I took Venlafaxine for years and at a high daily dosage — 300 mg. I began slow withdrawal in February and quit abruptly in April. It’s 5 months later. I’m still struggling with rages and crying jags and terrible impulsiveness and paranoia and … blah, blah, blah. Also withdrawing from klonapin. I am committed to doing this. I will not continue to take these drugs which never relieved my depression nor my anxiety. Has anyone made it out the other end, clean? How long did it take? I don’t trust the medical profession any longer and don’t believe members have the answers to these questions.
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Marilyn, I’m so sorry you’re suffering. I haven’t taken Effexor myself, but it’s reputed to be one of the absolute worst in terms of withdrawal symptoms. Some people have reported that switching over to Prozac and then tapering down on that makes things easier. This works particularly well with the liquid Prozac, since the dosage can be adjusted more slowly if necessary.
But that’s for people who are still taking Effexor and can’t taper down. I’m not sure, since you’ve been medication free for so long, if that would help you or not.
As harrowing as your experience sounds, SSRIs and SNRIs (like Effexor) can be life savers for some people. They really do work, but they aren’t for everyone. And even for those who need them, it can take a lot of time and patience to find the right one(s) and the right dosage.
I’m copying and pasting a section from the Crazymeds Effexor page. Crazymeds is one of the best resources around with regard to psychiatric drugs. I’d post a link but I don’t want this comment to get caught in SP’s spam filter, so copying and pasting will have to suffice.
Re: Effexor withdrawal, Jerod Poore writes:
— […] Taking two weeks worth of Prozac (fluoxetine) will make the discontinuation a lot easier. So when you’re off of it and you cannot function, get on the Prozac for a week or two, then stop taking the Prozac. By that time you should find you’ll have either no discontinuation syndrome, or it won’t be nearly as bad.
–If worse comes to worst, there’s always the liquid Prozac. Then you can work your way down from the equivalent of 10mg, or higher if 10mg was too low, to ever-so-slowly try to wean yourself off of the serotonergic part of Effexor that had its claws in you. Unlike most liquid medications of any type, Prozac’s oral solution tastes pretty good, somewhere between really good mint-flavored mouthwash and so-so peppermint schnapps.
Marilyn, it looks like you might still benefit from 2 weeks with a low dosage of Prozac. Something to consider discussing with your doctor, maybe? I know you don’t want to be on meds, but if two weeks helps you get past the worst of your symptoms, it might be worth trying.
Hope you see some improvement soon.
Lost ty for posting crazy meds site. I hadn’t heard of it so went to look and its awesome.
Glad you found it useful, Whispers! It really is a great resource, isn’t it?