Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

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.

@babydoll
I read many years ago of a folk remedy--you put a bar of soap (unwrapped) under your bottom sheet probably somewhere around your knees. No one knows why this works (when it does). Here's some info off the net: Supposedly gives off magnesium. Not every brand does the trick (folks who try this say Dial and Dove don't work); Dr. Oz recommends soap containing lavender. One site re this says, "One possible explanation for the soap effect is the fragrance. A chemist suggested to us that the most popular soaps all seem to have the fragrant compound limonene in their scent.... We suspect that transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are involved. (Limonene activates TRP A1.)"--https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2017/11/27/why-put-soap-under-your-bottom-sheet/

@sandij- Oh my goodness you were certainly beyond brave to take care of a woman who no one else wanted, and someone who you had only met once. I think that compassion comes in regardless of how another person acts and it can certainly wane if they become mean, like you experienced. That must have been so horrible for you. I truly am sorry that you had to endure this.
And I'm actually more sad and upset that your husband reacted the way he did. I'm sure that you explained what was going one, maybe not word for word, but some of it. Did you?
It's really tough to hold your head up when someone seems to turn on you.
I'm so glad that effexor is in the past and I hope that you can get past any residual side effects so that you can get on with making some positive plans. Does your husband have any idea how you feel?

@brightwings- Morning Susie- I pay about that and only use 1 a month. I take just short of a dropper each AM. I will use it again if I feel off the wall later in the day. I wish that we could get more than 2 days of sun shine in a row. We'll all be sitting in front of the lamp for depression soon. How are you?

@merpreb Not sure if you saw my reply but I’m extremely anxious and depressed and want to try the Lazarus or Charlotte’s Web CBT oil but don’t know if I can use while I’m still on Effexor and Klonopin . Can’t wean off now as I’m having shoulder replacement surgery May 21. Do you know?

@merpreb I can talk till I am blue in the face and he will still not understand how I feel because he keeps coming back to "we are two different people". Its true, he cannot possibly put himself in my shoes, nor does he want to, because he is more interested in being in his own. LOL. Marriage is a dance of two people coming together and moving apart, sometimes losing sight of each other on a crowded dance floor, but hopefully when the song ends, you are listening to the last strains of music in each others arms.

Goggle drugs that interact with CBD. I just found it. BW