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Hello and nice to meet everyone. I have been reading as much as I can the past two days and feel like it is time to introduce myself. THANK YOU for everything you all have contributed, this site is a game changer. So many questions answered and a new journey begins. You can see my drug history and four month taper in my signature over the spring/summer (my psychiatrist at the time recommended two weeks, go figure). I had planned on a few crappy months going into this. Oh if I had only found this site first... Withdrawal didn’t kick in for at least two weeks, and slowly at first. I spent all of September and October dodging and weaving through good days and bad days, which I observed simply as “anxiety” (my original diagnosis) but with unusual physical symptoms. I journaled and kept calendar entries, mostly to record when I had to resort to Ativan (usually 0.5mg, occasionally 1mg). Other than for flight anxiety (two trips), I can count 17 times I took it over those two months, and only as a last resort. I had two sudden midnight “surges” (after feeling great) with shivers, out of control heart rate, even some diarrhea, which would last hours. I was convinced it was Serotonin Syndrome. The second one took me to urgent care the next morning for a heart checkup. A few days later a new psychiatrist then put me on Propranolol (beta blocker) as my primary concern was my heart. Propranolol immediately helped me observe and evaluate the “anxiety” I was experiencing which helped a lot. The new psychiatrist also had me stop 5-HTP after only a few weeks which was probably smart. I speak to him again this Friday, not sure what to share/ask given what I am learning here. I am now clear on the fact that I am riding waves of withdrawal symptoms, anxiety responds to the unusual feelings and emotions created by the withdrawal and adds its own icing to the cake, but I am focused on observing and not reacting, and doing my best to “ride it out”. The most unusual part of this “pattern” has been the timing of it all - usually kicking into high gear in the evenings after dark (earlier and earlier in my part of the world). I am nervous about traveling this weekend (short flight) but also realize I need to try and have as “normal” a life as I can stand under these conditions. My wife is awesome, understanding and super supportive. At 12 weeks in, I am not sure reinstatement is an option for me, even though I still have 5mg Trintellix in my drawer, and could try taking microdoses. Leaning toward a no, but I realize I may have run out of time to make that decision? I have read almost all the “required reading” but would still appreciate an opinion on that one. Also considering stopping my multivitamin, turmeric and mulberry leaf extract and taking only my “Super Omega-3 Plus” (Fish Oil) and picking up magnesium pills. I just started the Probiotic so I could drop it too, but not feeling like it would impact all of this either way? I am intrigued by the Reishi 415 blend to get some non-psychedelic mushroom love. Lastly my wife and I are thinking about therapeutic float tanks (she would love to do it again) and I have begun using our hot tub as part of my daily routine, along with many failed attempts at meditating. Anxiety was never something I handled well to begin with, and I realize now I must absolutely be on my game to dance this intricate dance. I will post any new thoughts, findings and curiosities on this thread as appropriate. I appreciate everyone’s support! PS- I opted to not use the appropriate abbreviations as I wanted to easily share this summary with family

I'm so glad I found this site. I am an 18yr old who was diagnosed with generalized anxiety, andPTSD on June of 2012. My GP referred me to psychiatrist who started me on meds. I was a little wearyAbout going on medication but he gave me xanax as needed and they workedImmediately, I figured if this helps maybe other medication would too.I tried Buspar, Prozac, Zoloft all which gave me immediate side effects.Lastly and I say lastly because after Effexor I will not go on any other psychiatric drugsAfter going through all this hell.Aug 2012 I started Effexor went up to 150 mg, started to feel social anxiety and depersonalization. I talked to the doc about wanting to get off of it. My Mom mentioned to him that her half sister had been on Lexapro and had helped her. He wanted me to wean off Effexor with Lexapro. I left his office and decided on my own to not take Lexapro and cut Effexor dose in half (75mg). Next day I felt more myself. BUT the following day all w/ds set in. Literally was bedridden for 3 months.I had severe vertigo, vomiting, etc.Went to see Doc and he said he hadn't seen any of his patients go through so much w/ds for this length of time. I replied that I was much worse now than before walking into his office.My Mom and I started researching all info on Effexor. She bought me fish oil, Benadryl, Ginger tea, B complex, Magnesium.In Jan 2013 started to feel somewhat better. I decided it was time to start tapering.I am on generic immediate release tablets. I weigh the pills with a jewelry scale and shave off a smidgen. I break them in half and take them through out the day.I am at 48.75mg.As I go lower Should I change to Effexor brand XR.?What helps mood swings?I forgot to mention that Effexor at 150mg made my anxiety much worse.Now at lower dose anxiety has subsided and panic attacks have gotten much better. I don't know if it's due to all the reading I've done to learn how to lessen their effect. Or that I'm not so afraid of them anymore.I am afraid after hearing other people's experiences that I too will get to a point on a lower doseThat I will not be able to get through it.Will I have protracted w/ds since I've only been on Effexor a year now?Have you heard of rhodiola for mood improvement? Lately I've been getting crying spells.Will these get worse as I lower?Thanks for letting me know I am not alone.

Hi, ive recently been taken off Effexor which I was on for 2 months, I was then on pristiq for 25 days. 3 months in total. I have had a really tough year trialling meds that didn’t help but made everything worse. My psyc told me to stop pristiq cold turkey due to my rapid decline in mental state. the first 6 days where hell with zaps and vertigo and migraines. I still feel dizzy at times and my cognitive function feels like it’s lagging. Now day 10 I have woken with what I thought was a UTI. I went to the doctor and I don’t have a UTI. Upon research based on symptoms I’m concerned it’s Cystitis as my bladder feels like it’s on fire and or possible PGAD. are there any success stories where this naturally corrects itself and this is another withdrawal symptom. Naturally the body and nerves will take time to heal? advise and help needed- I mentally feel so good putting all meds in the bin but feeling very overwhelmed physically thank you in advance x

I’m attempting to taper off venlafaxine, I was successful once and unsuccessful twice since going back on. I would like the help of a doctor with experience and possibly adding in Prozac to help with withdrawal symptoms that seems to hit me hard. Any recommendations for doctors on Long Island would be greatly appreciated.

