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Original poster

Coming off venlafaxine

16 replies

Greedybilly · 19/12/2023 20:10

I've been on this stuff for 3 months and it's been hellish. I'm now trying to wean myself off v slowly under a g.p. I cut down by 37mg 3 days ago and feel awful. Had to leave work as couldn't stop crying. Anyone any tips? Wish I'd never started with the damn stuff.

OP posts:
Original poster
Greedybilly · 19/12/2023 20:27

Anyone any words of wisdom?

OP posts:
Axolotlrulestheworld · 19/12/2023 20:37

I've been on venlafaxine several years I'm currently down to 110 mg and hope to go lower soon but have been taking it very slowly. It's notoriously difficult to come off this as the side effects are horrendous headzapps, emotions up and down constantly, ringing in the ears and vertigo. I've read it's as bad as coming off hard drugs

Original poster
Greedybilly · 19/12/2023 21:24

Yes it's really not easy

OP posts:
DemelzaandRoss · 20/12/2023 17:09

I tapered off Venlafaxine 37.5 mg last November & December. By June of this year I had a relapse of anxiety.
Now on Duloxetine & don’t envisage coming off. Unless the reduction is at minuscule amounts, it appears awfully difficult to stop without adverse effects. Good luck.

Original poster
Greedybilly · 20/12/2023 20:14

@DemelzaandRoss well done for getting off the damn stuff. I have a long way to go - 150mg.

OP posts:
Ilovemycatalot · 22/12/2023 13:14

The mental health team tried to get me on this.
Took for 4 days and the side effects were hell so stopped.
Read so many bad things about it so glad I didn’t continue. On fluoxetine now and side affects much more bearable.

Original poster
Greedybilly · 22/12/2023 14:11

Anyone got any words of wisdom coming off it? @Ilovemycatalot good for you

OP posts:
Original poster
Greedybilly · 22/12/2023 14:12

They hand it out far too easily imo

OP posts:
purpledaze24 · 22/12/2023 14:30

OP I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I don’t really have any advice. It’s scared the hell out of me cos I’m on 225mg! Even if I take my dose a few hours late I start feeling sick and sweating and get brain zaps. I desperately want to come off it cos I really don’t think it’s helping me anymore but I’m terrified of withdrawal symptoms. Has anyone come off it successfully? OP did you find it helped you at all? I wish GPs would spend more time explaining in-depth how difficult whatever they put you on is to come off 😡

BrownJenkins · 22/12/2023 18:57

When I started Venlafaxine, I was told I had to be on it at least 6 months before it really kicked in. It was so awful but I stuck with it. 200mg, then down to 150, then 75mg and finally 37.5mg. That was over a period of a year and I'd been on it for 10 years. You have to work with it, it isn't a miracle cure. Any reduction should be done very slowly, over a few weeks. If you're not in a good place, there's no point trying to reduce the dosage. It doesn't suit everybody, but, if it works it's amazing. I now take 37.5mg every other day and so far no withdrawal effects.

Wishing you well.

anxiousnanna · 22/12/2023 19:02

Im surprised you are being encouraged to come off this drug after such a short time? venleflaxine is a pretty long term drug and 37.5 is the lowest starting dose, you dont say what dose you have been taking? are you swapping too a different drug? I dont mean to impose, but you also don't say the reasons for being on the drug in the first place.. in the UK (sorry i am not sure where you are) theres usually a very long list of drugs they try you on before moving too this one?

i did a few years on venleflaxine for PSTD/depression etc and coming off it was hell on earth.. goodluck

RosaBaby2 · 31/12/2023 10:07

I've missed a few tablets the last few days and am only on the lowest dose.

My head is full of suicidal intrusive thoughts, literally all day yesterday all I could think of was that.

Please be careful and make sure you share and have someone aware that can support you.

Squeaky2023 · 31/12/2023 18:30

I was considering this as an alternative to Prozac (more detail in thread I just posted, by psychiatrist was dismayed that I had been on it for 20 years). What is so bad about taking it?

RosaBaby2 · 31/12/2023 19:09

Squeaky2023 · 31/12/2023 18:30

I was considering this as an alternative to Prozac (more detail in thread I just posted, by psychiatrist was dismayed that I had been on it for 20 years). What is so bad about taking it?

I don't personally find taking it bad and it has helped me for sure, but missing it or trying to stop it is instant side effects. Not sure about others experiences.

Rollon2024 · 31/12/2023 21:48

I was on Venlafaxine for 10years and it really helped, towards the end though my anxiety has worsened so dr changed me over to escitalopram.

purpledaze24 · 03/01/2024 18:32

Rollon2024 · 31/12/2023 21:48

I was on Venlafaxine for 10years and it really helped, towards the end though my anxiety has worsened so dr changed me over to escitalopram.

Can I ask, did you have to taper off the Venlafaxine or did you go straight onto escitalopram and if so did you have side effects?

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