Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)?

I am eight months off of this horrible drug and I'm still having waves and windows that are absolutely terrifying. I'm currently just sitting here in bed trembling I wake up every morning in between 3 am and 6 am and sheer terror for no reason. Other times I feel totally fine and I'm at the gym. I have learned I have a protracted withdrawal syndrome that can last months two years. I don't know what to do. Does anyone have any thing that help helped during this time. I've tried to clonidine to calm my nervous system and intermittent use of muscle relaxers at a very very low amount. My doctor says he hasn't seen anyone as sensitive as me in 30 years.

@catamite if you take just 1/4 lorazepam at a time, once a day, theyll last! Thats the problem its hard to know if its withdrawal that gives us horrible symptoms or that we need to stay on it. I dont think Drs or Psychs really know....they seem keen to see us restarted on the drug we're trying hard to be rid of! ☹️

@jsn1711 I, too, had extreme withdrawal symptoms after two months off venlafaxine. I presumed I decreased too much too soon, and went back on the drug at a reduced dose. I am now tapering more slowly. The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines suggests two approaches for "Management of protracted withdrawal syndrome":
"Limited research and clinical experience suggest people do recover spontaneously from protracted withdrawal without specific intervention, albeit over sometimes long periods. So, a conservative approach to management may be reasonable. Patients often require reassurance that they will improve in time. They also need support...if such states are prolonged, as they can sometimes be debilitating.
"The second option is re-instatement of the original medication....However, when there is a longer delay in re-instatement after the onset of withdrawal effects (e.g. months or longer) the response is less certain." (Page 54.)
I have been where you are, in "sheer terror for no reason." That was after two months off the drug, I did not know what was happening (was unfamiliar with the dependency this drug causes), and didn't feel like I could cope, so I opted to return to a reduced dose and taper more slowly. In your case, since you have days that you feel fine, and you are already eight months out, you may be more apt to "recover spontaneously." In my case, mornings were the worst but I found that physical exercise helped more than anything. What if you went to the gym on those days that you didn't feel like it?
I recommend Mark Horowitz's information online and The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines for more information. All the best to you.

@nanke99 i am on 150 mg ventab xl - i have been tapering down the worst experience ever - anxiety pits, depression and hopelessness. I am bridging it with an SSRI voxigain and my doctor has also given me 2 sos per day ti Friday.
I am having to take time off work.
So this is normal right? I
Going to get off it rightb

@njoys Hi, what was the reduced dose that you returned to? As I mentioned, it’s going on 11 weeks since my last dose of 6.25 mg, which I took every other day for two weeks. My doctor has suggested that I reinstate using the hyperbolic method, either by counting beads or using a liquid formulation. I’m really struggling with ongoing anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, nervous and afraid, exhaustion, sleepiness, adrenaline rushes, irritability, and other symptoms. They also seem to be worse when I wake up.
I take 10 mg of propranolol to help with the symptoms, but it’s not enough. My doctor also prescribed a low dose of Ativan, but I haven’t taken it because it causes drowsiness. I’m really on the fence about reinstating Venlafaxine, but I’m having a hard time getting through the day-to-day symptoms 😞😢

For years, the most I was on was 75 mg per day (for hot flashes--which did not stop; hot flashes are a possible side-effect of Effexor!). When I realized two months after quitting that I was in severe withdrawal from stopping too much/too soon, I reinstated the drug at 50 mg (tablet). I stabilized relatively quickly. (Could I have reinstated at 37.5? I don't know.) I have been able to switch between extended release (ER) capsules and the twice-a-day tablets without issues. Since dosage decreases of 5 to 10% are not readily available, my independent (not-a-chainstore) pharmacist created a liquid formulation based on information in The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines. Using a syringe, it took me a year to get to about 15 mg per day. Then I switched to counting granules inside 37.5 mg capsules. I am now at approximately 9 mg per day (about 1/4 of the 37.5 mg capsule contents).
One caution: Venlafaxine is manufactured by many different companies, and the contents of the capsules vary. I did not like the looks of the contents of my latest Rx, so spoke with the pharmacist and obtained capsules by another manufacturer where the contents are more consistent in appearance. The pharmacist told me to request capsules from this same company when I need my next refill.

I went off 150mg of Effexor in January. I had NO withdrawal symptoms because I used a Prozac bridge. I gradually switched to Prozac until I was only on Prozac. Then going off of Prozac was very easy. I have no idea why this isn't recommended to everyone going off Effexor? Ridiculous. You do not have to suffer.

@sallyo420 hi I have just been reading about this method! I am suffering skin burning from stopping Mirtazipine got down to 3.75 mg probably too quickly but had only been on 3 months / my GP just said might as well stop them now at that dose - didn’t offer alternative.

I have managed to get completely off them a couple of times but always ended up going back on them too.
A very powerful drug!
I want to try again but I'm afraid that I'm going to end up in the same place full of terror, hopelessness & anxiety which I also experience being on efexor!
My psych wants me to try taking even more efexor, I currently take 150mg, which I'm not going to do. Depression has robbed me of any modicum of confidence.
At the same time being on efexor I feel like I'm only surviving rather than living.
I believe in my heart that the depression that I experience is as a result of "frozen grief"
Is it too late now to peel back the onion and feel the feelings?
Will I survive?

@hoping25 I am not familiar with this medication but I would ask your doctor is the prozac bridge would work for you with this medication. If not, is there another medication you can use as a bridge. I first searched the internet and found the Prozac bridge for Effexor worked well for others so I told my doctor I wanted to try it. Search the internet for your medication and what bridge may work. Going off these medications is insane and brutal. Hopefully, you will be lucky and find something like I did. Prozac is pretty versatile and easy to get off of. These withdrawal systems are almost inhuman. Doctors are so afraid of being sued they won't offer meds without a protocol. For some reason, they don't seem to care about the withdrawal symptoms. They have obviously never been through it.