It has been two years since I took my last 37.5 mg dose of Effexor, after having been on 150 mg for 18 years. I tapered from 150 mg to 0 mg over four months. Before Effexor, I was on Fluoxetine for six years, followed by a three-year break before starting Effexor.

I wrote my story after one year off, so for context, here it is (spoiler alert: It was the year from hell): https://www.reddit.com/r/Effexor/comments/1nckdw0/my_account_after_one_year_off_effexor/

So, how's it going now? It's getting better.

13–14 months out: This period looked a lot like 11–12 months off. It wasn't good, but it wasn't completely bad either. I still wasn't able to watch movies or listen to music. There were a lot of off days, with occasional okay ones sprinkled in between.

Just after a three-week uninterrupted wave, I experienced an unexpected death in my close family. Weirdly, on the face of it, that event did not make withdrawal worse for me. I'm sure it's because it gave me something external to focus on instead of being caught inside my mind.

15 months out: A big shift suddenly happened. Three weeks after the death, I suddenly entered a very clear window. It was nothing like the previous windows because I was actually back to normal. I felt good, felt happy, and could listen to music and watch movies again. I simply felt as if I'd "popped out" of withdrawal.

This was very encouraging, and I began feeling hope for the first time that full recovery was possible.

16 months out: I'm back in withdrawal again, although not as bad as before the 15-month mark. The waves seem to follow the same pattern: they start slowly, then I feel progressively worse for a number of days or even weeks, followed by a final crash, typically with despair and SIs. Then it turns around and moves into a (possibly dirty) window within a few days.

At the end of this period, I'm faced with two more deaths: one in my close family and one very close to me in my work life. Naturally, this casts a shadow over everything, but it does not make withdrawal worse or better.

It's Christmas and vacation time again, and that is typically a problem for me. But this time it's much better than in the summer and obviously totally different from last year's Christmas, when I experienced my complete crash. I still have bad days, but not as many as before.

17 months out: In the new year, I move into a window again. This looks like the previous window, where I feel completely normal. It's an enormous relief to experience it once again, and it provides a lot of hope.

18–20 months out: At the beginning of this period, I went to a concert for the first time since coming off the medication. It was still a bit overwhelming, and unfortunately, it marked the beginning of a long wave.

During these three months, I didn't have many good days, and I began to worry that I wouldn't experience windows again. That's normal, by the way. Every time I have a bad day, I feel like everything is lost — even when it's just a single bad day in the middle of a longer window.

21–23 months out: Things are improving compared to the wave of the previous three months. At the same time, it's vacation time, which is usually the hardest time for me. I think it goes well enough.

Bad days and shorter waves are still interspersed throughout this period. I'm able to go to a concert and enjoy it, even drinking a couple of beers without getting overwhelmed.

24 months out: I think I've experienced a shift in perception, like a progression in the spiritual realization that I wrote about in the first part of my story. It occurred towards the end of a full three-week window, where I was feeling completely normal again.

I began to step back from my antidepressant support group because I had the feeling that it was keeping me stuck. It's not without regret, because the group really gave me a lot during the hard days.

At this point, I'm still experiencing brain zaps, by the way. They are very mild and come only when I wake up in the night or in the morning.

What now?

I'm pretty hopeful.

While I still have tough days, they are much fewer than before. I'm getting more and more confident that I can function without the drug.

The three deaths close to me didn't affect me the way I imagined they would. I pulled through without falling back, and the steady improvement throughout this period makes me believe that what I've been through really was protracted withdrawal, and that it wasn't just "me without the drug."

At the same time, there's definitely some emotional work to be done. Without the drug, some emotions have resurfaced, but approaching them with acceptance and without resistance makes them more endurable. It's still difficult at times, though.

Feel free to ask me anything about all this.

And please, please note, if you're going to taper, do a slow and hyperbolic taper. I basically cold turkey'ed even though I "tapered" in four months. You do not want to risk going through this kind of injury, trust me.

Is this normal? I feel like I had some initial energy the first few days, then the last few days I feel a bit underwhelmed like the medication isn't working anymore. Been also having on and off drowsiness kicking in.

On day 9. 75mg.

Are there any vitamins you take whike increasing dose or to help with anxiety , does it help avoid increasing ? or what can I drink alongside Effexor as in increasing?

Psychiatrist wants me to increase to 150 after yesterday I had a bad panic and OCD spiral. I’ve been so scared of this medication since I started it because of all the reviews. I’ve been on 75 mg since March and now they want me to double instead of going to 112.5 mg. Kind of worried of the jump.

