effexor withdrawl

i just started effexor about two weeks ago, and I am on 1/2 of a 25 mg tablet. should I stop it now? I am affraid of all the withdrawals I have been reading about... I already have insomnia and panic attacks, is from this drug? should I stop it right now? I am affraid. someone tell me please :-(

I am going on day 6 without Effexor and I am a MESS. A COMPLETE DISASTER! I feel like my whole body is tingling and I get these electric zings/shocks through out my brain and body! I am soo over the edge that I cant imaging feeling like this for much longer! I have been in such a hurry to refill my prescription but after reading about the side effects and actually going through the withdrawl symptoms all I WANT IS TO GET THIS SH*T OUT OF MY SYSTEM!! I feel like I am having small spastic seaizures. I am crying at everything. I feel like there are pins in my face and body. I think it is a crime that this is on the market and ANY doctor or pharmacy that allows you to run out should be criminally charged %-) My biggest concern is when will I stop feeling like this????? Please help!!

i sympathize with you all i have been on efexor for 18mnths and am trying to get of them. i now am down to 37.5 2nd daily but if i am late taking one i feel dizzy and out of body who ever described it as a matrix feeling is so right. hope to go to 3rd daily. is there anyone who is off them how long did it take?

Efexor was great for my PMS - for the first time in my life Ive been able to function normally all month- without it I lost about 10 days from each month when due, feeling ridiculously irrational, irritable, emotional and anxious. The other days Im really confident, positive and upbeat- a high achiever. I was like a yoyo - and had to make sure I didnt schedule important meetings or make important decision etc in those 10 days- until Efexor! Id love to stay on it, however in 18 months I have put on 2.5 stone- and Ive never had a weight problem in my life! So its time to come off- and find something else, that doesnt affect my metabolism this much. (still eating the same- its just that its made my metabolism slow down so much)
However I have done alot of research about this, as I know that the side-effects of coming off cold turkey are so bad- I missed a dose once and had awful vivid nightmares, felt awful. So I am going to my doc on Monday to start the withdrawal. Im on 150 so the dosage will gradually be reduced to 73 and then to the 37.5 dose- but at a rate that allows my body to get used to the reduction. It cant cope with suddenly losing the drug- which will bring on all sorts of awful side-effects- many of which have been described in this post. I am presuming however that everyone here is also doing this under a doctor's supervision? How quickly did you reduce- what was the time frame from starting, to stopping completely- so you didnt get really bad side effects?

Hi,

Can anyone give any advice about how to get through this withdrawal? It's been almost 2 weeks for me, and although I can now manage to keep food down now (lost 10lbs in 4 days) and the buzzing in my head (ears) has gotten less, I am still a mess. I'm still vomiting occasionally (when I am too active and get dizzy) and I am either screaming at my kids or breaking down in tears at work. I am having excruciating headaches and I feel like I'm walking around with my head wrapped in cotton -- my job performance is really suffering and I just can't seem to pull it together. I did the whole weaning process, but the jump from the low dosage to none was shocking.

I was taking Effexor for PPD, but with these crazy emotions I don't know if I should try something that I know won't give me side effects. I had been on Wellbutrin for a few years before I got pregnant, but couldn't take it while nursing. But now I'm afraid of taking anything.

Does anyone out there have success stories, links, coping mechanics that they can share? I feel like I'm losing my mind...

Thanks to anyone who can help.

I have been on effexor for more than 5 years and have had some terrible with drawl symptoms when trying to reduce my dose to come off of it completely so I end up going back on it within 48 hours to stop the brain zaps, headaches and heart pulpatations. They are so severe that I would be unable to work if I plan to withdraw completely. This drug is very dangerous and when I asked my doctor about the possibility of addiction, I was told that it would not be a problem. I was being treated for temporary trauma which has lead to 5+ years of taking this drug because I cannot come off it!!!!!!
If there is a class action lawsuit, I am in. I want to ensure that the company making this drug stops making it so no one else has to go through what I have had to endure.
Regards,
Natalie

I am in Canada so I don't know if that makes a difference. .


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Okay so I'm probably about to he hated right now but I got off Effexor with ZERO side effects. I had originally been on it for 4 years over 225 mg/day. I tried to get off many times with horrible brain zaps... Nausea... Etc... so I started tapering off slowly but surely and finally quit cold turkey. I knew I had one day before I started the brain shivers and what not. The next day came and nothing. I trained my brain to believe they wouldn't come... And its been 7 days without a single side effect. I get sensitive to light but nothing else. You guys can do it!! Just believe. The brain is a powerful took and if you believe that you can do it you can really do it.

well I did have withdrawl problems/side effects, but thankfully for me not to the degree of others.
What helped though was injections of Vitamin Bs

I have been taking this medicine for probably 4 or more years now. I am trying to stop taking this because I don’t want to be on it anymore. I stop taking it one weekend and on the 3rd day I couldn’t go to work and couldn’t even drive. I laid on my couch thinking something was seriously wrong. I now am scared that this could happen again, and can’t miss work. I thought maybe it was just my mind screwing with me but I’m just not sure now. I don’t want this to affect the rest of my life. I’m only 23! I haven’t taken it today and can already feel the tightening in my shoulders and neck. I don’t want to feel this but I don’t want to keep taking this medicine either!! Any suggestions??? I’ve talked with my doctor and he said it’s something that just needs to take time and that I shouldn’t be feel that way. I don’t know what normal is anymore!

