Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

@sandij
I just remembered 2 things that help me when I am feeling my worse.
1. Go run warm water over your hands. Oh, the comfort it brings is unbelievalbe. I know once I was there for 5 minutes. And it always helps me get back to the here and now...not in the past or future. It allowed me to stop dwelling on things and get my mind body and spirit back to right now. This second. I take back my control of MY LIFE that way...
.
Giggling, I forgot the second one. Those darn missing brain cells. If anybody sees them, kick them in the rear and send them home. I could get upset for not remembering BUT:
I have a policy..."I don't get my undies in a bunch"...
It steals my precious energy if I do.
So I am off to the senior center...my adoring fans are waiting. Oh, they love my singing as much as I love to sing.
I am singing the song: TODAY
Flying happily, Bright Wings

@sandij
I hear you loud and clear.
Well, good for you for being aware of all that and giving voice to your feelings. After reading it I was reminded of a tool I used to my benefit when feeling flooded like that.
I ALLOWED MYSELF to feel bad for a certain length of time. I CHOSE to allow myself to cry and whine and really wallow in my pain...
Why?
To Honor my feelings.
I validated my feelings because they were real.
.
When life comes flooding at us, certain chemical reactions happen in the body. They MAKE US feel bad.
By allowing myself to feel bad and cry over things that were out of control, I was basically taking back control of my life.....
AND I needed a time limit because I could wallow in my sad, tragic childhood, or my many illnesses, or my body breaking down because of the extreme pain buried in my body as a child up to young adulthood.
By crying, I was releasing toxins that I couldn't get rid of any other way.
Smiling at you darling, try it, it works. Bright Wings

@brightwings I had been on 75 mg for about 6 weeks before I attempted to wean down at all from there. But I started weaning from 225 mg in the beginning. I know that the weaning has to be extremely slow from here on out. I take out 6 beads from my 75 capsule which contains about 84 beads, So each bead is roughly .89 mg. So my calculation is that I am at 69 mg, not 66 yet. I guess that was like a 7% reduction? It just kills me that a few tiny beads can have SO much control over me. From reading information on a FB group I was astounded that people were having extreme reactions at the very end and jumping off of a single bead. Well, never say never, because it looks like that is what is in the future for me too! This whole experience has given me a great deal of compassion for drug addicts.
I did get my test results back from the CT scan. Apparently lesions on the liver are quite common, and their recommendation is to have an MRI in 3 months just to make sure nothing has changed. In the past I may have taken the news of the initial discovery in stride, but one of the effects of WD, for me, I think, is to catastrophize more than is normal.
I am 56 years old and had a total hysterectomy when I was 46, I stopped taking estrogen patches about 2 years ago. I realize now that the effexor was certainly helping stave off hot flashes since I am experiencing them a bit now, but nothing like the night sweats I had when I was going through neurontin withdrawal. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I got through that hell and I can get through this one. But the difference is, I went cold turkey with that. Even though my protracted WD lasted two years of windows and waves, I wasn't taking it anymore! With this, I'm still taking it and going through hell. SO the realization that I will have to go THIS slow and STILL experience years of hell is just discouraging.
I have my good days but right now I feel like I am in a dark hole and am losing patience the longer it goes on. Then I feel guilty that other people go through far worse than stupid effexor withdrawal...relative to many others out there, I should have gratitude, especially in light of this recent test, but I can't seem to snap out of it.
Ugh. Thanks for listening. I know it will get better but right now I am all kinds of crazy and full of self hate. And guilt. And self pity. Waiting for the tide to turn.
Hope everyone is having a good day!
Sandi

That advice is no good. The withdrawal is from the last little bit of the Efexor being metabolised really quickly. So, tapering will not help. Instead, overlap your last three Efexor tablets (37.5 or 75 mg, which ever is the lowest you tolerate) And then stop them both, or stay on the Prozac if you prefer. No more withdrawal symptoms at al. The Prozac inhibits the metabolism of the Effexor, you see.

Honoring my feelings is essential! And my natural tendency is to fight them if they're unpleasant or uncomfortable or scary, because I don't like feeling those things. But fighting them intensifies them, and allowing myself to really feel them takes away a lot of their power, oddly enough. But I'm with you on setting a time limit, too. After a while, enough is enough. I've felt them and honored them and now it's time to try to set them aside and focus on other things, as hard as that may be at first. It helps me to remember, too, that feelings aren't facts. By their very nature, they're transitory, even though when I'm experiencing them, they feel like they're the only reality and will last forever. (BTW, if anyone tries to tell me this when I'm in the midst of panic or great fear or ever big depression, I want to slug them -- if I have the energy!) Lately, I've been back into an old standby that I haven't read for years -- ``Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway'' by Susan Jeffers. It's helping. I think I'll also go back to some books by Claire Weekes, an Australian physician whose works helped me immensely years ago in understanding and dealing with panic and anxiety. For a long time she was just about the only one who'd written books on this. Her writing was kind and illuminating at the same time. I highly recommend her.

Such a fabulous attitude ! I need to stop looking back and march ahead!

Honoring my feelings is essential! And my natural tendency is to fight them if they're unpleasant or uncomfortable or scary, because I don't like feeling those things. But fighting them intensifies them, and allowing myself to really feel them takes away a lot of their power, oddly enough. But I'm with you on setting a time limit, too. After a while, enough is enough. I've felt them and honored them and now it's time to try to set them aside and focus on other things, as hard as that may be at first. It helps me to remember, too, that feelings aren't facts. By their very nature, they're transitory, even though when I'm experiencing them, they feel like they're the only reality and will last forever. (BTW, if anyone tries to tell me this when I'm in the midst of panic or great fear or ever big depression, I want to slug them -- if I have the energy!) Lately, I've been back into an old standby that I haven't read for years -- ``Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway'' by Susan Jeffers. It's helping. I think I'll also go back to some books by Claire Weekes, an Australian physician whose works helped me immensely years ago in understanding and dealing with panic and anxiety. For a long time she was just about the only one who'd written books on this. Her writing was kind and illuminating at the same time. I highly recommend her.