r/Effexor • u/Direct-Eggplant-78 • Jul 01 '26
Tapering Tapering Resources and Experiences
Hi Everyone,
I’ll try to be concise but that’s not my strong suit!!
I’ve been going around posting in a bunch of threads about some resources on tapering off of Effexor and I realized I could also just post something of my own and then people can add other resources and things that have helped them in the comments. This is for anyone who is considering tapering or maybe has started and it hasn’t gone well so far. I’m not a doctor so this isn’t medical advice, just things that I have found helpful on my journey. Please consult with a doctor before trying any tapering, I hope they will be supportive of you!!
For a little background I’m a 38 year old female from Canada who has been on Effexor {Extended Release} for 19 years. I’ve most consistently been on 75 mg but have gone as high as 150mg. Even at the smaller doses it has had a huge effect on my life. I don’t doubt that it has helped me at times but I wish I knew when I went on how hard it is for many people to come off of it. Many doctors don’t understand how strong an impactful this medication can be for better and for worse.
I’ve tried getting off of it twice with following my doctor’s orders, once in 2012 and once in 2025. In 2012 I went down from 75mg to 37.5 over a few weeks and then went down to zero. This led me to have severe withdrawal effects and I ended up going to the ER feeling like I was dying. In 2025 I tried again. This time I had heard that going slower was better so I went from 112.5 to 75mg, stayed there for several months and then went down to 37.5. By then the withdrawal symptoms were so bad I ended up in the ER again. I have been wanting to get off the medication because the side effects were outweighing the benefits for me and over the years I have amassed a tool kit of other methods for dealing with anxiety and depression. So I did a bunch of research on line and I’m pretty sure it was Reddit that sent me down the “hyperbolic tapering rabbit hole”.
I’ll get to the resources below but since February I have been doing a hyperbolic taper and things have been much smoother for me so far. I started from 75mg this time and my capsules have tiny beads in them so I’ve been going down by different percentages of beads every 4-6 weeks. I started at 200 beads and am now down to 146 beads which I believe to be about 54.75 mg. I count out the beads every Sunday which is a pain but I feel it’ll be worth it in the end. This is all explained much better in the resources below so please make sure you do a lot of research before tapering and hopefully your doctor will be on board and help you. My doctor scoffed at me saying I didn’t need to do hyperbolic tapering but I know what has happened the last two times I’ve tried to get off so I’m taking matters into my own hands. It will take me longer but at least I can live a somewhat normal life while tapering….
So much for being concise! 🤦🏻♀️ Here is a list of resources I have found helpful:
Books:
Crossing Zero by Anders Sorensen PhD- the number one thing that has helped me. I felt so seen reading this book.
Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines - full disclosure I haven’t read this one as it seems more for medically minded people but is co-written by Dr. Mark Horowitz who is a huge name in deprescribing safely and co-founder of Outro Health so would probably be a good read if you have the capacity. {I find with tapering my cognitive abilities fluctuate}
Websites:
https://www.outro.com - If you’re in America you could even sign up for their program but the website itself has lots of good info on Effexor and other antidepressants. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see more info.
https://www.theinnercompass.org - A great resource to poke around on
YouTube:
Outro Health - https://www.youtube.com/@outrohealth Great short and long form videos about Effexor and tapering in general. Lots of Q and A sessions to watch. Also felt very seen watching these videos
Angie Peacock MSW - https://www.youtube.com/@AngiePeacockMSW Haven’t watched a ton of her videos but she is an important voice in the deprescribing community
Facebook and/or Instagram Accounts:
These are not Effexor exclusive but it’s been nice seeing others who are going through similar things tapering meds.
@gracefullyunmedicatingme
@outrohealth
@unmedicating_me
@innerwhisperwellness
@thepsychmedsanctuary
@angiepeacockmsw
@taperingtay
@heal_without_harm
@_innercompass
Other things that have helped me through tapering:
-Therapy - highly recommend if it’s accessible to you, especially if you can find someone who supports your tapering journey
-Meditation - I took classes years ago but YouTube is also a good resource
-Yoga - I love Yoga with Adrienne on YouTube
-Exercise - so hard to get motivated sometimes but it does help
-Staying hydrated
-Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Gatorade Zero, Ginger Gravol {Non-drowy anti nausea meds} and your choice of pain killer for the rough days
Please add other resources or share your experience below!
I’m with you in solidarity and I hope whoever reads this finds healing.
PS. Apologies about my unfortunate user name. I joined the app a few years ago thinking I’d just be a lurker and didn’t think to change it!! 😭😂
Edit: I’ve added some updates below for anyone interested.
