There is alot of good people on here with great advice. The number one thing that everyone will tell you is to go SLOOOOW. I made that mistake 2 weeks ago. I went way to fast and had major withdrawals. Panic attacks anxiety attacks and felt like I was losing my mind. I ended up in the emergency room twice. Please listen to what people tell you on here. You found a very great group and great people. Remember don't go to fast!!

@mmesco Welcome. I hope you find some hope and support being part of this group. I am, right now, tapering off the benzodiazepine clonazepam. When I am through with that, in about 3months, I will begin to taper from the Effexor as well. Right now I am on 150mg so I hope it takes less than three months. I wish you the best of luck on your taper. Please continue to let us know how you are doing!

@mmesco
I hope your not serious about tapering “Aggressively.” You have been on a high dose for a long time and trying to get off it fast is something you’ll no doubt regret. After 8 years, what’s the hurry? Read back on this thread and see how many people successfully stopped taking this drug quickly, I doubt you will find anyone.
Jake

Hi there! Just FYI, I gave myself as long as it took to super slowly taper off of 37.5 MG. It took about 18 months with minimal side effects, but I still had them! Mostly tremendous head spins when I least expected it. Like bad! I had been in that low but necessary dose for almost 20 years. But since my hormones have changed (if you get my drift) I thought I was ready to try. Please go slow. And using the Prozac as a bridge is perfect! Just go easy on yourself. Sadly, I think the worst thing is to listen to some doctors who think you can just split the dose the. Split it then split it. All in a short period of time. Let your body tell you. And oh, okay in the dirt! Ha ha! (I had brought up the benefits of soil before...)

That's a high dose and I strongly recommend taking it slow. This is a very powerful drug and it takes our bodies and brains a while to adjust -- and when I say ``a while,'' I'm talking months. I know how much we want to be free of the drug once we decide to quit, but what we want and what our body needs can be very different!

@mmesco
Good Morning!
Welcome! I hope you have taken some time to read some of the posts about coming off of Effexor.
It's great that you are able to take time off of work to deal with the possible withdrawal.
We are here to support you, but it sounds like you are going to taper off quickly.
If there is one thing I think most of us can agree upon, SLOW, SLOW, SLOW tapering is the way to go.
There are some who reduced too quickly and wound up in the hospital very sick.

I am currently tapering off from the same dosage you are taking, 300 mg (2-75 mg in the morning and at night).
I began with my evening dosage. I reduce 1/4 of one pill at a time. First, I reduce 1/4 every other night for 3 weeks then I take the reduced dosage every night for 3 weeks. This week I am finishing the 3rd week of taking 1-1/4 pill every night. Next week I will be taking 1 pill every other night for 3 weeks, followed by taking 1 pill every night. (All this depends on how I feel. If I need to, I will extend each step). Once I am down to one 75 mg. pill at night, I will begin the same process with my monring pill.

Good luck to you! Please read about those who went down too quickly. You will see a response from @farmboy who tapered too quickly. Read the others.

Ronnie (GRANDMAr)