venlafaxine xr withdrawal Please help

Bad headache, nausea, sleeplessness, high anxiety, heart palpitations, tinnitus, dizziness, achiness, flu-like symptoms. It's bad. Very bad. That is why a very slow taper is recommend even though most doctors want patients to just take half a dose for 2 weeks, then stop after another two weeks on a half dose. It does not work for most people. I am currently tapering. I started at 75 mg and after 7 weeks, I am only down to 72.8. I tried dropping faster, but was so sick.

Bad headache, nausea, sleeplessness, high anxiety, heart palpitations, tinnitus, dizziness, achiness, flu-like symptoms. It's bad. Very bad. That is why a very slow taper is recommend even though most doctors want patients to just take half a dose for 2 weeks, then stop after another two weeks on a half dose. It does not work for most people. I am currently tapering. I started at 75 mg and after 7 weeks, I am only down to 72.8. I tried dropping faster, but was so sick.

Effexor is great when it works, but withdrawal is absolute hell.

I have been on Effexor XR 75 mg for 20 years. I started withdrawing 7 weeks ago, and I am only down to 72.8 mg. I tried to do it faster, but was so sick. Try to taper much more slowly. Visit the Website Surviving Antidepressants for guidance.

@rmce72a
I hope people pay close attention to your message and follow your lead.
Some people take it for decades and when you mention a slow taper that may take a year or more they come unglued. One lady took it for 30 years, stopped cold turkey and had a stroke others blame the drug instead of the know it all doctors who refuse to become more enlightened on more suitable tapering methods.
🎉CONGRATS🎉
to you.
Are you having any negative effects with your taper?
Take care,
Jake

Can you tell me why you quit taking Effexor, if it was working for you ??

It can be done. My withdrawal is why I first came to this site. It must be tapered very VERY slowly. I did it after over 20 years of taking it. Here’s how.
Once you get down to 37.5, you need to open the capsules and count the little beads. I took out 5, then 10, etc etc. it’s a pain, but I took out five more every month and had little withdrawal.
That being said, I went only about 6 months on nothing and I was extremely anxious and depressed. So I’m back on another ssri, zoloft. Not as many side effects.

Btw, it took me 18 months to ween off the lowest dose. If you think about it, it makes sense. This and other drugs are nothing to play with.

I’ll check back in. But I suggest looking through this site and finding “Effexor” withdrawal. I posted a bunch a few years ago.

Bottom line, it can be done. But take care of you and your family. You’re no hero if your med-free and suffering. Life is short.

So sad we have to visit websites and ask strangers for help when discontinuing physchiatric medications. The medical community truly can’t help us. The vast majority of doctors don’t have a clue. Why?

So are so right. Many doctors mean well and try to ease the suffering of their patients, BUT they need to thoroughly understand the drugs the prescribe. My doctor wanted me to withdraw quickly (2 weeks half dose, the completely off) when those who have been through it understand that such a plan is dangerous and causes suffering. When I told him about the info I had learned here and on Surviving Antidepressants, he said those ideas are contrary to his training. Duh!

I had been taking Effexor for 20 years. Three years ago, I developed panic attacks, depression, insomnia for no apparent reason. I was taking Effexor for fibromyalgia, not depression. Began seeing a therapist last year who explained that drugs often "poop out" with time, and that was causing my problems. Unfortunately, the hellish taper is still necessary even though the drug is no longer doing its job. In fact, the withdrawal is often much for difficult from a drug poop out. I wish so much I had never begun taking this drug, especially since I was not depressed or anxious before I took it. Live and learn the hard way.