Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

I'm curious why someone would even tell the doctor they were tapering. If it's a matter of getting lower dosages of the medication to taper with, you can just say you want to take your same dose twice a day and then adjust from there. If its tablets I imagine cutting or crushing them would work. For capsules that have beads, you can get empty gelatin capsules to use for the beads you save. I'm always so paranoid about running out, I wouldn't say I was on a lower dosage.

@sandij it's a good idea because while we the patients know how venlafaxine effects us, there are lots of things that can interact with it badly. And lying to one's doctor isn't a good course of action - it might be a critical piece of information.

Besides the more of us that insist on a smaller change, the more the evidence base will get closer to better understanding and treatment for people in the future.

Also with enough push back, I would think that at some point, the manufacturers will get the hint and make a wider range of dosages available.

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

You said your sleep patterns came back to normal? Did it give you insomnia? I'm going through that right now with effexor and it's really hard

First time post. Have been on Effexor DR for 4 years. I have been thinking of findings a new doc (changed insurances) because of how ill I feel if I forget a dose: brain zaps, nausea. Now I have been diagnosed with glaucoma and it is very likely the Effexor. Laser surgery Thursday due to dangerous pressure in rt eye. I had noticed the warning about blood pressure but just hoped it would be ok since my no is always great. My eye pressures had been in the 20's for decades but now in the 30's. Read all the fine print. I'll be following ideas about tapering as well as talking to doc. I expect it to be difficult to get off of. Thanks.