Effexor Withdrawal or Depression Relapse

Hi, from my litany of problems with VENLAFAXINE = aka EFFEXOR in USA, your " jet lag", is attributable to EFFEXOR withdrawal. I am experiencing your problems (& alot more). I spent 2 years titrating off (from only 75mg !) getting down to taking beads out of a 37.5 slow rel capsule & diluting them! I kid you not. Luckily, you were on it only a very short time, so I guess your issues will be short lived. The longer you are on it, the longer these symptoms take to cease . AND, as you observe, they go away , and come back ! Severe problems are seemingly all down to genetics. Some people have no issues at all. I have read the drug gets absorbed into your body fats / cells. Thus causing "withdrawal issues" as your body tries to rid itself. Hope this helps .

Thanks for that helpful and informative response! Could you provide a source about Effexor storing itself in the body's (fat) cells? This is concerning. I wonder how long the body needs to get rid of it.

Based on your seemingly extensive knowledge about this topic, would you say that the withdrawal from six weeks of 150mg Sertraline followed by six weeks of 225mg Venlafaxine should be less severe than for the average person trying to come off these drugs?

Also, would you be willing to provide more information about your own situation? How long had you been on the 75mg dose prior to the two-year taper period? How long have you been off Venlafaxine now? What are you withdrawal symptoms like?

Hi, like you I am in Europe. UK.
First of all, I recommend, as an overview (and as an American) you look out last months documentary on BBC i Player. "The truth about anti-depressants". FYI, it seems to have been separately put out on You Tube. One hour duration. It features THE top Professors in UK & USA who are now dealing with the "fall - out" of these (80's & 90's next gen pills). The USA Public health Drug oversight body is also featured. I have, over the past 3 yrs, spoken to ALL the UK Neuropharmacologists on the show. I am no medical person, but have had to "reverse engineer" my situation to find out what is going on with me. In your case, 225mg seems alot to start on. Your body would take a hit @ that level. It is the titration off (slow draw down) that is some help vs the symptoms. BUT, I am hyper sensitive to ANY A.D. & EFFEXOR/ VEN is reputedly worse than HEROIN to get off of. ! both in time and symptoms. Dr's gave me 75mg to start. = It now transpires I should have not been given ANY A.D.' s as I am ALLERGIC to all of them ! (That is a wholly separate story). I have let the famous TEMPLE GRANDIN in the USA know about A.D.'s dangers to Autistics !

After the six/seven weeks of Sertraline, they switched me to 75mg Venlafaxine but increased that incrementally to 225mg within a week. I was on the 225mg dose for approximately 30 days.

One tends to look for parallels to the dose /treatment you were given as a comparator. From the deluge of data I have accumulated, your prescribed accelerated rate of dose increase seems far too fast. Interestingly, FAR MORE females take AD's compared to men. Also, - See Documentary - Dr's seem all over the place with AD administration protocols. With me, they tried after 8 MONTHS on 75mg = (despite me crippled with most of the bad side-effects), to up dose to 150mg. As a immediate result, on Xmas day 2017, I was sat with sweat running through my hair & quite delerious !! I kid you not. I stopped 150mg after 3 pills & went back to 75mg. Breathing problems were the final straw , starting Sept 2018. Then began titration. TOO FAST @ first 75mg to 37.5 in a month then 0. Vertigo took 3 days to subside & felt terrible .Internet advice NO, do not stop so quick. Go back to 75mg & start again , very , very slowly. Titration took from Oct 2018 to Oct 2022. Still get most terrible side effect symptoms.

I have seen that documentary. It was one of the reasons I decided to get off the medication.
Compared to the other posts here and on survivingantidepressants, my symptoms seem fairly mild. I don't want to restart any medication.
Fortunately, I don't have any pain, dizziness, anxiety, sleep, or cognitive problems. It's just a queasy feeling with a low mood.

I was put on 450mg of Venlafaxine/Effexor 15 years ago, when I went to a doctor for what I thought was depression. Now that I know what depression really is, I was sad and exhausted. He also put me 450mg of Wellbutrin and 900mg of Lithium all at once. Within a year I was thinking of suicide at least weekly.

Scroll forward ten years and I finally insisted on being taken off of the drugs he refused. No psychiatrist would touch me. The thought was that if I am on so much medication I must be really messed up. Never mind that I was very successful, married with four children and well off. I had zero reasons to be suicidal and every reason to rejoice.

