Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)

Thank you Jake! Really great advise/information.
Huxy

I'm off. Its hell going through. Please know you are not alone. There will be light in the world again, but it may take awhile.

Thank you so much for your words of encouragement! No nausea today and plenty of happy energy. So different from yesterday.
I’ve Got to keep on going!
Thank you

Thank you for your tips! The struggle is real!

I started tapering at 300mgs. 1 month at 150, one month at 75, one month at 37.5, stop. I thought l was going to die. I wanted to die. I postponed my final college degree module, cried, contemplated suicide, you name it. Too many doctors don't seem to know anything about tapering, because l could easily have killed myself to escape the pain.
I survived, but knew very little about what to expect, because neither did any of the experts responsible for my care. I was asked what l wanted to try. I AM NOT A DOCTOR. But l'm staying clean. I am not becoming a statistic. I am a bpd survivor.

I have been tapering down from 150 mg of Effexor after several weeks at 37.5 mg., I am now on day three of not taking it at all. I’ve been managing the achy body with Tylenol all through the tapering. However, now I am experiencing insomnia and then when I finally fall asleep from exhaustion, I have crazy and slightly disturbing dreams so I wake up pretty anxious. That part is manageable. I am really struggling with the “swooshing” sounds in my brain. They are not painful but make is extremely difficult to concentrate and focus on computer work for my job. Also I am feeling nauseous so my brain wants me to eat all the time. Plus, I feel pretty weepy at times and get irritated easily. Any tips to get through this time? I know eating healthier and continue to exercise will help. Any other tips? Especially with the “swooshing” sound in my head? I am also considering taking Tylenol PM at night so I can fall asleep and stay asleep. Any advice on this plan? Thank you!

Hi @adanaya and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You are quite brave to endure that! My goodness I cannot imagine the pain and suffering.

Here is an article on self care with BPD:
https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/borderline-personality-disorder-bpd/self-care-for-bpd/
What are you currently doing to fight the mood swings and the ups and downs?

Talking books.

I forgot to mention..I am going through withdrawal from Protiq, hence my symptoms.

It's a combination of CBT and talking books. I can't move because the mental pain is sometimes constant and unbearable, but having to follow a story, a life, facts, can keep things damped down. This condition does NOT get better as you age. We die, we take our own lives, we give up on there being any help, so we don't show any more. But we are still here and still going through this every single day. This has - merciful God - only happened once, but once makes me dread 'again'. My friend was here, she's a nurse, and we were tslking, but suddenly, l wasn't. I couldn't speak at all. I wasn't having a stroke, l simply couldn't speak. I could shake my head or nod, but no more. I couldn't write either. Interestingly, l could type. It was quite terrifying. Lucky it happeened at home. If it had happened outside? Phew! But it stayed with me for days. I could read, so l read. But l couldn't call for help. A scan revealed that no, l hadn't had a stroke. But something had happened. A harmless message from my brother's wife asking how l was, as she knows of my condition. Blameless and never caused me harm. The only thing therapist and GP thought was that my trauma was so bad that even such a tenuous contact drove me into - what happened. I have no contact at all now.
It is agonising pain. There is no treatment. At 66 l've been through an alphabet soup of medication, and all the additional agony of tapering off the worst ones. In my experience, love is the only treatment. Care. Kindness. That's the treatment.
Oh, yes, people fall to heroin, alcohol, all manner of drugs, but the best treatment is to know that someone really cares about you, and like everything else, even that's touch and go.