ZeeDeveel: Hello all - thinking about coming off Effexor 225mg

[ZeeDeveel]

Hello everyone and warm wishes to everyone suffering with mental health problems, I believe there is hope for all of us somewhere.

I'd like to get some opinions on Effexor.. I started on it after a stressful event made my DP/DR go nuts, I started seeing visual disturbances and freaked out. The doc put me on Effexor, it almost immediately made me feel dizzy and sick like I'd been poisoned. Following that I perceive that I felt a numbing of my emotions. I've been on it for a few years now and my libido has started to drop which has become a problem in my relationship so I'm keen to ditch the stuff. My anxiety DP/DR problems haven't gone but I'm feeling confident and they have improved somewhat.

If I were to come off the Effexor I'd do it with a slow taper probably looking at being down to 0 in around 6 months. I'm sure I will feel some side effects but hopefully that should be a slow enough taper to minimise them.. if it's not, I can increase it to a year, the length of time isn't super important. However, my concern is.. how much has the Effexor suppressed the original anxiety that was there? I still feel highly stressed, so it certainly hasn't been a wonder drug but is it possible that coming off it will make things considerably worse? What I'm getting at is: do people here think Effexor is powerful at reducing symptoms of anxiety or is it mostly a placebo?

Thanks

[nz11]

Welcome ZD.

So glad you found this site.

You might like to fill out your drug sig. that will help the moderators. What dose ? When start ?etc any other drugs? etc

 

Check out the link on tapering effexor

Tips for tapering off Effexor (venlafaxine)

 

Yep no more effective than a placebo you are right except unlike a placebo it comes with hundreds of side effects known and unknown! Any benefit derives from placebo responding.

(see I Kirsch 'The emperors new drugs'p24).

 

Great idea to get of this drug. 

Brilliant decision.

[nz11]

Oops, sorry ZD but i just realized your current dose (225mg) ? is in your thread title.

 

Not exactly a low dose. I think 6 months might be a tad on the too fast side if you are considering tapering off.

How do you feel about the idea of increasing the taper to (slowNormal) about 4 years?

 

You say you had  DP/DR prior to effexor.

Do you know the cause of that ? Have you ever taken other  psychotropics drugs prior to effexor?

 

We are suffering mental health problems serious iatrogenic injuries that are unacknowledged by the very people who inflicted them.

[KarenB]

Welcome ZeeDeveel,

 

I'm also tapering Effexor.  We recommend a much gentler taper, reducing by no more than 10% of your current dose each month.  This allows your brain time to adjust as you go, and lessens any withdrawal. 

 

It is common to mistake withdrawal symptoms for ‘relapse’ and at this point that many people get drawn back into using drugs, believing they are not healed.  So if you do notice anxiety as you taper, don't be drawn into that mistake.  We have a thread here on Non-drug techniques for coping with emotional symptoms which has many ideas.  You might like to make a start on that before you begin tapering. 

 

You might also find it reassuring to read about neuro-plasticity and brain restoration.  It gave me a lot of hope when I first came here.

 

Anatomy of an Epidemic explains how ad's often provide a window of relief from one's anxiety etc, but that once that window closes, that's it.  The trick is not to keep searching for another elusive 'window.'  That just gets people into complicated drug cycles.  

 

Please feel free to come back to this thread and ask any further questions or discuss your situation.  There will  be lots of support for you here. 

 

Karen

[ZeeDeveel]

4 years? Wowza, I hope it doesn't need to take that long. I am starting gently though. I have a 150 pill and a 75 pill, I reckon I've been cutting about 15% off of the 75 so that's like maybe 215mg out of 225mg now, no adverse affects as yet. I'll keep it like this for a fortnight and then try shaving another 10mgs.

I've been on Prozac and Citalopram previously, coming off those was pretty easy, I remember some head zaps on the Citalopram and increased anxiety but nothing bad.

I've had experiences with non-medicated psychotropic drugs and was worried this had caused my DP/DR, but it seems less and less likely. For 2 years I'd have some party pills maybe every other weekend, a few of the weekends were quite messy. Never weed or much coke. Had odd experiences with other more psychadelic things but few and far between.

The DP/DR I think was probably influenced by taking things but there's been a strong correlation with stressful events in my life. It all started after a breakup when I was so angry and betrayed, I felt like I was gonna snap... so that's a pretty logical time for a disociative disorder to start, right? Also I've taken hard drugs maybe twice since it started - which was a long time ago now and they had no effect on it, made it neither better or worse, but there are times when I've had panic attacks and my DP/DR has been off the flippin' scale like I was in another dimension. Every single moment was pure agony. Felt like the entire world was an illusion, that I was an illusion, that I lacked solidity, that I wasn't real, 2D etc non-stop 24 hours a day, I couldn't sleep or do anything, just pure panic and dread and terror for weeks. Yet when I eventually calmed down and got some proper sleep the DP/DR would return to it's usual level. Also, I initially had no DP, just DR. I remember thinking DP must be weird, I can't imagine what that'd be like to have... Then I went out to the pub with my mates at a time when I was very mentally stressed, I remember feeling uncomfortable the whole time, really tense and unhappy. When I got home that night, I started watching some crappy Ryan Reynolds chick flick to calm me down and when one character moved, I saw a blurry trail behind her, what is referred to as "ghosting". I'd heard this was associated with HPPD disorder which I think is permanent and irreversible drug damage to the brain. I just lost the plot. That was the start of my weeks of hell and that's when the DP started, I remember feeling dizzy like I was gonna fall over and I looked down at my hands and they seemed like they didn't belong to me, that they lacked solidity etc. So as I said, all along anxiety and stress has been the theme. I asked a couple of psychiatrists and neuroscientists if it was the drugs and they said the drugs could have been a catalyst or exacerbated things but the anxiety is what's caused it and tbh that makes sense.
 

Oops, sorry ZD but i just realized your current dose (225mg) ? is in your thread title.

 

Not exactly a low dose. I think 6 months might be a tad on the too fast side if you are considering tapering off.

How do you feel about the idea of increasing the taper to (slowNormal) about 4 years?

 

You say you had  DP/DR prior to effexor.

Do you know the cause of that ? Have you ever taken other  psychotropics drugs prior to effexor?

 

We are suffering mental health problems serious iatrogenic injuries that are unacknowledged by the very people who inflicted them.

[Altostrata]

Welcome, ZD.

 

Please do not take recreational drugs while you are tapering Effexor. This will complicate things enormously and we might not be able to help you should you develop severe symptoms.

 

Please read this carefully Tips for tapering off Effexor (venlafaxine) (thank you, nz). As your dose gets lower and lower, it will become more and more important to be precise about dosing.

[ZeeDeveel]

Thanks Alto, don't worry I don't even drink these days and my coffee is decaff.
 

Welcome, ZD.

 

Please do not take recreational drugs while you are tapering Effexor. This will complicate things enormously and we might not be able to help you should you develop severe symptoms.

 

Please read this carefully Tips for tapering off Effexor (venlafaxine) (thank you, nz). As your dose gets lower and lower, it will become more and more important to be precise about dosing.

[Icip]

Hi Zee,

 

If you’re still using the same email, how are you doing?