Venlafaxine for GAD

i got diagnosed with GAD 7 months ago and got supplied with Effoxor which i took every day going from one tablet 35 ml one week and doubled my dose the next week and so on ! My anxiety went within a day i thought it was a miracle never felt so confident. A
fter a while of taking it i started to go really hyper friends thought i was on crack and i couldn't eat and lost about 2-3 stone.
I looked in the mirror and said time to get of this !

The last few months i decided to taper down and stop !
This is now my third day without Venlafaxine and my zaps are getting worse I think I am going insane ! I have managed to get up and go to work and function but i feel flipping awful.
Yesterday the brain zaps where frighteningly strong sharp shooting pains in my freaking BRAIN down to my fingers and toes, im strong minded and i thought tomorrow i will feel better!
Today the zaps seem the same but this time the zaps kick in on every eye moment! what can i do to help it??
im never taking anything like this again and i would strongly advise people not to take this drug its EVIL ! i preferred the comedown of MDMA E's when i was in my youth!!!

THIS DRUG SHOULD BE MADE ILLEGAL !!!

How can the pharmaceutical Chemists legally supply pharmacies and patients with this HORRIBLE drug ???
worst days of my life, i would rather have my anxiety and depression back than take this horrendous stuff again....help me please

Hi and welcome to NMP :welcome:

I really would suggest posting a thread on Ven board so you get support of fellow Ven users. Some of them have come off it & reinstated it or reduced & increased again so will understand more about what you are going through.

As I understand it, short half life drugs like Ven are harder to come off for that reason hence why a possible strategy is moving to something with a long half life like Fluoxetine which makes withdrawal smoother.

Something else you may want to consider is that this is not a first line medication and GP's are supposed to try SSRI's in this instance if you have no previous history of anxiety. It also sounds like you may have experienced some mania. Have you be talking to your GP about all this and the withdrawal?

I second everything Terry said. Personally, I had the brain zaps coming off of sertraline, so it's not just venlaxafine.

You should always ask your doctor to assist with any medication changes. It is on the insert given with your bottle that you must do this. "Do not stop taking without the advice of your physician". And what you are experiencing is "why". It's not "the drug" causing these symptoms, rather it is the sudden withdrawal after your brain has been adjusted to having it that is causing them. This will drag on for some time if you don't get help with it. It is not too late, talk to your doctor! Good luck and best wishes! Sorry this is happening to you, I know how awful it is. :(

You shouldn't stop medication so abruptly and always consult your doctor before you decide to! You should be slowly lowering the dosage until you are completely off them, your probably suffering the full extents of withdrawal from the drug because you stopped so sudden.

The worst bit of the withdrawal process is the 37.5mg to zero bit. This should be drawn out over a good few weeks. My daughter has achieved complete withdrawal from venlafaxine and is now about 5 months down the line so it can be done but must be done slowly and safely.

This drug appears to work very well or not at all. Coming off it is no mean feat and GPs and some psychs still are totally oblivious to this.

I do hope that you feel better soon.

Thanks for the reply s guys !! much appreciated :noangel: day 5 and still the zaps are here managed another day at work slightly milder zaps then Monday but still horrible if they still persist in to next week i will go see a doctor ! I so wish I went for natural remedy's I feel brain damaged ...advise to people coming off venlafaxine avoid to much caffeine for me the zaps became very sensitive to movement....someone please post me a new brain this one now has become defunct :wacko::weep:

You'll be fine although it may not seem like it at the moment

Just to add on to what Marie said, I had brainzaps coming off Citalopram. They weren't that bad though, just weird. It seems a very common side effect across the spectrum of antidepressants so it must be more about the changes being made to Serotonin receptors and there will most likely be some articles out there about it somewhere.