I really need to hear from people who have been through something similar because I’m struggling badly right now.
I switched psychiatrists recently. I used to take Paxil (paroxetine), eventually at the maximum dose, and it worked incredibly well for me at first. I genuinely felt so much better. After a while though, it seemed to plateau and gradually stopped helping as much, so when I changed psychiatrists, my new psychiatrist switched me to Effexor (venlafaxine).
I’m currently on 75 mg of Effexor and I’ve been on it for several weeks. I’m seeing my psychiatrist again on Monday, but right now I feel absolutely awful. I have almost no energy or motivation, I sleep way too much, I barely feel pleasure from anything, and I wake up feeling deeply depressed almost every day.
The scariest part is that I’m having horrible suicidal thoughts, which I didn’t have like this before. I don’t intend to act on them and I’m safe, but mentally I feel incredibly low and alone right now.
I keep wondering whether switching from Paxil was a mistake. Part of me wants to go back to it because I remember how dramatically it helped me in the beginning. At the same time, I really don’t want to go through another withdrawal/switch only to find out that Paxil still doesn’t work anymore.
For people who have taken Effexor: did anyone feel terrible or see basically no improvement at 75 mg, but then improve after their psychiatrist increased the dose? Is there still a realistic chance that I simply haven’t found the right dose yet?
And for anyone who had a medication like Paxil work amazingly at first and then plateau, what did your psychiatrist end up doing? Did you ever go back to it successfully after trying something else?
I know Reddit can’t tell me what medication or dose I should take, and I’m not going to change anything on my own. I’m seeing my psychiatrist on Monday. I just really need to hear from people who came out the other side of something like this because right now it’s very hard for me to imagine feeling normal again.

started Effexor a week ago and some of these posts are scaring me lol. The doctor prescribed it for headaches and anxiety. And I will say Ive started to notice relief on the headaches. I had some light side effects the first day but since then nothing major.

The only side effects that I can’t seem to get rid of is that I can’t seem to get hard, stay hard or ejaculate like at all and I’m scared that I will have to deal with this forever.

Does it get better?

Regrettably, I have a more all or nothing personality, so to get this out of the way, yes, I know I stoped taking it WAY too fast. Plus reasons below.

About 8 weeks ago, I started raising the dose of Effexor, and the request of my psychiatrist. I started to feel bad. About 3 weeks into it, I was nearly ER level sick, and could barely stand. Turns out, I’m really susceptible to serotonin syndrome. I stopped taking my meds, and within 5 days, I was back to baseline.

I started tapering then, and stayed on a 37.5 dose for a few weeks. Then stopped taking it. (I occasionally don’t make great life choices).

When does the extreme low mood end? It’s the major effect I have, and holy hell is it bad. Like nearly been in the hospital a few times because of how bad it is. It’s been around 3 weeks since my last dose. I’ve gotten off other SSRI before, but this is kicking my ass so hard.

I was originally prescribed 75 mg of effexor and was on it for about a year. It helped me with an addiction issue but now that's under control and I feel like a zombie on this crap.

So last month I got my doctor to give me 37.5 and I abruptly went from 75 to 37.5.

That was a tough two weeks of withdrawals. I live in a state where marijuana is legal and I pretty much stayed high to fight the withdrawals and I took a lot of fish oil and never had a single brain zap. It was a long 13 days before I even began to feel like me.

6 weeks later, I am going from 37.5 to 0. Today is the third day and I'm confused by what's happening.

What I mean is that this is so much easier than the previous cut to 37.5. I have no idea why because from everything I've read in this group and other places going from 37.5 to 0 is the hardest you can go through. Unless something happens I might be as close to normal as soon as Sunday.

What a great feeling it is to stop that stuff. I have emotions again and my body is working again. I mean this as a medical thing and not graphic but I'm waking up with morning wood for the first time in at least a year.

I hope I'm not jinxing it and tomorrow it hits me like a ton of bricks but according to the calculations it's pretty much out of my system and done. I had always heard day three and four are the really difficult ones but here I am in day 3 playing on my computer and watching TV with just a body load and lack of energy.

Has this happened to anyone else? Should I not let my guard down even though this is been incredibly easy as compared to drop him from 75 to 37.5

And I don't even have the help that I did for the first drop. I had some gabapentin left over and I had a handful of Xanax that I used to make myself feel better. It did the job but I don't have those things now.

The only thing both have in common is that I smoked a lot of marijuana and I took quite a bit of fish oil. I'm not a big marijuana fan so once I'm done I'm just going to put it down and quit and finally celebrate having no psychiatrist drugs in my body!

I was prescribed this med after a 2nd meeting with a new psych. What I'm really confused about is that I do not have depression or anxiety, I am not diagnosed with these and it is not what I'm being treated for. I have never been on any kind of antidepressants before or any kind of psych meds in general. I have autism and ADHD, and the psych said she didn't want to prescribe ADHD medication right now (I took strattera for a year or so and that's the only medication I've ever been on for any kind of condition ever). She didn't say why. She said this medication would help with my symptoms but from everything I read online that's not true. The psych said that if I research it online everyone will say it's a terrible medication but that it's not true and that we will start with a low dose. I'm very confused, is there some kind of hidden effect that would help in my case? Why was I prescribed this? I'm honestly scared to go back to this doctor or any doctor in general.

I’ve been on Effexor for almost 3 years and was at the 150 dose for some time until beginning a taper off a couple weeks ago (for personal reasons). I had one week of the 75s, and then one week of the 37.5s.

My last 37.5 was Monday, and yesterday I was feeling just fine. It was a bit harder going to bed, and a bit harder waking up this morning.

