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Is there any long term side effects from stopping venlafaxine?
Depression & Anxiety | Last Active: Aug 13 9:23am | Replies (39)Comment receiving replies
It washes out quickly, but the withdrawal symptoms can persist for some time. There have been a lot of posts here about that.
For me, I quit cold turkey from a relatively low dose. The nausea and vertigo lasted about a week. The brain zaps took about six weeks to resolve. Then I had months of emotional surges, which many others have noted. But in many ways I appreciated those since I feel the drug had kept me emotionally corked, with first anger, and then increasingly, depression the only emotions I experienced. Ten years after my sister's death, I was finally able to cry. And at the other end, I felt genuine joy for the first time in years. So I was OK with that period of the withdrawal.
A year-and-a-half later those feelings aren't so strong, but healthy emotions are now the norm.
Reading the experiences of others, I feel like I got away fairly easily.
I don't know what if any studies have been done that explain why this happens, but withdrawal is, from what I've gathered, highly variable from one person to the next. And it can last for a very long time for some. The drug is out of your body rather quickly, but the after effects aren't. I do hope this gets put to scrutiny. We need to know why this is, and if it should even be prescribed given these problems.
I was never told about the difficulties one can experience coming off the medication, and after my experience, I feel that fully informing patients about this is critical. I probably would not have begun taking it if I'd known first.
Replies to "It washes out quickly, but the withdrawal symptoms can persist for some time. There have been..."
Dear Depressed but not dead & @Laura 1970. After years of Research, I can attest that long lasting, (for years), after even the most exacting titration can & do ensue in rarer published user experience feedback. There is very little, (if any ), published Pharmaceutical Industry investigation into this phenomenon. The severe toxicity effects (which were immediate with me, after just 2x pills of any anti-depressant type) are apparent. Some individuals hyper sensitive biological & neurological make-up simply rejects the complex chemical construct & content of such anti-psychotics. Indeed , for some they are not appropriate at all to be prescribed (as with me). However, with (in particular) EFFEXOR / VENLAFAXINE, such is the strength & addictive nature of this particular Anti-depressant medication over other AD types, you can have the worst case scenario of subsequent "addiction" by your body , to a drug that is toxic to you and that is also very hard to stop taking / titrate off of. So, it follows that extreme and for me, never ending daily "withdrawal" allergic & toxic legacy side effects will be experienced, both Neurological & Physical . For 2 years now for me, after titration off. This includes (as evidence shows & that I have read) said adverse effects fading away and then returning in severity, sometimes months or years later. The question is, (ones age notwithstanding), is exactly how long these chemical effects take for your body to "wash" them out. Neurological legacy issues are another thing entirely. The commonly touted "half life" quote is a generic one, I assume gleaned from the "average" user experience, but I suspect from the descriptor , purely a Neuropharmacology & chemical engineering professional & mechanistic calculation. It bears no relation to individuals real - life experiences. A man made drug is exactly that .
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I was simply responding to the comment that it is absorbed by the body’s fat and persists systemically for a great while. Certainly withdrawal effects last after the drug has left the body, that’s why it’s called withdrawal.