Search the Community

I would like to hear from anyone who has been on Effexor and gone off. I started tapering in beginning of Nov 2022. And been off foe 2 months completely. With the help of a doctor. Been doing pretty well. I still get teary eyed easily. My biggest hardship in the past month has been feeling incredibly fatigued and weak. My doctor did pronounce me in Menopause after completed lab work. I get sad when I feel so fatigued. I worry that it's the depression but I think it maybe a combination of many things. Does anyone have an opinion or experience with taking St. JOHNS WORT OR VALARIAN ROOT? I don't want to give up but the struggle is real. Wishing you all well. Thanks for any feedback or experiences.

Hi everyone I came across this site when I was researching reducing antidepressants. Thanks to you I have learnt about tapering. Over the last 2 years I have come off 10mg Olanzapine, 10mg Clopixol, 400mg Quietapine and hardest of the lot was 4mg diazepam. This is the second time I have come off diazepam and I found it a bit more difficult. Usually around day 4 or 5 I felt the withdrawal symptoms - tiredness, feeling off, more anxiety. But I knew that it would pass in a few days which it did. Unfortunately I did not use the 10% reduction method and was reducing 0.5mg per month until I got down to 1.5mg which was hard then we reduced by 0.25mg which I found easier. Lots of exercise and meditation helped. I have just started tapering off 375mg Effexor. I started with a 10% reduction as recommended. It was ok - day 6 or 7 felt nauseous and headaches but to be honest I think the side effects from being on it are worse. Weight gain, fatigue, and potential urinary incontinence. I would be interested to know if anyone else on this site has experienced the last side effect on Effexor. My psychiatrist did a search but could not find any cases. I am about to drop by 20mg to 317.5 mg as it has been over a month since the last reduction and I have not experienced any more discontinuation symptoms. Thankfully my psychiatrist is very supportive and agreed I should reduce by a smaller proportion this time around. I am having the capsules compounded as I want to be accurate in the dosage and in Australia you can get money back on compounded prescriptions if you have private health insurance which I do. Would be grateful for any advice from people who have successfully reduced Effexor.

Hi drug time line is below. In hindsight this was a disaster from the get go! My nervous system was already a little out of whack thanks to a head injury (hence the drugs!). looking for advice, really don't want to go back on the meds due to the physical side effects but not sure what to do. From reading this post I know I tapered to quick, probably should of got off amitriptyline day 1 when I had severe drowsiness and then jumping to effexor as prescribed just added huge fuel to that fire. Not sure where I go from here? I'm guessing just wait it out an hope it gets better? Amitriptyline Nov 24th 10mg Dec 4th 20mg severe reaction told to go back to ten and then 15mg Dec 10th to Jan 1 15mg Wanted to get off and having bad cardiac issues so quick taper. (I didn't know this was quick at the time) Was switched to effexor 37.5mg for 2 days, amitriptyline 10mg a few days, 5mg then 2.5mg Effexor for a week. (No taper, was told there was no issue) Now that I see this group, I see the errors so many errors. I've been off this for near a month, extreme fatigue (since I started amitriptyline) heads since the head injury amitriptyline made them 100* worse. Since coming off effexor ALOT of random crying fits. Shortness of breath, chest pain, heart palpitations, dizziness, lightheadness, no ability to exercise (ran a marathon a week before amitriptyline!) Where do I go from here?

i swore i would never take an snri again after what i went through on effexor, but he suggested i try cymbalta for the chronic pain and told me that generally there are less side effects/zaps than with effexor, so i said i would give it a try. my psychologist and his super decided that i have bipolar 2 not mdd, but the pdoc waved this away and didn’t even consider mood stabilizers. when my pdoc raised my dose of cymbalta after i expressed a wish to discontinue, and wrote in my record that i display “abnormal illness behaviors” (which just means i disagree with him?), i have decided to get off the ADs once and for all.

