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190673 tn?1259203266

Is this even possible? (effexor)

Been taking effexor xr (150 mg) for nearly 2 years now and since feeling "OK" and having severe sexual side effects I wanted to slowly wean off. My doctor wanted me to wean off slowly and said I should get down from 150 mg to 112.5 mg for 1 month and then 75 mg for another month and so on.

So today is day 3 since I cut down from 150 mg to 112.5 mg and I feel much worse.

Could it be that such a small doze makes a big difference or is it just in my head? If I go back to 150 I might feel better due to placebo.
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Avatar universal
Is there a liquid version?  I know Paxil came out with a liquid version years ago because of the multitude of withdrawal problems .  I thought Effexor had, too.  That allows you to taper as quickly or slowly as you feel you need to.

What I meant about placebo is, a true placebo can occur only when you don't know if you're taking the real thing or not.  Since you know you are taking the real thing, it wouldn't qualify as a true placebo reaction.  That doesn't mean at all that our anxiety can't create symptoms where otherwise there wouldn't be any, or that our imagination can't create pain where there otherwise wouldn't be any.  It just means it's not a true placebo effect.  Now, if they're giving you sugar pills and they help you, that's a true placebo effect, but I assume you're taking the real thing.  And if you went back up to 150 and all your symptoms went away, it was withdrawal, not your imagination, because if was just anxiety you could still be suffering even though you increased the dose.  You're not making this happen, the lack of the medication is.  You need to taper more slowly.  Again, I highly recommend the book I mentioned before you discontinue the drug, it will give you a protocol by a practicing clinician who came to specialize in withdrawal.
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190673 tn?1259203266
Thank you. Yes when it comes to meds I make sure I'm under doc's supervison. Thanks again.
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190673 tn?1259203266
I read dozens of horror stories about effexor withdrawal and that definitely contributed to it. However I believe it was both withdrawal symptoms and "fear symptoms". Brain zaps was from withdrawal and anxiety was from fear. Im back on 150 and felt great within 2 hour of taking it.

Since this medication comes in capsules only and they are 37.5 the smallest, is there anything that can be done for those who can't tolerate withdrawal at all. I was thinking adding another antidepressant until I withdraw from effexor. I did it once with paxil my doctor gave me one prozac and it helped but I was switching to effexor so I don't know.

Also someone suggested that I reduce my dosage by myself. Like 150 mg minus 37.5 is like 25% but what if I take that capsule, open it up, and take out only 10% and reduce it by 10% or something every week or so. Do you think this would work?
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190673 tn?1259203266
Are you saying if I assume it could be placebo, then it CAN'T be placebo?
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Avatar universal
Ryan's post is correct, but yes, you could be entering withdrawal.  Better to know beforehand what you might face, then you won't be in the position of those Ryan attributes to hysteria but can't be since most of them, like me, didn't know anything about withdrawal in the first place and therefore couldn't be suffering some hypothetical mass hysteria.  On the other hand, it might not be withdrawal.  If you go back up and you immediately get better, it's withdrawal, not placebo; placebo only works when you don't know it's placebo.  Try reading a book called The Antidepressant Solution for protocols for tapering.
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