Stopping Effexor XR

[rcombs70]

I have been taking Effexor XR since March, 2005. I started with 75mg and by mid April was up to 225mg. I have recently become unemployed and cannot afford the medication anymore. It's going to cost me $200 a month just to buy the medication. I've told my doctor that I cannot afford it anymore and he just tells me to 'stay on it' but he's not paying for it. I'm going to have to quit cold turkey. I only have three days left of the medication. I'm also on Clonazepam. I take three 0.5mg tablets daily. I also want to get off of the Clonazepam but decided to wait until after I get over the Effexor XR. I don't think it would be a good idea to quit both of them at once. College starts back on August 29, and I don't want to be withdrawing while I'm trying to study. The horror stories that I've read scares me, but I have no other choice. Can you please tell me what withdrawal symptoms I will experience and how long they will last?

[NZgirl]

Well I am happy to report that the out of control emotions and constant crying have stopped - It is now 10 days since I stopped Effexor. The uncontrollable sobbing lasted about 4 days. I am still getting a few headaches but they are a walk in the park compared to the ones I had while withdrawing.

My advice to anyone trying to withdraw - if your doctor tells you to decrease over a matter of days, or to just stop taking Effexor altogether "Do not listen to them! They dont know what they are talking about!!" Listen to the people who have had to go through this before you. I have found doctors to be of no use at all through this experience.

Here is my advice for what it is worth:
1. Reduce very very slowly - I was only on the drug 3 weeks, yet it took me nearly 4 weeks to get off it! Go figure! If you are on a high dose and have been taking the drug for more than a few months, you will need to reduce over a period of a few months or even more.
2. Reduce your daily dose by about 10 - 15% if you can handle it, and stay there for 2 weeks before reducing again.
3. Dont listen to doctors who tell you to take the med every second or third day - when you do this you will just send your body into withdrawal. Because of the low half life of Effexor you will most probably start to feel sick if you miss a day.It is much better to take it every day and lower the dosage over time.
4. I have heard that the lower reductions just before you stop altogethr can be more horrible than the bigger ones - you may need to decrease more slowly as you get closer to coming off the drug completely. This means you will need to cut up pills, or break open the capsules.

The last week or so of my reduction went like this.

I opened the 75 mg XR release capsule and counted the granules - there were about 250, which meant roughly 3.3 granules was equal to 1 gram of the drug. On Friday I took 40 granules, Saturday 35 granules, Sunday 30 granules etc until the last day I took 10 granules.

The doctors will tell you not to do this but it is the only way I could get the doses small enough. Make sure you dont break or crush the granules - carefully pop them on your tongue and swallow or put them in a teaspoon of yoghurt or something.

Make sure you always eat and drink a big glass of water.

5. Other things that helped:
- Ginger for nausea - it doesnt take it away completely but does take the edge off
- Benedryl(diphenhydramine hydrocholoride). Depending on the country you are in it is sold as an antihistamine, or an OTC sleeping aid. These did seem to help me with the headaches and sleeping at night.
- I've seen other postings where people recommend taking fish oil supplements, which I did, but I dont know if it helped any. I'm sure its good for  me anyways.

To all of you trying to deal with this horrible drug, be gentle with yourself - you may need to take time off work - personally I have had to take 8 days off work because of Effexor - I'm lucky I have an understanding boss.

Good luck everyone - you will get through this. Take care

[Ribbon]

Thank you for your very helpful comments.  I'm putting up mine because I hope someone might benefit from knowing just what could happen on this drug.  

Effexor was very effective in pulling me out of a depression.  In retrospect I feel that since the depression I experienced was clearly related to being overwhelmed by some stressful events, I think that I might have been better off getting help from a person instead of the drug.  That's just a comment for anyone who might be considering Effexor.

I was very happy with the med after the first month, because it did exactly what it was supposed to do, the depression completely lifted.  I can't say I was any happier, just less - depressed.  