I was prescribed effexor when I was 17 with no warning of what sort of drug it was and how hellish it would be to quit. I have used it for 20 years (I'm 37 now) and after getting stable and quitting my other addictions, I finally wanted to quit them all and discover who I am without substances or pills. I have spent the majority of my life on Effexor or some drug or another, and I just want to be free of it. I have read online that dropping Effexor is on par with quitting heroin. I believe it. I tapered down for 2 years, and after 4 months on 37.5mg, I took my last dose on September 18 2022. I am now 15 days 'clean' and I'm having a really rough go. On saturday night I had a total meltdown/panic attack. The first I'd had in half a decade. It was shocking and distressing for everyone around me. Nevertheless, I've just completed the first 15 days of Effexor withdrawal and I feel trapped. If I go back on Effexor it will be a return to zombie land. No happiness, no sadness, not caring about anything, no ambition. I don't want to live that way. Plus, if I ever want to try to quit again in the future I'll have to endure the brain zaps, nausea, fatigue, vertigo, etc. etc. again and I don't want to ever do that. The drug companies lie and say after 14 days you'll be fine. Hah, what a laugh. I'm currently struggling really hard because I don't want to go back to a wet blanket muting every feeling I have, but the road ahead looks like Hell. I just want to know who I am without these chemicals. I looked online and it seems that it takes at least 6-8 weeks before the nervous system normalizes and even then there's a high chance of a rebound withdrawal in 3-4 months. I'm doing everything I can to make things right: I meditate daily, I exercise to dripping sweat daily, I have a therapist (for now), and a loving partner. I'm doing my best. But I'm just exhausted already. I want this to be over. I'm only 15 days in and from what I can see it won't get better until day 45-60. I just want to be able to smile at lovely things and frown at sad things. I want to know who I am without these pills and chemicals. I can't believe they gave this drug (and others) to a teen instead of asking me why I wanted to take my own life. No one ever gave a damn about me to ask. Now I give a damn about me and I want to see this through, but it's so, so, so hard. Waves of anxiety, shame, guilt, sadness... it's unreal. I could use any/all words of encouragement or advice. edit: i learned about opening the pills and taking out beads just now. Is it a good idea to do that after 15 days of cold turkey off 37.5mg? Please advise.

I was on venlafaxine for 5 years at 37.5mg. I decided it was time to go off of it as I was ready to start a family. I talked with my doctor in September and she tapered me off using the every other day method in a couple weeks just quitting. I experience a couple days of feeling brain zaps and brain fog but was then doing OK. Fast forward two months and I started experience shortness of breath non stop. I never had any panic attack issues before going on the drug but the shortness of breath quickly turned into nightly panic attacks while trying to go to sleep. I go to bed at 10 and experience a surge of adrenaline that lasts until about 4 am. I am then sleeping 4-6am and waking up and doing it all over again. I am now getting panic attacks around the thought of going to bed knowing I will get the surge of adrenaline and not sleep. Trying to stay positive and hope things start going back to normal soon but not sure what my next steps in healing will look like.

I dont have anything to say about myself because I have nothing to reflect on unfortunately. So I am sorry but this is a pretty heavy post. I have severely kindled myself beyond repair. Is this possible? I dont have anything left. I forgot to mention in my history that after going off my antidepressant rapidly a second time that I took benzos twice weekly along with other gaba supplements and took other supplements that raised serotonin and dopamine. Kindling everytime withdrawing from gaba meds/supplements .And not consistently taking them. I believe messing with my gaba system is what did me in. I also came off progesterone very quickly late February and that's what ended my life. After that I used benzo again once to sleep because I had complete insomnia for 4 days. I probably withdrew just from one dose. Was getting horrible sensations in my gut like terror/tickling/stabbing. Took more supplements to try to help...made it worse. The last supplement I knew it was the end. Took NAC which I have before in the past. For 5 days and I became so agitated I was beyond suicidal. The problem is I was already mildly anhedonic on meds then coming off I had more anhedonia and dp/dr. So it was hard to know what I was feeling when doing all this damage. The more changes I made the worse it got. Now I hit the end. I'm completely lobotomized but can feel this severest internal anxiety. Complete apathy.I feel Like in dying 24/7 but it's not a panic attack. Everything looks and feels exactly the same and I mean that at the severest level. And everything I do keeps making it worse. Everyday I eat, sleep, do anything...the internal Agitation and anxiety and anhedonia/brain dead feeling gets worse. I never feel comfort and dont feel anything except pain. I dont have normal anxiety anymore with physical symptoms. I do not connect at all to anything at any level. I dont know what it means to do anything. I think I've lost many connections in my brain. I have nothing to do. I look at the tv and see nothing and I mean with my mind. I cant talk about anything. I have no soul left. No recognition of who I was. I no longer get comfort out of anything at all. I don't know what i look like. I dont recognize myself..cannot see myself in the mirror like a person with dementia. I am so bored because there is nothing I can do. I cannot engage in anything. But the severe internal restlessness is the worst. If I never went off my med the second time last summer I would be so okay. Everything I do makes it worse. Even positive thoughts. Any stimulation. MRI made me 10x worse. I'm stuck in some void with severe panic and no person inside to help save me or reflect on past memories or emotions. Cant feel time at all, dont register days/nights/months. Brain doesn't register going from one place to another. It's all the same. I never relax ever. Extreme restlessness beyond anything. This last time I messed up my brain knew it was the end and i completely lost all connections. Cant use any higher thinking to help. I didnt want my life to end at 33 with a 2 year old daughter. I wish I was never put on meds in the first place. I was a highly emotional person who was sensitive. Musically inclined. I loved nature and connected to nature and animals. All that completely taken away since ive done all this. But even on antidepressants I still had me, although I was becoming less emotional over time. But emotions were still there. There is no feeling more dead than this. Theres nothing left for me to do and my brain has seen everything that has happened and cant unsee. At least in February before the coming off progesterone and then messing with those last few supplements I had something still. I could still eat with only minor problems and was working a couple days a week and slightly enjoyed going to friends house and I connected at some level with my daughter and could feel empathy. Is there anyone who can tell me what may be going on with my CNS?

