How To Reduce Effexor Withdrawal Symptoms

I'm actually tearing up reading these posts. I am on day 6 drug free but still feel awful! A new symptom has reared it's ugly head....bursts of severe anxiety. Every muscle tightens then the brain zaps me. This sucks so bad!!!! I thought that by now the withdrawal would subside but today is terrible. Please tell me this will pass!!!! I am going to go buy the Omega 3 and Vitamin B because at this point I will try ANYTHING!!! I now know what it's like to be addicted to herion. WTF?

Ok so I'm on my 3rd or 4th attempt to get off of effexor. I never thought of Dramamine...so I took a couple a little bit ago and it really seems to be helping with the extreme dizziness. If there's anyway you can possibly stay in touch with me, I would really appreciate having someone who has been through this, talk me through it a little.

Hey...so I'm on my 3rd or 4th attempt to get off of the effexor...I'm looking for a kind of support group or even one other person who is dealing with the same thing...even just to bounce ideas back and forth with. 

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I wrote the above while I was going thru Effexor withdrawal. As of today, I am symptom free! If you are contemplating going off of Effexor, stock up on Fish Oil, B12, Dramamine,Benadryl and prayer-lots of prayer! I have missed my old self. I now tear up at tender moments, am exercising and actually caring about myself. All this was taken from me by Effexor.
Thank you all for sharing your fight with this drug!!!

I realize you wrote this over a year ago, but I had to reply because I relate so, so much. I went from being 5'8"/150 pounds, avid powerlifter, attractive, social, popular, successful woman (with some anxiety issues) to a 5'8"/260 pound lazy slob with no friends who has much more significant anxiety in about 22 months. I also, in that time, went from a typical social drinker to a barely functional alcoholic. I don't in any way mean to imply that everyone will experience this, but once I started researching the connection between alcohol and Effexor, I truly feel this drug was causing me to crave alcohol.

My mother told me the entire time that she felt like the medication had really, really changed who I was. I didn't see it, or refused to acknowledge it, or...I don't know. And I don't know why I suddenly changed my mind, either.

Perhaps it is related to the few days over the Christmas holiday (I'm a teacher) where I was out of town without my medicine. Yes, the "brain zaps," physical discomfort, and emotional instability were incredibly uncomfortable...but it was also the first time I hadn't felt the compulsion to get drunk since I started taking the medication. I mean...I can't...describe how much of a relief, and how much of a revelation, it was to discover that I suddenly felt like I could say no. Maybe the physical discomfort contributed to this, though I can clearly identify times when I was far more physically uncomfortable in the last 22 months and still felt the overwhelming desire to drink. Since I started weaning myself off, and especially since I'm completely off (8 days now), I have had no desire to drink at all. This might be psychosomatic, I may be totally kidding myself, but I know it doesn't feel that way and I'm so damn relieved I could weep.

I tapered a bit, but in the end, I'm pretty much going from 225 mg/day to cold turkey. It has been 8 days since my official last dose of Effexor, and while it has not been pleasant, it has been...such a relief to feel like maybe I was getting myself back? I've become a completely different person. I don't recognize myself - physically, emotionally, mentally. I regret ever having started this medication. While I understand that a/d are an important tool for battling mental illness, Effexor was a horribly ineffective drug that left me far, far worse than I started. I sincerely hope I'm able to get back to who I was.

Find a neurologist and get tested for neuropathy. I take Effexor and experience the same sensory issues, along with some other unimaginable, straight up crazy/weird/random sensations. I tested positive on the skin test the first time my neurologist tested me for small fiber neuropathy.

Find a neurologist and get tested for neuropathy. I take Effexor and experience the same sensory issues, along with some other unimaginable, straight up crazy/weird/random sensations. I tested positive on the skin test the first time my neurologist tested me for small fiber neuropathy.

