Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

Good Morning everyone! I have no idea how to start a thread, so I just hit reply! I am looking for suggestions. I have been Effexor free since February! Yes, I had a horrible time, had to have a bridge of Prozac, didn’t help at first, but now I feel great. I still get anxiety, but not as bad. My problem now is restless leg syndrome! I have had this diagnosis for years and take Requip for it, but since stopping Effexor it is worse than ever! I can not sleep for the aching feeling of having to keep moving my legs. It starts around 6 PM and I’m walking, dancing, whatever to keep it at bay! Has anyone else had this problem? Also, I want you all to know that each and everyone of you are in my prayers, this is a journey we are on to feel better and I love the support and suggestions that I read from you all! Keep smiling your all beautiful and worth it!

I wouldn't say we have a bad marriage but we are very different people. He has always pointed out that I get "too emotional" and reminds me that "not everybody is like you". LoL. As for the rage and crying jags, effexor never has helped with my emotions, I've always had dark nights of the soul at times, even as a child, I feel things very deeply and always wondered if there was a "normal" how would that feel?
He knows all about the withdrawal and what it entails since I went through it before with neurontin and that was far worse than this has been.

Can we every really pinpoint why we feel the way we do or what is causing our emotions? There are so many factors at play and constantly changing, from our physical bodies aging, environment, our parents getting old and needing care, etc. Its hard to say what's the chicken and what's the egg.
I know I've been using the forum to vent. I realize I'm lonely but I must have very high standards for friends. It never fails that I will make a friendship and then the other person starts telling me all kinds of crazy sexual stuff in their marriage or other things I really do not want to hear! Lucky me to hear everyone else secrets, but really?
I'm sitting here watching the bluebirds right now, I'm so grateful that they appear right when I need them. We have many cardinals, hummingbirds, doves, and finches but the beauty of the bluebird never ceases to take my breath away.
Hope everyone has a great day, and thank you for being here.

@sandij- I do not know how many people who are married to people who are like each other. My husband and I balance each other out. I'm so sorry that you are so frustrated. Have you considered therapy? I haven't looked back in your posts so if you have already posted about this I'm sorry. How do you handle people who talk about personal information like sex?

@sandij- I do not know how many people who are married to people who are like each other. My husband and I balance each other out. I'm so sorry that you are so frustrated. Have you considered therapy? I haven't looked back in your posts so if you have already posted about this I'm sorry. How do you handle people who talk about personal information like sex?

@merpreb we went to marriage counseling soon after my ailing mother in law came to live with us. We had been married for one year when she needed help, and my two sisters in law wouldn't have her, so I became her caregiver until she died a year later. The counseling only helps to the extent that an individual will address their issues, and to the experience of the counselor to confront them. I thi k this happens far too often, therapists who allow their clients to ramble and never push them to see any deeper.

@sandij- Very well put

Yes, I had met her only once, before Loren and I got married in 2010. She had her 88th birthday several months after we had moved her in with us, I remember making a celebration and her only response being "I don't want to live to be 89". I admit, I was not empathetic, I had turned my life upside down for a stranger whose own family would not take her into their homes. It was a daily struggle to keep her compliant with her medications and diet and demands, and when she made that statement all I could think of was well...why am I bothering to take care of you at the expense of my health and mental well being, my career, my marriage?
I was the only one with her when she died. Nobody in her family asked if her death was peaceful, if she had last words, nothing. I'll never understand that, because I would want to know that information if it was my parent!
The funeral was held in North Carolina where she had a plot in the veterans cemetary, her deceased spouse, Lorens father had been military. Members of the family came from other states and all rented a house together for several days. I knew I could not participate and hold my tongue and my husband went without me. He has said that it was then he knew he could never count on me for anything, that I didnt have his back. He didn't know the horrible things that his mother would say about him and how I told her never to disrespect him in his own home.
Isn't it the strangest thing the way that our memories come upon us seemingly from nowhere? I hadn't remembered any of that for quite some time. Here's hoping that a larger portion of the memories that will crop up during this process will be of pleasant and happy times. I've had many of those in my life and it would be good to keep those front and center.
8 days effexor free today. Hope everyone is doing well. I'm sorry I dont respond to everyone by name, but it's difficult to keep up with on this phone and I stay away from the computer when I'm not working at it.

Yes, I had met her only once, before Loren and I got married in 2010. She had her 88th birthday several months after we had moved her in with us, I remember making a celebration and her only response being "I don't want to live to be 89". I admit, I was not empathetic, I had turned my life upside down for a stranger whose own family would not take her into their homes. It was a daily struggle to keep her compliant with her medications and diet and demands, and when she made that statement all I could think of was well...why am I bothering to take care of you at the expense of my health and mental well being, my career, my marriage?
I was the only one with her when she died. Nobody in her family asked if her death was peaceful, if she had last words, nothing. I'll never understand that, because I would want to know that information if it was my parent!
The funeral was held in North Carolina where she had a plot in the veterans cemetary, her deceased spouse, Lorens father had been military. Members of the family came from other states and all rented a house together for several days. I knew I could not participate and hold my tongue and my husband went without me. He has said that it was then he knew he could never count on me for anything, that I didnt have his back. He didn't know the horrible things that his mother would say about him and how I told her never to disrespect him in his own home.
Isn't it the strangest thing the way that our memories come upon us seemingly from nowhere? I hadn't remembered any of that for quite some time. Here's hoping that a larger portion of the memories that will crop up during this process will be of pleasant and happy times. I've had many of those in my life and it would be good to keep those front and center.
8 days effexor free today. Hope everyone is doing well. I'm sorry I dont respond to everyone by name, but it's difficult to keep up with on this phone and I stay away from the computer when I'm not working at it.