My Venlafaxine withdrawal diary

[TheOrigRights]

Someone (I'll tag you in the other thread!) asked if I would be willing to keep a diary as I taper off Venlafaxine with the aim of coming off entirely.

I'm happy to do so and think it will be useful for me, too.

Been on venlafaxine 150mg modified release for a few years.

Month 1 - changed from modified release 150mg to 2 x immediate release 75mg just to get used to 2 smaller doses.

Month 2 - 75mg in the morning and 37.5mg at night
This is where I am now. I've been a bit muddled, partly because I was issued with 56 x 75mg and 56 x 37.5mg with instructions to take 1 each morning and night, and what with everything and 37.5 being a STUPID number to work with in your head, I didn't work out that this would be an increase. Twit.
I'm not sure how many tablets I have left, but I'll see where I am when all the 75mg ones have gone.

Month 3 (ish) - 37.5mg in the morning and 37.5mg at night.

Month 4 (ish) - 37.5mg in the morning

Month 5 (ish) - nothing!

So far I can report only some brain zaps and some fuzziness.
When getting used to taking 2 doses a day I did forget to take the morning one a few times, and only remembered when I started to feel zappy, by which time it was too close to the night time dose to take it.

Mood wise I can report no change. Unlike others I can't say it saved my life. I can't say it didn't. I just don't know.

I’m going to join in, as I’m withdrawing from it too.

Dropped from 187.5mg to 150mg 2 weeks ago.

No symptoms to report as of yet.

Will be dropping another 37.5mg in 2 weeks.

Under a very good Psychiatrist.

I’m also on -

Pregabalin
Quetiapine
Diazepam
Propranolol
Methylphenidate (ADHD med)

Hello and welcome [passes cup of tea]. I'm glad you have a good psychiatrist, that's so important. I didn't have such a good experience, but was discharged from their care to my GP a while ago now.

I was prescribed Pregabalin a while ago, but didn't get on with it at all. It made me feel so drowsy I didn't feel safe.

So, yesterday was the first day (on 75mg morning and 37.5mg at night) that I didn't have fuzzy episodes or any brain zaps. Fingers crossed my body is adjusting to the lower dose.

Emotionally I feel fine.

My old GP chose the Venla/Prop/Quet.

My new GP (of a year) immediately referred me to Psych after needing to prescribe Diazepam due to the state I was in.

Psych doesn’t like that I’m on so many meds and so once I stabilised on Pregab (which agree, is fucking horrible, I’ve gained a lot of weight and can’t tolerate more than 400mg taken all at night) we started weaning the Quet down from 175mg to 75mg.

We’ve had to swap to getting rid of Venla now as it’s causing some issues on my monthly ECGs and is mostly useless anyway as it’s not the correct type of medication for CPTSD.

I’m hoping to be on just Pregab, Methylphenidate and the odd Diazepam within the next 12 months. But we have to wean me down very slowly as I’m in sole charge of 3 children.

Are you both coming off because you are in a better place now?

For me, yes. I am more resilient. I associate my recent MH problems with a specific dark period of my life and I think coming off the ADs will help me put that period firmly behind me.

My body is now used to the lower dose I've been taking. I'll stick to this for a while before dropping again.

Yes and no.

Long story short: whilst I know I have been depressed for short or long periods of time over my life (I’m almost 35; awful childhood, had a breakdown in my late teens, suicide attempts, PND in my late 20s) I’m quietly convinced that half of my issues were/are down to undiagnosed ADHD. It has catastrophic affects on women.

I do have CPTSD that mostly manifests and severe anxiety and severe insomnia, that’s not up for debate.

Since starting Pregabalin and Methylphenidate, I have improved rather dramatically. So I now believe the other medications aren’t needed/aren’t suitable and that, perhaps, in time, I won’t need the Pregabalin either (although I’ve always needed something to help me sleep).

OK, so today I've felt antsy and unable to settle or focus on my work.
It manifests itself physically as feeling not really short of breath, but more just really aware of my breathing and some tightness.

I took myself off for a run and now feel a lot better.

I think some level of anxiety is normal and OK day to day.
Also feeling depressed can be OK - a natural reaction to events.

I want to be able to cope with what life throws at me in a healthy way, not to completely unravel or to use unhealthy ways to manage my distress (disordered eating) - to sit with those uncomfortable feelings knowing they will pass.

I have had a lot of psychological support and MH support from the ED team to get to this point. I struggled to put it into place at the time, but I really am using that help now.

Glad you’ve had help with the ED, a cousin I’m close to struggled as a teenager/early 20s, we lived together for some of that and Christ, they are challenging to recover from to say the least, and that was just from an outsiders perspective.

I’ve been served a S21 from my rented house, in a high crime inner city area in the Midlands, and I’m hoping to use it as a springboard to move to the area on the coast where my Dad and 1 of my siblings lives, almost no crime, beautiful green open spaces plus the beach!

I’m fairly confident the location change will reduce my triggers, therefore lowering my overall amount of anxiety, and enable me to Get Out Of The House (my unhealthy coping mechanism is to go out as little as possible, which then becomes difficult to break - I’ve done it twice now but this third go round is proving fucking impossible).

