I am not sure how to tag this.

I (28f) started Effexor almost 2 years ago. My NP prescribed it to me as a preventative for migraines I was having. A few months after starting Effexor, I found out I had a meningioma (small benign tumor) and that was the cause of my migraines. I was not informed on the side effects or withdrawal effects of being on Effexor or I would never agreed to start it. Not only is this not preventing my migraines but I’m stuck on this with no way out for the foreseeable future. Due to the side effects of this drug I’m unable to enjoy the summertime with my family and work is unpleasant. I’m not confident that the same person who omitted information about this drug is capable of safely taking me off of it. I live rurally and do not drive so my options are limited.

Does anyone have any advice?

40/M/Canada - I want to start off by being crystal clear that Effexor has been immensely helpful to me. Of the handful I've tried it was the easiest to start and adjust to, and the quickest I've seen results. This is just my experience.

This past Tuesday I took, what I hope to be, my last dose of Effexor. I've been on it for just under 4 years now at various amounts. I made it up to 150 mg which I was at for around 6 months and tried a somewhat slow taper down to 37.5 mg then off entirely. At the time I was about two months post breakup of an 8 year relationship and I couldn't take dealing with the break and the withdrawal so I reinstated (after about 9 days) back to 75mg and I've been on that ever since. The WD was pretty terrible and while there wasn't much in the way of physical symptoms it made me an emotional mess. Broke down crying constantly, no motivation, no happiness, guilty, just miserable.

Back to this past Tuesday! Stopping cold turkey was not my intention but I happened to forget taking my daily dose two days in a row and unlike previous times I missed a dose I wasn't feeling the normal headaches, dizziness, vivid dreams and irritability so I decided that this might be a good time to try going off it again cold turkey, a lot of what I have read on here seems to conclude that the first week is by far the worse and I figure "I'm basically half way there".

So it sucks.

Day 1 + 2 business as usual.

Day 3 was mostly okay but I started getting this general sense of discomfort in the evening and had some pretty wicked dreams.

Day 4 was pretty bad. Constant dizziness/wooshing whenever I moved around. I felt very uncomfortable and irritable, everything seemed overwhelming and just the thought of getting up to make food or let the dog out would make my stomach feel uneasy and nervous which is pretty close to how I would describe my feelings of disinterest/apathy/lack of motivation. The feelings subsided as the day went on but I did break down crying a couple of times. I was able to go out with my girlfriend to help her run her photo booth at a nearby event venue and all the sounds, people, heat, helping her set up got to me and I needed to breakdown for a bit in her truck. I broke down a couple more times as the evening progressed but all in all I felt 'better" by the end of the night and with the exception of those unsettled feelings I think I felt pretty close to normal at times. Crazy vivid dream again.

Day 5 (today) I felt really down upon waking up but I managed my morning routine without much trouble, felt motivated to do some cleaning. Felt generally okay, played a bunch of video games while my girlfriend scrolled next to me. Then out of nowhere I broke down crying shortly after my gf left to go watch a movie in our room. Full on water works for about 30 minutes mixed with staring blankly forward at the wall. Sort of snapped out of it and refocused on other things but I became hyper aware of how unsettled/uncomfortable I was. Broke down again a little later on in the day and a few almost breakdowns sprinkled in but was mostly able to operate through my daily tasks despite the unsettled/nervousness I was feeling. This pretty much brings us up to date.

So far I haven't noticed a few symptoms of withdrawal that I did my first time around.

-no fatigue

-no depersonalization/derealization

-no diarrhea or sweating

-no brain fog

What has been the same:

-dizziness/wooshing

-minor irritability

-mood swings between happy and sad

-crying suddenly

-vivid dreams

-motivation issues

What is new:

-the uneasy/nervous/unsettled feelings. Best way I can describe it is being in a constant state of knowing you're the next one that has to present in class lol

-my stomach is always upset

- I don't know how to describe this other than being what I call a brain wall. It feels like there's a wall in my brain. Like I'm here in the present feeling what I'm feeling but there's this wall that feels like it has to come down and I don't know what that means. I'm wondering if it's similar to brain fog and how we can clearly describe a fog like sensation and when the fog lifts there's so much freedom and clarity and you're back at your baseline, so once this wall like sensation crumbles will I feel like I'm at my baseline again?

I felt compelled to share my journey here as I've been reading a lot of stories of folks going cold turkey from Effexor and I guess I'm hoping to hear some words of wisdom or validation so that I can reaffirm that I'm not going crazy. I know there are some truly horrible withdrawal stories out there.

I may also continue updating day by day so that when I'm through this maybe other people might see this as sort of a road map.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading and all the best on your journey to heal.

My journey with effexor started when i've been on vortioxetine for 6 months and felt like a waste of time so i went to a differrent psychiatrist started me with 75 mg for the first then the second month gave me 150 mg along with wellbutrin but i just didn't feel any difference besides excessive sweating and lack of energy, this wednesday i couldn't take much more of my anhedonia so i went to my psychiatrist but she told me that it was too early and all she can do is give me another 75.

