I had the same experience

Hi. I have similar concerns but I am meditating, walking and journaling and I seem to be improving.

The cost of being on Cymbalta, constipation and when it stopped working, having to withdraw from it, convinced me to do every thing I can to avoid prescribed meds.

Best to you.

It’s really hard to tell. The same thing happened to me when I tapered Paxil after 25 years. I tapered for 9 months. One doctor said it could definitely be the Paxil tapering causing my symptoms after being off for months, another doctor said it was my depression returning. I tend to agree with the first doctor. I had nothing to be depressed about when the symptoms returned. Since researching antidepressants and hearing others stories I do think it had something to do with withdrawal.

Effexor is VERY powerful; while reducing, or after getting off Effexor, it takes your brain a while to figure out how to rebalance serotonin and norepinephrine. It took almost three years for my withdrawal symptoms to go away; they would ebb and flow with longer and longer periods in between. The stress of losing my job due to the pandemic and the isolation from friends/family for over a year because of lockdown added at least a year to my recovery time.

I was on just 25mg for 17 years (for hot flashes, not depression). After slowly tapering off, I was fine for 6.5 weeks and then, developed what were obviously withdrawal symptoms. During long-term use, Effexor gets stored in fatty tissue all over your body; you're NOT really off Effexor UNTIL that gets used up as well.

I was prescribed Valium short-term by a Care Now doctor when my akathisia and anxiety became overwhelming. I did not want to rely on Valium and through trial-and-error came up with a number of OTC medications and supplements that helped me and have listed the supplements I took in previous posts (click on my name to go back through and read). The most helpful are l-tryptophan (DO NOT take while still on Effexor) and GABA.

As @huxy mentions above—sunshine, fresh air, hobbies/distractions and supportive friends/family are very helpful as is reducing stress and (for me) avoiding frenetic, violent, or disturbing music/TV/movies/reading not only while you are tapering, but for some time afterwards.