Administrator Karma Posted October 17, 2023 Author Administrator Share Posted October 17, 2023 Update: New milestone - I’m down to 40 mg gabapentin. I never thought it was going to take so long to taper off of this drug. But we never do think it will take that long, do we? I can’t complain. I’m avoiding withdrawal symptoms and able to keep a steady pace. I’m making my own liquid and even figured out how to travel with it if necessary. (So far, I’ve managed to avoid that international travel - that will hold through the end of the year, but 2024 may be different). I feel like the tortoise from the tortoise and the hare. But we all know how that turned out, so it seems like a pretty good plan Love and Light Karma 2 2007 @ 375 mg Effexor - 11/29/2011 - 43.75 mg Effexor (regular) & .625 mg Xanax 200 mg Gabapentin 2/27/21 - 194.5 mg, 5/28/21 - 183 mg, 8/2/21 - 170 mg, 11/28/21 - 150 mg, 4/19/22 - 122 mg; 8//7/22 - 100 mg; 12/17 - 75mg; 8/17 - 45 mg; 10/16 40 mg Xanax taper: 3/11/12 - 0.9375 mg, 3/25/12 - 0.875 mg, 4/6/12 - 0.8125 mg, 4/18/12 - 0.75 ; 10/16 40mg; 1/16 0.6875 mg; at some point 0.625 mg Effexor taper: 1/29/12 - 40.625 mg, 4/29/12 - 39.875 mg, 5/11/12 - Switched to liquid Effexor, 5/25/12 - 38 mg, 7/6/12 - 35 mg, 8/17/12 - 32 mg, 9/14/12 - 30 mg, 10/19/12 - 28 mg, 11/9/12 - 26 mg, 11/30/12 - 24 mg, 01/14/13 - 22 mg. 02/25/13 - 20.8 mg, 03/18/13 - 19.2 mg, 4/15/13 - 17.6 mg, 8/10/13 - 16.4 mg, 9/7/13 - 15.2 mg, 10/19/13 - 14 mg, 1/15/14 - 13.2 mg, 3/1/2014 - 12.6 mg, 5/4/14 - 12 mg, 8/1/14 - 11.4 mg, 8/29/14 - 10.8 mg; 10/14/14 - 10.2 mg; 12/15/14 - 10 mg, 1/11/15 - 9.5 mg, 2/8/15 - 9 mg, 3/21/15 - 8.5 mg, 5/1/15 - 8 mg, 6/9/15 - 7.5 mg, 7/8/15 - 7 mg, 8/22/15 - 6.5 mg, 10/4/15 - 6 mg; 1/1/16 - 5.6 mg; 2/6/16 - 5.2 mg; 4/9 - 4.8 mg; 7/7 4.5 mg; 10/7 4.25 mg; 11/4 4.0 mg; 11/25 3.8 mg; 4/24 3.6 mg; 5/27 3.4 mg; 7/8 3.2 mg ... 10/18 2.8 mg; 1/18 2.6 mg; 4/7 2.4 mg; 5/26 2.15mg; 8/18 1.85 mg; 10/7 1.7 mg; 12/1 1.45 mg; 3/2 1.2 mg; 5/4 0.90 mg; 6/1 0.80 mg; 6/22 0.65 mg; 08/03 0.50 mg, 08/10 0.45 mg, 10/05 0.325 mg, 11/23 0.2 mg, 12/14 0.15 mg, 12/21 0.125 mg, 02/28 0.03125 mg, 2/15 0.015625 mg, 2/29/20 0.00 mg - OFF Effexor I am not a medical professional - this is not medical advice. My suggestions are based on personal experience, reading, observation and anecdotal information posted by other sufferers Link to comment
Moderator Emeritus Shep Posted October 17, 2023 Moderator Emeritus Share Posted October 17, 2023 Excellent update, @Karma. Glad things are going smoothly. Link to comment
cornchowder Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 Hi Karma, I've read through this whole post, and congratulations on getting off of Effexor! Your incredible patience has been helping me as I'm getting emotionally ready for a very long taper myself. On 10/29/2016 at 11:48 AM, Karma said: I feel so much better these days than when I was on higher doses. I don't have the symptoms others report because I've given my body time to adjust as the drug is removed. I feel like I am me again and I know I just have to carefully manage my way off the dregs of big pharma that remain. At what dose did you start