Hey there! This is my first time posting on this platform, so I hope you'll forgive me if I'm in breach of any protocols or haven't used the space appropriately. I tried to read as much as I could before diving into this, but frankly, there's a lot of stuff to sift through, and it got overwhelming at points. So, if I've erred, please, don't hesitate to let me know so that I might make amends. Anyway! My signature pretty much says it all. I've used Venlafaxine (Effexor) to treat social anxiety disorder and chronic depression since I was about 21-years-old (I'm now 30), often bouncing between 150mg and 225mg to varying degrees of success, and with little issue save for some of the nastier side-effects. In my case, those side-effects were weight gain, loss of energy, libidinal ones, and if I miss my dose by even a few hours, the worst brain zaps imaginable. There's been very little interruption of this medication, save for one spell of going cold turkey for a few months, and a few quick run-ins with Fluoxetine (Prozac) and Escitalopram (Cipralex). Ultimately, I kept coming back to Venlafaxine because it worked better than any other medication I'd tried, and I could live with the side-effects even if I'd rather not. So from about 2017 onward until the spring of 2021, I kept on Venlafaxine at about 150mg without interruption. The side-effects really started to weight on me in the months leading up to that spring, particularly the weight gain. I figured that there had to be a better way, and I'd heard great things about Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq), so I thought I'd give that a shot. I consulted with my doctor who said that we could do this without issue, but would rather I tried Vortioxetine (Trintellix) instead because of the prohibitive cost of Desvenlafaxine. His plan was to taper off of 150mg of Venlafaxine over a month, and then immediately switch to Vortioxetine. It seemed like a good enough plan to me because, well, I didn't know any better. This, of course, was when my life got ruined, it seems almost irreversibly at times. Simply put: I did not take well to the Vortioxetine. It was an awful, awful experience. I had more panic attacks in my first two weeks on that medication than the rest of my life combined. I'd lost the capacity to think or to speak or to remember anything. I was in constant discomfort. It was like my life had been turned completely upside down. Worse still, I started to develop pure obsessive compulsive disorder, something that hadn't really been a thing for me to this point in my life. I tried and I tried to stick it out, but I had to quit after a month. I couldn't bare to live like that. And my doctor threw in the towel and told me to talk to a psychiatrist. So I did precisely that. I had to wait a month, though, at which point I was without any medication and I suffered such debilitating withdrawals that I had to go to the hospital. I didn't really know what was going on at the time and I'd never felt worse in my life. But, eventually I got through that, and I spoke with a psychiatrist at the hospital. They told me that Vortioxetine was a terrible choice on my doctor's part, and my experience was pretty much par for the course. She said it's by far the worst medication for people with anxiety or social anxiety. She also wasn't particularly fond of me tapering off of Venlafaxine for a month when I'd been using it for the better part of a decade. I started taking Desvenlafaxine on June 1, 2021, with a dosage of 50mg for two weeks, and then up to 100mg. And it didn't really do much for me, which was devastating. I'd wake up having panic attacks. I'd have regular panic attacks throughout the day. On top of it all, I'd developed tinnitus. My social anxiety was in an awful place. I tried to stick out for as long as I could before I threw in the towel on that and switched back to Venlafaxine -- the devil you know, right? The switch back to Venlafaxine offered some relief, but I didn't feel anything like I used to before this whole ordeal. I was still an anxious mess. My pure OCD compulsions remained, another devastating blow. I felt spaced out constantly. It was a better experience than I'd had on Vortioxetine or Desvenlafaxine, but hardly a good one. This would still register as the worst I'd felt from a mental health perspective at any point in my life prior to last spring, when this medication SNAFU turned my life upside down. Worse still, I couldn't really get my dosage up to a helpful level. I seemed to feel worse when I moved up to 75mg. It was like my body and my mind couldn't handle this drug that at one point was a feature of my every day life for years at a time. So, I went back to 37.5mg, feeling awful constantly. Anxious, depressed, suffering pure OCD compulsions... it felt at times like I'd lost my mind. And as it became clear that this wasn't doing much for me, I started to slowly wean myself off of Venlafaxine, one half-bead at a time. I'm now down to one bead, which is about 12mg, if I'm not mistaken. I've felt better as I've weaned down, if only slightly, which is both good and bad. I still feel awful relative to where I was before this medication ordeal started last spring. And I really do need this medication to get through day-to-day life. My situation feels hopeless. I'm watching personal and professional relationships deteriorate because I can't handle even the most rote social engagements without freaking out completely. I've contemplated taking my life on a few occasions, and came very close to doing so last November. I've spoken to a psychiatrist who wants me to try starting Sertraline, but frankly, I'm kind of terrified given my experiences the last few months. I just don't have anymore room for my life to get worse before, well... I don't even know. Any advice on what to do? I'm totally at a loss here, feeling failed by my doctors, and in a hopeless loop that leaves me feeling awful on day-to-day basis, unable to live the life I did at this time a year ago.

Moderator note: link to uncomfortablynumb's Benzo Forum thread Hi Everyone, About 9 years ago I jumped on the psych med-i-go-round. It was my last year in university studying human kinetics - I was really stressed, not getting much sleep, not eating very well and consuming way too much caffeine. I pretty much crashed and burned with anxiety and depression over probably a 4 month period. It was possibly due to years of stress and not knowing exactly what I wanted to do after graduation (to continue studies or find work). I was rock bottom, not being able to focus on anything and the anxiety was so bad that I isolated myself. That is when I first saw my psych. I was prescribed Celexa and that did nothing. It was my first drug and I was desperate and only gave it probably 3-4 weeks. Then I was put on Effexor. It worked wonders in about 3 or 4 weeks at 75mg or 112mg. I was back to my old energetic self and focused. I came out of my shell and was socializing again. I finished my degree and decided to forgo post-grad and start up my own business as a fitness trainer. The next 3 years were going well as I was building up clientele. Outside of work I was involved in long term relationships. Effexor was working pretty consistently. When it lost effectiveness, I would up my dose and be fine pretty soon after. I forgot to mention I was taking a pre-workout supplement (NO-Xplode or another) while on Effexor (which is probably a no, no) to give me an extra energy boost. Perhaps the meds were losing their potency and I needed another boost because coffee was not helping. Effexor then started to poop out on me. I would relapse into depression/anxiety for longer periods and upping doses was useless (I believe I went up to 187.5mg). We then tried augmenting Abilify without success. Then I switched to Pristiq which also didn't work. Then it was onto Wellbutrin to no avail. I ended up reintroducing Effexor and it worked again with the break. Not as well, but I was functioning. I began abusing pre-workout supplements just to keep me my normal energetic, positive self. Again, Effexor pooped out after a couple years. Over the next few months, I tried Zoloft and nortriptyline and another med. At this point, I was sent to a specialist. He changed my diagnosis to bipolar II even though I exhibited signs of bipolarity until I was on medication. He suggested different cocktails with lithium or Latuda. I refused. I made the stupid decision with my original psych to try Effexor one more time. Surprisingly, another break from it and it worked again. Not as well, but still got me up and going. I stayed on it for a year and weaned off this April this year. I was fine med-free for a couple months, then anxiety/depression reared it ugly head in July. Another foolish mistake I made was to go back on the Effexor from mid-July until September. I had to keep increasing the dose until it was clear my "go-to" drug was no longer an option. I began weaning off rather quickly by decreasing 37.5mg each week. I went to half of 37.5mg, then nothing. I have been completely off Effexor for the last 10 days. This is one of the longest bouts of depression/anxiety for me. It has been 4months. I have had to stop working (as I usually do when I am in this state). My job requires energy, positivity, focus. It is also a social job and depression/anxiety kinda make that impossible. It really is depressing that I have had so many relapses that it screws up my career. I wonder if I didn't go on meds in the first place if I would have relapsed. I had to wean off the drug while severely depressed/anxious. I think this has made the experience worse. I am experiencing bad insomnia, and what I think might be depersonalization (my senses seem altered, hard to describe - dream-like). I am also feeling like my mind is blank. Usually I have a nice flow of thoughts and can start conversation but it seems impossible now. It is very uncomfortable and I have isolated myself from friends. I also cannot find pleasure in ANYTHING. My concentration and memory are not very sharp. When I have weaned off in the past I do not remember it being this extremely awful. I have a few questions: Can the brain recover and balance itself? Is there anything I can do to move things along faster? Or is it probably best to explore other medical options? Should I get extensive bloodwork or an MRI done? Sorry this was such a long intro. I applaud you for reading this because it is not the most exciting story.

