My 16 (then 15) year old daughter has been weaning from Effexor for about 8 months. We couldn't find anyone to help us as we live in an area with a critical shortage of adolescent psych. providers. Our pediatrician finally consented to supervise. She had been on Effexor for about 9 months and was taking 150 mg when we began the weaning process. At first, our pediatrician thought we could go from 150 to 75...no go. My daughter reacted like she did when she forgot a dose once that ended up in an ER visit! We sat down with our doctor and asked if we could wean her by just counting out the little balls and taking her down a couple every week. We found out that one little ball approximately equals 1 mg. We started June of 2018 and are now down to 55 mg. So far, so good. She does have headaches the first couple of days after we reduce the dosage. She is also experiencing significant and on-going gastro-intestinal difficulties and we won't know until she is off completely what role the Effexor is playing with these symptoms. We DEEPLY regret ever putting her on this medication. The effects were understated by the prescribing provider. In retrospect, she was in crisis that ended up resolving itself after a few lifestyle changes and we jumped the gun with medication. Sometimes I just wish we could rip the bandaid off and be done with it, but she just can't tolerate it when we take her down more than 5 mg at a time. We see the light at the end of the tunnel though and are cautiously optimistic that we will be done weaning this summer although we understand from this forum that it could still take weeks/months until she is feeling more herself again. Good luck to all of you and know that you have a friend on your journey!

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