Rapunzelblue: Getting off Effexor and Xanax

[rapunzelblue]

Sorry, this ended up being long. It felt useful to type it all out though. Thanks for reading and good luck in your journeys.

 

I have been on antidepressants for over half my life, since I was a teenager. (I am in my late twenties now.) I started with Celexa for a few years, then transitioned to Prozac for another few years. I was initially prescribed the drugs for depression, but in college I started having major trouble with anxiety as well.

 

I went on medical leave from school and started going to therapy once a week as well as seeing a psychiatrist. The doctor suggested I switch from my SSRI to an SNRI, Effexor, because he said Effexor would help more with anxiety. At some point (I can't remember if it was before or after that) he started me on Xanax as well. My good friend had found Xanax to be a miracle and it helped me sleep.

 

Eventually I went back to school, graduated, and started working. After a few years at a really good job I started to get very concerned about my Xanax use. I found I was taking up to 6 mg a day and not even feeling it. When I first started it, 0.5 mg would put me to sleep. I tried to express my concerns to the doctor, even saying once that I felt like I was "popping them like candy" because I thought that would cause him to realize there was a problem. He just shrugged and said it was OK to keep taking it.

 

Then I found the Ashton Manual online. I realized that benzodiazepines were a serious problem and I probably had brain damage. I brought it to my doctor, but he didn't bother to read it. He disagreed with me that I should try to get off them. Since he had completely lost my trust, I decided to stop seeing him and find someone else to help me taper. I made an appointment with another psychiatrist, but they couldn't see me for six months. I wanted to start getting off immediately, so I tapered off over a period of three months, cutting by 0.5 mg every two weeks. I realize now that this was extremely fast, but I couldn't get anyone to prescribe liquid Valium for doing a slower taper. I used cannabis heavily to manage the withdrawal symptoms.

 

My taper went smoothly and things went really well for a few months. I saw the new psychiatrist a month after finishing my taper and he said he was very impressed with what I'd done. Since I had been taking 300 mg Effexor for quite some time and I wanted to try to be drug-free, I asked him to help me taper down on that. Over the next few months I went down to 150 mg Effexor.

 

Five months after my benzo taper ended, I hit a wall. I was thrown into an extreme panic state and had constant obsessive morbid thoughts. My doctor suggested I go back up to 300 mg Effexor, and not knowing what else to do, I did.

 

Now I am a few months past that and trying to go down on Effexor again. My doctor thinks that an SSRI like Prozac would be more effective in treating my symptoms. Since my system has handled Prozac before and since I think that will be easier to taper off of later, I've decided to go along with this plan. I'm doing better than I was and I even have a new job, but I'm still finding the anxiety and depression more difficult to manage than I ever did before.

 

I have been going down by 37.5 mg every three weeks as suggested by my doctor, but I think I might try a slower bead-counting method for the next few cuts. I'm not sure how far down he thinks I need to go before I can start adding Prozac. (I would prefer to add nothing and just keep going off, but at the same time I don't know if I'm doing well enough to merit that.)

 

Trying to take it day by day and survive ... .

[mammaP]

HI RB, welcome to SA.  Your nervous system is struggling because of withdrawal from the benzo and all the changes with effexor too. I would hold where you are to stabilise before making any further attempt to taper effexor. Your doctor is having you go far too fast and if you keep to his recommendations you will likely become very ill quite quickly.  When you are ready to taper read the topic on tapering effexor, if you take it slowly and carefully you should be able to taper without bridging with prozac, which works for some but makes others ill. I tried the prozac switch from effexor but it didnt go well and I went back to effexor, which I finished tapering 3 months ago after tapering for 3 years. Sadly I tapered too fast and quit too soon after 1 year and reinstated a very low dose. It took a further 2 years to taper from that tiny dose. I just went too fast and I didnt find this site until I was in withdrawal. If I had known about the 10% rule it would still have taken the 3 years but it would have been easier and smoother without the withdrawal after tapering too fast for that first year. 

 

Read the topic for the prozac bridge too....http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1463-the-prozac-switch-or-bridging-with-prozac/

 

Tapering effexor. http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/272-tapering-off-effexor-venlafaxine/

[Petunia]

Welcome from me too Rapunzelblue,

 

You got some good advice from MammaP and I agree that you should probably hold for a while until your symptoms settle down. You might also find this topic useful:

 

 Why Taper By 10% of My Dosage?

[rapunzelblue]

Thank you so much for your responses and advice. I really appreciate hearing your thoughts and hearing about your experience. There is so much misinformation and contradictory information that it's really hard to make sense of anything having to do with this!

 

I checked out the posts you recommended and found them very valuable, thanks. I found a post on here recommending a doctor that works near me, so I just sent in some forms and am hoping to get an appointment with them. I really want guidance from someone who has more experience with this and doesn't believe that drugs should solve every problem, because I feel like I've been put on so much drugs and that's made my problems so much bigger. I'm holding at my current dose until I can get this new appointment and see what they say.

 

How do you deal with the impatience to be off the drugs as soon as possible? I feel strongly that they're causing more problems than they're helping, but I know that tapering off too fast will probably make things worse because of withdrawal. It's a difficult balance of getting through withdrawal to get to a better drug-free existence on the other side. But it's so hard to keep taking them because I'm so tempted to aggressively lower my dose. Did you feel some of the same things?

[StartingOver]

Hi; While I read a lot here, I rarely write..but the whole orientation I have received to the issues here has been excellent.

 

For the last 14 yrs, Ive been taking Effexor, after several years of other ADs.. My main other health issues is chronic pain (neck and head.. and which the Effexor was supposed to help..and in its own way it did,,,); I now have excellent doctors. Once it was all properly diagnosed and the pain massively reduced (through Radio Frequency Ablation); I was in the position to begin reducing from 300mg.

 

I recognised before hand that it had become an addiction.. and wanted off fast.. and had a six month plan... After six weeks.. I was in a state.. reinstated... then found these boards. After about a year of stabilisation and lots of reading, I tried again.. this time by tiny increments.. usually below 5%.. some withdrawals.. but all passed.. and was successfully working overseas at the same time..

 

Also, I learned after the first attempt.. that it was difficult to see an end point.. but I could see getting down to the the next tablet measure (ie 37.5mg)..by small increments.. When I reach that point, I would rest for three months before starting again...

 

In 18 months, I reduced to 187.5mg... Might seem slow.. but all time spent consolidating has not been a waste.

 

Ive come to a halt for a while.. My mum died last December... and I didn't want to mix up grief with WD...Then in March, I had my lastest pain treatment (RFA)...They have been holding for about 20 months.. My doctor has altered his method to see if it can last for longer.. Well, the side effects have been far more pronounced... Every other day, I have a level of pain that is very debilitating...

 

I do expect it will resolve.. but until it does, I wont be reducing again..

 

So, while Im suffering again in other ways.. the time staying stable at 187.5 now... just serves to make that a more solid starting pint when next I set off..