Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

My withdrawal symptoms hit me at three weeks out

@rmj5
Oh gosh, I am sorry to hear that. I hope you were able to manage through them ok. I am hoping that I am through the worst of it since I have had them from day 1 of no effexor.

I ended up speaking with my doctor about getting pill form and tapering from 37.5 to the 25 mg pill and so on from there, but that day, (yesterday) I barely had any brain zaps so even though I got the prescription filled, I decided not to take them. I woke up today feeling decent again (compared to the last couple of days) and was even able to handle work for a while. I am exactly one week without effexor. I hope it doesn't get worse, but I will re-evaluate at that time if it does. Thank you all for your advice and support.

So, I just finished this process with Zoloft (sertraline) and here are some things that worked for me. Your mileage may vary, but hopefully these are low risk for you to try.

1) You may need to ask your doctor for a slower tapering program than other patients. Some people are just more sensitive to dosage changes. Be aware that symptoms will get better, then may reappear each time you taper. AAFMA (practice group of family physicians) says that the symptoms typically last 1-2 weeks and as long as 4 weeks, so I just kept reminding myself that it was temporary.
2) Be watchful for things that make your symptoms worse. For example, caffeine seems to trigger the brain zaps for me (still, even after being off for several weeks), so I cut back my caffeine intake. I didn't give it up completely (because I still need to function), but cut back on how much real coffee I was drinking, mixed decaf with regular, and switched to tea sometimes. In the end, I probably cut my daily caffeine intake in half, and it did help quite a lot.
3) Ibuprofen or other pain reliever can help with the flu-like body aches.
4) Benadryl helped with the brain zaps.
5) Exercise helped with both. Even if I wasn't up to a run, a few blocks of walking would settle down the symptoms for a while at least. (Then, when they come back, just take another walk. We took a lot of walks for a while there).
6) Get enough sleep. As I came down off the meds, my normal sleeping patterns returned, which was great, but it did mean that I needed to plan time to let my body rest.
7) Pay attention to your diet. Your brain uses carbs to make seratonin, so now is not the time to go on the Atkins diet. Eat well and make sure you're getting enough healthy carbs. You may crave sweets; I certainly did. I tried to counteract this by having bananas, graham crackers, and other healthy things I could snack on instead of sticking my head in a birthday cake like I seemed to want.

No lie - it's a painful process, but this did really help make it easier. Also, at a certain point, when I was down the below the normal starter dose, I just ripped off the bandaid and went to zero. At that point, it felt like each taper was just prolonging the suffering. Don't just go cold turkey from your current dose, though, as that can be dangerous. Also, don't add any supplements or substitutes for the SSRI without talking to your doctor first (also dangerous).

And of course, watch for the return of depression / anxiety type symptoms. For a while it was hard to tell whether I was tired because of the change in meds or because my depression was returning. I figured as long as I felt okay enough to function and wasn't thinking about being harmful to myself or anyone else, I could play it out and see. It turned out to be the meds and on the other side, I can see that I was more worried about it than I needed to be.

I wish you the best of luck and a healthy life.

Mardee

Jake,
Unfortunately, this is how my doctor advised me to taper. I understand I did it wrong, but now that I have done it wrong and have been off if for 6 days now, I am hesitant to start taking it again if I am almost over the withdrawal period.

Don’t mess around with Effexor. Tapering can’t be done in an unorganized manner. You have to use a well thought out tapering schedule and stick by it .

I am so grateful for this discussion board, but so sorry to hear of everyone’s difficulties tapering off of Effexor. I just decreased from 150 mg to 75 mg, over the past week. Still having some unpleasant physical symptoms, but I am really concerned about how I’m starting to feel emotionally- I’m more easily agitated, snapping at others, a little paranoid (not about anything serious- I don’t have any history of paranoia - more silly things, like thinking people might not really “like me” and stuff like that), and am feeling more depressed/anxious. Lower energy is also a problem. I don’t know how to tell if I am falling back into a depression, or if these are normal withdrawal symptoms from tapering?as I taper down? Of course, if symptoms worsen I will contact my doctor. However, I am wondering how long I should kind of “give it” to see if this is just a natural withdrawal response? If anyone can relate and offer their opinion, it would be very much appreciated. Thank you!