Hi everyone. So grateful to still be here to be here!! Been a long 30 years! Am hoping to titrate down from last 10 mg of Prozac using the liquid form. Does starting with the 1 mg a month make sense? See how it goes? Finish off 1 mg of Valium first? Yes, scared to let go of the last milligram of safety net. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Moments of regret for ever having gone done the med road, but so very ready to "heal" what only covered up....sound too familiar? Best wishes and thank you!! 1992 – 1999 Prozac 80 mg, Klonopin 4 mg, Buspar 1999 – 2000 Stop Prozac cold turkey 1 year. Hell. 4 mg Klonopin. 2000 – 2003 Celexa, Lexapro, Luvox, Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft. Cycle through each med. None work. Highest dosages. 2004 – Effexor, Klonopin, Zyprexa, Lamictal, Provigal, Sonata. Always high dosages. Don’t remember mgs…. 2005 – Klonopin, Lamictal, Seroquel, Anafranil, Luvox 2006 – Klonopin 4 - 6 mg, Prozac 120 mg 2009 – 2013 – Prozac 80 mg, Kononpin 1 mg (Titrate from 120 mg to 80, and 4 mg to 2 mg) 2013 – 2019– Prozac 30 mg, Klonopin 1 mg (Titrate from 80 mg to 30 and 2 mg to 1 mg) 2019 – Ashton Protocol. Convert Klonopin to 20 mg Valium 2021 – Valium 1 mg. Titrate Prozac 15 mg to 10 mg in 2 months. HELL. TOO FAST.

Hi everyone, I'm brand new here. I've been taking Effexor 150mg since april 2021, and even though it has helped me plenty with a lot of things in my life, the side effects are very unpleasant, which is why I'm planning to taper off. My psychiatrist previously recommended me to take 150mg one day, 75mg the next, 150mg the next, 75mg the next. Needless to say it was absolutely awful and set me back for some months. Now, however, I feel a lot stable and willing to taper off the right way. The dr recommended me to take 150mg one day, 150mg the next, 75mg the next, 150mg, 150mg, 75mg, and so on. I'm feeling like I'm not making any progress at all and I don't want to damage my brain in any way lol. Which is why I was planning to taper off opening the capsule and taking 2 beads out of it, then increasing it to 4 the next day, 6 the next, and so on. I was wondering if this is safe to do? Any help would be appreciated.

Effexor x12 years. Added lithium in sept 2015. Added prozac in october to help bridge taper from effexor as i started having symptoms. Started withdrawing effexor in September 2014. Over last 4 months i went From 112.5 to 14mg as of last week.. Last week I seemed to all of a sudden hit a wall. Crying uncontrollably constantly. Shaking, nausea, extreme fear and overwhelming need to cry. Ive read your site. Ive reinstated to 20 mg of effexor for last 3 days but absolutely no improvement. Im so scared. I cant go to work like this. Continuing prozac 20 and lithium 300. Please help.

I have been on some form of antidepressant since January 2002. I am now on 20mg duloxetine but am struggling to get any lower because of withdrawal issues. I wonder if to switch to venlafaxine and start tapering using liquid formulation of this drug. I was on venlafaxine for five years before psychiatrist switched me over to duloxetine in October 2021. I am constantly falling asleep on duloxetine and struggle to get out of bed in the morning. I have absolutely no motivation whatsoever. Would it be a bad idea to switch drugs at this stage of my taper? I'm due to see my GP in March. They have not been very helpful so far. I'd like to go prepared with some information. Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.

Greetings In the summer I went through a prolonged stress event after making a disastrous real estate decision. The stress sent me into a death spiral and I went on Effexor for about 5 month at 150mg. The side effects were of course horrible, my doc bumped me up to 300mg for a while and I thought I was dying. My poor liver:(. By fall I had moved again the the acute stress receded so I decided to get off this poison. I tapered off too quickly, under 3 week to 0. I didnt realize the consequence of this would be protracted discontinuation symptoms > mainly body aches, severe dry eyes, fatigue, brain fog, mornings are very rough. I am wondering how long it took others to recover and feel somewhat 'normal'? thx

Hello All I am mother of 5, turned 40 this year Ihave been on anti deps and anti anxiety meds since 2002 multiple trials of weaning off led me to reduced meds fron 2014 -2017 but not a day I have been completely off meds since 2002 I am on so many meds that I feel there is no hope of getting off completely but even lowering dosage will do Start of April I tried to reduce clonazepam just by 0.15mg and started having anxiety and brain zaps had to go to same dose I have to try again in May guided by my psychiatrist but Brain Zaps throw me off literally and I start having panic attacks I feel it is totally impossible hence i was searching for success stories on google and landed here. Right now after being stable I haven't done any changes to my dosage and since two days getting brain zaps Any help,advice,support is much appreciated Love and prayers

