Hey everyone. I'm familiar with tapering from effexor. I went from 225mg to 112.5mg about 4 years ago, it took about a year to taper down. I spent forever separating the little balls insides the capsule. Now I'm hoping to taper more to get off of it someday in the future. I went down by about 10% one day last week and it was instant flu symptoms and some brain zaps and vertigo. I reassessed and went down by only a few milligrams to be about 3%. I am at about 107% now so a 5% decrease in about 2 weeks. I'm staying at the same level for the better part of a week before I decrease the dosage by another few milligrams. I know it will take me over a year and a half to taper off this completely. I'm looking for some tips and help with how to alleviate the anxiety and depression I'm feeling and the symptoms that come with getting off these strong meds.

I currently separate each days meds by separating the tiny balls inside the capsule with a knife to take away a few milligrams. I've heard people getting small jewelry scales to measure the pills instead of doing it by eye, but I have't had any good luck looking online for a microbalance or a jewelry scale that measures milligrams accurately for less than a few hundred dollars. Does anyone have any good recommendations on scales to use? Also, I've heard about CBD, but have never used it. Would it be useful to use during my tapering or would my cannabis use be more or just as effective? Should I be taking Tylenol everyday or just days when I feel those flu like symptoms arise? Has anyone had any results using acupuncture to alleviate symptoms? Or what about people who are severely sensitive to these meds like I am where a 10% reduction isn't possible and slower tapering is necessary-any advice on how to do this in a manageable way that won't make me want to jump off a cliff because it's taking so long, but also a way to make it go as fast as possible while still enjoying my daily life?