Want get of Effexor

[Krikey]

Really want to get of the drugs this year and get fit and get my diet sorted out ,to enable this to happen. I am on 150 mg a day .I am a 37 year old father of two boys .I want to eventually stop using it all together . Has anybody got any advice on how I can go about this as painlessly as possible

[Otherside]

I've never been on Effexor or tried it, but from what I know from people who have been on it and come off it, it isn't going to be fun.

Effexor has a half life of twenty four hours or so. Withdrawl will kick in after about a day or so. It may well make it seem as if the depression has come back worse than it ever was before.

The good news is, that that is most likely temporary, and the longer you go without it, the better the withdrawl symptoms become. You just need to really take it a day at a time,

[GunnyHighway]

I'm in the same boat as I've never taken it myself. I did get suggested to take it so I have read a bit about it, and most people seem to say it's something that needs to be slowly tapered off of, else you'll have some nasty withdrawals.

[Krikey]

Well aware of withdrawals having forgotten to take it on any given day the withdrawals where extremely uncomfortable at the least can't even explain the feeling.Big writing on the box don't stop taking abruptly .I tried halving my dose a few years back but started get anxiety attacks again.But wondering now if I need to get off sugar and caffeine first .Im fairly fit not over weight at all . I just need some tips from someone who has successfully done it . I generally know most things about the drug and it works for me but I can't believe taking this drug everyday is any good for my brain

[Otherside]

If you wanna come off it, the best thing to do would be to go to your GP and say that to him, and he should be able to tell how to come off of it. You'll have to do it slowly, that's pretty much the way it is with any drug. You take a smaller dose of it for a while (Usually it's been about a week when I've been coming off), then an even smaller dose, and so on so on until you're eventually off it.

As for coming off immeadiatley, DON'T. I don't know about Effexor, but there are some drugs that can cause serious problems if you come off it pretty quickly.

[merc]

I was no this drug. It made me very happy, too happy according to my doctor. I also had side effects of seeing spots and rings. My pupils would dilate with little warning. I have no idea how I made it home safely one day.

I was later on lexapro. I guess it was working, but i quit taking it because I was worried about the long term effects on my health. I quit it cold turkey against the wishes of my doctor. Apparently if you want to quit you have to taper off the medication. Anyway my doctor informed me that if I refused to follow his ins ructions he would not be able to help me and i quit seeing him.

[L]

As said, discuss this with your doctor for best result and good luck xxx

[Krikey]

Cheers for the advice have done some more research and yeah coming of slow is definitely the go and am also going to give up caffeine and sugar intake to give my self a chance to fix my underlying problem of anxiety attacks will let ya know how I go

[WineKitty]

You have to taper off it...you cannot go off SSRIs, SNRIs, or benzos cold turkey (in most cases). I was fortunate to be able to quit both Celexa and Wellbutrin cold turkey but I hadn't been on them for very long before seeing ill effects. However, I am currently on Klonopin and trying to taper. I am cutting by .25 which could be too much but I am going to try and ride it out. It's my 5,423,243 time attempting so wish me luck...

[Krikey]

Good luck. I'm going to get my diet right at the same time . I'm hoping this will allow me when the time comes to beat my anxiety as well .I want give myself every chance this time I've only been as low as 75 mg (currently double that) I'm just going to take my time and come of slow last thing I need is to stress my self out. I have definitely got a clear game plan in my head

[Krikey]

Well I'm down to 75mg from 150 everything was going better than expected even tried a couple of days on 37.5 then last Thursday it all came with a vengeance anxiety attacks and withdrawal symptoms at the same time. Now been suffering from anxiety every day since feels like my hearts beating to fast .working nights probably doesn't help.I going to keep trying to hang in but feeling really bad everyday and not knowing what I'm anxious about really sux

[Krikey]

Took me a week but found a multi b vitamin I just started taking two weeks ago was having an effect with the Effexor . Great I found the main issue but I am so ready to get of this stuff .