I was started on Effexor XR in December 2001. Dose has been 150 mg since that time. That was the first time I have ever been on medication for depression, even though I have suffered with it quite a bit in my adult life. I tried to cold turkey off it in 2005. That lasted 3 days, and I went back on the 150 mg. The withdrawals were just too much. In 2009 I started using the generic brand because the cost of the brand name was too expense. When I started taking it I paid $81 a month. When I switched to generic, it was over $250. It is bad enough that we are held captive by a drug that is supposed to help us, but they make us pay through the nose for the torture too. I have had a lot more side effects since I started the generic. My life has just gone downhill since I started this med. It long ago quit working regarding depression. In fact, I feel like it has just added to it because of the way my life has deteriorated and my inability to function effectively. It is the typical stuff that comes with taking this drug. I can't think straight. Memory is shot. Job is in jeopardy because I am having problems making deadlines. My diet stinks. Paralyzing apathy. I feel like crap physically. I can't remember what it was like to wake up refreshed from a good night's sleep. I have basically been pretty much reclusive since I began this poison. I don't want to go anywhere, and I don't want anyone to bother me. That just isn't the me I was before the drug. It is all I can do to handle the things I need to. Forget about anything over that. It is getting increasingly harder to function, and if I don't do something about it now, I am afraid there will be nothing left of me very soon. So, I finally started on the 24th. I took 2 balls out of my capsule. I did it again on the 25th. I will be getting a scale to measure so I can know exactly where I am at. I have been on this drug for 12 years. I am so hoping I can function through this without many problems with withdrawal. I am so afraid it will totally rob me of what last little bit I have left to try to function. I am afraid that because I have been on it for so long, the mental damage has been done, and I will never get me back. Like most of us, I wish I had never taken this drug. Never, never, never!!! I am hoping that it doesn't take too long before I start getting some of myself back so I can function better. The other day I couldn't comprehend what a sentence said. I had to read it over several times. I had to type each word out on my computer in order to finally get it in my head. I can't go on like this. It has stolen 12 years of my life and it is not getting a day past what it takes me to wean off it!

Hello, desperate for help , should we continue or ride it out My daughter quit olanzapine 5mg cold turkey over two weeks ago and isn't doing well at all, all the withdrawal symptoms, should she start taking a low dose and tapper off or stick with it. She has us here to help with the anxiety and talk her off the cliff. we started vitamin ivs yesterday with vitamin b and NAC she does seem to be getting better but I'm afraid after all the reading ive done on how dangerous it is to stop cold turkey, She was on Seroquel and it wasn’t working at a high dose so they switched to olanzapine in June and it caused a lot of weight gain but she said it helped somewhat with psychosis. Not totally. I know the psychosis started right when she started tsking the meds but the doctor diagnosed her with depression induced psychosis so she thinks Shes prone to it. She was not nor has she been diagnosed with schizophrenia but now has some symptoms of the psychosis. she cant work or do much of anything but sit with us. She went away to collage 5 years ago, sometime over that time she got on anti suppressants and antipsychotics and adhd meds, she became very depressed, and they didn’t help. She is back home for now because she became so depressed. When she got home I saw said she was now in olapazine 5 mg and venlafaxine 150mg I started reading the olanzapine as she gained 50 pounds in less than two months. She ended up quitting cold turkey mid-August I didn’t know until she was crying to me and said she quit because I read the side effects and was crying all night threw out the nights with insomnia, lost will to live, derepressed, psychosis hearing she should die before us. Nausea. I notice twitching with the psychosis which I read was traditive psychosis from the withdrawal. She wants off a venlafaxine and he prescribed 75mg to taper from the 150 mg but were afraid to add anymore withdrawal symptoms if its going to be worse? Any advice with this? It seems the side effects or tapering but still full of guilt and anxiety and some psychosis. The more I read about cold turkey the more I'm afraid, we found a new psychiatrist here and her sent us home with all kinds of other prescriptions she was crying when we left, she doesn’t want to be on all the drugs so shes not taking them he wanted her to switch to aripiprazole 2mg and sertraline 25mg. should she take those to help taper off the olanzapine or get a lower dose of olanzapine? Should we stay the course or go back to that doctor and get a liquid olanzapine and go to 2.5 or lower for awhile, any advice welcomed. Thanks so much in advance

Hiya everyone i was diagnosed with emotional unstable personality disorder back in 2011 and was put on quietipine and venlafaxine and they were slowly increased over the years. These medications completely changed who i was as a person i found i lost myself and they simply shut off all my emotions and feelings and i lived like a zombie who did nothing buy sleep for hours of a day and then sleep all night so i decided to come off them, i wanted to live again to feel again and to find who i am againd and now im currently 6 months into stopping all my meds. I was on 225 mg of venlafaxine and 200mg of quietipine . I have a feeling i have tampered too quickly but the thing is i really dont want to go back onto the medication. I started to tamper in july 2021 from both medications. i reduced by a bead on the venlafaxine every time i felt stable after a reduction. with the quietipine i used a pill cutter and reduced that way making a reduction everytime i felt stable. I did suffer withdrawal symptoms such as brain zaps, nausea, shakes, headaches, feeling anxious and hot and cold sweats. Fast forward to now and all them symptoms have gone away all except one the anxiety. Im frightened of everything even things i cant control I wake up every morning with tightness in my chest, im getting palpitations in my heart daily, i have this knot in my stomach that flips and does summer saults over the smallest things. I have ordered herbal tablets from holland and barrets such as ashwagandha and rhodiola as research shows that these seem to help. I really dont want to have to go back on the medication and reinstate as it makes me really angry, depressed, shuts off all my emotions and makes me like a zombie I feel like im scrambling for help as i dont like feeling scared, i feel like ive gone back to being a child in an unsafe situation and i can't take back the control Is there anything else i can do/take to get this under control .

Hello all, - Many years ago I started on Venlafaxine XR 75mg and got bumped to 150mg. - Was on that dose for about 10 years then tapered down to 37.5mg over about 2 years. - Had a wobble some years later and was put on Sertraline 50mg - been about 5 years since then. My current dosages are 50mg Sertraline and 37.5mg Venlafaxine (XR capsules). I would like to ultimately come off both. Which do you advise I taper off first? Thank you!