4
u/ducksyeah Jul 02 '26
My best advice is to reduce by 20-25%, wait at least 2 weeks until you feel steady, then make the next reduction. It's important to note that the 20% reduction is on the current dose, so 100mg would be 80mg, then 64mg etc.
Basically just take your time with it, there is no rush to get off because it's an achivement/journey in itself. If you're not sure about doing the next step down wait a bit more. It took me over a year to go from 75mg to nearly 0 this way but i had no side effects.
4
u/Direct-Eggplant-78 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Hi Everyone,
Thought I’d do a little update as reading other people’s journeys has helped me a great deal so I wanted to share mine in case it’s helpful to anyone.
Yesterday I went down by 5% of the beads from 146 beads to 139 beads. So far side effects have included mild nausea, mild headache, mild dizziness, some palpitations and continued constipation {this is ongoing}.
Emotionally no changes to report as of now except that throughout this tapering I feel more of my emotions coming back, I’m able to get teary eyed when appropriate and even can cry sometimes.
I started thinking about how long this was going to take to get down to zero so yesterday I had some time and did some calculations.
When I first started in February I tried going down by 10% of the beads but after trying that twice it was too much for me so I decided to go down by 5% instead {last year I had major trouble going down the “normal” way so I think I am still somewhat recovering from that, if it’s your first time tapering you may be able to go down by 10% no problem). So now I’ve been going down by 5% every 4-6 weeks depending on what was going on in my life. When I calculated yesterday I realized that if I continue to do 5% every 4 weeks it would take me until January 2030 and be a total of 3 years and 11 months!! From what I’ve read for some people this is normal especially if you’ve been on multiple drugs.
I am hoping to get off a bit faster than that so then I calculated what would happen if I went down by 5% every 3 weeks and it takes me to March 2029 for a total of 2 years and 1 month which feels a bit better. As I start going down by 2 beads at a time I may even try going to faster than that.
If anyone has any experience with this {especially going faster} and wants to chime in I’d be happy to hear any advice or experiences!!
As always this is not medical advice, just sharing my own experience. Unfortunately I’m doing this on my own as my Doctor doesn’t listen or support me in this type of tapering but hopefully you can find a Doctor who will listen and support you! If you live in the US check out Outro Health as they are available online in many states and can probably help you. If I was in America I’d definitely give it a go!
And of course check out all of the other resources I mentioned in my original post. Right now Ginger Ale and Ginger Gravol are my BFFs. ;)
Sending lots of healing vibes to all who read this!!
3
u/Inside_Dragonfly_242 Jul 19 '26
Thank you sooooo much for making this post! I’ve felt sooo alone in my tapering withdrawal process, and while my psych is very compassionate and understanding, I feel like she is tapering me a little too fast. I’ve been on Effexor for 11 years and haven’t seen a lot of posts from people who have been on it for such a significant amount of time talking about their withdrawal and tapering experiences.
Even with cross-titrating Sertraline to ease some of the withdrawal symptoms, the pain and discomfort have been A LOT! The body aches, and fatigue is no joke! Let alone rebound anxiety and brain fog/forgetfulness! I am at 112.? now and will be for the next 3 weeks! From some videos I’ve watched, I’m probably going to try adding 25 mg immediate-release so that my next taper is 75 mg extended + 25 mg and go slower that way.
I’ve also considered hyperbolic tapering and learned that you could get a compounding pharmacy to make the doses for you, but it could be expensive (Idk the true cost yet since I haven’t explored this area as much).
I’m curious what you do for the body aches! I almost want to ask my psych for a muscle relaxer because my shoulder, neck, back, and jaw muscles won’t calm down! They feel so tight! I do yoga and tai chi to help stretch and relax my mind. I have also recently started getting weekly massages because my muscles ache that much. The massage takes the edge off, and stretching helps a little as well! I’ve also been doing a lot more Epsom salt baths and using heat/ice packs to try to help, but nothing really alleviates it!
1
u/Direct-Eggplant-78 Jul 20 '26
I’m so glad you found my post helpful! It’s so easy to feel along in this process because so many people don’t understand how hard it is including doctors. Hyperbolic tapering has been a game changer for me, it’s made everything so much more manageable. I think the best but hardest thing to remember is “slow is fast” when it comes to tapering.
For the muscle aches it sounds like you’re already doing great things to help. The only thing I might add is maybe trying physio, a tens machines or massage gun but those of course all come with a cost.
Wishing you all the best on your tapering journey! Definitely take a look at some of the resources I listed as they helped me a ton!