I am going through same bad times. I was started ( 4/21) on Zoloft, Lunesta and Diazepam for my anxiety, after a health scare. Not my first episode. Usually on Effexor, Valium and some Z drugs. Always been able to taper to zero once the crisis is over. This episode I and took Lunesta and Diazepam for a couple weeks, and sertraline, after my surgery (for a few days). Due to increased jitteriness and sleep issues, my doc switch me to mirtazapine, increasing to 45. Sayed there for 6 weeks or so...no improvement. Cut the mirtazapine down to 30 in a month (I know, too fast...). Switched to Ambien, then to Ambien CR, since I was sleeping 3-4 hrs a night. Switched to Ativan, since Diazepam was making me sleepy during the day. Even tried Risperidone for a couple weeks. Used to have windows in the evening. After cutting to 30 mir and adding/discontinuing risperidone, no windows. Until last evening. Got a good 5 hr window. As of today (8/22/21) I am on 2 or 3 mg Ativan (depending on the day), Ambien CR and Mirtazapine 30mg. No more risperidone. I am torn between doing nothing, tapering something (mirt , I guess) and cross-tapering. The cross tapering would be to Zoloft, since my last episode (5 year ago) Effexor stopped working and I was put on Zoloft (which helped, I assume, since I recovered). I need some advise. I can't say I am stable. What should I do : hold and do nothing, keep tapering mirt, cross taper to Zoloft. I would also need a mentor, ideally someone who was on mirt and get off of it. For now, I don't want to touch the benzos and Z drug. My understanding is that you taper the sedatives last. I really appreciate you reading this and giving it some thought. Thank you, Mario

Hello! I have been around these different types of boards just as a 'viewer' and NEVER thought i'd join but this particular group seems to be the perfect type for me-highly researched, and wanting to take their own health back and into their own hands! My quick story: struggled with anxiety my whole life on and off. Especially health worrying and obsessing. This past summer it got really bad and I couldn't stop looking online about symptoms of this disease or that. Facebook didn't help. And by the end of this summer it snowballed into depression because I was just feeling hopeless and consumed with worry I stopped going to the gym and doing things that interested me (like cooking healthy foods, etc). Backtrack-for a YEAR my GP was trying to get me to go on lexapro or paxil and i kept saying 'no' - so he gave me xanax. So I was taking that (.25 mg) for about 6 months at night and it was keeping things at bay (until this summer). So I go and see at talk therapist, to talk about my 'health obsessions' and she mentions that Celexa would be the 'perfect' drug for me and she's seen people 'just like me' do great on it. So I start taking 10 mg I think end of Sept/beginning of October 2013..I was feeling OK on it but around the 4 week mark I started waking up in a complete panic, sweat and couldn't breathe. Then these panic attacks led to suicidal thoughts-I thought I was going crazy, I was not ME. So mid-october I go off of it cold turkey (only been on it about 6 weeks). Felt awful for a week, tried 5-HTP, Valerian Root..felt a little better but my therapist and those around me kept saying 'i needed something' and I had friends who had been on these meds and were 'feeling fabulous' So I thought maybe I just didn't find the right med. So I decided to see a psychiatrist this time. Beginning of November, I see a psych, does an hour evaluation, perscribes me effexor. Started at 37.5..5 days later, panic attack in the morning, a plan to kill myself. *NOTE* I NEVER HAD PANIC ATTACKS OR SUICIDAL THOUGHTS BEFORE THESE MEDS My Psych and Therapist tell me: 'you would've had these attacks anyway, nothing to do with the meds, up your dose' - so I up my dose and spend 4 days at a mental health clinic for 'anxiety and depression' - Then for the next month I upped my effexor dose to 150. For a couple weeks I felt agoraphobic and didn't want to leave my house. Turns out the effexor gave me really high BP so my dr has been weaning me off of this (which i'm happy about anyway because I don't want to be on this and i'm glad my BP is my 'excuse' for getting off of it) - so now i'm BACK on celexa, but this time 20 mg. I have NO panic attacks BUT I have horrendous nightmares. Once i'm done weaning off of effexor completely in the next week or so ( i'm going to split the 25mg in half and then i'm done doing this weekly). But my question is-do I stay on Celexa? Will Celexa actually 'retrain my brain' to be 'right?' (my friend's GP actually told her that). Or am I just prolonging the inevitable of relapsing and I should just go off of it now. I'm researching SAM-e. St. John's Wort. positives: my mood has improved on celexa, my anxiety is down to nothing, BUT I wake up exhausted from these dreams, i have diareah, (sorry if that's TMI), and my obsessions about health are just turning into obsessions about what these meds really do to your brain. I'm meditating now, reading about buddhism which is helping and I journal every night. THANK YOU if you read this-or even a little bit-is it me or is it the meds that caused these attacks? Am I going crazy? I kind of miss the 'old me' looking back that was a worried anxiety mess-because atleast i was ME. Hindsight's 20/20 I suppose. Wishing you all well. I look forward to making some friends and hearing from you guys.

