P.S. This is after telling myself just yesterday that I am one of those who must be on the drug for life.

I was on Effexor XR and eventually it gave me night terrors, hallucinations, deep anxiety and a slew of other undesirable problems. Also high blood pressure, which aggravated migraines. Deciding that I could not and did not want this drug in my life anymore, I tried making an appointment with my primary (who had prescribed it). Because my primary was not available, I was seen by the nurse practitioner, who told me to get off it immediately and to take the one that she felt I should take, starting the next day. I just did not think that was wise, so I went home and searched for info. No way was I going to follow her advice! Effexor is not an antidepressant that you can just stop taking, especially not then following it with another antidepressant. The literature was very clear on that. So I stayed on it until a neurologist was able to see me. She was appalled by what the nurse practitioner had wanted me to do. She created a schedule for weaning off the drug, over several months, until the dosage and frequency of administration was next to nothing. Even with that, I had withdrawal symptoms, such as what I called brain-squeezes and auditory disturbances. I've been off that drug for over 15 yrs and took NO antidepressants until I agreed to take a low dose of Zoloft, which was ineffective but also created issues for me. THAT ALSO needed the guidance of the professional who prescribed it, and it took about 8 MONTHS of a detailed, finely tuned weaning schedule, along with check-up visits. When done, I still felt unwell, sluggish, cotton-brained, and kept hearing nasty whoosh wounds in my ears, even being awakened by it. The pharmacist worked with my doctor to create a tincture of the Zoloft, and that also had to be worked into a "weaning" schedule. When all was over, I was grateful to be free of the drug, but still felt somewhat unwell , and that is how I attended our younger daughter's wedding, feeling like an observer, struggling to smile, greet people, and not let on that what I needed to do was crawl under a blanket. I could well have won an Oscar for my performance that night, but what propelled me was not wanting to spoil our daughter's wedding. To this day (12 yrs later), I look back with much regret at how a medication could have sabotaged what was such an important family event.
Based on my very real and personal experiences with these two often-prescribed and "popular" antidepressants, I urge not handling the discontinuation of any medication sans medical guidance.
Just my two cents...I sincerely hope all goes well for you as you aim to be released of the Effexor.🌺