Can I join in? My 25 year old daughter's been on Venlafaxine for three years and earlier this year asked to come off it. Her psych agreed, have her a tapering schedule and said he'd see her again in six months.
She came off really slowly (much slower than the schedule) and didn't get many side effects but she's completely exhausted all the time and aches all over. Do you know if this is normal? She's got no medical support at all.
Her mood is very low. She can't see the point in being alive. Is this just part of withdrawal or is the depression still there? Is she going to feel better one day?

@Two4tea

Can I join in? My 25 year old daughter's been on Venlafaxine for three years and earlier this year asked to come off it. Her psych agreed, have her a tapering schedule and said he'd see her again in six months. She came off really slowly (much slower than the schedule) and didn't get many side effects but she's completely exhausted all the time and aches all over. Do you know if this is normal? She's got no medical support at all. Her mood is very low. She can't see the point in being alive. Is this just part of withdrawal or is the depression still there? Is she going to feel better one day?

Is Venla her only medication? Has she had any therapy?

And remember - she can call her Psych for an emergency appt whenever - she doesn’t have to wait 6 months.

She's on a low dose of Mirtazapine too, and hasn't had any therapy because she was diagnosed as autistic and our MH services don't have any therapists who can work with people with autism. The psych is useless, all he ever does is suggest stronger doses of meds, or even stronger meds. Before her even meet her he was suggesting Lithium as an addition to her daily meds!

Thanks for the Facebook suggestion. I've asked to join the group and will stop derailing the thread. Good luck OP hope it goes well for you. I'll be following your diary!

Two4tea You'll have to try harder to derail!

I am sorry your DD is struggling. Is she completely off the Venlafaxine now? My understanding is that her GP should support her between psychiatrist visits. She should certainly not feel she's doing it alone.

GetTaeFuck The S21 sounds difficult, but as you say, could be a really positive thing. I really hope it works out for you.
When will you know?

I am doing well. I am going to stick with 75mg morning and 37.5mg night for a few more weeks as we are on holiday for a fortnight from this weekend. I don't want to muck the holiday up by being in a pickle and for any SEs to be exacerbated by being out of my normal routine.

We've got this!

Me again! She's been completely off Venlafaxine for about a month now (days and weeks seem to blur together) and we're desperately hoping for an upturn in her mood. She can't get a GP appointment, took two weeks to even get a phone call about blood tests, and there are no face to face appointments at our surgery so she really is doing it alone.
I've asked to join the FB group but haven't been accepted yet. In the meantime is good to have found this thread. Thanks

The lack of therapy/support for autistic adults, especially autistic females, is gross. I’m part way through the ASD diagnosis in my area but there will be nothing more than the diagnosis.

It’s also why I’m trying to escape the city. I went in yesterday to get my medications and it was Hell, back to pre-Covid levels of rammed with people and I felt genuinely ill.

Couple of weeks I think, shouldn’t be too long.

The brain zaps got me yesterday, really awful, I could hardly stand up and felt like Thor was swinging his hammer around in there. Then at night? Realised my Venla was still in the morning pill box So I’ve added a sticky note to the fridge door to remind me to double check the pill box, but I’m not being too hard on myself as I take around 7 pills at 6am every day.

Yes missing it definitely caused it. I won’t make that mistake again! How people go off it cold turkey and deal with that I don’t bloody know.

I went off Fluoxetine cold turkey (feeling bloody minded) and while I did get brain zaps there were no where near as intense as the Venlafaxine ones when I've only missed a single dose.

Anyway, on our hols now....yay!

I can report that 4 out of the last 5 nights I have not woken during the night!

I have woken at least once for years and years and twice for quite a period of time, too.

I will never know if better sleep is happening alongside me feeling more well overall, or whether it's been a side effect of the V. Probably the former because I'm still only 37.5mg down on the dose I was taking for a long time.

I forgot to take my pill (75mg) this morning. I was only reminded when at about 6pm I started to feel weird.
It was a familiar feeling but I couldn't put my finger on it for a little while.

I think I've said before - it's like a low level head buzz, aggravated by turning my head.

I was glad when the penny dropped as I knew I could rectify it. Technically if you're closer to the next dose when you realise you've missed one you're not meant to take it, but I didn't want to feel buzzy all evening so I took 37.5mg. All good.
It does alarm me quite how quickly withdrawal side effects kick in.

Anyway, the holiday continues to be fab.

I had years of miserable holidays with my ex and only in the last few years have I truly enjoyed them.

I hope nobody minds if I join. One week and 2 days ago I self reduced my venlafaxine from 300mg to 37.5 twice a day because I found out I was pregnant. I started miscarrying yesterday but I'm going ahead with weaning myself off completely because I don't want to have to worry about coming off them one day down the line. I'm dizzy, nauseous, I'm having brain zaps and it feels hellish but definitely better than the first 4 days. My OCD is back with a vengeance but I'll deal with that in time.
Can I ask if anyone is planning to take a different med or just quitting anti depressants entirely?