I would really appreciate your comments concerning my situation. I have always stopped AD (Escitalopram) too quickly simply because of lacking knowledge in the previous years. Now I may be a bit smarter. Doctors always say it's the underlying disease coming back. It seems that I don't benefit from SSRI/SNRI anymore, at least I'm not willing to try anything anymore, I just want to get out of the current poison (Venlafaxine) in a reasonable time. Mainly SSRI was described to anxiety in a difficult life situation. Symptoms: Main concern is a pressure type of feeling in my head (starts in the morning) which started after stopping Escitalopram abruptly in 2021 after feeling really sick on the medication for 4 weeks. I have also some inner restlesness but not akathisia and occasional anxiety. The symptoms have got a bit better but some drugs (Seronil) seemed to make them worse and was discontinued. I may be on a protracted withdrawal from Escitalopram but I'm not sure. At the moment I don't actually know what Venlafaxine is doing, in a way it might have lowered the symptoms but days vary - not feeling stable. I think my central nervous system is a bit shaky at the moment and I really would like to have some suggestions/comments that am I going to the right direction if I try to stabilize on a small amount of Venlafaxine (12.5-37.5 mg) for some months before WD? I didn't want to start this drug but it just happened and that's done, can't go back. Sleeping aids: Melatonin, Magnesium and L-Teanin for the last 3 months (sleeping 3-6 h/night) Used to take sleeping pills (Triptyl, Surmontil, Mirtazapine and Benzos) occasionally but built tolerance and stopped them. I have never been addicted to above meds.

Hi, everyone! I'm Justin and...I need help. I've been experiencing complex physical symptoms since coming off Effexor 37.5mg in June 2021. To make matters worse, I have a preexisting physical problem that got worse when trying to treat the withdrawal symptoms. Things are very tangled now and I'm having trouble. 15 years ago, in 2007, I had a bizarre UTI/bladder infection that, upon resolution, caused weird lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). This caused anxiety, and after years of resistance, I went on Effexor 75mg in 2010. They worked: I could sleep and function again. I was on Effexor 75 for about 11 years, with a few short stints off the meds. Every time I tried to go off, I experienced sudden and severe sexual dysfunction. Clearly a withdrawal effect. I never had any sexual problems before or during my time on Effexor (save for difficulty orgasming on meds). In 2020, I finally managed to taper down to 37.5 without experiencing sexual problems. In early 2021, I started figuring out how to taper off entirely. My psychiatrist suggested we slowly add hours to the interval between Effexor doses. I ended up slowly adding hours over 3 1/2 months until I decided I was ready to stop. The result? Sexual dysfunction avoided! The downside? Other bizarre problems that I'm still dealing with now. I finished that taper in June 2021. Here's what happened: My withdrawal data Within 36 hours of taking my last dose, I lost all athletic conditioning. I had been a high-level tennis player and runner...and I could no longer run a mile or hit a few balls on court without getting dizzy, seeing stars, and feeling like I was going to black out and die. My feet/body simply would not move. I started peeing excessively in the early mornings. Yes, I already had weird lower urinary tract symptoms. These symptoms were new and different. These symptoms didn't improve for about 3 months. Because I am an idiot (and because I wasn't sleeping well due to the nocturia) I went down a Google rabbit hole and convinced myself that I needed pelvic floor therapy for the urination. Pelvic floor PT instantly made my preexisting urinary symptoms worse and the poor sleep I already had got even worse as well. I reinstated Effexor 37.5 at this point, hoping for some cure. Reinstating helped with 2 things: My athletic conditioning returned within a couple days. The excessive urination while sleeping subsided. However, whatever the pelvic therapy did to my preexisting LUTS stuck around, since it was not related to medication. The result? Even though I had reinstated and my mood was better, I still wasn't sleeping. I finally tapered off, using the "adding hours" method, and finished in November. The upshot? When I finished the taper, the exercise problems returned. They are not nearly as severe this time. The nighttime urination returned, as well. I now believe this is my autonomic nervous system reacting to medication withdrawal. My sleep quality is very poor, exacerbated by things like alcohol (even in moderation). All of this is made worse by my preexisting urinary problems. What I know I'm experiencing two problems whose symptoms somewhat overlap. Lower urinary tract issues made worse by pelvic therapy--this isn't meds-related, but it's part of my story. What I believe is autonomic dysfunction, causing exercise intolerance, poor sleep, and different urinary problems. I appreciate that my tapering has been much quicker than what you recommend. What's weird is that these tapers have been much slower than other tapers in the past, but those tapers didn't cause any of these catastrophic problems (other than sexual dysfunction). The problems I'm having trouble taking smart, well-meaning urologists through these complicated problems. I recently moved back home to Boston, where wait times for new patients to see GPs or specialists are horribly long (months and months). I do not currently have a psychiatrist, since I just moved and it's hard finding someone with any experience in medication withdrawal, let alone someone who's taking new patients these days. Has anyone experienced similar nervous system problems when coming off? Any ideas/input at all? I'm trying to treat the issues that aren't medication-related, but there's clearly something else still going on--these problems kicked in way too soon for it to be just a relapse of my anxiety. If you've made it this far, I appreciate it!

Hello there,My name’s Andrew and I started with depression and anxiety in 1985 when I was 13yo and for some time under the care of paediatric psychiatry.After years of trying various meds the SSRI’s appeared and to cut a long story short I ended up on Sertraline,which I stayed on for about 24years(yes, I know it was a long time,but it worked quite well and it saw me through some very bad times).All of a sudden it stopped working,so my GP gave me Escitalopram,which stopped working after 5months,so Venlafaxine was tried upping it to 150mg S/R-This stopped working after 6months.After discussion with my Dr it was proposed that I might have antidepressant tachyphylaxis(?) and maybe I’ve stopped naturally producing enough Serotonin after years of SSRI use and coming off them completely might be a good idea,at least for a while.I started to lower Effexor in May and actually improved,this continued as I lowered the dose,I got down from immediate release 37.5mg one and half tab twice a day to a quarter tab twice a day by end of July.I seemed to be doing ok,but after several really stressful incidents a fortnight ago I sort of tipped over the edge and feel pretty bad at the moment.My Dr has upped Venlafaxine back to half a tab twice day and Trazodone nightly. I wake up early and can’t settle,I feel exhausted and generally ill,low mood,trembly(even though I’m not),lightheaded and diarrhoea.From reading some of the advice on here maybe I’ve done it too quickly,but I did feel fine doing it,until now.Sorry for long post,but needed to say it.I’m trying to ride it out,but for how long?