I’ve been on Effexor for 9 years at 75mg.. just two months I decided to try and taper off. Little did I know I did 50% drop without knowing the consequences. Lasted a month and decided to take my original dose again 75mg.. Did this all while not knowing a thing, I just followed my psychiatrist.. Now I’ve been back on my 75 mg dose and I’m dealing with what I think is neurological problems in my arms and legs.. my arms feel restless and my legs feel weird at times.. I also have a very weird headache constantly that feels like a burning sensation with weird and unusual anxiety I’ve never felt. I thought I would be able to stabilize at my original dose but idk what to do now.. I wish I did things differently. I didn’t know about slow tapering till it was too late. Any advice would be appreciated.. hopefully I can stabilize…

Hello, I'm a 21 year old Canadian who was on Effexor for about 1.5 years, until I stupidly tapered off over the course of about a month, and have been SNRI free for about 7 months now. Here's the story on how I got it: After an extremely depressing moment in my life compounded with the COVID lockdowns, I started thinking there was something wrong with me, perhaps Anxiety, Depression or ADHD. I ended up getting prescribed Lexapro but was switched to two pills of Effexor a day after 1.5 months due to having no energy on Lexapro. Effexor made me feel very strange, it removed any anxiety I had but also made me not care about where I'm at in life, and stopped my ego from being in check. It felt like my anxiety was keeping my ego from being inflated, but now with the anxiety gone I was a different person with illusions of grandeur. I blew up 3 semesters of university, withdrawing from my courses two semesters in a row and in my third just taking fat 0s in all my classes that semester. I had a wakeup call then and decided to get off the pills no matter what. I tapered off the course of about 1-2 months, slowly reducing my dosage and then only taking one pill every time I felt ill, until I ran out of pills. I didn't really go through any withdrawals that people describe, but I still feel kind of odd and have been going through weird waves of depression. I went through a whole semester SNRI free and actually got good grades, so I'm happy my academic career is being repaired, but I still kind of feel stunted. There are many things I want to do but I have no motivation to actually get anything done. I also feel like I am exhausted much more easily now and have been sleeping a lot. I'm not really sure if this is a withdrawal or just something because of my daily living habits, but I do feel like I've changed a lot since taking antidepressants for the first time, and then getting off of them. For anyone who has read this far, thank you. It seems many of you were on antidepressants longer than me, and had worse withdrawals. I'm thankful it has gone different for me, but I really appreciate you reading this and would love to hear your insight on what you think. Thank you