to feel more like yourself? I know it'll be different for me (different meds, different people), but I've been curious about when people's turning points were. Looking forward to reading more about your other tapers. Hello, I'm Corn, she/her. intro thread here 2015-2018 sertraline 50mg, quit CT Sep 2019 re-started sertraline 50mg after experiencing winter depression (SAD) Aug 2023 went on 25mg in attempt to taper, horrible withdrawal symptoms. Also started 1mg prazosin at bedtime, for sleeping / help with thundering heartbeat Oct 2023 took time off work bc WD is so bad, went back on 12.5mg and slowly raised to 50mg. Withdrawal symptoms ceased. Oct '23 - holding for a few months before starting super slow taper. Link to comment
medfreeoneday Posted November 20, 2023 Share Posted November 20, 2023 I am tapering Effexor like you did (although I went a bit too fast and now have to stabilise). I am now at 6mg- my question is- do you remember when you started to feel the full range of emotions again? I'm hoping I might be able to get my emotions back once I get down to 2.5mg or so. Anyway would love to hear from you. Karma's reply: In a nutshell, if you read through my whole thread, you'll see I did a lot of work to improve my overall health. I changed my diet, worked with a nutritionist to supplement what my body needed, worked with a nurse practitioner for hormones and thyroid, ensured I was exercising, etc. By the mid-2012 mark, you will see I noted I was able to experience joy. Being able to experience joy was my marker that my emotions were coming back. 2000: Feb: went on Paxil 20mg 2019: Feb: came off Paxil 20mg bridged to Prozac 20mg over 2 weeks. 2019: June: BAD TIME: had mother of all WD waves 2019: July: went on Effexor XR 150mg and WD symptoms stopped. 2020: Dec: started 10% per month taper from 150mg. 2021: Steadily dropped dose with some WDs but manageable. 2022: mid April- had terrible WDs in drop from 50mg to 45mg. 2022: 25 April-reinstated at 50mg 04/25/22--09/30/22: 50mg 10/31/22: 47.1mg 11/30/22: 42.3mg 12/31/22: 37.5mg 01/31/23: 33mg 02/28/23: 28.5mg 03/31/23: 24mg 04/30/23: 19.5mg 05/30/23: 16.5mg 06/30/23: 12mg 07/31/23: 9mg 08/31/23: 6mg 9/30/23: Back to 6mg (tried to switch to bead counting and miscalculated) 10/30/23: 5.1mg SEVERE WDs 11/8/23: 5.7mg UPDOSED 12/31/23: 6mg 1/1/24: 6.6mg Link to comment
Administrator Karma Posted November 21, 2023 Author Administrator Share Posted November 21, 2023 @medfreeoneday, The important thing here that I see is that tapering too fast seems to have a less than desired effect in multiple ways. Not only can it result in intense withdrawal symptoms, but it also seems to forestall the breakthrough of the desired emotions. Instability is sneaky. You think you are doing ok, you can live with the minor discomfort, so you take another decrement, and another, and maybe another and then WHAM, everything catches up with you. I cannot stress enough the importance of logging symptoms each day. (I still do this and I've saved every log). Logging each day helps one really get in-tune with his/her own body. It helps one detect the most minor uptick in undesirable