Ea723: Beginning of Effexor Withdrawal

[Ea723]

Hi! My name’s Emily and I’m currently on my 5th day of Effexor withdrawal. I’ve been really in need of someone to talk to and have seen some really heartwarming interactions on here, so I’m going to share my story below in hope that I too can develop a support team of people who may relate to what I’ve gone through. This is a long read, so thanks if you read it all, I get to my withdrawal experience eventually. 

 

Currently I am a 17 year old high school senior who is about to graduate, I will be 18 in July. My childhood had some negative events such as parents divorcing, and there might have been some indications to my future anxiety throughout my youth. Despite that, I was happy and healthy up to my junior year of high school (last year, 19-20). The start of my junior year (also known as year 11 in some countries) was just as always, I had no mental health issues and actually had one of my best school years yet. Then in March, COVID hit and my school system canceled in person learning for the year. For a couple months I was feeling down, but was not depressed or anxious, though I will mention that I experienced one of my first panic attacks ever the night that my school system called and announced that school was done for the year. All I remember feeling was a sudden rush of panic and doom from the thought of months without direction in my life, it was terrifying. No one was awake and it was really late at night, I basically paced through it and it ended. Several months of feeling normal but somewhat melancholy passed. Then around Mother’s Day last May I experienced yet another major panic attack and the same situation as the first as it occurred at night as I was laying in bed watching a One Direction Documentary, funny enough, and I felt that same rush of sweat with intense panic and doom but this time about nothing in particular. Again, I told no one but was terrified by what I experienced. This time, unlike the first in March, I had another panic attack the next night, again I told no one. Then on the third night before going to bed I could not shake the anxiety I was experiencing about the thought of having another night of panic. In a fit of emotion I told my mom and stepfather, because in all honesty I wanted to sleep on the ground in their room so I was not alone, when she didn’t let me I felt so alone and went it to my room. At this time my dad called telling me he was concerned that I was having panic attacks, as my mom told him. My dad had pretty good mental health but had also suddenly began experiencing debilitating panic attacks but for him, he was around 30 when they started , and he had not been having them the past 15ish years. To speed things up, I’ll just say that the entire month of May was spent with my panic creeping into the entire day. A week after my first panic attack of the month, only my second one ever, I was basically home-bound clinging to my dad all day. We would just sit and watch TV as a tried the not think about really anything in order to avoid a panic attack. Around this time the depression set in. I began experiencing what I call “depression attacks” which were when I would feel so depressed all of a sudden that I would began to panic due to the feeling of despair. About 3 weeks of this and my parents took me to my GP who diagnosed me with anxiety and prescribed me 10mg of Prozac. One week into the Prozac, which of course included no relief yet as it was no long enough, I was begging dropped off at my dad’s house on a Thursday, which I had done for years, he had not been answering my texts that morning but I thought nothing of it, when I opened the door to his house I found him unconscious on the floor. Thankfully my mom had not left yet and she and the neighbor called the ambulance. It only took them 3 min to find out he had died hours before of a sudden-onset massive heart attack. As you can imagine, I was so devastated I though my heart would break of grief, that day while making arrangements for my dog to move into my mom and stepdads home and for my brother to fly home, my my was extremely worried that I would go into some sort of complete mental spiral due to the struggles I was already experiencing. For some context, my dad was my biggest help with my anxiety struggle. My mom did not understand or know how to calm me. She is great but not very tactile and so despite normally splitting my weeks between my parents, I began staying at my dad’s most days. Once my dad died I was so worried as to who would get me through my panics. As if a genuine miracle, though struggling with grief, my panic and depression decreased significantly starting the day my dad died. I felt some symptoms that month of June but was much better. Then in July the symptoms started creeping back in until I was right back to where I was in May, except this time I had debilitating intrusive thoughts. After increasing my Prozac multiple times to no avail, I finally switched to lexapro in august. With lexapro I also experienced ups and downs until I got to the highest dose in September. Around this time I was better but somewhat numb and still experiencing depression. A month later, I then tried celexa, which was nearly two months of awful anxiety. Around December  I got a psychiatrist, before my GP was prescribing my meds, and he had me got back on lexapro and also try a low dose of Effexor at the same time. Let’s just say I had a rather numb Christmas, and new year, which was sad because I attended my cousin’s wedding and felt somewhat numb and anxious at what was supposed to be a fun and happy event. In January I went out with my stepdad and we had a talk about how I was doing mentally. I shared that I was feeling quite numb and really lost my zest for life, which broke my  heart since I’m so young and worried this is the start of a life-long depression. After this talk, I really looked inward and made a decision to go off of lexapro, as it didn’t help before Christmas and I was also on Effexor. Once off lexapro I was feeling a noticeable improvement for some time. But again, I felt depression kick in more overtime, which caused my doctor to raise it to 150 mg. After a couple weeks of still feeling bad on the new dose, my doc wanted me to up it again to 225mg. Though I was passive in out zoom call about upping the dose, I got off it feeling very nervous about going up as I was already quite numb. I ended up going on 225mg for one day, a day where I felt a lot worse anxiety. That night I decided that even though I probably didn’t feel worse just from going up on the dose, that I was nit going to up my dose and instead decided to go back down to 75mg in effort to feel things again. Around my time at 75mg I was feeling pretty good but nit great. I was tired of the side effects and wanted a break with meds, I tried tapering to 37.5mg and didn’t experience withdrawal, in fact at this point I didn’t know antidepressant withdrawals was a thing. Since I felt bad at 37.5 I decided to stick with the improvement I had and go back to 75mg. This time though I didn’t feel the positives that I felt last time I was on 75mg. Around mid April I had a call with my doc who wanted me to taper off Effexor while bridging to cymbalta. Again I was passive in the call, but once off I had already made an internal decision that I was nit going to go on the cymbalta but instead taper off of Effexor completely and take a break from meds. My taper was halving my dose of 75 to 37.5mg for two weeks. At this time I did take the 30mg of cymbalta a week into the 37.5 taper. But once the day came I was supposed to go off of Effexor completely, I decided I wanted to come off cymbalta too. So, I extended my taper a couple days where I opened up my tablets of both and took half the capsules out. I did this for about 5 days and the stopped taking both completely. My first night off both and also my first night with 