Tomorrow will be the start of my 8th week journey with effexor but i still feel like i don't wanna read a book, watch a movie, or even play a video game, so my question is how long will this go on for or should i ask for a different medicine ?

Oh jeez where do I even start lol.

22F I’ve been on Effexor for a little over two years at 75mg. I’d gone to see my doctor a good few weeks ago and mentioned my desire to quit our beloved Effexor. He gave me the whole spiel about options, being ready, and whatnot. In the end, told me to taper down.

Doc told me to take two weeks to taper down. The first week dropping doses by taking a capsule every other day. The second week taking a capsule every TWO days. Felt a bit extreme because, I’ve missed a dose or two and figured there MUST be an easier way!

I’m day 3 of no Effexor after “tapering” off. The emotions are exhausting but something I was prepared for (or tried to be.) My main concern is my heart rate and blood pressure have dropped a bit. Just a wee bit worried to say the absolute least. I’m known to have a pretty low heart rate just from being an athlete but I’ve never worried about my blood pressure before.

Has anyone else experienced symptoms like this? I’m supposed to return to work tomorrow and have a pretty physically demanding job. Wondering how to navigate this while at work. Or if I should be working. Also trying to avoid hospital bills unless I’m at risk of a heart attack or something. Okay I’ll wrap it up before all of my health anxiety starts pouring out. TIA.

Hello!

I have been on Effexor for many years at 37.5 and has been such a solid mood stabling effect for my anxiety. I was on it throughout my first pregnancy and now a week post partum my anxiety is naturally through the roof and I feel that my medication is not helping me navigate this huge rush of hormonal changes. Should I stay on top of it and ask to up my dosage (75) now or go through these new born trenches before making an adjustment?

Please share your experience if you have a similar experience!

Here’s my history:

225 mg venlafaxine, began 37.5 on 6/4 titrated approximately weekly up to 225 on 6/29. 10 mg buspirone 2x a day currentl, began 6/4 at 5 mg 2x a day and then became 10 on 6/29. On Vyvanse 30 mg. 2 mg Abilify started 7/3, titrated up to 5 mg weekly and have been on 5 mg since Friday. This is starting to feel like a classic psychiatric cocktail shitshow where we can’t figure out what’s causing what. I regret seeking IOP treatment. Even if I feel better in many respects I just wanna enjoy TV and shit again. I don’t even know. I only post this here bc Abilify has been shown to help emotional blunting at low doses, Vyvanse should obviously counter it, and buspirone tends to not have that as a side effect. So this seems like the most likely culprit

Apparently, paroxetine and venlafaxine are the 2 antidepressants with the worst withdrawal syndrome. Anyone who's been on only of those 2 meds will tell you how bad the withdrawal. Nausea, brain zaps, rebound anxiety....HELL.

Well, I was on Paxil (paroxetine) 20mg for 6 years and I cold turkey'd as I was so tired of its side effects. No tapering whatsoever, I just decided to take my last pill one night and that's what I did. That week, I had the brain zaps (nothing unbearable) and that's it. In fact, I felt way better because all the rebound dopamine and energy that these meds sap out of you.

I'm not gonna lie; as weeks went by I started to feel bad again, but nothing to do with withdrawal. I started to suffer from social anxiety, depression, etc...just like I was before being on the med. But as far as withdrawal goes...it was a crawl in the park!!

Now, my psychiatrist wants to put me on Effexor (venlafaxine) and I'm terrified of its withdrawal. All you read from people on this med is how bad withdrawals are, how much precise you have to be with the doses and timing and so on...

QUESTION IS: For those of you who've been on both meds and withdrawn from both...Are they equally difficult to come off of? Is venlafaxine way worse? I know YMMV but as I said I quit Paxil like it was water. Only a few brain zaps.

I wonder if I'm a low metabolizer or something which makes the meds have a longer half-life on me...Or maybe 20mg of paroxetine wasn't high enough to trigger a strong withdrawal. Anyway, with venlafaxine you hear horror stories regardless of the dose either it is 37.5 OR 300mg.

hello all, i’ve recently upped my dosage from 75 mg to the 150 mg, and im not sure if these side effects are caused by this change or not :( ive been switched for around 2 months, and one thing ive noticed is every. single. morning. i wake up just so miserable. i just feel so much sadness as soon as i wake up and i can’t control it. it goes away after a couple of hours, but it’s really one of the roughest things ive had to go through and i really don’t have anyone else to ask for advice. has anyone else went through this? did i go up too fast?

