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Anyone reinstate Effexor (Venlafaxine) after 9 weeks off to taper more
Hello 🤗
I was on Effexor (Venlafaxine) ER in January 2025, with my highest dose being 225 mg. I didn’t feel like I was getting much improvement with Venlafaxine, so I eventually tapered down gradually and slowly to 75 mg. Since the ER is a capsule, I asked my doctor to switch me to the IR so I could taper more even slower. Per her taper recommendation, I stayed at 25 mg for about 2 months, then went down to 18.75 mg for about 4 weeks and 12.5 mg for another 4 weeks and went down to 6.25 mg for another 4 weeks. Since I couldn’t cut the dose any lower, she recommended taking 6.25 mg every other day for about 2 weeks and then stopping. I stopped completely on June 4th.
I’m now 9 weeks off, and my doctor believes I’m still experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Since June 10th, I’ve felt keyed up much of the time, with adrenaline rushes, nervousness, rapid heart rate, and waves of anxiety. I’m also really sleepy, sluggish, and feeling wiped out. Even after sleeping 7–8 hours, I still wake up feeling like I haven’t slept. The symptoms continue from morning through the evening and are really affecting my quality of life. My doctor also prescribed Prozac to help with the withdrawal symptoms, but it didn’t help, so I stopped taking it. I take 10mg of propranolol in the morning to help with some of the anxiety symptoms.
I met with her last week and she said she did some research and also talked with some of her colleagues about my symptoms and they recommended that I reinstate at a very low dose and then taper much more slowly. One option she gave me was to restart with a 75 mg Venlafaxine XR capsule and count the beads, taking 10 beads (about 5 mg) to start. The plan would then be to gradually reduce the number of beads: 10 → 8 → 6 → 4 → 3 → 2 → 1 → 0, staying at each dose for 2–4 weeks or longer if needed. She also found a compounding pharmacy that can make liquid Venlafaxine IR, which would allow for even smaller dose reductions, but I am really hesitant to restart Venlafaxine. I worked hard to get off of it, and it wasn’t really helping the anxiety symptoms when I was taking it. I also don’t want to go through withdrawal again after I eventually stop.
Has anyone else been in this situation? Were you still having significant withdrawal symptoms 8–10 weeks after stopping Effexor (Venlafaxine)? Did you decide to reinstate and taper more slowly? If you did, did it help? If you decided not to reinstate, are you still having withdrawal symptoms, and have they started to improve with more time? What did you do that helped?
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through something similar because I’m really struggling 😞. Thank you
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Good for you that you were tapering with your doctor's guidance. Getting off any antidepressant, including Effexor (Venlafaxine), can be a real challenge. I can see, then, that being asked to reinstate venlafaxine, even allowing you to taper more slowly, might come with barriers for you.
What symptoms are affecting you today?
@lisalucier Hi - I have low energy, nervousness, excitability, anxiety, irritability, head pressure, emotional, sleepiness even after sleeping for 7-8 hours a night, and feeling wiped out.
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1 ReactionI was on 50 for couple of years. Decided I wanted to be off of them, gained only 7kg but still wanted them gone! I started cutting the tablets in half, then called a compounding pharmacist who Id had other products from. He told me they have a lot of requests for lower doses of this drug. Stayed on 40 for 6 weeks then I wanted a lower dose so went back to cutting 50 in half. Compounding pharmacist felt it was ok to do that with a really sharp knife. Stayed back on 50, cut in half, so 25s. My psych could see I was doing fine so gave me a compounding script for 10s....I think its too much of a jump down, didnt feel good at all so went back to 25 (50 cut in half) then decided to cut again so would be on 12.5. Dont feel good, emotional, now Im not sure what to do. Maybe take 2 of the 10 capsules so Im then on 20 a day. Your Dr is amazing the way that shes so helpful in lowering your dose so gradually. Id go back on a low dose if I was you but stay on it for 3 months. Im def not taking another med while Im coming off of this awful drug. Good luck. You'll get there. I will too. We've come this far.
@cas2001 Hi there! Thanks for replying. I have been off of the Venlafaxine now for 10 weeks. I’m just concerned with restarting it at a lower dose of what I ended with and then tapering down like the doctor recommended and then once I get down to stopping it all together. I have the same withdrawal side effects I am having now that I have had for 8 weeks 😢😢. When you decided to come off of Venlafaxine, did you get off completely and then restart to taper slowly?