out antidepressants in 11 months was last Sunday 5/16/21. I felt fine that night, and also I had not experienced any noticeable withdrawal at this point except minor brain zaps. That Monday night I began feeling really horrible chills, sweats, and brain zaps. But the Tuesday it was a whole new level. I was terrified but watched videos that inspired me to stick it through. Wednesday was another hard day. Thursday I felt better upon waking up had a productive day but then had a bad night yet again. Friday (which just ended) I had a horrible afternoon i currently feel so depressed that though I know I won’t kill my self I feel myself just sinking away from life. Honestly I’m terrified and don’t know what to do. My therapist is not helpful. My psychiatrist already dislikes me from my push back on high doses and taking multiple meds, right now he doesn’t even know that I, not bridging to cymbalta. I, scared to talk to him in fear that he’ll just put me in another medication. He already told me that if cymbalta didn’t work I would go on an additional bipolar medication, though I’m not bipolar, to boost my chances of breaking out of the depression. I truly just feel like a medicine guinea pig. The worst part is that I’m having so much trouble with my mom who does not understand and who is frustrated because she also doesn’t know what to do next. My mom, though feeling bad about it, is not very tactile and so we often fight when I’m feeling really depressed because I feel like she is leaving me out to dry. The worst part about this withdrawal is a feeling a can’t fully explain. It’s simply a sense of feeling just not right in my own life, like I’m fearful and just feel like this isn’t how I normally feel in life. 
 