Hi all, found this forum via google searches many a night on how to cope with withdrawals! Like many others on here and I am sure everywhere in the world, I started on on anti-depressant and it just spiraled into larger and larger doses then multiple meds and meds on top of that for side affects. So a general summary was that I went to the Dr around 14 years ago for depression. I was put on Cymbalta 30mg straight off the bat. The side affects were unpleasant but I don't recall specifics of what they were, just that I did NOT like how they made me feel and I stopped them cold turkey. Withdrawals for several months of course, though fairly mild with major brainzaps being the one I most remember. Somewhere along the way I then went onto Mirtazapine. 15, 30 and then up to 45mg over a short period of time, maybe a year or so ramping up? Basically a result of going to the Dr, saying that I wasn't feeling the best on these meds, so they just increased them. I stayed on 45mg for probably 5 years or thereabouts. During that time my personality changed a lot (on retrospection I see how much). I became anxious, paranoid, ALWAYS tired, I started having panic attacks, grumpy, short temper making me snap at people for little, and isolated myself a lot. This went on for years. Each time the Dr would just tell me 'its not a magic pill' and leave it at that. Along the way my marriage fell apart and I moved to a new city. To 'cope' with the enormous increase in anxiety and stress, Dr gave me Olanzapine.... I took maybe 3 doses ever, as that stuff turned me into a zombie. I found a new doctor who I discussed how I felt on Mirtazapine and was switched over to Effexor XR. Ramped up from 37.5 to 150mg in the space of a few months. Generally felt 'good' but then noticed side affects that were persistent, sexual side affects galore, my BP sky rocketed, and hey look my anxiety was still very much around and panic attacks were a semi frequent occurrence. Dr's response was to switch to Paxil - which resulted in a heightened state of anxiety and rolling panic for days until I stopped them completely. Went back onto Effexor, despite the side affects and stabilized. Mirtazipine was then added to the Effexor for 'californian rocket fuel' - still anxious, still having panic attacks.. My BP was now concerning my Dr so was given a Blood Pressure pill, which then became two sets of BP meds, then three. My Blood Pressure still stayed high. Propranolol was added on top to reduce the heart rate and stress on my heart in general. This year was the hardest, I was referred to a psychiatrist, who every 6 weeks would get me to start a different drug. So I went from Effexor to Pristiq 50, then 100mg, Pristiq + Mirt, then onto Pristiq plus Seroquel at night (which made my anger turn into rage), then over to Luvox and some Respiradone and Valium to 'help' with the panic. Luvox basically kept me in a state of permanent nausea for 5 or 6 weeks - the dose was also increased to 100mg. So I spent around 4 months going through a cycle of drug withdrawal and startup over and over. I couldn't cope with being nauseous and feeling awful ALL the time anymore. At which point I had my next appointment with my Psychiatrist who just told me to 'just take half a dose for a few days and then stop them'. I asked that just ceasing any and all anti-depressants after FOURTEEN YEARS on them sounds very dangerous, she just shrugged. So I cancelled any future appointments with that practice, and after much research decided to cross taper from Luvox over to 15mg Mirtazapine and taper down from there. I chose Mirtazapine for several reasons - one was it stopped that permanent nausea everyday from the Luvox immediately, two it was a med my brain and body knew well and would tolerate almost immediately (which it did) and three i knew precisely what I would feel and how it would change me. After around 4 weeks of brainzaps and mild gastro issues as my body cleaned the last of the mix of drugs out of my body, I started to work my way down on Mirtazapine. Have currently gone from 15 > 7.5 > 3.75 with 6 or so weeks between drops. I will stay here until I stabalise again. So far the steps down have been very mild and tolerable (brain zaps for a day or two then fine), so my body is tolerating the 50% drops ok. 10% is recommended here, but so far for me personally its been ok dropping at 50% each time and stabilizing. The only noticeable (and expected) WD would be insomnia. My sleep quality has really tanked. Though interestingly enough despite low doses of Mirt meant to INCREASE your sleepyness, it has had little affect at all. So thats where I am currently at. I'm taking supplements like Vit C, Fish Oil and Vit B in the mornings and the small dose of Mirt at night. From here, I may need to look at a compounding chemist to begin tapering more slowly on the lower dosages, as cutting a tablet into 8th's is getting very difficult, even with a pill cutter. So the methods of diluting in liquids or a compound chemist will be the plan for the taper slow down (if needed) from here and my goal of being drug free hopefully within the year the final target.

I am new to group this a.m. I am thankful to see the advice and help that is available. I was taking Effexor for 22 years. I was post pardom depression after my first baby. I tapered at 10% a month for a year or year and half(can't remember) my memory is shot. I am completely off Effexor for 15 months and thought life would be good and normal. I am depressed, anxiety ridden(never had anxiety issues before--figured it was menopause (I'm 55 y o). I feel isolated and withdrawn. Only recently after returning to FB group on tapering did I finally realize I was having withdrawal issues. I have no interest in doing anything I used to enjoy like reading or exercising. I just found this website as well. Im not very techie so hopefully I will navigate it correctly. Can someone tell me how long these feelings will go on. I don't know if I can take it for years! My marriage may not last it either. Are there any support groups in or around Atlanta Georgia for this? Any help or advice on what to do from here would be appreciated! My history: Effexor 300mg 10 yrs Effexor 150mg 11 yrs (cold turkey myself w/no adverse effects) Tapered 10% beads starting in January 2020 Completely off March 2021 8/5/2022--Feeling depressed, anxiety since off meds--thought it was menopause and life changes(kids growing up etc.) Starting fish oil and magnesium 8/5/2022

Its been 10 days since I took my last antidepressant and I'm having a rough ride. I've been on one or another since 2010, however even before that I would be on and off one SSRI or another. About a year ago I saw my 7th psychiatrist in 5 years, they keep leaving, and he put me on mitazapine and venlaflaxine. I spent the last 6 months coming off mitazapine and then cut from 150mg venlaflaxine to 75mg then jumped off 10 days ago. I do have some experience of withdrawal from morphine and diazepam and I have always suffered bad side effects when starting a new antidepressant as well as withdrawals. My mental health nurse says I am very sensitive to drug changes. I actually think I'm not, I'm just quite self aware. Currently I'm struggling most with last of good sleep, I seem to be able to go to sleep but my fit bit is telling me I'm barely touching deep sleep, so exhausted all the time. I have terrible stomach issues anyway but the nausea is making eating impossible. I note my insatiable urge for chocolate and sweets is gone. Replaced with wanting a nice home cooked meal yet I haven't the energy to make a drink. I'm extremely emotional, crying at the drop of a hat. I feel pretty hopeless at the moment. I have a retreat booked for the end of August. They use psilocybin but also yoga, meditation, breathwork etc I am hoping I am at least feeling physically better by then as I have to get myself to Portugal. The brain zaps I was getting were unbelievable. I've had them before but nothing on this level. And they weren't just my brain, these were whole body zaps. Bought on by movement or sound. It felt like every nerve in my body was having a fit. Waking from a deep sleep. It was stopping me do everything but the first few days were the worst. Then I think they have become less severe and to a certain extent I've got used to it. Definitely still something going on. I live alone so can all be a bit lonely. No one to discuss things with and it would be nice to have someone to help with walking the dog, walking feels like I'm under water it's just so much effort.