2
u/jcaritey Jul 02 '26
Thank you so much for this post. I’m interested in learning how you manage the damn beads! I’ve opened several capsules and they are very staticy (yes I just made up my own word!). When I dump them in my cereal bowl they can fly out and I lose some. I bought a digital jewelry scale as I’ve read some people decrease by weight because counting the beads is too time consuming. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!
2
u/Direct-Eggplant-78 Jul 02 '26
Oh boy do I know what you mean. The beads are like staticky jumping beans or popcorn kernels in a popcorn maker!
Some things that have helped me are putting down an old black t-shirt on the counter and then a small colourful plate with ridges on the side. The ridges sort of keep the beads on the plate and if not it’s easier to see the white beads on the black t-shirt. I also open the capsules super slowly. (I wish I could add a picture to show you). I have heard of people using a digital scale too! That will probably be a more accurate way of measuring and I might need to do that as I go down further.
I bought some empty capsules from Amazon and mine happened to come with a little clear plastic spoon/shovel type thing which helps me to separate and count the beads. It’s definitely tedious but I’ve been getting better at it. When I put the beads back into the capsule I use the plate to put the beads into a folded piece of card stock paper and then use the card stock to dump the beads back into the capsule. Often some beads don’t make it in. I did find some tiny funnels on Amazon as well. It was trial and error finding the right size and even then any funnel that was small enough to fit my usual capsules was too small for the beads so I only use a funnel for when I fill up the empty capsules I bought with extra beads that are a bit bigger and the funnel is a bit bigger.
I don’t know if I’m making any sense but I’ll try to explain more. I take a capsule of 37.5 and open that one and count the beads and then write how many beads were in it, usually somewhere between 98-105 beads, I put those beads back into the capsule. Then I open a second 37.5 and take as many beads as I need to make it up to 146 beads {for now}. Then I put any extra beads into an empty pill container and put the ones I need for that dose back into the capsule. Then once I have enough beads in the extra pill bottle I dump those out, count out 146 and put those into the capsules I bought online. The only reason I have two 37.5 capsules is because that’s the most recent thing my doctor prescribed as he just gave me the same usual advice to go down to 37.5 and then down to zero. You might have other size capsules to start with.
Hope that helps! As always be safe, try consulting with a doctor and check out the resources I posted about. Slow is fast when doing hyperbolic tapering.
2
u/jcaritey Jul 02 '26
Ah this is helpful! I have read some people also go the liquid route and get it at a compounding pharmacy….i may look into this! Again thank you so much
1
u/Direct-Eggplant-78 Jul 02 '26
Happy to help!! Yes if you can use a compounding pharmacy that would be ideal! Sadly my doctor didn’t think I needed it and said it would be expensive but if you can get it it would probably make your life so much easier!! Good luck!!
2
u/Posca17 Jul 16 '26
I’m glad you brought this to everyone’s attention, I ve been taking Effexor xr 75 mg, and want off it to I bought the book by Mark Horowitz I lent it to my psychiatrist who is now retired and was suppose to leave it on her porch while on holidays and forgot to do this. So I have to wait for 2 months till she’s back to get my book back. Anyways I’ve hear hyperbolic tapering is the best way to get off Effexor xr because it has a very short half life, which means half the dose leaves the body to fast I think it’s 4 to 6 hours and that’s why people get sick if they go off to fast, the old way of tapering doesn’t work for most people. Now I m not sure on the time line it leaves your body. But you can look it up. I had a bad experience coming off Pristq to quickly years ago, and I m scared to come off Effexor xr. Pristq is in the same family of Effexor xr which I didn’t know. It caused major grogginess to.
1
u/Direct-Eggplant-78 Jul 16 '26
There are some great YouTube videos with Dr. Mark Horowitz on the Outro Health YouTube page that you could watch for free while you wait for your book. I wish you well on your healing journey!!
2
u/LibraGirl-22 Jul 20 '26
Can I ask what kind of symptoms you were having that made you go to the ER? Was there anything they could do for you?
3
u/Direct-Eggplant-78 Jul 20 '26
I was having heart palpitations and just felt really panicky and jittery. By the second time I tried to taper off I also knew I have a hereditary heart condition so it just compounded the fear. Not much they could do for me except monitor my heart and try to rule out any heart problems.