First off, my story/background: I was started on 20mg Paxil in 2001 at 16 years old for IBS by GP. Attempted to taper off in ~2010 over many months due to my personal concerns on SSRI use long-term but failed due to terrible withdrawal (no sleep at all, brain zaps, crying fits, etc.) when reaching a low dose and was put back on Paxil at 30mg by GP which I stayed on until January 2021. Around mid 2019 and through 2020 I started having some depression type feelings and maybe very minor anxiety, but it was fairly benign and not particularly often so I blew it off. I had an Ischemic Colitis attack in December 2020 and was hospitalized for ~1 week. At this point Anxiety and significant depression started to occur, and in January 2021 Paxil was cross-tapered to Effexor by GP, reaching a final dose of 150mg Effexor/0mg Paxil after 3 weeks. Effexor did not seem to help me, anxiety actually seemed worsened and I had bad nausea among other side effects so on March 27th, 2021 was direct switched (no taper) to Lexapro 10mg by GP. Lexapro dosage was then upped to 20mg by GP on April 24th 2021 as 10mg didn't seem to be helping much either (some improvement maybe, but barely noticeable if so). On April 27th 2021 I started seeing a Mental Health NP, who added 150mg Wellbutrin XL daily, as well as Gabapentin 200mg at night. After a week or two I started feeling improved, not myself for sure, but at least noticeably better. My Mental Health NP now has me weaning off the Lexapro 5mg down every 5 days starting on May 18th (15mg for 5days, 10mg for 5days, 5mg for 5days, then 0mg) I am currently down to 10mg Lexapro, so my current medications are as follows: 10mg Lexapro, 150mg Wellbutrin XL, 200mg Gabapentin (at night). I'm super concerned about the fast taper of the Lexapro, even though I wasn't on it for very long I have been on some form of SSRI (obviously the Paxil predominantly) for 20+ years now nonstop. I've brought this up to my mental health specialist multiple times, and he swears/assures me that Lexapro has a long enough half-life that no taper is necessarily needed, and the 5mg drops every 5 days is conservative and will be fine. I've been hesitantly following through on his plan, but I already feel like my anxiety is worsening. The hardest part is the anxiety doesn't seem to be about anything in particular, just random feelings that I can't pinpoint any cause on. On top of all this, I was started on a CPAP machine about 1 week ago after being diagnosed with mild obstructive sleep apnea. At the time I thought great, maybe this is contributing to my depression/anxiety symptoms but so far my sleep has been just as lousy (multiple awakenings overnight, difficulty getting to sleep) as it was before. I was also found through blood testing this month to have quite low testosterone for my age, but my GP is hesitant to treat it due to concerns over causing cardiac issues or worsening the sleep apnea. Aside from the mental health (which is obviously terrible at this point) I'm for the most part in good physical health. The colitis is mostly resolved, I'm a healthy weight and in generally good shape (5ft 7.5in, ~165lbs). I'm not sure what I'm looking for out of all this, I guess mostly advice and reassurance - I'm concerned that being on the Paxil so long and from a young age has done serious damage that maybe I'll never recover from. I'm scared I'll never feel like myself again, that I won't be there for my wife and kids. I'm scared I'll be medicated for the rest of my life, my mental health specialist doesn't seem concerned when I bring these things up, he thinks everything will be fine. Anything anyone can offer is greatly appreciated, and I'll happily answer any questions and offer more information. Thank you all.

I am a 23 year old guy. I have been exploring this forum for the first time and it has renewed hope that I might one day be able to come of these drugs. In the past I’ve dealt with opioid addiction even coming off of buprenorphine (currently over a year clean), but Effexor withdrawal is especially nasty. I am currently on 75mg of Effexor and 30mg of Remeron. I have been on on them for about 3 years respectively. I haven’t yet attempted to taper off of either drug and have had enough issues in my life to deal with. They are not causing me any obvious issues, but I cannot stand being at the mercy of doctors just so that I can live a normal life. I had asked my doctor about how he’d approach the issue and his suggestion (over the course of a few months with significant decreases) seemed to me to be absolutely ludicrous given the experiences I’ve read online. I do not know what I’m looking for here honestly. Perhaps just some hope.

Tapering Effexor. Jumped benzo's 6 months ago. Two weeks ago I hit a hard wall at 18mg effexor and have scrambled back up to 30mg. I'm barely non-functional. sx are a combination of benzo (muscle spasm/cramps) and AD sx (zap). I can write clearly only because it's the PM. In the AM... I am a mute tortured potato. I know I have violated 3s's. 1) Not Slow. 37.5 to 18 is way too fast. I was fooled by ease of 300 to 37.5 over 4 months (%50 reductions) and maybe confused by immediate release. Things are blurry. 2) Not Simple. After benzo withdrawal I deserve a break. I really didn't intend to quit AD this soon after. 3) Not Stable... I need advice on how to stabilize my situation. Was going to 30mg enough to recover? Would 37.5 or more be better? Should I bridge to another SSRI to stabilize on Effexor? What should I know about tapering SSRI being newly benzo free? Double waves?

