@20gordy
“ I will ask my doctor about reducing the amount over time, rather than skipping days. And hope that helps.”
I hope so too gory but according to your doctors track record I don’t have a lot of confidence that it will.
Countless members here have said when reducing Effexor to go SLOW or SLOWLY or GRADUALLY, but how many people have listened, virtually none obviously because these pages are full of people wanting to get off of it quickly as soon as possible or after reading our suggestions about slowly will cut their dose by 50% and come back here and can’t understand why they are suffering withdrawals. Some choose to quit quickly and are willing to endure whatever withdrawal symptoms that come along and then return and complain what a horrible drug it is and it should be taken off of the market. Well in my opinion it’s not a horrible drug and it shouldn’t be taken off of the market because those who use and taper responsibly seldom if ever have a problem with it. But you have to get off of it responsibly which admittedly is difficult to accomplish since few doctors know how to successfully taper from it. But they should know based on the half-life and type of drug it is.
You mentioned you went down from 75mg to 37.5 without any side effects which not everyone can do but I am quite confident from 37.5 down you’re going to notice a significant differences unless you go slowly but 50% is far from slow.. I’m going to tell you a true story that will hopefully demonstrate how doctors prescribe and advise patients even though they don’t know what they’re doing. There was a psychiatrist in Europe who is putting his patients I need Effexor and then taking them off and they were all suffering from withdrawal symptoms. The psychiatrist was also taking Effexor and when he decided to stop he used the same method that he was telling his patients to use. Well he started having withdrawal symptoms like his patients. He had heard about the 5 to 10% method where you reduce your dosage by 5 to 10% every 2-6 weeks. So he tried it and guess what, no withdrawal symptoms. But bottom line this doctor knew he was telling his patients to stop too quickly. Now he is an advocate of the 5 to 10% method.
Of course some people are able to stop more quickly than others. Some with fewer or even no withdrawals. For the people who want to stop by a certain percentage method the best way is to use a compounding pharmacy but this can be more expensive if it’s not covered by your insurance.
If I were you I would ask your doctor if s/he was on this medication. did you ever stop it, did you have withdrawals coming off it. But I doubt very much s/he was ever on it. I would ask s/he how do you know the advice that your giving me won’t cause me to suffer withdrawal symptoms? Normally, I’d ask for articles that support his/her Effexor discontinuation practices but unfortunately most documentation will support his practice and you'll suffer because of it. Please don’t put your doctor on a pedestal and think s/he is a God. Doctor’s are human and are capable of making mistakes although they refuse to admit it. But unfortunately this happens all the time as you obviously know. Medical errors in the United States are the third leading cause of death in the United States. I’m sure my doctor feels by the time she leaves the room she’s been through an
intense interrogation. It is obvious that likely none of the people advising you on how to come off this drug except those on this forum) have never been on it.
Good luck Gorgy and PLEASE go slow, you won’t regret it,
Jake