symptoms or the most nearly imperceptible improvement. One thing I learned (that I really didn't like) was that sometimes it is necessary to take a significant hold. Could be 60 days, 70 days, 90 days, could be 120 days or any other chunk of days. Only you can determine whether you really feel stable and whether your life conditions are suitable for another decrement. As I stated in my other response to you, I did a lot of work to improve my overall health. We eat primarily organic, similar to paleo ... and we accomplished this over time. I can't say enough about how avoiding pesticide laden foods can improve, not only your overall well-being, but your gut biome that some actually call your "second brain." There was a recent interview with Zen Honeycutt discussing how they tested fast foods and children's school lunches Interview with Zen Honeycutt - toxins in our food. They are full of toxins. She related the story of a mother who had told the school her child had mental health issues, but they didn't offer her any help. Until one day the school called because the child was threatening to blow up the school. The school got the mother in touch with a psychiatrist who offered SSRIs or to get the child on an organic diet. The mother started with organic rice and beans. If I recall the story correctly, after a short time the school called to ask what she had done - the child had become a completely different person. Sorry for the long post, but your question prompted a landslide of thoughts that I felt the needed to share. Hope something here is helpful! 1 2007 @ 375 mg Effexor - 11/29/2011 - 43.75 mg Effexor (regular) & .625 mg Xanax 200 mg Gabapentin 2/27/21 - 194.5 mg, 5/28/21 - 183 mg, 8/2/21 - 170 mg, 11/28/21 - 150 mg, 4/19/22 - 122 mg; 8//7/22 - 100 mg; 12/17 - 75mg; 8/17 - 45 mg; 10/16 40 mg Xanax taper: 3/11/12 - 0.9375 mg, 3/25/12 - 0.875 mg, 4/6/12 - 0.8125 mg, 4/18/12 - 0.75 ; 10/16 40mg; 1/16 0.6875 mg; at some point 0.625 mg Effexor taper: 1/29/12 - 40.625 mg, 4/29/12 - 39.875 mg, 5/11/12 - Switched to liquid Effexor, 5/25/12 - 38 mg, 7/6/12 - 35 mg, 8/17/12 - 32 mg, 9/14/12 - 30 mg, 10/19/12 - 28 mg, 11/9/12 - 26 mg, 11/30/12 - 24 mg, 01/14/13 - 22 mg. 02/25/13 - 20.8 mg, 03/18/13 - 19.2 mg, 4/15/13 - 17.6 mg, 8/10/13 - 16.4 mg, 9/7/13 - 15.2 mg, 10/19/13 - 14 mg, 1/15/14 - 13.2 mg, 3/1/2014 - 12.6 mg, 5/4/14 - 12 mg, 8/1/14 - 11.4 mg, 8/29/14 - 10.8 mg; 10/14/14 - 10.2 mg; 12/15/14 - 10 mg, 1/11/15 - 9.5 mg, 2/8/15 - 9 mg, 3/21/15 - 8.5 mg, 5/1/15 - 8 mg, 6/9/15 - 7.5 mg, 7/8/15 - 7 mg, 8/22/15 - 6.5 mg, 10/4/15 - 6 mg; 1/1/16 - 5.6 mg; 2/6/16 - 5.2 mg; 4/9 - 4.8 mg; 7/7 4.5 mg; 10/7 4.25 mg; 11/4 4.0 mg; 11/25 3.8 mg; 4/24 3.6 mg; 5/27 3.4 mg; 7/8 3.2 mg ... 10/18 2.8 mg; 1/18 2.6 mg; 4/7 2.4 mg; 5/26 2.15mg; 8/18 1.85 mg; 10/7 1.7 mg; 12/1 1.45 mg; 3/2 1.2 mg; 5/4 0.90 mg; 6/1 0.80 mg; 6/22 0.65 mg; 08/03 0.50 mg, 08/10 0.45 mg, 10/05 0.325 mg, 11/23 0.2 mg, 12/14 0.15 mg, 12/21 0.125 mg, 02/28 0.03125 mg, 2/15 0.015625 mg, 2/29/20 0.00 mg - OFF Effexor I am not a medical professional - this is not medical advice. My suggestions are based on personal experience, reading, observation and anecdotal information posted by other sufferers Link to comment