19-years on Lexapro & Wellbutrin. At 5mg, wanted to stop Lexapro because of sexual side effects, constipation, weight gain, dulled feelings ... quit CT in May of 2019 as I didn't think I could taper any lower being it was only 5mg, disasterous results--physical symptoms first, then severe depression, panic, worse than anything I'd ever experienced before taking drugs. Doc put me back on Wellbutrin and Lexapro after 2 wks, increased dosage of Lexapro within a month from 10mg to eventually 40mg since I was still in a terrible state. Gave me Klonopin for panic/insomnia, took that 2+ months, tapered off after 12 days, crashed horribly, ended up in the hospital...doc there gave me 75mg of Effexor in addition to the Lexapro/Wellbutrin...got 10 rounds of ECT...slight improvement after several weeks but not good/off work 6 wks. Eventually able to to function, depression and OCD better but continued feeling of dread and doom which turned out to be from too much SSRI in my brain. Weaned off Effexor Feb of 2020, went fine and actually felt better. Started tapering down Lexapro from 40 to 35 to 30 to 25 to 20 to 15 to 10 with little W/D effects, holding only a week or so in-between. Felt better, less dread and knew I had been taking too much med for my brain. Then once I started going from 10 to 7.5 to 5 and lower (started liquid version after 5), dropping by 1mg/holding only a week or so in-between, bad physical W/D started, plus depression, OCD, agitation, etc. Told my doc but he didn't tell me to stop or back up. Down to about 2mg using liquid Lexapro late August 2020. Huge physical then mental crash. Told my doc but he didn't tell me to stop or back up. Depression/depersonalization/panic/obsessional thoughts/agitation. Some improvement after a week or so. Went down to less than 1mg sometime in September, mental state really bad but did seem to improve slightly after a month or so. Slowly felt like I was starting to see some improvement and holding on, stabilizing, symptoms not horrible and able to function in late Oct/Nov/early Dec 2020. First 2 weeks of December pretty good. Then forgot Synthroid (thyroid med) for 3 or 4 days by total accident around Dec 13. Crashed worse than ever. Deepest depression, depersonalization, irrational/obsessive thoughts, panic of my life and now trying to recover but feel hopeless. Struggling to survive without going back on Lexapro, but not sure I can make it. I just don't know what to do and feel so desperate. The fear and obsessional thoughts are the worst now. Depression has slightly lifted last few weeks. Been walking regularly and trying to eat right, take fish oil, Vit D and B vitamins. Using a sunlamp. Even trying CES Ultra stimulation at home. The fear of what has happened and is continuing has overtaken me at times where I feel I might go insane. I can barely function and fear I will lose my job. Working from home is the only reason I haven't lost it already. Any advice is so appreciated. Thank you for listening.

Hi my name is Alberto and I’ve tried a ton of ssris and antipsychotics over the past 7 years. Most recently I had a really bad experience with rexulti that gave me akithsia (which went away once I discontinued thank gawd) and my current ongoing bout with Effexor. I’m in a bit of weird situation in that I wasn’t in it for long and am looking for help as I’m at wit’s end and am seriously inching closer to suicide due to my symptoms. I started Effexor June 24 75mg. I immediately noticed really bad headaches and nausea but stayed he course as “that’s the side effects for 2 week”. By 5 days in the headaches had gotten really bad but I also had started getting burning sensations across my whole body and head. After dealing with this for a few days we reduced my dose to 37.5. The symptoms continued and got worse so we discontinued Effexor Monday 7/4. The first two days were a continued hell of body burning headaches nausea anxiety shortness of breath etc. The intense while body burning thankfully went away 2-4 days later tho lighter leg burning remained. The anxiety and shortness of breath have slowly gone away too but the headache and nausea feel worse/like they’ve stagnated. I’m two weeks post stopping this hell drug (for me) and almost a month since starting it but my nausea and headaches are just insane and making it impossible for me to live a good life and function well. It’s really impacting my work but most importantly my wife and kid. Has anyone every heard of or experienced anything like this? Did it go away, when? Did anything help you manage the symptoms til it did ? I have this fear that this is going to be a chronic thing I have to live with forever and tbh I won’t live long if that’s the case. The klonopin, zofran, and advil I take to manage do a meh job and I’m at wit’s end. Guess I’m looking for some success stories related to this and advice to help me get on the right track and ultimately save my life. Thank you and sorry for the really dramatic post, I’m just really hurting.