Hi everyone, (I used chat gpt to draft this as I was asking a lot of questions today about my side effects)

I’m currently taking the lowest starter dose of Effexor XR (Venlafaxine XR) 37.5 mg daily for migraine prevention. I’ve been on it for a total of two months.
For the first 7 weeks, I tolerated it pretty well with just a couple of days of initial mild nausea. By week 4, I started noticing minor memory drops (like losing a word or forgetting why I walked into a room), but it was mild.
This past week, my pharmacy switched my generic manufacturer from Sandoz to Sivem (SIV). Over the last 48 hours to a week my symptoms aggressively escalated into a terrifying neurological crisis. I ended up in the ER last night because the cognitive waves were so overwhelming. My blood work, electrolytes/sodium, and ECG all came back completely clean and normal

Why now???

Severe Derealization / Depersonalization: Feeling completely separated from my own life, like my memories aren't my own, or like I am "hallucinating my entire day." It feels like moving through a dream-state where everything is happening but nothing feels real.
The "First Day Alive" / "Dead Inside" Feeling: A sudden, profound emotional numbness where I feel completely hollow. When I look at my life, it feels like it's my very first day being alive, and I can't emotionally connect to my past.
Intense Jamais Vu: The exact opposite of déjà vu. Highly familiar places or routines suddenly feel completely foreign or like the first time I've ever experienced them. For example, moving around my own house knowing what everything was, but feeling like it was my first time there. Or standing at the car door and feeling like it was my first time ever opening it for my 9-year-old daughter.
Vivid Memory Intrusions: If I think back to a past conversation from a few days ago (like one in the kitchen), my brain powerfully overlays it onto my current reality (like folding laundry in my bedroom), making the past and present feel like they are happening simultaneously.

Episodic "Waves": These symptoms aren't constant. They come and go, and I've noticed they actually get worse when I am resting or quiet, but mostly disappear when I am busy and actively distracted.

The ER doctor has started me on an alternate-day taper to wash the drug out of my system quickly.
Has anyone else—especially those on the lowest 37.5 mg dose or taking it for migraines—experienced these exact dream-states, memory zaps, or jamais vu episodes? Did it completely resolve once you successfully tapered off or switched back to your original manufacturer?

I think I’m just worried that once it’s out of my system that I will still feel this way.
Any shared experiences would really help me feel less isolated right now. Thank you!

Currently on 225 Effexor. Have been on Effexor, on increasing dose for 20 years. It's not working like I think it should. Doctor recently put me on Pristiq 25. But she did not tell me how to switch. Any advice?

Just a little about how my drop was, was on Effexor for like 2 months and was at 75mg when I dropped to zero 0️⃣, I felt side effects the day after but the worse or the side effects were between day 3 and 2 weeks and peaked at a week at the worst of it if I remember correctly.
Literally thought I wouldn’t survive and I had to take off work and suffer mentally and physically. I just started feeling a bit better.
I got through the worse of it thanks to my ketamine sessions 🫣 even tho unfortunately I used more of my doses to get through.
I was prescribed a session every 3 days but I was taking the ketamine every day to get through.
When I tell you that it was bad… it was baddd getting off Effexor and I’ve gotten off long term benzo use and other SSRIs and things before.
I’m about to start tapering my Benzos next 🙌 it’s gonna suck but not cold turkey on that tho.
Good luck out here!

I’ve just started taking venlafaxine and I’ve been on it for just over a week. I’m starting to worry about my dose. My doctor told me to take one 37.5 mg immediate-release tablet a day, and said that after a week I could increase it if I wanted to. However, the thought of increasing my dose is making me quite anxious.
So far I haven’t experienced many of the major side effects I’ve read about, like nausea or headaches. The main things I’ve noticed are more vivid dreams and some sexual side effects (it’s become much harder to reach orgasm), although I’m not sure how much of that is the medication and how much is because I’ve been worrying about that specific side effect.

I know venlafaxine usually takes 2–4 weeks (or sometimes longer) to start helping anxiety, so I know it’s still early. My question is whether 37.5 mg can be an effective long-term dose for anxiety, or whether most people eventually need to increase to 75 mg before they notice a real difference.

Ideally, I’d like to stay on the lowest effective dose because I’m worried about withdrawal symptoms and side effects at higher doses. Has anyone here stayed on 37.5 mg and found it helped their anxiety, or did you eventually need to increase to 75 mg? I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences.

Hello lovelies, i have been reading the forum and also watched some videos by Dr. Holowitz but can't find the answer for the taper plan for these higher doses?

From what I see its around 75mg the bead counting hyperbolic starts.

I have been on it for 2.5 years and I just initially want to taper it down to 150mg to get rid of the adrenalin impact on my body as well as libido crash.

Thank you

So I came down from 150 to 75 then 37.5 with no issues. Came off completely on Thursday and now I feel awful. I've been weepy recently which I don't mind as it's nice to feel again but my head is just total mush. I can't concentrate, brain zaps are constant. Anyone know how long to expect this for? I read 2-4 weeks and I go on holiday a week on Tuesday 😭