You can find a lot of tips, strategies and advice on another Mayo Clinic thread—"Tips on minimising withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)." It's a long thread, but well worth reading ALL of it.

You can click on my name and go to Discussions to read my previous posts.

Things to be aware of—

1) "Cold turkey" stopping Effexor/venlafaxine can be dangerous—another commenter to the above thread did this and had a stroke. Folks who taper off the drug are usually more successful at getting off it.

2) Skipping doses, or days puts you into withdrawal because Effexor/venlafaxine is a very short-lived drug in the body.

3) Slowly taper—reduce by no more than 5–10% each drop. If you drop the same amount at every taper, that drop is a bigger percentage each time (75mg – 12.5mg to 62.5mg is a 16.7% drop; 62.5mg – 12.5mg to 50mg is a 20% drop; 50mg – 12.5mg to 37.5mg is a 25% drop, etc.).

4) Stay at each new level for weeks (even months) AND stabilize BEFORE dropping again. This is a very powerful drug that affects your brain's neurotransmitter levels—it takes time for your head to recalibrate these without the drug, or at lower levels of the drug … hence, withdrawal symptoms (nausea, dizziness, insomnia, anxiety, etc.) when you taper too fast.

5) OTC medications and supplements can help with some of the withdrawal symptoms. Ben*dryl, Bon*ine, or other seasickness remedies can reduce/minimize the dizziness/vertigo. Here's a good article re how to mitigate withdrawal effects with supplements–https://www.4mind4life.com/effexor-withdrawal-symptoms. (Fish oil may be more helpful than krill oil.) Do NOT take l-tryptophan, or 5-HTP while still on Effexor (can trigger serotonin syndrome).

6) Your doctor can prescribe a different formulation (I was on 25mg regular-release tablets that could be cut), or he could specify a certain brand of capsules (@farm_mom found Teva had the most consistent size and number of beads within a capsule–helpful to those counting and throwing out beads to taper–see @sandij, or @doorman on how to do this). Or your doctor can write a prescription for a compounding pharmacy to make tapered doses for you (the extra cost may well be worth it because you can glide down in incremental amounts, rather than make rather large jagged drops).

Ask your doctor about a "Prozac bridge"–essentially, the Prozac cushions the effect of no Effexor and lets you "ride out" the withdrawal process.–https://natashatracy.com/treatment-issues/withdrawal/antidepressants-effexorpristiq-venlafaxinedesvenlafaxine/. See also https://www.depressionforums.org/forums/topic/107532-coming-off-of-effexor-with-prozac-bridge/.

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