Can I just stop Effexor XR 37.5 after 7 days without tapering? incredible fatigue, throat/neck burning! 1994 Paxil prescribed for depression, looking back I was simply a young, busy, active and overwhelmed mom. I never questioned about taking it long term. 2018 started breakthrough depression 2020 September, neuroendocrine cancer surgery 2020 November, Wellbutrin added to see if it would boost the Paxil. It did not. 2021 April, psych took me off 40 Paxil 5 mgs every two weeks, terrible withdrawal. and doubled Wellbutrin to 300. at the same time added Primidone, a barbiturate for essential tremor. sick sick sick 2021 July, final Paxil pill 2021 December, 50# weight loss, depression and anxiety increased. Physical WD symptoms improved. 2022 January, began tapering Wellbutrin, dropped to 150 for 2 weeks, the 75 IR twice/day for 2 weeks, then 75 am and 37.5 pm 2022 February, basically non functioning, broke down and started Effexor 37.5, terrible fatigue and throat/neck burning. Am on day 7. Now I want to go off it!!!!

Hello everyone, I'm confused lately on what's going on. I'll share my history first: I was on Effexor, Lithium, Klonopin and Tegretol for various times for anxiety and bipolar (although I'm not sure if I was bipolar or just developmental psychology throughout my 20's). Anyway, I came off all drugs after tapering. The klonopin was the last drug I came off back in 2012. I healed from it all around 2 years later.... Here's what's strange after all these years of feeling better, I suddenly got derealization and depersonalization again along with adrenaline and some tinnitus. I'm just curious if this is because of stress in life OR if it's a setback. Perhaps my brain was still healing on the back burner? Maybe I took something that caused me to setback or overwhelming stress: only things I can think of I took the past month was nicotine gum, collagen supplement or retinoid creme for my face. Only things I can think of. Just strange after all these years off meds and healed, a few of the symptoms come back. Don't get me wrong, I've healed myself bucket loads in 10 years, but why some of the symptoms return? Can this happen because of stress or something we took? The derealization and depersonalization are the worst: I haven't been able to feel much emotion in 2 weeks now. Just terrible stuff. Thanks, D.

Hi there, I'm a new one here. Luckily, I've found this website because we don't have any single website which helps people who want to stop taking antidepressants in my country. My name is Anastasia, I'm 32. I work as a teacher at school. I'm married and have a lovely cat. I take antidepressants for 11 years. I've always been a shy person with lack of confidence. Since my childhood I've suffered from intrusive thoughts just about any imaginable staff. The first time I went to the psychiatrist was because of intrusive thoughts about my relationship. And my horror story began. I had various reasons for my constant painful thoughts. I had permament nausea, irritable bowel, which didn't let me leave my house, a sense of guilt, depressive thoughts, anxiety. constant tears and just liying at home and staring at one point - not all at once, of course. These were the reasons for many many visits to the doctor. Each time antidepressants helped a lot and I was back to life again. Can't say I was always in a good mood, but, nevertheless, I could live. I really don't remember the years and dosage of medicines, but in different periods I took amitriptilin, venlafaxine, zoloft, duloxetine, fluoxetine, phenazipame, atarax. One day pills stopped helping me. I changed three doctors hoping someone'll help me. The first one finally said that my brain had become tolerant to drugs and I had to quit. I tried so many times and always my thoughts came back and tortured me. The second doc said I had endogenous depression and it's ok to take antidepresants just for the whole life. She also said that if one medicine didn't help, so let's try another. And we tried and changed. My thoughts and depression didn't go away, but I felt not well, not bad. The third doc finally said that my diagnose was anxiery disorder and eating disorder. Insisted on treating my depression to the end and then quit. My latest medicine was venlafaxine 75 mg. But I decided to come to my first doctor and tried to withdraw like 37, 5 - one week, 18,75 - two weeks. Now it's three weeks I'm off. And it's just a hell. My thoughts (now about my weight and shape) have become more painful than they were on medicines. I find it hard to go outside because I feel really uncomfortable in all my clothes. It seems they are too tight. I'm depressed, angry and nervous. I can't do anything and distract myself. Even in my pyjamas I feel fat and uncomfortable. The story of my eating disorder: when I got married, my husband and I gained some weight. Then we started keeping to a diet. We lost weight and I felt just great for some time. Then it wasn't enough and I started to eat 1000 calories a day. But still I had a fat belly and wasn't satisfied with my weight and the way I looked. I gave up dieting and gained half the weight I had lost previously. Now I'm obsessed with my weight and it's just a nightmare. I think about it 24/7 but can't stop eating. Food is the only thing that gives me pleasure. I tried Gestalt therapy and CBT a bit, but I'm convinced that these sessions just do nothing. I understand everything, nod to the psychologist but don't believe it can help. I'm really confused now if I have to be on medicines or not and don't know what to do... Living like this is not a real life. The only wish I have now is to stop this suffering, by means of drugs or not, I don't know. I 'm studying this website and try to understand all the mechanisms. I'm not sure I'll manage to tolerate this for many years, it's been only three weeks but I'm completely exhausted. The reason why I wanted to quit was to have a baby, but it's practically impossible to think about pregnancy and birth now because of my condition. Seeking for help and support. Thank you in advance. PS: I was really frightened to start my topic here because of the country where I live, because of my nationality. But I want you to know that I just can't stand all the hell that is going on right now in the world. Of course, it adds a lot to my anxiety and depression.

