Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

Hi I am 59 year old woman on Effexor for a long time maybe 15 years and prior to that prozac and whatever antidepressant was on the go at the time. My problem was principally anxiety. I took early retirement about 3 years ago and have tried several times to get off effexor. I feel lethargic. lacking energy and a strange symptom and interested in anyone else experiencing this.. A slow down in my breathing coupled with fatigue. It's as if metabolism has slowed down plus motility movement of food through the gut. My limbs feel heavy though I garden walk etc but my out breath seems to carry on forever! Any time I try to go off heartbeat and dreads crank up again though I have little to dread or be anxious about. I honestly think there is a hormonal connection here between menopause and effexor also. Can anyone relate to this experience. I would like to be healthier for the last few years of life.. Interested in perspectives. Thanks in advance

Hi @annie60 and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You'll notice that I moved your message to this existing discussion called "Tips on minimising withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)." It is one of the longest and most active discussion groups about Effexor. I moved your message here so the you can benefit from the knowledge and experience of many members who know just what you're going through like @texasduchess @summertime4 @shermananski @secretwhitepop @sandij @jh31251 @sears and many others.

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Annie, what dosage of Effexor are you currently on? What is your taper plan?

On 75mg. I think taper plan would be to go to 37.5 1 day for a week then 2 days until I get to 37.5 every day but will hv to discuss with doctor. She will probably be not again. Also I am considering adding low dose hrt maybe patches to help to get out the other side! My thinking is that menopause affects ability to metabolise the chemical as well as all the hormonal changes. I am 59 and still have meno symptoms.

@annie60.. I think I may be able to stop my 1/4 of 1/2 of 36.5 effexor. I think None today. I think I told you the psychiatric nurse prescribed Trintellix to replace the Effexor. I contacted her today and let her know I am stopping the Trintellix. I have taken it for 6 weeks and had all negative reactions. I kept hoping and praying the Trintellix would be the one for me. Everyday I took it and every day I felt worse. There is an awesome saying in AA. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. She agreed and recommended Pristiq, another depression medication that I have not used before. At least I think I haven't. I of course researched the Pristiq and it is VERY similar in compound as Effexor. I messaged her back telling her of my concerns over another "Like Effexor" I haven't heard back yet. Did I also tell you that she did the Genesight test and Trintellix is one my genetic test said would be helpful. She said Pristiq also came up as good on the Genesight test. Well then what about Effexor which wasn't helpful? So I am medication free for depression and so we will see the recommendation tomorrow. She said I could just stop the Trintellix because it was a low dose and I hadn't been on it very long. Oh Lord, no more withdrawal. Between pain of neuropathy, fibromyagia, lymphedema and depression I am feeling in a very bad way with so little hope of it getting better. Another beautiful AA word "Let go. Let God" I ask for your prayers to keep me focused on that. Of course you all have my prayers.

I’m so sorry for all that you are going through. If you think back, was there ever a time that any medication worked for you? Just curious.

I was on Effexor for about 20 years. When I was 51 I thought since I was doing so well, I’d start to ween off. I stayed at 37.5 for about a year and then slowly started to ween off that by opening the capsules and taking out a few beads at a time. It was tedious but I had no withdrawal effects while I was taking even the most minuscule dose.

I weened for 18 months. I was very fearful of withdrawal!

Since I was over the menopause hump I thought maybe my hormones would be amenable to no SNRI’s and I would be a happy camper again 🙂

I was completely med free for 6 months. Yeah, I felt, eh. I lost a lot of weight because I was eating as healthy as I could, jogging constantly (due to anxiety) and meditating (which was extremely helpful).

My doctor was keeping a close eye on me. She was worried because it’s REALLY hard to come off Effexor. (Apparently, my doctor is an anomaly!). Actually, she’s a nurse practitioner.

Anyway, it got to be too much. She put me on lexapro and after only a few days my anxiety went through the roof! It was awful! She had me stop that and come in to see her.

She prescribed me Seroquel. Seroquel is used for bipolar disorder (which I’ve never been diagnosed as having!). She said low dose of Seroquel for one week as a mood stabilizer then add low dose of zoloft as a mood lifter.

