I recently discontinued 450mg of Venlafaxine daily, that I had been taking for fifteen years. I did so with my providers oversight.

My first thought is why do you want to stop? For me there were two answers; I believed it had stopped working and the drug had very real negative side effects. I also believed I never should have been on it to begin with. Something my providers tacitly agree with.

I stopped a number of medications at the same time, probably too fast. While I did not experience any of the usual discontinuation effects my sleep collapsed.

Sleep had been a problem shortly after I was put on psychiatric medication. Of course I was given medication to help me sleep. When I discontinued all of them it wasn’t long before I was sleeping only two hours at a time. This has not improved, even though it has been three months since I’ve taken any Venlafaxine. Sleep disturbances are a side effect and a discontinuation effect of the drug.

I am physically much healthier but I’ve recently gone through a terrible collapse that probably could have been avoided if I had gone slower,

The only interventions that have worked all the time with no exceptions are; a very clean diet and vigorous daily exercise.

I keep track of what I eat. I avoid garbage food (refined sugar and fast food) and I exercise everyday. For me exercise makes me happy so I usually go for two hours, two out of twenty four doesn’t seem like a lot to me.

The science is 💯 percent clear. Medication for mental health is a crapshoot, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. Even when it does no one really knows why.

A healthful diet and exercise, always work! And science is clear on why. No one wants to hear it, I didn’t, I’d rather take a pill. But what we eat and how much we move directly correlates to how we feel.

If I were to titrate all over again, I would follow the same diet and exercise regime and slow the discontinuation down to no more than one change every four weeks. The body needs time to adjust.

In my case I think fifteen years of high dose psychiatric medications may have made irrevocable changes to my biology. Meaning, whether I needed them originally or not I may need something for the rest of my life. We’ll see,

My advice, get your providers support. Go slowly. Eat nutritious foods and exercise. Hopefully you can avoid a setback, like I just had, that made me have to reset before I can start cleaning these drugs out again.

Be well and live in peace.