hi i really want to type a good intro except tbh i've reached my lifetime limit of psychiatric and therapy intake sessions and i'm struggling to see this intro post as something different... communication in general is extremely exhausting for me and i really just want to ask a question about electrolyte balance... so i'll just vomit a list of random stuff into this text box: i am in my 40s, male, diagnosed conditions are tourette's (vocal mild, motor severe), add-i (extremely severe), chronic major depression, kinesthetic synesthesia -- all conditions have been present since early childhood and have remained mostly unchanged. i am also prone to migraines and seasonal vertigo (the latter gets milder with age), and debilitatingly ticklish (which might be relevant because i think it's linked to why i experience certain drug side effects). i'm in relatively good physical health otherwise. i take 30mg adderall xr daily + 5mg adderal ir 7 hours later (50mg mydayis is ideal but insurance does not cover) and am satisfied with that as it greatly improves my quality of life. the 30+5 schedule was the result of a lot of careful tuning. i am stopping 225 mg effexor xr. i have poor cyp2d6 function but did not receive that test until well after starting effexor. the only other medication i take is pepcid for reflux. i smoke approx. 2 packs every 3 days. i do not do any other drugs. i do not smoke marijuana, i have never used cocaine, and i rarely drink these days. the only other drugs i have ever done were psychedelics, and it has been a few decades. i do not like antidepressants but every few years i'll go on a run for a few years, always as a last resort. i used to prefer zoloft but about 4 years ago i tried effexor instead because zoloft caused too much general apathy. i chose effexor because my mother takes it and i figured if it works for her (although now i'm not sure if it does) then might as well. i have tried other antidepressants; but side effects were always unmanageable: i tend to get hit with all of the rare sexual side effects for any given drug, and every single motor control side effect imaginable, for some reason, and they never go away until stopping the drug. for effexor, though, the only real physical side-effect that never went away was excessive sweating. generally speaking it takes me about 72 hours to stabilize after an effexor dose increase. also, on missed dose, i will start to feel it within about 12 hours (just a feeling of strangeness + vivid dreams), and after almost precisely 36 hours i'll suddenly get hit hard with balance issues, slurred speech, brain zaps, and become prone to cataplexy attacks (the cataplexy triggers are repeatable, consistent, and hilariously specific - let's just say that if you tell me a good joke or give me great news then touch my feet i'll just completely deactivate like a scruffed cat, haha - very weird experience). incidentally, depakote virtually eliminates a lot of the motor control withdrawal side effects (quickly, too, within an hour or two). however i do not take this and will not start. i discovered this after i experienced my first missed dose cataplexy attack but we didn't know what it was at the time and my psychiatrist, fearing a TIA, put me on depakote as anti-seizure protection for a few days until i could get to a neurologist to identify what happened. i won't get into why i want to stop effexor except to say that i think it's causing more problems than it's solving, my career in particular is at high risk right now, and also this 4-5 year run is my longest on antidepressants and i'm not comfortable with that. also i'm starting to realize that it seems to be doing something weird to my emotions (hard to explain so i wont unless asked)... and i've noticed a huge increase in my tendency to dissociatively respond to stress. because of enzyme function test results, a few months ago i considered getting desvenlafaxine level lab tests then switching to a roughly equivalent dose of pristiq. but i just decided to stop entirely instead. i stopped kind of cold turkey about 2 weeks ago. the timing was because my psychiatrist is on maternity leave, i was running low on effexor (150 + 75 = 225), and tbh i just didn't really feel like calling the substitute psychiatrist. so i dropped the 75's and took 150mg for a few days until i ran out of those two, then i just stopped. that was about... a week-ish ago. it's been hell since, but... i seem to be slowly but surely crawling back into reality. my gut feeling is that i'll get through the withdrawal ok eventually, but my fingers are solidly crossed. i'm not concerned about long term withdrawal syndrome at this time but get back to me in a couple weeks on that. i've been emotionally and physically all over the place since stopping but i just assume it's par for the course. but i'm also experiencing a lot of overwhelming anxiety that i think might be 4 years of effexor-suppressed stress all coming out at once, if that makes sense (like, real life things that i should've been concerned with but wasn't, and now suddenly they're all hitting me). i seem to at least have gotten through the suicidal depression part of the withdrawal. there were about 3 mercilessly bleak days that basically consisted of me determining that the only logical solutions to the remaining mysteries of quantum mechanics were solidly in the realm of profound nihilism and that i was an illusion. the only thing that got me through it was the fact that my cat loves the absolute crap out of me; so making her purr was my sole reason for existing last week, haha (which really, isn't much of a change from normal now that i think about it). sooo... that's my intro but like i said i really just want to ask about maintaining electrolyte balance because effexor withdrawal, dehydration, and *over*-hydration all have exactly the same set of symptoms and since stopping every single fluid in my body is taking every opportunity to come out of every possible hole it has access to, plus some. also i have questions about venlafaxine vs desvenlafaxine pharmacokinetics, mostly out of curiosity. i've had no luck with my own research because "venlafaxine" and "desvenlafaxine" are used interchangeably in a lot of lower quality information sources but there is enough of those that it just completely pollutes search results. i'm not actually sure how to ask a question cause all the "new post" buttons are disabled except for in this forum. so i'm just assuming i have to type this intro to get that privilege. in any case thanks for making this site and i really do hope that everybody here is able to get through whatever they're going through right now because this stuff sucks no matter how mild or severe it is. j ps generally poor sense of time + overall lack of structured life + confusion of the last few days + logistically complicated real life events = don't trust the precision of "2 or 3 days" above, i'm actually not entirely sure when my last dose of effexor was i'd have to work backwards to figure it out. but i'm pretty sure this has all happened in the last 2 weeks. overall though my state has been best described as "utter confusion".

Long story short, I have anxiety and panic disorder. My doctor stopped my Prozac CT in April 2022 after 14 years stable on antidepressants. Said would be no issue due to the long half-life. Started getting physical symptoms and severe depression 6 weeks later, so he started Effexor 75mg cause it worked in the past. Since the have had days I feel okayish but the past week has been hospital visits due to SI and severe panic. They just keep giving me benzos but it’s making me worse. I had clonaz once and fainted and still don’t feel right. They want me to wean my Effexor onto Zoloft. What do I do? I can’t go on much longer like this…

