I just went off Effexor starting Jan 1 with very little problem. I was on 225 mg for over 20 years. I did some research and decided to use a Prozac bridge. I called my psychiatrist and told her that is what I was doing so she gave me 37.5mg Effexor and 20mg of Prozac. I was on 75mg and took that to 37.5 and added 40mg Prozac. I had no withdrawal symptoms. I stayed on that for around 5 days. I then dropped the 2nd 37.5 and added another 20-40mg of Prozac. I did the same thing with the next 2, 75mg of Effexor and changed to Prozac. I ended up on 40 mg of Prozac and I stayed on that for a few months because there are some residual withdrawal symptom. In the 3rd month, for 3 days I had migraine headaches that started at 5pm to 11pm. The next day it was 5pm-8pm and the last day the migraine started at 5pm and ended around 6pm and that was it. They then went away. Then a week later I was having trouble with my being able to remember things which was scary and that happened for 3 days, too, and then went away?! As the brain readjusts strange things can happen. I am fully off the Effexor and Prozac and feel better than before so far. I had diarrhea for at least 2 years and couldn't figure out why. Drs. did all kinds of tests and it turned out the Effexor turned on me and when I was down to 75mg of Effexor the diarrhea stopped!! I was on it so long I didn't suspect it was the cause of the diarrhea. I was also on Trazadone to sleep and immediately started being able to sleep when I was off the Effexor?? It feels like the Effexor was revving up my whole system. You can get off Effexor without suffering.