oh my god, you dont know how happy I was to read your post, not happy for us in a yippee haha happy, but to hear someone else go through what I am!! I have been on cymbalta for several years, 8 years. I was always very organized, clean, you could not even eat in my car! I was very concerned with my appearance and my hair, make up, etc... I started to lose that all, about 6 months into the cymbalta and it just got worse. I have that feeling you said, blah..I know it all too well, This is supposed to help us, and I feel its made me an emotionless zombie. What a mess I am. I always cared, was very compassionate and felt strong about my own beliefs, I cannot believe this drug has taken it all away from me, and it has. I am not me, not who I was, and man, I want me back. So I am weaning myself off my cymbalta, afraid because I have gone 2 days without it, just from not picking up my script on time, having my pharm. closed early sat, and closed on sun. So after 2 days, the weirdest feeling, one that I was so damn agitated, I was snapping at everyone, and my head, oh my gosh it was like everything in slow motion, I would move my head and the room caught up slowly, really a scary feeling, but I am assuming it wont last too long well, not forever, and I will get me back in the end. I sure hope I do, I hope you do as well, good luck to you, thank you for sharing, you have no idea what peace that brought me to know I am not the only one!

Thank you so much for this information. I've been off this drug for about 2 weeks now and the withdraw effects are still in full force. I feel HORRIBLE. I am planning to pick up fish oil and B complex right away.

I am so very thankful for your post. I am so grateful to know this website exists and that I am not going crazy. I have been taking generic EffexorXR 150 mgs for the past 4 years, and 5years prior to that, generic 75 mgs Effexor. My Dr gave me Lexapro to help with the withdrawal symptoms. Tomorrow is the 3rd day. I have tried getting off the Effexor in the past and just couldn't do it. The brain zaps were too much for me and the ringing in my ears was so loud, I couldn't hear myself think. I work full time in an eye doctors office and I make eyeglasses. I can't be in withdrawal and still do my job. And I have to work. My husband doesn't work, so I have to-no matter what. The Lexapro takes the edge off of the withdrawal. Then I will taper off of that in 3-4 months, my doc says. This is an incredibly scary and horrible journey, but I will do it.

Thought you guys might want to hear my experience, I'm currently on day 20 of full cold turkey off 300mg effexor xr (no I'm not joking!)
I'm happy to say my only remaining symptom is being quite cold, instead of my usual hyper heat..I feel smarter, faster, extremely social and very happy compared to the six years of being a space cadet.
What I used: intercourse and marijuana.

I have only been taking this for a couple months and after seeing no positive results, if not negative results, I decided to stop taking them. My doctor choose not to let me in on the fact that this drug has withdrawal symptoms when stopped, so it ended up being a cold turkey stop for me. I've had pretty constant brain zaps the last 5 days since I stopped along with dizziness and being really easily irritated and angry. Any tips on how to get through this? I really don't want to get more pills to ween off of because I don't like the idea of putting more into my body now that I see what it does. Thanks!

Reading your experience felt like reading my own. In addition to your list I would add: writing in a journal both to keep track of how your symptoms are changing over time, and a place to focus on gratitude. The experience of withdrawal is overwhelming and disheartening, Keeping a gratitude journal helped me realize that I still have lots to be thankful for and kept me from going down depressions rabbit hole.

Thank you for all of this info from your experience of getting off of this drug. I only took it a month and a half and I weaned myself off gradually but the withdrawals are horrible. I'm taking vit b complex already and have been for a year or so but I'm starting fish oil today and will go get Gatorade since you said it helps a lot. I'll do anything to make these better. Thanks again.

i've been on multiple different antidepressants over the past few years..i always develop side effects (usually sleep related...sooo much sleep)...i've been on venalfaxine 150 extended release for over a year and had started having sleep issues again..so emailed my doc, she upped me to 300mgs XL...which made me soo immediately tired that driving to work scared me, she immediately prescribed bupropion (welbutrin), stopping venalfaxine, starting at 150 bupripion for 4 days then upping to 300... today is day 4 and i am SO dizzy, having weeping spells out of the blue, insomnia... so i started looking online for reasons (duh!) and am finding so much negative information about coming off of venalfaxine...and reading other people's stories has me constantly saying "yah! me too! i felt that (while on venalfaxine)" and i decided i really want to get off of everything, clear out my system and then see where *I* am... i have had bouts of depression most of my life but never had drugs prescribed until a few years ago... so many negative side effects. i got some omega 3 pills yesterday... i haven't taken the bupropion today (yet, maybe)... i do feel like i'm a little less dizzy, but... i'm a teacher and still have a month of school left and then am going on a trip...i worry about de-toxing now, but...also don't want to continue... so any thoughts/advice would be appreciated!