead of before 8am. I feel awful. Weird deep bone/joint aches, light headed, headache, and sick. On top of what seems to be a very prolonged mild allergy reaction.
All I want to do is crawl back into bed. I think I might have to. I'm going to try to make an appointment for sometime soon to get a refill. I feel like a failure for not getting off from 75mg in 90 of the 37.5mg pills.
Replies to "Well I got down to taking just 37.5mg a day and was okay after a few..."
@notaround
No “don’t beat yourself up.” Let me do it for you.
Shame on you!! Your too smart to do that. I’m not going to give you the ‘dressing down’ I think you deserve because I feel you’ve already done that yourself. Now, let’s get this done the right way, you know the drill. Any chance you can switch to pills for a lower dose or a Compounding Pharmacy?
You’ll make it, because your a winner!!
Remember, slow!! slooooooooooooowww, we’re talking snail pace here.
Best of luck,
Jake
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@notaround Don't beat yourself up! You are not a failure--this is a tough drug to get off of. You've just gone too fast: two weeks at 37.5mg is not that long and dropping from there to zero is a STEEP drop. Call your doctor NOW for a refill without waiting for an appointment. Ben*dryl and Dram*mine can help your withdrawal symptoms.
If you get more pills, you can try this method to taper from 37.5mg--you dissolve your dose in juice and not drink all of it. "Venlafaxine (Effexor) can be tapered … with approximately 1% dosage reduction every 3 days. Stahl (a prescriber’s guide–Stahl’s essential psychopharmacology) recommends dissolving the tablet in 100 mL of juice, discarding 1 mL and drinking the rest. After 3 days, 2 mL can be discarded, etc."–https://www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/103869/depression/venlafaxine-discontinuation-syndrome-prevention-and-management
The dissolve-in-juice method mentions reducing by 1mL, but you can control the taper as you wish by discarding a different amount and reducing at a different interval. Just don't bounce around all over the place–slow and steady wins this race.