Started withdrawal from venlafaxine a month ago (cold turkey) after 1 year on it at 37.5 mg. Everything was normal and mild (dizziness, vertigo, and insomnia). In the fourth week, I started experimenting burning thighs, pretty unpleasant. I had to reinstate venlafaxine at 37.5, within one week most symptoms are gone (occasionally I get the burning, but once I take the dose it slowly goes away). I will start a tapering plan with my psychiatrist because I no longer need these meds. Is anyone suffering from the same symptoms? The burning sensation can be incapacitating...

I have been through so many people f the symptoms reported by others since finishing my Effexor taper in early August. The general anxiety and daily feelings of fearfulness feel like all I can manage. But now I’m waking up with severe headaches. Is this just a new phase of healing? Frustrated and wondering how to move through this. Advil not helping

Well my signature will tell you most, but I found this site as I was searching for how to wean off of my antidepressants. I read quite a bit all over on this site and found out that I need to start with 10% reduction. And I am also going to get a scale to help in my reduction of the effexor, money going towards my health. I tried going off the wellbutrin once and I became seriously depressed so had to go back on it. I thought it would be easier to start with that one since it was so low, but did not realise as I read on here that it is a slow release one and I need to change to another kind to be able to slowly go off of it. I do not know if my doctor will allow me without knowing what I am doing, and I do not want to tell her as she does not support me going off the medication, so not sure what to do for this drug? The Effexor, I went one does lower almost a year back because I found it was causing my vision to be blurry after allot of investigating to find out the cause. I just went one dose lower and I had brain zaps for a few months and the first week was like I was a drug addict on withdrawals for 3 days, crazy! I have not been able to go lower without allot of problems, so I am hoping the 10% reduction rule will help me, I will wait until I get my scale to begin. I am wondering, as a read early on another sight how some people are able to lower there dosage by using other natural supplements for the brain chemistry to help them to have less anxiety and depression as they came off there medications, some had to use alternative supplements to keep from getting sads or help with there anxiety, anyone know anything about this? it interests me as I have both long before I went on antidepressants and wonder what I can do to keep the anxiety and mild depression at bay from the long winters, and because for some reason, no one and nothing I have tried or read in almost 30 years has helped with my anxiety and I have been stuck with the clonazepam as my only option, and not a great one at that, as the more you take it, the more you need for it to stay effective and thus the addiction starts up. I have learned to sit still and meditate since then, but still it is not enough for the anxiety, I just do not know what to do about this problem when I am off of the medication, the antidepressants do not help with the anxiety unless I am on a higher dose that I cannot feel or cry, and I feel like I exist and that's it, so I will not take that high of dosage. Long story short, I do not like the side affects and the longer I am on these drugs the more drugs they start to prescribe for the side affects I am starting to get, this is unacceptable to me and I want off this drug roller coaster ride. Thank you for listening to my first long post. I like the saying "a problem shared is a problem halved" and so this site will be a great help as we all help each other. Here's to being the warrior, not the victim!