More positive experiences with tapering to avoid withdrawal
04.04.04 (1:37 am) [edit]
I found this post on Dr. Bob's Psychobabble boards (poster's name and email address removed here):
"Re: Effexor withdrawal - my approach
Posted... on November 26, 2003, at 17:56:44
I was taking Effexor XR 112.5 each day for about a year. My approach to reducing with minimized agony was SLOW.
1. Reduce no more than 37.5 each time and stay at any new level for 2 weeks.
2. Or alternate 112.5 and 75 every other day for a week or two and then go to 75.
3. Then stay at 75 for a week or two.
4. Then reduce to 37.5 for two weeks (again alternating 75 and 37.5 if necessary)
5. Then go to health food store and buy a bag of empty gel caps (they are cheap).
6. Put one half of the 37.5 in one gel cap and one half in the other.
7. Then reduce to 18.75 (approx) for two weeks.
8. Then alternate 18.75 one day and nothing the next day for two weeks.
9. Then either stop or alternate one day on and two days off for awhile.
Seems like a long process, but the staggering really helped me.
The reason I stopped taking Effexor was that I felt much better and the higher levels of Effexor just made me want to sleep/nap all the time, although I must say it really really helped with anxiety and depression together.
Good luck. I personally think it is/was a good drug for me, but it is definately hard to tape off without discomfort."
"Re: Effexor withdrawal - my approach
Posted... on November 26, 2003, at 17:56:44
I was taking Effexor XR 112.5 each day for about a year. My approach to reducing with minimized agony was SLOW.
1. Reduce no more than 37.5 each time and stay at any new level for 2 weeks.
2. Or alternate 112.5 and 75 every other day for a week or two and then go to 75.
3. Then stay at 75 for a week or two.
4. Then reduce to 37.5 for two weeks (again alternating 75 and 37.5 if necessary)
5. Then go to health food store and buy a bag of empty gel caps (they are cheap).
6. Put one half of the 37.5 in one gel cap and one half in the other.
7. Then reduce to 18.75 (approx) for two weeks.
8. Then alternate 18.75 one day and nothing the next day for two weeks.
9. Then either stop or alternate one day on and two days off for awhile.
Seems like a long process, but the staggering really helped me.
The reason I stopped taking Effexor was that I felt much better and the higher levels of Effexor just made me want to sleep/nap all the time, although I must say it really really helped with anxiety and depression together.
Good luck. I personally think it is/was a good drug for me, but it is definately hard to tape off without discomfort."
posted by: newbie (reply)
post date: 07.26.04 (4:53 pm)
thanx so much for the website, it has offered me lots of encouragement
through this difficult time....just wanted to add a suggestion to back up your tips....a couple of days ago i started drinking LOTS of green tea in order to detox this drug out of my system and for the first time in 10 days i have been brainzap free!!! i hope other people try it and post thier results....i have been drinkin about 2 quarts of iced green tea a day....so far i'm thrilled with the results! good luck fellow detoxies!
posted by: newbie (reply)
post date: 03.02.05 (5:12 am)
did you anxiety and depression come back? I'd love to be drug free but I'm a mess without the 75mgs per day. By the way, I experienced the flashing/brainzaps vertigo thing by missing 1 dose!!! I took a celebrex thinking it was my Effexor. Jesus! Missing just one dose made me that sick???
posted by: newbie (reply)
post date: 03.15.05 (9:18 pm)
HOW LONG DOES THIS AGONY LAST???
I can barely function and it's been 5 days already. I feel like total crap pretty consistently. Not like the 1st 2 days but noticeably BAD!!! Brain Zapping, nausea, etc...
posted by: newbie (reply)
post date: 08.02.05 (11:41 am)
great advice for someone like me who is entering into back into the non-effexor world. i tried tapering off over one week and felt the cold boot heel of the wyeth corporation immediately. this approach seems a lot more practical.