I am a 28 year old woman who has been on Effexor XR since I was 16 years old.  I was prescribed effexor for major depressive disorder.  I have been doing good for the past 4 years or so and would like to quit taking the meds.  The thing is I am scared of the withdrawl symptoms.  I have tried in the past, when I was about 25, to be weaned off the medicine.  Even though it was done gradually, the symptoms were so bad that I ended up back on it since I couldn't even function.  Now I am 28 and I have been on it for over 12 years now.  I would really like to be off of this medicine, since it makes me feel numbed out like a zombie that can't feel anything.  I also cannot afford the meds since I have no medical insurance of any kind.  I get them through a state funded program instead, but I'm really sick of having to go through the process of all the paperwork in order to get it.  I'm not a doctor or anything, but it seems that 12 years is a long time to keep someone on an anti-depressant like this, especially when I have showed alot of improvement in my depression symptoms in the last several years.  If anyone has any advice as to getting off these meds when I've been on them so long, I would greatly appreciate it. 

my doctor just took me off of effexor. ihad been taking 150 mg for about 10 years. yesterday i became violently ill with nausea and throwing up.
ny doctor wenaed memoff with75 mg for a week andnonday 2 of being off of the 75 mg i became violently ill. i want toget off of this drug-i think it is evil. I haven't cried orhad emotions for 10 years. does anyone know how to help me get off of this drug? Thanks MaryBeth

tor

I was on 150mg for about seven years then tried to come off.  I experienced severe mood swings.  I would become instantly angry for no reason and at other times very depressed.  I weaned myself off Effexor very very slowly over six months to the extent that I finally got down to one quarter of the lowest dose tablet, and still when I gave up that minute dose I had emotional problems.  Finally I thought I was clean and over it yet in the last day or so I have experienced the same mood swings again.  This is about two years since I gave up and has happened out of the blue.    I'm hoping it is just a one off flashback.

 

i am experiancing Huge dizzy spells. I am now taking motion sickness meds to stop the spells... I sure hope this doesnt last long.

I thought I would write a wee post to give some encourage to everyone trying to come of this horrible drug. I had been on vensir 225mg for about 3 yrs. June 2014 I decided it was the right time for me to start reducing my dose as I was beginning to forget to take it. I remembered to take it once the strange headaches and nausea begin. On forgetting it on day 2 I reduced down to 150mg....very easy I have to say. Again in time I began to forget to take my 150mg so I reduced down to 75mg. In july 2014. I had high blood pressure fir the first time in my life. I visited my gp and within 10mins my life turned upside down. I was being rushed the next morning into hospital with possible pressure on the brain after my gp saw abnormalities behind my eye. Tests and brain scan proved this to be wrong. I was shocked to be told that it was a rare side effect of being on vensir xl. Leaving hospital I was advised to keep reducing and try to get of it. So reducing dose began again.....down to 50mg I would open capsule and removed to two pearls. After a few weeks I did the same thing again removed four so I was only taking 25mg. A wk or two after I decided enough was enough this drug was not going to control my life and went cold turkey. Yes I suffered headaches nausea and dizziness. I was some what irritable and a lityle nippy on it. The pains in my joints were horrific but on a positive note.....it all eventually left me in about 2 1/2 wks. I had mastered it with no help from gp or any other drugs to combate the side effects. I feel extremely proud that I was never tempted to pop a pill to make it easier. I'm still having problems with my blood pressure going very high and then at times quite low. 90/60. My gp is monitoring the bp. He is very certain that once the vensir completely comes out of my system it will correct itself. He said it could take 6 months for this drug to leave your body. No one tells you about the side effects or the withdrawls. Docs are very quick to throw tablets at you....quick fix for them but a nightmare for patients. I used all this little blogs to help get me through and realise that what I was experiencing were withdrawls. Its stuff and hard......but if u are coming off remember you can do it remain positive, use peoples experience on here to help get you through. My gp was so shocked when I went into him last wk and said I was off them 5 wks. He said .... do u realise u are tablet free in yrs. Be positive if u r coming off them and hold on in there. I know how much its worth it once you get through the other side and you will xxx

i think so you have need  doctor advice.