Medication withdrawal, how long do the side effects last?

[HayuBingeWatcher]

Has anyone withdrawn from their long terms meds and gone through the withdrawal stage?
I tempered a little bit and then stopped abruptly due to a prescription shortage and once that was sorted I took half a dose again for a while and just completed 12 days with no meds.

the last 4 days have been like a severe flu with D&V and insomnia, I think I’m through the worst of that although 1st day back at work today and I’m not 100% on the ball which could be an issue but, how long does this stage go on for? , did you have time off work to adjust or just get through it? I’m wondering if I’m through the worst bit but if it’s going to be like this for, say a week I need a small dose to get me through.
meds are Venlafaxine, quetiapine and pregrabalin

Are you coming off all three at once? That sounds extremely challenging. Does your doctor know?

You should not cold turkey on Venlafaxine and probably not the others. Can you get an emergency supply. I’m no medic but I’d have thought weaning off one at a time would be much better.

you have considerable medication regime there with some serious punch -
I would not expect anyone to be coming off these medications without direct medical supervision
you need to liaise asap with your consultant psychiatrist / CMHT duty desk re titrating down and explore the rationale for that ,
if u have been on these drugs a long time you may just be under repeats from a GP and if that’s the case, urgent appt to discuss your medication.

I think you might be in for a rocky ride, I would not try to come off those at the same time, how long have you been on them?

I have stopped venlaflaxine but went down to low dose before stopping. It was absolutely awful. I tried four times but I couldn’t stand the withdrawal. Finally doctor prescribed another antidepressant to take while stopping venlaflaxine. That worked and I could stop that new one easily.

i have stopped taking pregabalin 600mg cold turkey. I felt nauseous and had some insomnia for a week but that was that.

Why don’t you come off insulin and thyroxine and warfarin as well?

Thank you for replying,

with the Venlafaxine withdrawal, what made it awful? Is it mainly the shakes and sweats along with D&V? Appreciate we are all different.

In my case venlalfaxine withdrawal was fever, dizziness, bad nausea and general bad feeling.

I had the worst brain zaps coming off venlafaxine. Can’t remember any other significant withdrawal symptoms.
Quetiapine on the other hand, I hated the stuff and the fact I was taking 400mg at one point making me unable to function. So I stopped cold turkey and I have never felt so unwell! Nausea, sweats, shakes. Lasted a couple of weeks. Definitely wouldn’t recommend.

Why are you coming off so abruptly? I had side effects after trying to come off very long term Mirtazapine so I am using this approach set out by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. I am using hyperbolic tapering (10% every two weeks) and it’s going really well. No withdrawal effects at all.

There’s loads of helpful info about how to go about it and do’s and don’ts on this page:

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/treatments-and-wellbeing/stopping-antidepressants