Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

Try taking 37.5 daily to see if you improve. Then cut your daily dosage down instead of doing the every other day idea.

Thanks, Sandi James. I only have the 37.5 mg capsules and I have to say I'm not too keen on opening one of these things. Seems like others do it alright.

I've been taking Effexor for 16 or 17 years. It stopped working 2 years ago. I've been weaning down from 300 mg of Effexor for over a year now. I'm at 37.5 every other day and it's been rough. Flu like symptoms and the electric shocks and of course anxiety. My plan has been wean down a step, hold steady at this dose for 4 weeks, then wean down again, hold stead for 4 weeks etc. I am taking a truck load of other meds to help with the weaning: Cymbalta, Buspirone and Gabapentin. They seem to help. At my current rate, I'll be off Effexor mid Feb 2020. Then hopefully drop some of these other meds after my body adjusts to the new normal. I imagine I'll be taking Cymbalta for like, ever. My problem is anxiety primarily but depression is a close second.

Thanks, Sandi James. I only have the 37.5 mg capsules and I have to say I'm not too keen on opening one of these things. Seems like others do it alright.

I agree with Sandi here. I tried taking 37.5 every other day and I felt awful. Dizzy, emotional, off balance physically, with a ton of brain fog. I learned a ton from being on this blog and I've since gone back up to 75mgs to stabalize here. Once I've done that for 3-4 weeks I'm going to pull those stupid little pills apart and take out 5-7 beads and stay at that dose for a few weeks. Then do it all again until I'm down to a few beads, then none. Doing the dramatic drops that the doctor recommended felt absolutely horrible. Please trust the folks on this blog who've done this. Slow is definitely your friend when it comes to Effexor!!

Each pill does not have the exact number of beads. Count out the numbers in 3 or 4 , and take an average. Then make sure you count WHAT YOU HAVE, NOT WHATS LEFT! It’s the only way to be accurate.

Sorry I don't understand...count what you have, not what's left. What does that mean?

Just wanted to say I've been venlafaxine free for about 2 months now. Prozac bridge worked for me: I started 20mg of Prozac while still on 37.5mg of venlafaxine, and after two weeks of both, stopped venlafaxine. And the first couple of days were rough but not nearly as bad as trying it before. I stayed on the Prozac for a month but couldn't stand the diarrhea it caused, so talked to my doctor and switched to Cymbalta. It seems to work...slightly. Had a dose increase starting a week ago and it might be helping. No noticeable side effects - yay.

I'm still very depressed but I have a tiny bit more energy when I'm not getting sucked into a depression vortex. So my bad days are just as bad, but my not-bad days are almost okay. It's an improvement, even if it isn't enough.

I think a big obstacle is my allergies. (synthetic scents, and as severe as people think of peanut allergies) The isolation (and almost daily getting pummeled by my immune system) hits me hard. I just got rejected for two jobs explicitly because of it. I have a lot of times I think I can't stand living like this. I'm still here though and haven't made an attempt in a year or so now.

Effexor xr has approx. 75 beads in a 75 mg. Capsule. That means 1mg. Per bead. Count out the number of beads YOU HAVE, after getting an average, and take that number as your starting point. I’m going down about one bead every few days. That way, 73 beads means 73 mg. 69 beads equals 69 mg. And so on. I hope this is not too confusing! You see, if you START WITH different numbers, you’ll always be going up and down.