Hello everyone.
I thought I would share my journey of coming off venlafaxine. I was on Escitalopram for over 15 years. After a spate of hospital admissions we thought it might be best to change meds. My psychiatrist recommended venlafaxine so she started me on 75mg and after a couple of weeks it went up to 150mg. At first I thought they helped but the side effects were very unpleasant. If I forgot one it only took an hour or so to start feeling terrible withdrawls. Feeling sick and dizzy, and sometimes I found that I would suffer minor withdrawls even if I took them properly. I hated them but I did gradually start to see my mental health improving, I haven't self harmed for over a year, I grew my hair long (big deal for me), had a tattoo to cover scarring and I'm planning more. My general demenour and personality improved and I feel so much better for it.
I spoke to my psychiatrist and she agreed that I could try coming off ven. We reduced it to 75mg, I instantly felt better from the horrible side effects. During this time I had some very big stresses in my life, but I coped really well and was quite proud of myself. To be sensible I decided to stay on this dose for three months. Then we reduced it to the lowest. I was on that for one month. I'm only on my second day of none at all, apart from minor withdrawls I'm coping well, I'm not yet sure if this will get worse, time will tell I guess. My main worry was poor mental health returning, I think the physical I can cope with. I'm happy to say my mental health is still good.
I wanted to share because I was so scared of coming off this because of all the horror stories I've read. Maybe I'm being optimistic and premature but I'm pleased to say so far so.good, don't listen to horror stories.
Kez xx
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