Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

BTW it's ok for me to break my own anonymity at this level (you don't have my name anyway, just my blog handle!). I'm doing it here because I think what I'm sharing is relevant and because it's just for us.

@coco2739
Please read the posts on this thread--it's a lot of pages, but you will find a lot of suggestions and you may need to try different things.

Ben*dryl is helpful while weaning off Effexor. If your nausea is because you're having vertigo and/or dizziness, Dram*mine and other OTC motion-sickness drugs can help. When I went through chemo, my oncologist prescribed two different meds (also used by pregnant women for morning sickness)--prochlorperazine and ondansetron. I had some left after chemo treatment, but didn't try them during Effexor withdrawal as my nausea wasn't too bad--sucking on P*pto B*smol lozenges, or eating saltines or potato chips settled my stomach.

Good evening everyone. How is everyone getting along? I've got a question. I restarted my effexor March the 7th. Should I start noticing some difference by now? I have really confusing thoughts,dream state of mind,moody, get irritated at little things and feel lost. P.S. I was only off the effexor for 2 weeks and then had to restart the effexor because of bad withdrawals. Thank you for any replies in advance.

@farmboy
I would have thought so. If memory serves your on 75mg. Isn’t that where you were and not having symptoms prior to going off? Or were you having symptoms then too? Haven’t you been back to the doctors for their advice? If not I’d make an appointment.
Jake

@farmboy I’m sorry to hear your not feeling better. I would have thought you would have felt better by now. I would definitely talk to your doctor. Do you feel the same as when you stopped it the first time? My heart goes out to you. You have definitely had a hard time.

Yes Leonard I've been back to the Dr and she upped it to 150mgs now. I was on 75 when I tried getting off and was doing fine. But this time 75 wasn't doing anything. So that's why she upped it to 150.

babydoll the anxiety and panic attacks are alot better. But the confusion,lost, unreal feelings, irrated feelings are the same. It's like I can't think straight. Dr said to give it more time but I figured things should be better by now.

Hello, just checking in. I'm down to approx 5mg. a day. Starting tomorrow, every other day, approx. 5mg. /2.5 mg. I'll do that for at least 3 weeks. If no symptoms, then go for approx. 2.5 every day. The end is in sight! Slow and steady in winning this race! It can be done!

I wouldn't do every other day because of the short half life. Even at small dosages it may make a difference.
Farmboy, I'm sorry you're not feeling better by now. But a change in dosage can result in symptoms like you've described, even for this long. I try to look at other causes too, it could be a combination of things going on, even the stress over all of this will exacerbate the symptoms.
I'm a "friend of Bill" too. Whoever thought coming off an antidepressant would be 1000 times harder than getting and staying sober? At least it's been for me!
That is an excellent article, especially the part about the feelings people have about their lives being useless. Really described it perfectly.
Sending positive thoughts to everyone on their journeys. We can do this!

@farmboy
The good news is that your anxiety and panic attacks are better. The fogginess and irritability may improve as well.

When you started your weaning off Effexor, you were at 225. Your tapering schedule was to go from 225 to 150 for 2 weeks, then to 75 for 2 weeks, then from 75 to 37.5--a really fast taper. Try to be patient with yourself--remember you were on Effexor for 7-8 years; this stuff is a heavy hitter you don't get over quickly. Keep working with your doctor. Don't wig out--it's possible you may need to go all the way back to 225, see if that stabilizes you and if it does, wait some months before trying to wean off again (very slowly in tiny increments).

The New Yorker article mentioned by @sharonlou a dozen posts back talked about a site created for those getting off psychiatric drugs--The Withdrawal Project--https://withdrawal.theinnercompass.org/. You can check out some of the suggestions on that site. Some are a bit too woo-woo, New-Agey for me, but others were very interesting; some might strike you as something you want to try.