I sold my companies and retired to be home with my children and give my wife a break. I decide to take myself off the meds, I cut all of them in half in two weeks. By this time every doctor that I had seen put me on addition meds. They never took any away. Dropping my meds so fast was a disaster. I had every side effect from the discontinuation of these drugs that you read in about, including brain Zaps every five to 10 minutes.

I have written before about how bad things got, my point is stopping without medical support is very difficult. Fortunately you have been on a low dose for a relatively short period of time. It should make its way out of your system probably taking the same length of time as your were on it.

You can speed that up by exercising as vigorously as you can. Sweat as much as possible. Clean up your diet so that whatever is in your system can be replaced by good health nutrients. I found that eliminating sugar wherever I can has made a big difference.

In June I had a shot gun in my hand ready to end my life and I thought "it would be stupid to blow my head off without trying to figure out what was going on". So I started to do something I know how to do; research.

Here is what I found: (as it applies to me)

No one really knows why these medications are effective at all. The know what they do but the why is squishy.

The possible effects on the human body (who was the idiot that thought they could treat the brain and not effect the body) are impossible to calculate.

Insurance companies like medication because it's quick, talk therapy takes a much longer time. So, they bifurcated mental health. Some people write prescriptions and some people counsel. Neither one has the full picture, a recipe for disaster.

How did this happen? Pharmaceutical companies spending billions developing a drug. Guess who pays for the drug trials? Yeah, you got it. Might there be a confirmation bias perhaps even a conflict of interest. Drug companies are for profit companies. Think about that. We are being sold drugs that have so many side effects they can't list them all. All psych meds have warnings regarding thoughts of suicide or suicidal actions as possible side effects; What!

Why were these drugs approve? Did the FDA (here in the States) take a look at them. Sure they did, using the drug companies data! The FDA does not pay for or run trials. "Well just put warnings and disclaimers on the drugs and let the consumer and his doctor figure it out." Who, what doctor? My PCP or the psych provider who put me on them. They have no idea what the other one is doing.

I concluded it was up to me to figure this out and make my case to my doctors. I spent a month researching every drug I was on, fourteen at the time and all their interactions and came to the conclusion that I should never have been put on antidepressants at age forty three to begin with. I needed rest possibly some time with a therapist and I needed to get more than five hours sleep a night. In other words lifestyle changes. It is the medication that was and is making me sick.

I presented my findings to my two providers and I am down to four psyche meds and two side effect meds. They believed my findings were rational and my plan for titrating off reasonable. I am down to 337 of Effexor in month. I have dropped Lithium to 750 some others are just gone. So far no discontinuation effects. What I didn't expect was fifteen years of feelings not felt, would come rushing back in. Maybe that's why it is so difficult to get off these drugs.

I have to stress I am doing this with medical support. My blood work is checked no less than monthly. My blood pressure will be daily as soon as my home monitor arrives. I exercise two hours a day six days a week and I try to eat a clean healthful diet. I am also staring a company to do my best to make sure others do not go through what I've gone through.

More detail than you probably wanted. All I really have to offer, is do your home work and take care of your body. I believe it can be done or at least I have hope. For me when the side effects became too much to take (let's kill the patient to save his life) I finally took action. I guess that's what it takes.

For all those with mental health conditions and every one trying to help we have been taken advantage of we are one big drug trial and this time we paid for it.

Be well!

Are you withdrawing from Effexor or Effexor XR (extended relief)? My experience going off of 37.5mg of Effexor was terrible. I had a much better experience titrating the XR. I am always depressed after vacation. My life at home is such drudgery. It could be a combination of withdrawal and vacation let down. I hope you feel better soon!

Thanks for your reply. Like you , notwithstanding I am allergic to ANY Anti - depressant. It later transpires mine was NOT a "mental health" problem, but an Adult Autistic Meltdown! (before AUTISM officially diagnosed. Dr's now say to NOT prescribe ANY A.D to "treat" meltdown's, but for them to recover, naturally , over time. So, the AD's have caused a whole host of NEW problems !! Autism is not a Mental health issue, but the anxiety & stress arising from it CAN cause "mental health". I am , it now transpires, a World rare Autistic SAVANT !

In light of the comments posted here, you may be interested in this: https://www.madinamerica.com/2019/03/peer-support-groups-right-official-guidelines-wrong-dr-mark-horowitz-tapering-off-antidepressants/