Venlafaxine hell!

[Booblet]

Hi everyone! And what a beautiful day!

Just wondering if anyone has successfully come off Venlafaxine medication for Depression.

At the moment I am on a specific monitored programme to come off the 300 mg Venlafaxine in which I have been taking for over 19 years. I have been on the 300mg for the last two years.

After 9 wks I have reduced Venlafaxine to 150 mg. However, I have also Taken Mirtazapine 45 mg to support the reduced level of Venlafaxine.

Now, I am not too well at all - getting severe withdrawal symptoms: I have reduced the Mirtazapine to 30 mg, I am still taking 150 Venlafaxine but I have started on a new drug called Lamotrigine 25 mg.

Going back to the beginning, I felt OK.. ish but very, very tired and fatigued through taking the Mirtazapine. That was weeks 1,and 2. I am now on wk 9.

Just to point out this programme is being monitored by a Psychiatrist.

Is there anybody out there who has successfully come entirely off the drug Venlafaxine? I am feeling very depressed and anxious at the moment.

Kind Regards to you all xxxxxx

[LovelySnow]

Hi Booblet. I'm working on it - with the help of a psychiatrist and other healthcare professionals. It's a tough drug to reduce.

For the past 2 years I'd been on 225 mg of Effexor. Prior to that I was on 150 mg for about 10 years. Now I'm on an incredibly low amout - lower than 37.5 (the lowest they prescribe). If you want to talk more, feel free to message me. I DEFINITELY feel you!

[Booblet in reply to LovelySnow]

Hi, Thank you for your reply. Today has been really bad. Even though, like you I have been working with a Psychiatrist, it as really affected me.

I feel so depressed and anxious, and extremely agrivated and weepy. These are but a few of my symptoms!

Did you get prescribed any other medication whilst tapering from your Venlafaxine?

Can i just say, well done for getting down to such a low amount. I really admire you. You must congratulation yourself too.

Booblet

[LovelySnow in reply to Booblet]

Hi Booblet. If you want to talk more, please message me. I'm really happy to talk to you, but I don't want to mislead anyone by explaining what I did or am doing. My journey might be unique. I am not a doctor! So I don't want someone to read about my journey & feel like they need to do the same thing.

That said , the short answer is no - I did not take any other prescribed drug. But I have been weaning down very, very slowly and doing other things to suuport my overall health. My psychiatrist was classically trained but has since changed to help people come off of meds rather than put them on them. She is unique. Her view - and this is HER view - is that there are other ways to support your mental & emotional health aside from taking psychiatric medicines long-term.

If you want to know more, let me know! For me personally, it has been what I needed. But I am keenly aware that this is not for everyone. I cannot say what will work for you. Or for anyone else. Each person must decide for him or herself what he or she needs.

[Hidden]

All I can suggest is you follow the recommended route of your trick cyclist.

Withdrawal can be quite an unpleasant problem, if you stop taking your new medication you will slow the transfer and it will take longer to get settled once more

Follow recommendations, if they feel you need a further new medication it will take longer for you to settle

BOB

[McMoo]

Hi Booblet

I have tried twice to come off venlafaxine and sadly failed! Recently just lowered dose only by 18.75 mg for a month and have relapsed. Very very frustrating. I didn’t know this tablet was so hard to get off. If I had known this I would never have gone on if. It sounds like your psychiatrist is doing everything they can to help you. If you are successful please let me know to give me hope.

Sending you a lot of hope

[Sarah1111111]

No managed to reduce to 150 but not tried to go below that. When I did I relapsed so decided not to try

[lilliput]

I came off it several years ago. Slowly cut down over a month. I took Fluoroxetine prior to the Venlafaxine. The Venflaxine was harder to quit but far more effective. I took it for about a year.

[medindexer]

I'm in similar situation to you. On 225 venlafaxine and 15 mirtazepine. I've been on the venlafaxine for 15 years.

Venlafaxine has its own special withdrawal difficulties due to its short half-life. This has come more to the for in studies and is often called "venlafaxine discontinuation syndrome".

I therefore will try my own reducing scheme by dividing in half and reducing the 3 mini tablets inside 37.5 capsules. If someone else told me they were doing this I'd have thought that dumb.....but not now. So my first target is to get to 150 from 225.

I will aim to reduce by 6mg per week. Others have done it even more slowly!

If I feel weird I'll have week or weeks where I'll plateau the dose. This is my cunning plan! The brain won't notice such subtle reductions (like pinching apples from a market stool). Well that's my theory!

[Booblet in reply to medindexer]

Hi, Just read your reply. I think your decision to decide your 37.5 mg Venlafaxine is an excellent idea as long as the tab is not 'time release' like mine.

I just wish that our NHS would look outside the box and realise the delacacy of coming off Venlafaxine - as you said it writely owns its own statement, "Venlafaine Discontinuation Syndrone and, I can def understand why.

At the moment I'm really going through hell, I'm down to 150 mg but I am really ill. I'm seeing Psychiatrist on the 1st August to monitor my progress?? My aim is to come off Venlafaxine completely, in time.

Please keep in touch, thinking about you.

Booblet.

[medindexer in reply to Booblet]

I've just had one week of relative joy. Praise be - it gives me hope to know that the happier me us not that far away. I've no idea why I'm feeling better. But I have tried out a device called alpha-stim which uses cranial or transcranial electrotherapy. Yes, it sounds like some Victorian quackery but there have been many trials of it incl NHS . I've laid out £500! I'm doing psychotherapy, I keep fit, eat well, socialise, and the drugs aren't doing much - so.....that's where I'm at.

Getting back to venlafaxine, it's a problem I've suspected for a while, but was afraid to acknowledge. I've put my trust in antidepressants, and that has eroded over recent time. The NHS did say (last year I think), that the withdrawal problem with ADs is much bigger than previously acknowledged. I've been in heavyweight science all my life, but now, I'm being persuaded by medical journalists and their books, that we are being terribly let down by these drugs and their damn manufacturers......but I may be wrong!

Hope you have support from friends, family, partner.....

Also, support groups. I think they can be excellent. Take care.

[medindexer]

Sadly, wine up this morning and felt rubbish. Easy to feel despairing about it, but what I thought and planned still stands. Tomorrow will not necessarily be same as today. And I've had the best week for a while. Off to watch women's World Cup Final!

[PushingThru]

I came off it after 14 years. From the time I started to reduce to when I finally stopped was realistically about 8 months. It sounds very slow but I had few PHYSICAL withdrawal symptoms. Mostly just a foggy head for a couple of days after each reduction.

MENTAL side effects lasted much longer. Mood swings and sleepiness for several months. I have actually read you can have these symptoms (which STRONGLY mimic relapse symptoms) transiently for up to a year after stopping completely.

Have a plan in place for when you stop completely. Mine included joining a gym and starting yoga.

[PushingThru]

That should say weepy not sleepy on my previous answer. Sorry! ☺

[PhoenixRising21]

I was on Effexor for many years. I came off it slowly under gp supervision but didn't replace it with anything. After 18 months I couldn't hack it as all my symptoms had intensified and I ended up having to go back onto it. I vowed never to stop it again as even just missing one day made me terribly ill with the withdrawal symptoms. However it eventually stopped working so my doctor recommended a fast withdrawal (2 days) then replacing it with another SSR. Luckily this time it was much easier and eventually the withdrawal effects subsided. Hang in there!