I know no one can give me medical advice but I would from the bottom of my heart appreciate some guidance. What do you guys think I should do? Should I reintroduce 37.5 Effexor because I’m having a bad withdrawal? Should I take those 30mg of cymbalta and give that a try? Would either of the above options help me get somewhat back to normal? And if so, how fast because I have work tomorrow and am scared to go? Also by normal I mean back to being depressed and anxious just not in this horrible withdrawal. Another question I have is if these feeling if confusion and feeling lost in your own life are normal while withdrawaling? I’m just not acting myself because instead of voicing my deep fear and depression, I’m holding it in and just feel like I’m sinking away inside as I grieve my old self, including being able to talk to my mom and stepdad without fear or them emotionally ignoring me and causing me to spiral into another deeper depression. Another option, which I could do while reintroducing is taking one of those genetic compatibility test for psychiatric drugs. The results would not come in for several weeks but I was wondering if anyone recommends these for finding a drug that works best for you? Also, I do have plenty of extra Prozac and lexapro in my cabinet. Would taking one of my low doses of one of these help with the bad withdrawal? Both drugs weren’t horrible for me but nit great. Lastly, one final option is sticking through this awful but to be honest I, looking at the other options that involve reinstating because I feel so bad and vulnerable and just need some stability.

[Ea723]

After writing this and thinking for a bit I think I’m going to reinstate Effexor, but I have some questions. The lowest dose I have of Effexor XR is 37.5. They are in capsule for with the beads on the inside. I find it very hard to count these minuscule little beads in order to take less than 37.5. Any one have any advice? Should I just take a whole 37.5? If so how should I expect to feel/how soon till I feel some improvement from the withdrawals?
 

Also, I read about the chances of success reinstating become smaller the longer you have been off and experiencing symptoms. For me, I have been off Effexor 37.5 for 6 days, is sits too long?
 

Lastly, despite my strong pull to the idea of reinstating Effexor, the idea I mentioned about trying that 30mg of cymbalta like I’m supposed to be (according to my psychiatrist who I don’t trust), is also appealing to me right now? 
 

Overall, I’m looking at taking one of these routes hopefully with the guidance of someone in the comments. Long term I’m thinking that besides the reinstating, that I’m going to take that genetic test and see which drugs are of preferential use and then hopefully bridge to one of those from whichever drug I bring in to help with this withdrawal. 

[Ea723]

Hi everyone, I’m Emily! I’m in my late teens I have been on some kind of antidepressant for nearly a year now. I started with Prozac, tried lexapro and celexa, and now am finishing up Effexor. I have been on Effexor since early December. Over that time I have been on a number of doses, 37.5 mg initially, 75mg for a good amount of time, and even 150 mg for a couple weeks. Starting May 4th I decided I did not want to be on Effexor anymore, my doc wanted me to try cymbalta and so he told me to bridge. This was his plan: take 37.5 mg Effexor for one week alone then the second week take that with 30mg of cymbalta and then at the end of two weeks on 37.5 of Effexor go off completely and stay on 30mg of cymbalta for a week. Originally, I followed his plan and took the 30mg cymbalta starting the second week. But after reading that cymbalta may be just as hard to get off of as Effexor I couldn’t let myself go down that dark rabbit hole. So after the two week period I extended the taper so that I opened the capsules of both up, dumped half the beads, put it back together and swallowed. In my mind, I was effectively taking 18.75mg Effexor and 15mg of cymbalta at this point. I did this opening of the beads for 5 days and on the sixth I didn’t take either drugs. That first night with no drugs was Sunday 5/16/21. Monday I was exhausted but had a decent day until the brain zaps kicked in and that night I felt horrible with brain zaps and fear. Tuesday was even worse and I was all day. Same thing happened Wednesday. Thursday was better until night time when I felt horrible again. Then Friday came, yesterday, and that was the worst as I began feeling this deep depression that hurts my heart, I’m deeply sad, and feel like I’m not in my own reality. Last night, I decided maybe I should try bridging to cymbalta after all, I took the 30 mg this morning and am still having a very rough day. I’m regretting taking that cymbalta as I do not want to have to withdraw from that eventually too. I’m thinking of not continuing with the reinstating of the 30mg cymbalta. I know that for the most part I’m withdrawing from Effexor and not cymbalta as I was on that for months and cymbalta for a week and a half but I don’t have enough Effexor 37.5 tablets to reinstate that drug. I’m afraid I’ve messed up my mind even more by taking one dose of cymbalta today and then not taking it tomorrow. 
 

