VENLAFAXINE WITHDRAWAL

do you mean desvenlafaxine?

I tried tapering off in order to start a different medication. I lowered my dose of venlafaxine, while adding the new medication for one week. I stopped taking the venlafaxine during the second week. This is what my doctor told me to do. After three days of torture, I stopped taking the new medication and continued with venlafaxine. The side effects are terrible!

Yes just horrible, I think continuing is the best thing for you to do it's not worth the struggle I am going through presently.

@dmbwa99362 I took 2 weeks each as I halved down from 150mg. During this time I also took CBD oil, which helped keep the anxiety to a minimum. I had the usual brain zaps but that was all. I have also been practicing daily meditations, learning to observe my negative or fear-producing thoughts while not taking them seriously.

Check out The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines, or Mark Horowitz/Outro online. There is such a thing as "protracted withdrawal syndrome" which occurs ". . . in an unknown proportion of patients after stopping psychiatric mediations." It happened to me: about two months after completely tapering Effexor (TWICE), I experienced immediate and horrific withdrawal symptoms overnight. I was forced to resume at a lower dose and am now tapering more slowly--in the middle of what I hope to be a two-year withdrawal from a maximum 75mg dose of Effexor.
Only you can decide your next step. There is a lot to learn about withdrawing from Effexor on this website. I will admit that during withdrawal, I had to force myself to get up, get out of bed, and become physically active. Physical exercise helped me as much as anything; mornings were the worst. I eventually had to resume a lower dose of Effexor, become stable at that, and then begin to wean myself off again, decreasing by no more than 5-10% after becoming stable at each dose.
Good luck.

I was pretty fortunate in that I jumped off quite quickly and was over the side effects within six weeks. But reading this forum, there are a lot of threads regarding Effexor, the timing of getting off of it, the severity of the symptoms, and other complications, as well as what relieves them in a helpful manner. Reactions seem to vary all over the map. Some, like myself, do well all things considered, others struggle for months and even years. And there are reports from everywhere in between. So I feel that any answers you get to this question will depend on each individual's own experience. You probably want to factor this into your thinking. I wish I could offer something better, but this is what I've observed.

I will repeat my biggest complaint: I was not told prior to getting on the medication just how physically difficult it might be weaning myself off of it if it doesn't work (and in my case it amplified my depression severely; quite frighteningly so). I went on it some years go and stayed on it for quite a few years years, and I'm hoping standard procedure for offering warnings among providers has changed. People should know what they're getting into. My unscientific observation of this forum indicates that it's the most complained about psychotropic here, although this could be selection bias on my part since it's what brought me here originally. It's definitely one that a lot of people want to be off of. And again, for a wide range of reasons.

I hope you're able to find your way free of it.

@depressedbutnotdead my Dr didn't tell me about the withdrawal affect. I wish he would have informed me, I probably wouldn't have agreed with his med suggestion

@dmbwa99362 I probably would not have as well.

@denisejones00 no, Venlafaxine

I am also going through a miserable withdrawal after having been on venlafaxine ER for many years. I wanted to share an unusual symptom. I wake in the night with pain in my hands. I bought a pair of hand braces which help, but I also saw a hand specialist who suspected carpal tunnel syndrome and ordered nerve testing. My tests were positive for carpal tunnel in both hands. I thought it was strange that I had no such symptoms before weaning off venlafaxine. The dr. that did the nerve tests suggested that the venlafaxine may have masked the symptoms while I was on it. I looked it up on the web, and he was right. Here is what AI wrote: Yes, venlafaxine has the potential to mask the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). As a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), venlafaxine is effective at treating neuropathic pain and chronic pain conditions.
Here is how it can affect the diagnosis and experience of carpal tunnel syndrome:
Pain Reduction: Because venlafaxine acts on the central nervous system to modulate pain, it can mask the tingling, numbness, and pain associated with nerve compression, such as in CTS.
Delayed Diagnosis: By masking the pain and sensory symptoms, a person might not realize the severity of the nerve compression in their wrist, potentially delaying a proper diagnosis and treatment
There are also several medical sites, such as NIH, that talk about it. Has anyone else had this experience when withdrawing from venlafaxine?