My personality changed significantly while on Effexor.  I am normally a sweet and nurturing person who cares deeply about other people.  Once I began to take Effexor, I found myself acting agressive from time to time, not hesitating - I had conflicts with co-workers and didn't hesitate to tell them just what I thought of them.  I didn't mention this to my doctor.  I'm not sure why.  I think it was because I felt stronger and more empowered to express myself and I liked that, but at the same time, it's pretty important to weigh the benefits against the possible ramifications that real events can have on your relationships with others.  

I gained a significant amount of weight, enough that it really shows:  30 pounds.  New wardrobe anyone?  Stretch knit is now my friend.    

You wonder why the warning from Wyeth is not to consume alcohol with this drug.  They don't explain it.  For me, alcohol consumption went way up, no worries for me (the drug really does eliminate the anxiety that you might feel wondering if you're turning into an alcoholic, and I never had a hangover on Effexor!) My husband and I are a couple that used to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, very moderate and mindful in our alcohol consumption and choices, we used to look forward to choosing and understanding wine, it has been one of our common interests - but that deteriorated quickly when I started taking Effexor.  My husband was VERY concerned, especially when I started buying bottles of hard alcohol.  He has luckily been supportive and stuck with me.  I can imagine that under some circumstances this could be catastrophic.  I think there's a real danger that this med can be very harmful if you enjoy wine, even just a little bit.  (yes, that was pretty hard to type, wasn't it?  It is a very loaded and very serious problem that people should consider.)  

I am easing off for a couple of months and have reached the time to stop altogether.  I was on 75mg daily for about 8 months and for the last month I took 37.5mg with no problems.  Two weeks of skipping days with no problem.  Four days ago I stopped altogether.  Now I am getting the revving electrical brain thing when I am awake and although it's not painful, it's scary.    

I noted that one person said that half the battle was knowing what to expect, and that's reassuring to me, since I think I can live with the withdrawl as long as it does not last too long.  I really feel that being off Effexor is more important than the side effects coming off.  Which leads me to my big question:  

How long can I expect to have these revved up brain surges?  It is enough to interrupt my normal activity.  It's kind of like some kind of adrenaline but at the same time it's concentrating around my upper body.  I would like some answers from people who have gotton completely off Effexor and now are completely side-effect free.  

These are not happy pills.  Effexor is a powerful medicine.

[yellowzebra]

The last thing I expected going on the web and searching

[NZgirl]

Hi everyone. I have been reading this discussion board and others like it avidly now for about a month. It has been a huge help and support to know that others have expereinced what I have been going through with this awful drug. I was only on Effexor 75mg for 3 weeks, yet the side effects were horrific (chronic insomnia, nausea, migraines, fatigue) that I demanded my doctor take me off it.

She offered me a reduction schedule that lasted 5 days!! After 2 days I rang her and told her I would be doing my own reduction over the next month. What followed was one of the worst months of my life. I had one week off work and I have never been so sick in my life, vomiting, diareaha, nausea, painful heaadaches that dont respond to medication, fatigue, ringing in my ears. I had to go and stay at my mums and was completed incapacitated at times. I stablised on a lower dose so I could return to work, and decided to reduce my dose slightly every Friday and try and cop the worst of it over the weekend. I managed this for 3 weeks and went to work every day with these painful headaches and awful nausea. Nothing I took for the headaches helped, but ginger did help for the nausea.

I took my last Effexor dose 6 days ago. It was a a very low dose of 10 of those little balls from the XR capsule - equivalent of about 3 gms of the drug. I felt ok for the first 3 days, the physical withdrawals more or less have gone, but the last 3 days I have been "out of control". My emotions are all over the place, I cant stop crying, I am having suicidal thoughts (not that I am planning to follow through on them), I feel desperate and have not been able to go to work this week.

Is this normal? Did anyone else feel like this in the first week coming off the drug? How long does it last? I know that my doctor would say it is the depression symptoms returning but I know that is not the case - I did NOT feel like this before starting on Effexor. My doctors are ill informed about the side effects of taking this drug and coming off it and I feel that they think I have exaggerated the effects I have experienced the last month. It makes me so mad.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and all replies very much appreciated.