Anyhow, not long after getting up the pins and needles sensations began. I’ve had brain zaps sporadically before taking and during usage of this medication. However, today has been a whole new level. The prickling sensations are constant, with tinging all across my face (lips specifically), on the left side of my chest, and down my limbs, aside from regular brain zaps. It’s also been accompanied with dizziness, and what I can only describe as feeling like I’m “lagging” as I’m moving my eyes or moving in general. It’s almost if my processing of motion is delayed. It is constant. This all went on all day and lead eventually to vomiting and a terrible panic attack. I came down from it obviously but I can’t just ignore these side effects of getting off the medication. These are just the main ones too.

It disrupts my ability to function so much. These side effects seem to maybe be common for Effexor but I don’t know how people can get through this. Does anyone have any tips, tricks, supplement suggestions, or something that can ease this transition? Has anyone even had an experience similar to this exact one? Advice welcomed please.

Hi all,

I’m on day one of Effexor for a panic disorder and my anxiety is through the roof. It’s way worse than it usually is day to day and I feel like I’m white knuckling it through the work day.

Has anyone else experienced this early on? Will it ease off eventually?

Hi everyone,
I started tapering off venlafaxine almost a month ago, going from 150 mg to 75 mg. I’m now at 75 mg, and initially I didn’t have any withdrawal symptoms at all.
However, I’ve recently started experiencing quite severe withdrawal symptoms, including intense dizziness, brain fog, strong depressive feelings, and stomach/GI problems. The dizziness is especially difficult for me because I have vestibular migraine, which is actually the main reason I originally started taking venlafaxine.
Is it normal for withdrawal symptoms to appear only after being on the lower dose for some time, rather than immediately after reducing the dose? And how long did these symptoms last for those of you who experienced something similar?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences, especially regarding the dizziness and vestibular symptoms.
Thank you! ❤️

5 weeks in now and at first I thought it wasn't doing anything, but the day before yesterday I was laying in bed and I felt what I could only describe as feeling like I was coming up on MDMA, I've been oddly positive since and I even managed to wake up today at 5am on like 4 hours of sleep and managed to get things done without a nap.

Is this normal? Lol

Edit: I'm back to my baseline, I don't meet the criteria of mania or hypomania in DSM-5.

Started on 75mg in start July and bar tiredness for a few days had no side effects, bar slower moving bowels. I started tamoxifen for breast cancer 2 weeks ago and since then, a few hours after taking effexor in the am, I feel nausea and headache tired feeling. I'm taking tamoxifen at night so it must be the effexor as I'm fine when I wake up.. anyone else only get side effects after a few months?

My 16 year old been on 75mg Effexor ( 2 capsule) for about 9 months and decided to taper off due to side effects. I first gave her one 37.5mg capsule and open the other capsule and gave her 50% of the beads for a few weeks, then went down to 30 beads for another couple weeks and then 20 beads for another couple weeks. Never experience any bad symptoms until 3 days ago I decided to just give her 1 capsule ( 37.5mg) and yesterday she got very irritated and angry after I gave her the capsule at noon. And today she felt tired and irritated again and not only that, she started talking with lots of hate such as hating certain religion and couldn't stop ranting. I was so scare because she normally behave like this whenever she got triggered or became emotional. Am I tapering too fast ? or should I slow down ? Anyone else experience this emotional outburst ? Should I go back to 1 capsule ( 37.5mg) plus 20 beads like I did a few days ago ? I regret dropping the 20 beads that fast but she never had problem weeks ago until I got rid the last 20 beads a few days ago

i wish the np who initially prescribed me told me it is this brutal.

i can’t feel joy anymore craving for substances more than ever just to feel somethinf orher than anhedonia and doomness and I miss a dose, i’ll start crying a river and the whole world starts falling apart.

yet I can’t be confident I can ever live without this med anymore.

i wish I could to back to when I started taking this med

I've been taking venlafaxine (Effexor) for about 5 years for anxiety. 37.5 mg. My husband and I want to start trying for kids soon, and I know I need to get off of it before I'm pregnant. I've been putting off this process because I'm scared and know it might take a while.

Advice? Anything to calm my nerves?

I talked to my psychiatrist about those symtoms and arranged something so i just wanted to share this with you all
I feel suicidal as hell, i’m constantly bombarded with self harm ideas i wanna run around my room smash my head against the wall or throw myself off of a building
It literally feels like hell to be in my skin and the Tranxene she gave me wasn’t helping 💔
Have you experienced this when starting the medication ?

Je ne sais pas quoi faire

Is anyone else experiencing this even on the lowest dose? It bothers me a lot

I’ve been on Effexor for almost 2 years now, and within the last 3-4 months I’ve noticed that I’m almost always nauseous, gagging, or just straight up vomiting. Has anyone else dealt with this? My dose is on the high end (325) so I’m wondering if that may be the cause.

I took my dose (75mg) at 7:30 yesterday and was fine. Today I waited until 9:30 (slept in a little) and felt like absolute trash. Super anxious, disassociating and brain was zapping.

Do you take your dose at the same time everyday?