Any long-term (6 mths or more) people on Venlafaxine experienced these side effects??

[purpledaze24]

I’ve been on 225mg of Venlafaxine for a couple of years now. I’m told this is a high dose and I’ve also recently been reading about how hard it is to come off. I hate the way it makes me feel and I desperately want off it but am terrified of the withdrawals.

But my main question is - has anyone else had hot flushes, nausea, loss of appetite (I might consider this quite handy if it didn’t come with nausea!), episodes of vomiting for 2-3 days where you can’t keep anything down and feel weak and constantly nauseous, just kind of feeling a bit hungover sometimes (despite not drinking). I know these can be early symptoms people experience while your body adjusts to the drug but has anyone been on it long-term and still getting stuff like this? I’ve never had these symptoms before starting on this horrible drug (which I wish the GP had properly warned me about! 😡) and no it’s not the peri menopause/menopause, I’m too young, plus I’ve had my hormone levels checked and they’re normal (doesn’t stop every single person I tell about my symptoms diagnosing me with peri menopause though!!)

These horrible side-effects are ruining my life, I’ve had to take time off work and the vomiting episodes are hell. I just feel a bit fuzzy/hungover all the time. It’s also no longer doing anything for my mental health. I’m depressed as I’ve ever been. I really want this crap out of my body but I’m so scared of the side effects from tapering off, plus I don’t know what other drug to move onto (needs to be something atm) - I’ve been on citalopram and fluoxetine, both eventually stopped working but neither had side effects like this. I don’t know if they’d work for me again after my body’s had a break from them?

Any advice much appreciated :)

Hi I've taken it for years. That seems quite a high dose - especially as a starting dose. Do you have the extended release version? I remember when I first started I didn't and it made me feel sick. Much better on the XR extended release.
That was on 75mg.
I've been slowly cutting down - now on 37.5mg.
If you do decide to cut back definitely do it slowly though. I once ran out and missed a dose and it made me feel terrible- worse migraine ever. I was beside myself and vowed never ever to run out again.

Hi OP, it was one of the hardest things that I have come off!! Am on Prosac now and feel loads better. I would say it took me a month to get off and the last week was awful..sorry!

I reduced to EOD did that for a few weeks then dropped another few...but the week with none was like going cold turkey ( I imagine !).

I booked time off work and stayed in bed...I didn't see gp, so get their advice to support you. Good luck...I'm much happier off it now.

I've taken a lot of antidepressants and other medications (for a different health condition)
over the years and I've never taken such a hateful drug as venlafaxine. It made me feel profoundly unwell in all the ways you describe - the hot rushing flushes of nausea, the debilitating weakness - and I was on a much lower dose than you. It also did SFA for my mental health. I went through the motions robotically and had very few feelings. When I came off it I felt better immediately and in fact had very few withdrawal symptoms. I would strongly advise stopping it.