[Imfaith]

I have been taking Effexor 75mg for several years for depression.  It has worked fine until recently.  Three weeks ago my doctor a Psychatrist, upped the dosage to 150 mg daily.  After two weeks of taking this dosage, I did not feel any better, so last Tuesday he put me on Paxil 10mg.  When I got up to leave his office I asked him if it was okay to just stop taking the effexor and begin the Paxil. He said yes. I took my first Paxil Wednesday. Thursday I woke up in the early morning with what I describe as "shocking" in my head. It wasn't too bad and I thought maybe it was sinus.  I again woke up Friday morning with this "shocking" in my head. As long as I sat and looked straight ahead I was okay, but when I got up and moved around I immediately was "shocked" over and over, along with being totally dizzy and nauseated. By 2:30pm Friday I was so sick and shaking and thinking I was dying that my husband took me to the hospital.  I described my symptoms to the ER doctor, which she kept calling a headace. When I described the "shocking" in my head they looked at me like I was crazy. They did a CT Scan, and spinal tap, and after 8 hours there I was sent home with a diagnosis of Anxiety. When I woke up this morning with the same awful symptoms, I typed in "shocking sensations in the head" at google.com and came to this site.  I was so totally happy to finally find other people who had the symptoms that I was having, and to know I was not going crazy.  I am calling my doctor first thing Monday and giving him a lesson in Effexor withdrawal, and a piece of my mind.

[Sweettooth356]

WATER TAPERING - makes possible tiny reductions in medication.


*CAUTION* This method can ONLY be done with tablets. XR (extended release) versions of medications CANNOT use this method; it will lead to overdose.


Here is a better WATER TAPERING method than the previous one I had posted (which I have removed).



Equipment needed:
a tall lab cylinder that holds 250 ml
a small lab cylinder that holds 10 ml
a dropper or syringe
a mortar and pestle
a small battery-operated mixer
a continuing supply of the med. you are using


Process:
Grind the tablet in the mortar and pestle.

Fill the tall lab cylinder to a predetermined amount of water. Use this same amount of water each time you make a reduction. The amount you start with will determine just how small the cut is. Another words the greater amount of water you use, the fewer medicine particles per ml will be suspended in it. The less water you use the greater the amount of medicine particles per ml will be suspended in it.

How to determine the amount of cut you'll be making:

Divide your dose by the milliliters of water you intend to use to find the amount of drug per 1 ml of water.

Examples:

37.50mg Effexor tablet divided by 200ml of water = 0.1875mg per 1 ml of water.

37.50mg Effexor tablet divided by 150ml of water = 0.25mg per 1 ml of water.

Pour a little of the water in the cylinder onto the powdered drug and grind it some more. Then rinse the mortar into the battery-operated mixer, using the water in the cylinder until all of the powder in the mortar and on the pestle has gone into the mixer, as well as the rest of the water in the cylinder. The mortar will become colored from the dye used in the pills, do not be concerned about that.

Hit the spin button on the battery-operated mixer. This puts the drug particles into suspension in the water. There is no need for the pills to dissolve or be water soluble; putting the particles into suspension is sufficient to insure random dispersal for long enough to adjust your dosage.

While the mixer is still ON, take the dropper and remove a small amount of the water. Use the small lab cylinder to measure this amount to 1 ml. Discard this amount and drink the water that remains in the mixer. Then add a little more water from a cup and hit spin again to get all the residue out of the mixer and drink that. The next dose, repeat the process but discard 2mls of water and drink the rest.

The advantage to this method is that as long as you have a sufficient supply of tablets, you can reduce at your own rate and make tiny reductions. The brain doesn't differentiate between very small reductions of dose over a few days, but the cumulative cuts do add up so if you feel withdrawal setting in, STOP and let your body adjust.

Now all you have do is find the equipment. A Power Mixer can be obtained from www.bodybuilding.com. It's called the Personal Power Mixer. Or just go to www.Google.com and type in the words "Power Mixer", I'm sure you'll find lots of places that sell them and then you can look for the best price. The same thing goes for graduated cylinders and mortars and pestles. Here is website so you can at least see what they look like, www.pharmex.com.

I am not in anyway affiliated or profit from the above companies.


Sweettooth