Administrator Karma Posted April 14 Author Administrator Share Posted April 14 Update: I am down to 23 mg of Gabapentin. Was looking forward to posting at the 25 mg milestone, but it was a bit of a challenge to finally get there and I got distracted about posting the milestone. I had to hold at 26 mg for a month and then cut my reduction down to 1/4 mg. Initially, I could take a quarter mg reduction every 3 days, but now it’s every 4 days. It dawned on me that eventually I’ll need to get gabapentin compounded and micro dose my way off. Not happy about that, but at some point that is the realization we all come to. Slow and steady wins the race. All in all, the taper has been relatively easy. A week or so ago I had difficulty sleeping for several days. I was wide awake at 3 AM! It turned out I had miscalculated my reduction dose and made a rather large jump of about 4 mg down over a couple of days. Not awful. Easily rectified by returning to the correct dose reduction. It was kind of a validation that I could go faster, but this was how I was going to pay for it. I knew that if I kept reducing at that pace it would catch up with me and that could be really uncomfortable. At least it wasn’t as awful as missing one dose of Effexor! One day I’ll be off gabapentin and after a period of time, I will start the alprazolam taper. But not now. Not this year. Love and light, Karma 2007 @ 375 mg Effexor - 11/29/2011 - 43.75 mg Effexor (regular) & .625 mg Xanax 200 mg Gabapentin 2/27/21 - 194.5 mg, 5/28/21 - 183 mg, 8/2/21 - 170 mg, 11/28/21 - 150 mg, 4/19/22 - 122 mg; 8//7/22 - 100 mg; 12/17 - 75mg; 8/17 - 45 mg; 10/16 40 mg Xanax taper: 3/11/12 - 0.9375 mg, 3/25/12 - 0.875 mg, 4/6/12 - 0.8125 mg, 4/18/12 - 0.75 ; 10/16 40mg; 1/16 0.6875 mg; at some point 0.625 mg Effexor taper: 1/29/12 - 40.625 mg, 4/29/12 - 39.875 mg, 5/11/12 - Switched to liquid Effexor, 5/25/12 - 38 mg, 7/6/12 - 35 mg, 8/17/12 - 32 mg, 9/14/12 - 30 mg, 10/19/12 - 28 mg, 11/9/12 - 26 mg, 11/30/12 - 24 mg, 01/14/13 - 22 mg. 02/25/13 - 20.8 mg, 03/18/13 - 19.2 mg, 4/15/13 - 17.6 mg, 8/10/13 - 16.4 mg, 9/7/13 - 15.2 mg, 10/19/13 - 14 mg, 1/15/14 - 13.2 mg, 3/1/2014 - 12.6 mg, 5/4/14 - 12 mg, 8/1/14 - 11.4 mg, 8/29/14 - 10.8 mg; 10/14/14 - 10.2 mg; 12/15/14 - 10 mg, 1/11/15 - 9.5 mg, 2/8/15 - 9 mg, 3/21/15 - 8.5 mg, 5/1/15 - 8 mg, 6/9/15 - 7.5 mg, 7/8/15 - 7 mg, 8/22/15 - 6.5 mg, 10/4/15 - 6 mg; 1/1/16 - 5.6 mg; 2/6/16 - 5.2 mg; 4/9 - 4.8 mg; 7/7 4.5 mg; 10/7 4.25 mg; 11/4 4.0 mg; 11/25 3.8 mg; 4/24 3.6 mg; 5/27 3.4 mg; 7/8 3.2 mg ... 10/18 2.8 mg; 1/18 2.6 mg; 4/7 2.4 mg; 5/26 2.15mg; 8/18 1.85 mg; 10/7 1.7 mg; 12/1 1.45 mg; 3/2 1.2 mg; 5/4 0.90 mg; 6/1 0.80 mg; 6/22 0.65 mg; 08/03 0.50 mg, 08/10 0.45 mg, 10/05 0.325 mg, 11/23 0.2 mg, 12/14 0.15 mg, 12/21 0.125 mg, 02/28 0.03125 mg, 2/15 0.015625 mg, 2/29/20 0.00 mg - OFF Effexor I am not a medical professional - this is not medical advice. My suggestions are based on personal experience, reading, observation and anecdotal information posted by other sufferers Link to comment
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