Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

I was taking 150mg of Ven for a year then 225mg for another year. Since they stopped helping me at all and my depression was there again, I questioned myself why I take them and discontinued taking them. I’m going through hell right now I want to kill my self but at least there’s no such miserable feeling anymore that I’m hooked on useless medication. Well, seems like my body was hooked. There’s no way out apparently. I don’t want to take that poison anymore even though my cells are craving for it. My mind knows it’ll just bring me back in the vicious circle.

Not sure if you still on here, but your situation is me current day. Only been on low dose for past 4 months, and weaning off. Dr. has me starting with going it off it for the weekends for the first month, and then down to taking it M/W/F for a month.... Today was day 2 and just horrible. Please tell me it gets easier

I appreciate your concern.
“It’s sucks so bad having to be medicated just to feel normal. I would do anything to be as happy as some people seem despite not being medicated”. So true. It’s hard for me to accept this reality so I went off.
I would have continued taking the meds if they’d helped me. But they don’t. Only the first 5-6 months I felt some improvements. Then they’ve become like one those life-sustaining devises. If you discontinue them you’re dead but with them you’re not “living” anyway. Well those devices don’t give you any side effects at least. But antidepressants have a full bouquet. Again, I will bear most of the side effects if I feel like meds are helping.
I haven’t tried CBD, not sure if it could help cause my worst symptoms are vertigo, nightmares, mood swings and absolute loss of coordination.
The shitty part here is that most of them are mental (except vertigo n dizziness) so I’m pretty sure my doc can’t prescribe anything but another dose of psychoactive drug. Check mate here.

Count the beads in the capsule. Calculate how many mg are in each bead. (For instance if there were 75 beads in a 75 mg capsule each bead would be equal to 1 mg.) Then take out enough beads to equal between 5 to 10 percent of your dosage (in this case between 3 to 7 beads, always err on the conservative side). Stay at that dosage for a few weeks at least, then you can repeat the process.
This is my second attempt at tapering. I'm on 150 mg and there are over 260 beads in each one of my capsules. Try counting those, if you arent anxious and depressed before you start, you will be by the time you're done playing with those tiny skittering little monsters! Lol. Honestly though, just pour them onto a dark towel to make it easy on yourself. Tweezers help immensely. You will get there slowly but surely.

Additional info to my post: First I’ve been tapering slowly and went down to 37.5mg without any symptoms. Then I went to 0 and got a mental breakdown. Then my doc prescribed me 60mg of Cymbalta and I’ve switched the drug (quit Ven). Have been taking Cymbalta for 20 days, 0 improvements whatsoever. So yes basically I’ve understood that if I continue I’ll just get further and further physically hooked on Cymbalta without getting any actual help from it. That’s why I went cold turkey. I didn’t want to feed my body with it, not another milligram, so my cells are less likely to develop dependence.

Oh wait. From which medicine am I experiencing withdrawal syndromes then. Venlafaxine? Cymbalta? I feel like SNRI in general. My body need to get used to not having any dose of SNRI. How? No clue. My doc seem to have no clue as well.

I can completely relate to your comment about the world being 'turned up too high'. It is really challenging just to muddle through a mundane day while withdrawing from this drug - add a slight stressor and it can be overwhelming. I'm on day 6 and now feeling a LOT BETTER. What I discovered is that I can go 5 days 'thinking' I am going completely insane - sensory hallucinations up the wazzoo - without 'actually' going insane. And it DOES get better. It is like a bad LSD trip - that's the thing - your poor brain is going haywire. The good news? None of it is 'real' nor is it permanent. If you can... try not to focus too hard on any one facet... hair loss, smells, sounds, swollen glands (my worst was itchy skin and some hair loss too) all of that is temporary. If you can... focus on the reality that it will pass, and you will feel better. And in the meantime - it's okay to cut yourself some slack, it's okay to cry, it's okay to not know what is happening or why, it's okay to be anxious & it's okay to do things that calm you down and help you feel better - a walk, a hot bath, watch a movie... It's not going to last forever. You will feel better. Just hang in there and be good to yourself...

Thanks for the encouragement. It seems things are getting brighter and lighter. Probably accomplished more in the last week than I have in the last 6 months, and everything isn't out to get me anymore. It feels great to be able to sleep, actually sleep and not be chasing horrible thoughts and dreams. Still powering out both mentally and physically for no reason at the weirdest times but it hasn't been that long without effexor, 3 weeks.
The biggest revelation is understanding how off, how sick, how nasty I was, and the extent of physical effect the withdrawal and crash had on this poor old body. A challenge is explaining to others that we don't control our brains and how they work. We work along with them and are lucky to be able to predict what they might do but when something is wrong, because of a drug or ??, we can only try to keep up and stay safe. I have new respect for the thing inside my skull. It seems to have a life of its own.
The wanting to dissolve off the earth feeling is not there all the time and yet everything that overwhelmed 3 weeks ago still is. It is crazy following your own thoughts and your own brain sometimes...what will it do next??

@chicago1211

SLOWLY!!! SLOWLY!!! SLOWLY!!!
We’re talking infinitesimally small doses
If you taper slowly enough you probably won’t have any side effects whatsoever, although it is still possible but much less likely. if your brain hardly notices the difference in dosage you may very well nhot have any withdrawals whatsoever.
How much were you tapering at a time and how long had you been taking the medication prior to beginning your taper?
The longer you had been on this medication before the beginning of your taper the slower you’re going to need to go the longer you had been on this medication before the beginning of your taper the sloooooooooer you’re going to need to go. Some people have been taking this medication for decades but yet they want to get off of it in a matter of weeks are only a few months. That’s completely unreasonable and incomprehensible to me but virtually everyone goes off it t fast and comes back here and complains about their withdrawals.
If you believe you can do without the medication I hope you try it again but this time depending on how long you’ve been on your medicine reduce it by five or 10%. Don’t reduce by the same milligrams every time you decrease your dose and Stay on each does three weeks minimum.
Best of luck to you,
Jake

@chicago1211

SLOWLY!!! SLOWLY!!! SLOWLY!!!
We’re talking infinitesimally small doses
If you taper slowly enough you probably won’t have any side effects whatsoever, although it is still possible but much less likely. if your brain hardly notices the difference in dosage you may very well nhot have any withdrawals whatsoever.
How much were you tapering at a time and how long had you been taking the medication prior to beginning your taper?
The longer you had been on this medication before the beginning of your taper the slower you’re going to need to go the longer you had been on this medication before the beginning of your taper the sloooooooooer you’re going to need to go. Some people have been taking this medication for decades but yet they want to get off of it in a matter of weeks are only a few months. That’s completely unreasonable and incomprehensible to me but virtually everyone goes off it t fast and comes back here and complains about their withdrawals.
If you believe you can do without the medication I hope you try it again but this time depending on how long you’ve been on your medicine reduce it by five or 10%. Don’t reduce by the same milligrams every time you decrease your dose and Stay on each does three weeks minimum.
Best of luck to you,
Jake