tapering off 150mg Effexor.. FEEL HORRIBLE.

[GlobusGirl32]

This has to be the worst medicine i have ever taken. Im new to the meds, was hospitalized and put on 150mg and a med called Zyprexa.. my psychiatrist was baffled as to why i was put on this two meds. Said effexor was tough to get off and that is the truth. Struggling with this right now, anyone else?

[spawn]

Hey, how much are u reducing by each time, and for how long?

[GlobusGirl32]

Hey, how much are u reducing by each time, and for how long?

37.5mg pills Three times a day 1 week and 10mg Prozac,
Two 37.5mg pills next week & 20mg Prozac,
One 37.5mg pill the week after that 30mg Prozac.

[Wolfiewolf2468]

As I found out, Venlafaxine is horrible as anything to come off. I was on 75mg twice a day and a GP cut my dose by half, after 2 yrs on it. 2 weeks later, literally overnight, I started crying, shaking, hyperventilating etc. My normal GP wasn't happy and put me back on my original dose, but it not working. Now have more medication to add to it :(

[ConfusedByLife]

Been on this 12 years now (75mg once a day). It's brutal stuff to come off. You have to decrease dose very slowly to avoid the withdrawls. The longer you've been on it the slower you should taper off the dose. I'm just starting to decrease dose from today (1mg every 3 days lol). The trick i've discovered through trial and error (I hope. Results to come lol) is you have to become a bedroom chemist because the drug companaies want you to stay on it and GP's don't generally understand how to reduce this drug without the hideous side effects and o try too fast or try alternate days crap which doesnt work if you've been on it a long time. The withdrwawal effects are just too severe.
My 75mg tablets come in 2 types depending on what the chemist gives me. inside one type of capsule are 6 mini tablets (12.5mg each) and inside the other type are (perhaps the more common) 300 tiny tiny balls (0.25mg per ball) - count your own just to be sure but that's what mine are. If you're very careful you can open the capsule - hold it so that longer thinner end is towards the ground and gently squeeze in the top and unscrew/shuffle it off) then very gently slightly tip up the capsule on a flat surface where you can easily see the balls (sheet of coloured/black card) tip a few out - 4 tiny tiny balls = 1mg. You can then put the capsule back together (until it clicks) and take. I'm doing one mg decrease for 3 days, then drop another mg for 3 days. The 12.5mg tablets are a bit harder to do but you can chop little bits off the mini (12.5mg pills) and taper dose much slower than doc reccomends. The key point is you can't take this med one day and then not the next or decrease too quickly or you get awful side effects due to the drugs short half life. Hope this helps

[Pipkin]

Hi there,

I'm on Venlafaxine at the moment and have been on it before (twice). I know people often say its really difficult to come off but that wasn't my experience. I went against doctor's advice and went from 75mg to nothing overnight and, although I had quite a few side effects for a week or so, I stuck it out and within a couple of weeks, I was fine. Maybe I was just lucky but I didn't hesitate to take it again when I needed to 10 years later.

I guess everyone's experience is different.

Pip

[Tony52]

Been on Ven 3 times now. First two times,got better on max of 75mg.Tapered off to nothing with no side effects in about 3 months on doctors direction.
Third time on 187.5mg I was getting worse than I have ever been.
Had given it a good go for about 7 or 8 months and on doctors direction came off it straight away.I actually started feeling better straight away.On day four I started on Mertazapine 15mg.
Felt back to normal in about a week and as if I was not taking any meds at all.
Still on Mert now after about 2 months and psych told me to stay on Mert for about 2 years.
Could have possibly been 'Serotonin Syndrome' why I was not getting better this time round on Ven,but like a lot of things with AD's,no certainty about it.
Like Pip was saying. Everyones experience is differant.

[pinkdove]

i am reducing ven too, took 150mg daily, dropped to 112.5mg for about 4 weeks, then 75mg, been on that for about 3 weeks, and have had no side effects at all, like tony i feel better on the lower dose.
i intend to stay on 75mg for another month maybe longer, just pleased to have halved my dose with no side effects.
i was on ven for a year and citalopram before that...ope this helps and good luck, i think the thing is to take it slowly x

[spawn]

I went from 150 to 112.5 with very little side effects to.