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@texasduchess

I would not take the 37.5mg every other day–Effexor has a very short half-life in the body; ping-ponging on/off from one day to the next is putting you into withdrawal over and over. Going slooowww is your friend! Reduce by only 5-10%, or even less with each taper and stay at each tapered level for some weeks/months before tapering again. There's no point rushing the process if you ultimately can't get off Effexor because the withdrawals are too awful.

Your doctor can prescribe a different formulation–changing from extended-release capsules to regular-release tablets (I was on 25mg regular-release tablets that could be cut), or specifying a certain brand of capsules (@farm_mom found Teva had the most consistent size and number of beads within a capsule–helpful to those counting and throwing out beads to taper--see @sandij, or @doorman on how to do this). Or your doctor can write a prescription for a compounding pharmacy to make tapered doses for you (the extra cost may well be worth it because you can glide down in incremental amounts, rather than make rather large jagged drops).

Ask your doctor about a "Prozac bridge"–"The only way doctors know to soften the blow when withdrawing from short half-life drugs [Effexor is such] is to add 20mg fluoxetine (Prozac). The half-life of Effexor is 5 hours and 99% of it is out of your body in one day. Prozac's half-life is 4 to 6 days and it takes 25 days for 99% of it to be out of your body. Essentially, the Prozac cushions the effect of no Effexor and lets you "ride out" the withdrawal process.–https://natashatracy.com/treatment-issues/withdrawal/antidepressants-effexorpristiq-venlafaxinedesvenlafaxine/. See also https://www.depressionforums.org/forums/topic/107532-coming-off-of-effexor-with-prozac-bridge/.

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Replies to "I would not take the 37.5mg every other day–Effexor has a very short half-life in the..."

@bdizjr
P.S. You mentioned being on Effexor for 20 years. I tapered off slowly from just 25mg (taken for hot flashes for almost 18 years). I didn't have any withdrawal effects until 6.5 weeks after my last dose--that's when all the stored Effexor finally got used up. So be aware that it gets stored in body tissues when you've been on it for a long time.

totally agree.. even my pharmacist gave me that advice.. i suppose it may work for some ppl.. but i know the way i get when i miss even ONE dose..