10 weeks pregnant and withdrawing from Effexor

[Rodriguez2015]

I am 30 years old and am 10 weeks pregnant with my second child. I was diagnosed with GAD July 2017 and was prescribed Effexor. When i found out I was pregnant my PCP lowered my dosage to 37.5 mg a day to try to stop or switch to Zoloft(safer to take during pregnancy) It has been 3 days since I stopped cold turkey from the Venlaxine and the withdrawal has been brutal. I have had vomiting, horrible nightmares, extreme sleepiness and now I am experiencing horrible dizziness. It feels as though I have spun and spun and then suddenly stopped. Are these the "brain zaps" people are talking about? Is there anything else I should be expecting? I know most of what I'm experiencing is not directly related to my pregnancy but has me nervous. Any tips??

[Paxiled]

Even though you're pregnant I suspect severe withdrawals aren't great for the child either.  This is one of the hardest drugs out there to stop taking and needs to be tapered off of very slowly.  Nobody can tell you when or even if this will stop.  Personally, I'd also wait on the Zoloft until you're done with the birth and even breast feeding, but obviously that's going to depend on if you can function or not.  You can't go back and do this over again, but this should have been done before you conceived.  I don't know what you should do now -- if you wait it out, it might go away in a couple of weeks but it might linger for months.  It sounds like your doctor was tapering you off, as AnxiousNoMore hinted at -- why did you switch to going cold turkey?  As for brain zaps, those are like electric shocks that occur as the serotonin receptors that shut down while you were on the drug start to reawaken.  The rest is just a collection of withdrawal symptoms, which can go from none for some people to something like the flu for others to creating brand new permanent problems for others.  We don't know who you will be, though most get through it eventually.  Talk to your doc about your next step.  You might also want to consider talking to a psychiatrist if you're not seeing one already, as they deal with these drugs daily, not just once in awhile.  All the best.  It will work out.  

[AnxiousNoMore]

He wanted you down to 37.5 which I presume you got to. Did he tell you to stop cold turkey from there?