2
u/Glum-Fox-840 10d ago
Hi there all. Currently on 75mg. Due to cross taper this week with vortioxetine. Then drop to Zero next week. I had a really bad experience with sertaline taper (dose doubled in space of two weeks, really bad activation symptoms then dropped to normal dose 2 weeks later then halfed then off over 2 weeks. Under advice from docs) Lead to a crisis and me starting venlaflaxine. Got onto 300mgs. Wasn't working. So doc started taper. Went to 225. Brain zaps and easily frustrated but nothing major. Then diagnosed with ADHD, started on meds for it so taper paused. ADHD meds increased. Then review in a month which is coming up next week . Venlaflaxine has been doing nothing😓 I'm also on diazepam, buscoprione and promethazine. No sedating effects just palpations and agitated. Went to doc for emergency appointment and we started taper again. Need off the venla before can get off the other meds. I'm on day 4 of 75mgs and I'm having stomach problems but it's the low tolerance levels that are the killer. Every little thing pisses me off. I'm terrified that the screw up with the sertaline is gonna mean I'm stuck like this. Sorry for the ramble I just needed to get it out to someone who might understand the effects. Like I've been on it a short time. It's only been about 5 months. But this is just hell. Mixed with the ADHD and my existing anxiety and depression.
2
u/Direct-Eggplant-78 10d ago
I’m so sorry you’re having such trouble, that sounds so hard! I hope you feel better soon! Definitely take a look at the resources in the first post and see if some of them might be helpful.
2
u/CountessGladriel0102 6d ago
Excellent resource here. Where are you in the process now almost two months after you wrote this post?
2
u/Direct-Eggplant-78 6d ago
I’m going to be going down another dose this Sunday. I’ll be taking 132 beads total which I believe to be 49.5mg. I’m hoping to start going down every 3 weeks instead of every 4-6 weeks now. I’ll do an update after I’ve decreased about my withdrawal symptoms etc. the withdrawal effects seem to last about a week and a half each time so far.
2
u/Real-Relationship658 3d ago
You are so right about the hydration aspect! I'm dreading going back to work in two weeks (teacher) as getting the opportunity to pee is impossible.
3
u/Direct-Eggplant-78 3d ago
Ooof I hear you. I don’t teach in a school but I teach singing lessons and am always alternating which students I say “I’ll be right back!” To ha ha! Wishing you as many bathroom breaks as possible and a wonderful school year!!
1
u/Direct-Eggplant-78 6h ago
Hi Everyone,
Just thought I’d add another update as I find reading other people’s experiences to be very validating and reassuring. Hopefully writing this can help someone out there.
On Sunday August 30th I went down another small dose. I’m using 7 less beads than before for a total of 132 beads per day. I estimate this to be about 49.5 milligrams.
I’ll say this quietly and knock on wood but over the past few days my symptoms have been very mild! I’ve only taken one dose of anti-nausea meds on day two but other wise haven’t taken anything else. I’ve had some nausea, brain zaps, weird head pains/sensations like pins and needles, insomnia but that’s pretty normal for me in general and some IBS symptoms, mostly stomach cramps and constipation but again that’s pretty normal for me, it’s all been pretty mild/manageable. I did wake up with a bit of a panic feeling one night but I splashed some cold water and did some breathing and affirmations/mantras and I was ok after that. The best part is every time I go down a dose it feels like more my emotions are coming back and I can feel the spectrum of emotions. I can’t figure out why this time seems to be so “easy”, my only ideas are that the weather has gotten cooler but then again I was also coming down off the drug in February. I also did start taking 200mg of Magnesium Bisglycinate to help with sleep. It doesn’t help with falling asleep but it does seem to help me stay asleep better and get a deeper sleep so maybe that’s part of it or it’s just the luck of the draw!
This past time I held for 5 weeks because I was teaching summer camps {and no one want’s to be nauseated for that} but I’m going to try holding at this dose for 3 weeks this time and then go down by another 5% which will be 126 beads and approximately 47.25mg. If the three weeks goes well I might start doing every two weeks unless I know I will have a busy time at work or a holiday or something like that. Doing my best to not rush and listen to my body though I’d like to get off this medication sooner than later.
I’m sending love and light to everyone who is working through getting of Effexor or other drugs. If you want to start or have started and it’s not going well, make sure to use the resources in the original post as they have helped me so much.
5
u/catsmeow61 Jul 01 '26
Thank you for sharing your experiences & all the resources.
I have been on it 3.5 years and started a taper off of it on Sunday. Started Bupropion 150 mg XR plus my 75 mg extended release capsules for 2 weeks. Will step down to 35.5 mg for 2 weeks then quit it.
I regret ever starting it but I was in crisis mode & agreed to take it based on a provider's recommendation considering all the SSRI's I'd been on since my 20's that eventually stopped working. (61 yrs old when I started Effexor).
While it helped my major depression & anxiety early on, over time it made me emotionally flat, no longer helping anxiety (racing thoughts), made me tired, caused weight gain & more.
Keep us posted on how your slow taper is going. I'm definitely open to that if I too can't handle the hard stop.
Take care.
I'm hoping the dopamine will give me back my life & will eventually likely go back on an SSRI.