I would greatly appreciate any advice! A strategy I’m very interested in is instead of reinstating the Effexor or cymbalta, bridging with some 10mg or 20mg prozacs I have in my cabinet. Would this be a good idea? If so which dose would be better? Or, since I’m only in day 6 of withdrawal and I have only been Effexor for 5ish months, should I stop taking medication and continue to ride out this withdrawal as hopefully it will only last 1-2 more weeks since I was on it a short amount of time? 
 

Thank you so much to anyone who takes time to read and/or drop a comment!:)

[getofflex]

Hello Emily, and welcome to SA.  We are a peer owned and run forum of people who have been or are getting off of psychiatric drugs.  My heart goes out to you.  You have been through a great deal.  The COVID lockdown has been very hard on many people, especially young people who were deprived of their normal support system.  I can understand why you were anxious.  And then to discover your father on floor from a heart attack, that is pretty rough.  Especially since he was your primary support person for the anxiety.  I'm really sorry you are having to deal with now being in drug withdrawal from the various drugs the doctors have put you on. 

 

First of all, can you please give us specific information about your drug history for all drugs you are on and have been on, especially for the past 18-24 months?  It would be especially helpful to have the details of your drugs in a concise list (no symptoms), only drug names, specific dates (as best you can say for example early March if you don't recall the day) and dosages of each medication decrease or increase.  Please read the link below for instructions.  This will allow us to give you the best guidance.  

 

How to List Drug History in Signature

 

Here is some information about how these drugs actually work.  

 

How Psychiatric Drugs Remodel Your Brain

 

 

 Video on Recovery from Psych Drugs

 

 

This helps you understand what withdrawal syndrome is: 

 

What is Withdrawal Syndrome?

 

 

Also, as we are recovering, we suggest keeping things slow, simple, and stable. This is extremely important. 

 

Considerations About Stability Stop Jumping Around

 

Keep it Simple, Slow, and Stable

 

 

Here are some techniques to cope with symptoms.  The first 4 on anxiety may be especially helpful, and simple to use.

 

 

Audio:  First Aid for Panic (4 minutes)
 

CBT Course:  An Introductory Self-Help Course in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
 

Audio:  How to Recover from Anxiety - Dr Claire Weekes
 

Anxiety Stuff - all kinds of stuff about anxiety attacks and things that help ...

 

Non Drug Ways to Cope with Withdrawal Symptoms

 

 

We don't suggest many supplements, but 2 that many of us find helpful are magnesium and omega-3 fish oil. Here are the links for info about those. It is suggested to add one at a time, and start with a low dose to see how it affects you. 

 

Magnesium

 

Omega 3 Fish Oil

 

Finally, going back on a small dose of your drug, or increasing your dose, which we call reinstatement, is best done very carefully.  This is temporary, and after stabilizing you would then taper gradually off of this.  There is some risk involved, and we need more specifics about your drug history before we can suggest which drug to reinstate.  Please don't reinstate until advised further.  Here is some information about reinstatement.  

 

About Reinstating and Stabilizing to Reduce Withdrawal Symptoms

 

I've given you quite a bit of information here.  Please read through it, and mull it over, and we will take it from there. In the meantime, take care of yourself, and take heart.  We in this forum have been through this, and we understand first hand the pain and discomfort you are going through.  Please know that the brain is amazing in it's healing abilities.  It takes time, but healing can and will happen. 

Edited May 23, 2021 by getofflex

[getofflex]

On 5/22/2021 at 3:52 PM, Ea723 said:

I’m thinking of not continuing with the reinstating of the 30mg cymbalta.

I would stay off the Cymbalta.  You were not on it that long, and taking it could further worsen your situation.