How long is Effexor withdrawal supposed to last?

[7essa]

A little over two months ago I stopped taking Effexor after slowly weaning off of it.  I had horrible withdrawal symptoms: nausea, fatigue, and dizziness.  After two months I don't feel any better.  Needless to say, I'm really scared.  I can hardly function at my job and am very frustrated and angry.  This medication has ruined my life.  Waking up in the morning is the worst part of my day.  All I have to look forward to is dizziness, fatigue, and attempting  to function.

How long did you symptoms last?  Are they supposed to last this long?

[healforlife]

Thanks for the laugh...with you, not at you. I can relate to all of it and feel better knowing \i am not alone...are you better now?

[healforlife]

I am coming off after 15 years...and yes I am now beginning to see an old me that has been gone for a long time...sticking to my decision this time has been hard going. I am also down to 37.5 and this last step has been brutal...my head feels as if there is a band around it...constant pain. My face hurts, jaw is tense, body aches, irritable to out of control anger and crying...and brain blanks...can't think straight or clear...no wonder I always went back on before....but, I think maybe I would like to give my 15 year old the real me. I just looked today for info on withdrawal and I am so happy to find this site and all of these people who know what I am going through.

[effexorispoison]

I have now been off Effexor (Cold turkey, see previous posts) for 60 days and I am now able to sleep at night and am feeling better each day still. For me the worst was sleeplessness, brain zaps and body pain esp. my legs which after 30 days really got bad made worse by kicking all night. I took a 1 hour nap this afternoon for the first time since April and that felt great. I can not stress strong enough to others not to quit the way I did but am writing now to let people know that it does get better, reading these posts here really did help me when I was at the worst. Hang in there!!

[Goldie2525]

Hi Jimmy! I am so sorry you are going through this. I know just how you feel. I have been on this awful drug for 8 and a half years. It is awful trying to come off of it. My husband does not have a supportive bone in his body.Hang in there. It will get better. It has to. I am blessed to have my mom to talk to. She was a psychiatric nurse for many years so she is a wealth of knowledge. She did not even know about this crazy withdrawal! How are you doing now? I hope your boys are doing good. They grow up so fast! I live second by second. It helps. Just try to live each second and pray. It really does help.

[weber90]

I am 1 week and 4 days free of Effexor. What a horrible drug. Was put on it for depression, but if I would of known how dependent your body is on it this would of never happened. The first few days without it was horrible. Out of body experiences, brain zaps and crying uncontrollably. My daughter didn't know what was going on. I do have one question though....did anyone have horrible dry mouth and tingling with this drug? Mine is slowly going away, but it's unreal. I couldn't drink enough, inside of my mouth would stick to my teeth. The tingling in the lips and numbness got so bad that I didn't realize I would be drooling. Glad it's getting better, just want to be back to normal. I didn't realize the community that is here, you are all wonderful.

[Vicko]

It has been 38 days since my last dose of Effexor (I tapered off).  Thirty eight days of hell!  I wish I knew when this will stop. Recently, I started having anxiety issues on top of the other battles.  I'm taking Omega 3 and multi vitamin for the withdrawal, and recently added magnesium and B1 for anxiety. I'm hoping the magnesium will help.  Most of the time the Omega 3 helps the withdrawal symptoms. Occasionally, I will have a day where nothing helps though.