Help effexor withdraw

[ecmnesia]

i quit venlafaxine without consulting a doctor and I am having terrible physical withdraw effects such as nausea, tremor, fatigue, headaches, confusion, vertigo and so on. i feel like hell and don't know what to do, but don't want to get back on the meds.

i was on 150 mg. please share advices to help me deal with it. is there anything I can do? i can deal with the mental aspects but not the physical ones. how long will this last?

+ i can't be opened to my family about this, so they would be of no help

 

[Acopia]

I'm really sorry, I've been through the same thing and the only advice I can give you is: go back on the meds. Withdrawing from Venelefaxine is hell and you need to do it slowly, I've just resigned to being on them for the rest of my life because even when I taper I get really ill, very quickly!
If you really want to come off them, taper! My psych recommended 75mg/week but I couldn't even manage that.
There are quick and slow release versions of Venle, and the quick release tablets are as low as 37.5 mg (or something) so speak with the doctors to see if you can switch and come up with a plan that won't make you so unwell!
Love,
-Acopia
PS. I've been through alcohol withdrawal, and it was no where near as bad as Venle. At least when you detox they can give you diazepam to make the symptoms easier. With Venle, nothing helped

 

[Yuki Tenuki]

I would suggest 75mg venlafaxine + benzodiazepines to relax, metoclopramide and some painkillers deal with your other withdrawal symptomes.
Give yourself some time... and go slowly down with your venlafaxine.

 

[grungeCat]

I know right! I have tried lately to lay off venlafaxine but the withdrawal is just too much to me. I'm also on 150 mg. Omg this med is terrible to discontinue. Tbh the withdrawal is not worse than after abusing opioids, apparently the most addicting drugs ever. I guess the only way to lay this off is just to wait this through.

 

[Dizzylady80]

With any withdrawals I've had in the past the biggest thing that's helped is looooots of water. Snris are ROUGH and the withdrawal lasts a long time, so I'd recommend tapering. But if you're adamant about cold turkey then benzos should help, weed may help a bit, get lots of rest, and just keep telling yourself that the withdrawals are what is making you feel this way so it is temporary

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

I used to take this med and it's not one to quit cold turkey. It's best to titrate down off of it.

Can you take 100-125mg? Then in a week you can go down 25-50mg, and incrementally take less week by week.

I'm not a doctor, this is just a peer suggestion for harm reduction. Of course you're responsible for your choices and actions.

 

[Sinkinshyp]

I was on this for hotflashes. They had to take me off it when my son died so I can go on other medications. They cut me down to 75 mg I believe. Please don't stop this suddenly. The withdraws are nasty. If I missed my dose I felt it. I actually had to read about how hard it is to stop this med. I have never been addicted to any med- except this one. Xanax Oxy- no issues when I run out the effexor was just brutal. Talk to your doc about a lower dose.

 

[ecmnesia]

thanks for all the help guys, by the time I wrote this I was completely desperate and your advice made me realize that I REALLY need to go slowly, so although it was not what I intentioned I ended up taking the usual 150mg dose. I will try tapering responsibly from now on.

honestly, no one should start effexor, this med is hell. it's sucks when you are on it and it's surprisingly even worse when you are off. i seriously regret starting it.

anyway, thanks a lot for the help, i honestly appreciate it.

 

[Gnip]

My psychiatrist resisted letting me try it for years and years because of what a bear it can be to come down from, but I was one of those who didn't have much of an issue with it, probably because she'd made sure I was also on a more then adequate supply of clonazepam.

There in a nutshell is my advice for trying Effexor. Don't even consider it unless you are already on a secure supply of benzodiazepines. (Through the whole time I was taking Effexor, I was also prescribed temazepam for sleep.)

 

[neitherherenorthere]

I hope you're feeling better than when you posted initially.

If it's too hard to get off the Effexor just by slowly decreasing the dosage, it can help to cross-titrate with an SSRI with a longer half life (e.g., Prozac). Then once you're off the Effexor, you can stop the new SSRI much more easily than you would have been able to stop the Effexor by itself.

Alternatively, I think some medications are available in liquid form so you can be extremely precise about how much you're decreasing your dose by. This would let you get off of the Effexor very, very slowly and hopefully without too much unpleasantness.

 

[reticen]

I have just recently started on this stuff. I wish this thread had been made a bit sooner