Hi, this is my first post - I'm 6 weeks off Efexor and the withdrawal is brutal. I was prescribed 75mg of Efexor in July 2020 by an endocrinologist who suspected depression, and I began to experience what I now know to be tolerance withdrawal in October/November 2020, and it was incredibly severe. I experienced the following symptoms: severe headaches (myriad and varied types) every day brain fog fatigue light and sound sensitivity eye pain when looking at light muscle weakness heart palpitations joint pain itching tinnitus insomnia jaw pain poor memory hallucinations These symptoms plagued me and escalated over 16-ish months. No migraine medications worked and every test and scan under the sun came back with no leads. I had to stop work due to the pain and brain fog. I came off the drug myself after a bout of corticosteroids (prednisone) was miraculously effective, and pointed towards neurogenic inflammation as the cause of my issues. I became suspicious that this was Efexor's doing. In desperation I "tapered" way too fast and went down from 75 to 37.5 for one week, before coming off it entirely. The acute withdrawal in the first two weeks was awful. I was suicidal, had excruciating headaches, brain zaps, immense fatigue and insomnia, colossal mood swings including a hypomanic episode, anger, irritability, fear, severe nausea and severe full-body itching that made sleeping almost impossible. However, a huge majority of the tolerance withdrawal symptoms of the prior 16 months stopped as soon as I came off the drug. The muscle weakness, tinnitus, jaw pain, photophobia, heart palpitations, sensitivity to sound, and hallucinations all stopped immediately. After the first two weeks, things got a lot better, and I could go outside and walk again for the first time in a long time, and though I still battled the headaches, nausea, itching, brain fog, and fatigue, it was more manageable than it had ever been. I got a vaccination 4 weeks ago and for whatever reason, I think it interacted badly with my withdrawal. My symptoms immediately got much worse and are yet to improve - I haven't had that kind of 'window' since. The fatigue and brain fog are the worst of them, those are the symptoms that keep me debilitated, but the mood issues are making it difficult to cope. One of the hardest parts of this is that Efexor worked perfectly for what it was intended to regulate. I felt the happiest and most stable I have in my life, with my depression (potential cyclothymia) completely stabilised and my mood incredibly under control. However, the cost of being utterly debilitated and in pain all the time was obviously too high - I have lost my mid-20s to this. I haven't been tempted to get back on Efexor, for obvious reasons. I don't really have any idea of when this is meant to get better. I really didn't want to be unmedicated for my mood issues and they are just as difficult to deal with during all of this pain and debilitation as I expected they would be. In fact, some of them feel new and withdrawal-caused, and I'm hoping this crucible of an experience hasn't made the underlying condition worse. I've had many a psychologist for anxiety and depression over my life, and I practice CBT and mindfulness every day, as well as living as healthy a lifestyle as I can while being largely unable to do much. I see a physio, I do the exercises, I eat all the food groups and plenty of vegetables, I walk outside at least once a day, I have a psychiatrist and psychologist lined up, as well as specialists to check whether this has done any further damage to me. It just feels incredibly brutal when none of this stuff actually seems to help. I live a healthier life now in this 'wave' than I did when I was experiencing the 'window', and yet it doesn't seem to make the wave shorter or the window come sooner. It doesn't even lessen the symptoms. This website has been very helpful to me, as has Recovery and Renewal by Baylissa Frederick (I know others on the site have found her writing helpful), and so I thought I would post in case others have been through similar - I'd really appreciate hearing about it if you have. Thanks, Alice

Polarbear's Intro Topic: Polarbear: Almost Done and Enjoying Life ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hi everyone, I took my last bead of Effexor the 26th of March 2021, more than one year ago. As you can see, I did very very very slowly... I didn't feel withdrawal reactions when I stopped. I can say this episode is behind me now. Unimaginable how difficult and long all this process has been. My strengths are still improving since. I could say I am back to normal except that I still have digestive issues. However, I already had irritable bowel syndrome before I began antidepressants. Anxiety is present too, but I couldn't expect it to be gone I decided to live with it, and try to take care of it the best that I can. I wish all the best to you, who struggle with the medication and withdrawal. I profoundly understand what you are going through. I wish these trials of life wouldn't exist.

HI all of you sufferers from the withdrawal of whatever it WAS that you were on. The best thing about success is that you will NEVER go back on anything like this again. There are so many other ways of combatting depression or whatever reason you chose this option of medication. I personally was given it (without knowing what it was) for menopausal symptoms. I did not know at the time that there were other things I could have done, but being the very busy MOM, wife, administrative assistant, events coordinator and the primary source for anything happening within my family I just took the prescription, filled it and started taking them. They initially helped me relax, sleep better and gain 20 lbs over a year or two. I changed doctors at one point and the first thing he said to me was,,,,"Why the heck are you on EFFEXOR?" I told him and that I wanted to get off of them, since I had learned a lot about it's side effects and had been on it for almost 4 years at that point. He said, "well, if you are going to wean off of it, do it very very slowly, it's like coming off of Heroin". That scared the heck out of me, so I began my decent. Over a year, I went to EMERG hospital 3 times for a PANIC attack, a sedative (one) settled me down for a while, but this journey was one I had to do all by myself, family members just didn't understand what the big deal was,,,,just get off of them. Honestly, it was one of the most difficult times in my life. Ironically, my older brother had commit suicide in 1986 in his 30's, he was given several trials of antidepressants over a period of a year. In the 80's very little was known about some of these experimental drugs they were using for depression. He ended his life just before his 35th birthday. I firmly believe the drugs played a significant role in his depressed state. All he really needed was counselling, a good doctor and his family who he wouldn't confide in. If only I knew then, what I know now. But, having gone through that with my brother, it made me more aware of the negatives about antidepressants. I have to say that FOOD, yes Food sensitivities and allergies are a BIG part of how our immune systems handle stress, moods, coping and living happy healthy lives. To this day, I have discovered so many foods, alcohol, and meds I am literally allergic/sensitive to and have to avoid them. Please Try everything you can to detox and avoid anything that makes you feel poorly. So, that's my story and I hope that even if there's ONE person out there that might say.....hmmmmmm, to all of this, I hope that it is some assistance, support or encouragement to help you through this LEARNING stage of your life. Please Stay healthy and Don't have any vaccines if you can avoid it. Sorry, just had to throw that in. God Bless and Keep on fightin.

Hi guysI'm new here. I'm a 33 year old female from the UK.I was diagnosed with depression when I was 19, and went through a couple of different anti-depressants, before settling on Venlafaxine. I took 225mg per day. I've quite small (only 5'1) so I was told that was the highest I should go to. I also used to have social anxiety, mild OCD behavior, and was very 'snappy' and moody, but depression was the main problem. I'd had all these problems since about age 12.Around the same time as that diagnosis, I was diagnosed with Reactive Hypoglycaemia, which I now control through diet, but vastly affects my mood when my blood sugar levels get low. It's pretty much under control now through a strict diet and regular eating, except for about one day a month when my hormones affect it.14 years has passed and I started to think that maybe my problem had always mainly been the hypoglycaemia rather than true depression. I've seen a lot of doctors about the hypo and they all have very little knowledge about it - I would end up explaining it to them! - and they don't seem to understand how much it affects my mental state. I'd avoided attempting to come off the meds for a long time as I've heard horror stories, but I tapered them very slowly since the end of November last year, and stopped taking them around the end of May this year.My depression seemed fine, everything seemed fine. I was the same me as ever, and proud of myself.But the last few weeks...stupidly I didn't write down the exact date I stopped them - but maybe a week or two later, I'm not sure, I started feeling anxiety gradually building. It's so hard to know to what extent outside life affects it, but all I know is that I have a knot of anxiety in my stomach, and feeling so on edge is making me snap at my loved ones so much. I'm feeling really fragile, wanting to cry a lot, and this anxiety is driving me mad.So my questions are, is this my brain readjusting to living without chemicals, is this likely to get better?Or is this just how I am... do you think I need to go back on a low dose of the meds?I was so pleased with myself doing so well coming off them, but I'm finding life such a struggle right now. If I know there's an end to this anxiety I can struggle through, but how long do I want until I know if this is just how I am? I'm so tempted to just start them again, but it would be such a shame if this is just a withdrawal symptom.Advice really appreciated. Thanks for reading.