25 mgs of each.

Now I’m at 50 mg of zoloft and down to a half a 25 mg of Seroquel and I’m very very stable and very very content.

Finally.

My basic point is, so t let low doses of stuff fool you. Don’t go cold turkey in even the lowest crumb of a dose. You will feel it. Give your self lots of time. This medicine is effecting your brain and it takes time to adjust.

Please be slow. Slower than you’re doing now.

Talk to your doc about the meds I’m on and see if they’re familiar. I’m not saying you have what I have. I’m just curious if your doc is well-verses on this very important subject. I totally totally lucked out.

ALSO - during my 6 month med free stint, I had so many wacky things happen. One of which was phantom smells! Another was the development of vertigo that I still suffer with.

Take it easy and take this very seriously. I’m convinced that, while doctors mean well, no one knows exactly how or why some medicines work for some and not for others.

Be well!

Thanks for your reply and for going to the trouble of explaining your own and unique experience. As I suffer from what I call the dreads though I would put in a subclause here that I have little to dread about, effexor has been very effective in dealing with this certainly while I was working. However since onset of menopause I find I get tired, lethargic and get concerned that am not making better of time plus I would like to be doing some work but as soon as I launch into something I feel the anxiety arising. But the principal issue and I am not sure about this.. Is that being on these meds removes ones ability to feel or or to be oneself. So want to experiment with being med free. Yes agreed it has to be very slow. I tried before for 6 months but went back as it became too burdensome.
I am also of the view that long term use of these drugs stops the brain from being able to make the requisite chemicals that are naturally occurring.
Doctors don't know enough about these drugs long term use. In an ideal world there would be better monitoring of mental health coupled with all the other therapies but service is uneven and fractured.
Lastly, my symptoms are mostly physical so I need to figure out a way of dealing with this.. Less caffeine, sugar, alcohol though that's only at weekends. I will have a conversation with doctor and see what transpires.. Thanks and regards

In my opinion doctors do know the effects of long term use of anti depressants. They just don’t have a lot of choices. Antidepressants are just as bad if not worse than any benzo. And withdrawal can be horrific, as bad or worse than withdrawal from a benzo. Once one gets on the physch med train it’s almost impossible to get off.

I tapered off the last 37.5 over the course of a few weeks. You all are going to say "don't do that!" And, I'm like, "I feel fine!" One thing that happens when I'm on anti-depressants is I can drink alcohol and not get drunk or have hangovers. I'm still experiencing that... (I know, don't drink, working on it, again). I might be off Effexor, but my brain is not back to normal, as others have expressed on this list. I think it can take months for that to happen, which is super scary. The last time I went off an anti-depressant (Paxil) I relapsed horribly. But, I had big stressors at that time. My friend, a counselor and academic wellness center director, says find another med you can tolerate with fewer side effects, now, before you relapse again. My psychiatrist, a resident at a regional hospital, doesn't necessarily recommend that but went through some options with me. None sounded great. I wish I never, ever got on the stuff. I think when you're hit with depression you need to bow out of life and recover, like having TB before antibiotics. These drugs are just making it worse. Argh.

I thought I was going through an overly gradual tapering when I weaned off effexor from 300 mg down to 0 over a 3 month interval (I had tried a clean break at one point and thought I would lose my mind). Then I read on this blog that my weaning was over-ambitious. I did the same as secretwhitepop, dumping out beads--then weighing each capsule on a microscale.

I noticed that, when I hit zero mg, I felt a little buzzy, emotional and irritable but it's been getting better day-by-day. It's been about a month pill-free but I feel amazing: no fatigue, I get up at 8 in the morning full of energy, my sex drive has re-emerged from its virtually impotent previous state, I'm exercising, I'm losing weight and getting my ambition back. I have much more confidence in my ability to accomplish things--whereas before I couldn't commit to the smallest task because the thought of just beginning was overwhelming. I have to say that meditation has helped.

I feel very lucky. I hope this improvement in my life continues and I wish it upon all of you. I feel like some of us will look back upon these times as "the dark ages".

Effexor and Paxil are the worst to taper in my opinion.