Effexor taper frustrations

[julleri]

Hi all,

I don't post here very often. I've been tapering Effexor 300mg and am having a hard time right now. I am currently trying to level off at 37.5 mg.

I started my taper in March this year using 300 mg venlafaxine (the generic) and have done 75mg using water titration down a month and then take a month to level off. So in April I took 225mg a day. Then I tapered down slowly with water titration to 150mg. I took June and July off (it was a hard adjustment for some reason) and stayed at the 150mg. In August I tapered it down to 75 mg. September I leveled off. October I tapered again down to 37.5mg and I leveled off in November. I tried again to taper down on December 1st, by removing only .5 mg a day but on December 3rd had to reinstate my 37.5mg. I just don't feel leveled off. I've been suffering very awful depression spells. I come home from work and just cry about everything. It's been very hard. I also can't help but feel that there's something wrong with me, like I'm sick or something, but I think that it's just drug reactions. Do these drugs take a toll on anyone else like this? It's like my other body systems are out of whack and I hate it. At night I have a hard time falling asleep because I'm not sleepy, and in the morning I can barely get out of bed to go to work on time. Some days I'm even late. And my digestion has been my biggest concern. Some days I'm not even hungry at all and other days I could eat anything I'm starving. And I get nauseous easily. I don't know if this happens with anyone else, but, I've been having A LOT of lower GI troubles and have been having a lot of gas and some instances of diarrhea. I have also been having some belching, like it's a acid reflux thing (which I have had in the past). I don't know. I'm just so worn out and it's so frustrating!!! It's like this drug is affecting every body system in me adversely and I hate it! I just want to know if others have these kinds of issues as well. I am expecting people do. I suppose I just want a place to rant about this. I know this is the place for it.

I've been wondering how I'm going to get off this last 37.5 mg of Effexor, too. I've been thinking of going back to my psychiatrist and asking him to switch me to Prozac since it has a much, much, much longer half-life. Has anyone else on Effexor at this dose tried switching to Prozac and had any luck?

Just wondering. These are my concerns. Living through this withdrawal and detox and titration has been a living nightmare and hell on earth.

Thanks in advance,
Jason

This is my timeline:
300 mg Effexor XR switched to generic venlafaxine - March '09
225 mg - April '09
150 mg - June '09
75 mg - September '09
37.5 mg - November '09
trying to level off, it's taking longer than in the past now...

[jule1]

Welcome Jason! Effexor is one nasty drug to get off of but you are tapering way to fast. Look up the guidelines on this site. I believe it is 8 or 10% taper for three to four weeks. With Effexor especially I would go very very slow. I am almost two years OFF of it and still in withdrawal. Mixter is also a member on here that you might want to check out his posts.

I'm sure others will chime in with some helpful advice. This is a great site and the mods and many people on here really know their stuff!

Good luck!

[jule1]

I wouldn't switch to Prozac either. It doesn't work for a lot of people. You might just have to reinstate Effexor to where you feel comfortable and then do a slow taper.

[julleri]

Wow, thanks so much for the speedy reply! Love that.

You're nearly two years off and are still having withdrawal symptoms? Do you believe it's because of your very fast taper? May I ask what kind of symptoms you are still having?

I know that my taper is a bit fast. A bit too fast indeed. I really need to think about this for this last bit. However, I must say that all things considered I was never "too" uncomfortable during this taper up until now. I think maybe it's catching up with me.

Thanks again,
Jason

[jule1]

It will catch up with you. That's what happened in my case. My doctor was horrible and gave me no information going on or coming off Effexor. I was so naive I didn't even know it was an antidepressant! I thought she had given me something like Ambien but now a while later have learned more than I never knew about these meds. It's been a very hard almost 2 years but I have to admit I am now seeing some progress. I'm not quite sure I remember how fast I weaned but remember it being over like a three month period and that was NOWHERE near long enough. I didn't know what was going on at the time and couldn't figure out why my health was failing in every sense of the word. It was horrific to say the least but not everyone has that experience. Still I would taper slowly.

Right now I'm left with occasional stomach distress, occ. electric shocks, eye/vision problems, nerve pain/burning/inflammation in back, neck, and head. Light anxiety (used to be horrendous-couldn't even leave my bedroom!), fatigue, nerve vibrations, headaches, some insomnia and I think those are the major ones. I have major problems with histamine/inflammation that I am hoping will also ease off with time. All the symtpoms I had coming off are under the thread Researchers look here for prolonged cases of withdrawal syndrome (I think that's the title/something like that).

Hope I've helped!

[Songbird]

It looks like you've been doing 50% dose drops every two months? The 50% dose drops are too big. You need to go back to a dose where you felt stable, wait a while until you stabilise and then re-start your taper doing much smaller drops, no more than 10%.

[julleri]

Thanks for the advice, Songbird

I think I might just need to do that. In the hours since I wrote that post today, I haven't been doing very well at all. My body hurts all over. I feel ill. I have awful abdominal cramps in my left side of my body (and, yes, I know my body well enough to know this is all related to SNRI/SSRI withdrawal - this is typical for my body when feeling this), and cannot for the life of me control my thoughts, feelings, and emotions. I really need to re-stabilize.

Problem with that is, is that I'll eventually need to taper off this drug at some point in time, and that means I'm going to have to get to this level (37.5) again if I do re-stabilize and increase my dosage. I really want to stay at 37.5 for the month of December and see how things go. I hope they improve.

I really would like to work closely with a doctor who understands SSRI/SNRI withdrawal better. My psychiatrist, while he listens to me and will write me prescriptions and knows my goal is to get off the drug, I really don't believe he fully understands what I'm going through. Would anyone know a way to find a psych that can help me get off these drugs and who knows about and believes in antidepressant withdrawal? I'm in the Phoenix, Az area.

Jason

[Songbird]

I know what you mean about certain dose points, I've always had problems when I get to 5mg Paxil. I'm hoping that if I reduce slowly enough, I'll be able to get through it. If you're hurting that badly, you might want to consider updosing a little to get relief, you've come down a long way in a short time.

[julleri]

Originally Posted by Songbird

you've come down a long way in a short time.

That's true! I can't beat myself up over this when I've successfully made a lot of progress already!! It's easy to forget this, so thanks for reminding me!