Withdrawals

You’ve hit the nail on the head. Drs have absolutely no clue as to the reality of the difficulties of withdrawal and usually see withdrawal symptoms as a return of your original issues.

I second what Ciclista said. Many doctors recommend large dosage drops and skipping days while tapering. That worsens withdrawal symptoms. Make slow, steady tapers and don’t skip days. Instead of following a calendar schedule to plan your tapering, go by how you feel.. After each taper, wait until you have gone through a couple cycles of windows and waves before tapering again. The last wave before a taper should be so mild that you barely feel it.
It’s very hard to describe how mindfulness helps in withdrawal. It’s a very subjective and personal thing to examine your thoughts. It begins with recognizing that a series of thoughts are obsessive or outside you normal thoughts. Then, try to replace that thought with something else, or dismiss it each time it floats to the surface of your mind. It doesn’t work in the beginning. Withdrawal creates obsessive thoughts of such power that they are very hard to control. In combination with a slower tapering schedule, though, mindfulness can have a big impact on your quality of life. I hope you feel better soon.

It’s been 22 months I have been off of Effexor & Trazodone. It’s been a nightmare. I was on them for 31 years. I didn’t know any better. I’m still having anxiety and panic attacks. They are getting better. Sleep is horrible but also better than it was. I hope and pray that someday I’ll feel human again.

SSRI withdrawal

After 25 years of being on psychiatric med, mostly SSRI, I felt enough well to try to stop it. It was Zoloft. I knew a little about safe tapering. I stopped it gradually ( from 150 mg to 0) but my last dose was 50 mg. The symptoms which hit me were unbearable. Terror anxiety lasted 1,5 year. I hadn’t even one day without anxiety. I suffered anxiety much worse than anything I experienced before. It took me my life: work, studies. Then I had the worst depression in my life. I was 3 times in the hospital since that. Now I am on 3 meds, including SNRI and antipsychotic. I am able to buy food, cook dinner, go for a walk. Most my energy goes for regulate my emotions. I am disabled. I trusted my psychiatrist, she is a person caring for her patients. But she never warned me that I can experience unhuman horror, much worse than my first symptoms. She never told about safe yapering lastin years. It could prevent my present sutuation I believe. I lost more my achievements. I suffer grief, I look for trauma oriented therapy. Sb wrote that it ( wd) is like torture. This is right description. I wish nobody suffer like that. It was unhuman, destroying any trust to life.

My dear sibling was prescribed the drug to help her manage neuropathic pain due to fibromyalgia. She was on this drug for a number of years, with little if any improvement in pain. In fact, she quickly transformed into a zombie- unable to get out of bed until the early afternoon, could no longer work, gained a lot of weight, developed a permanent inflammatory eye condition, dental sensitivities and her sense of humor started to slowly disappear.

I found myself often questioning what had happened to my dear sibling, the one with whom I used to laugh, joke around, confide in and dance? I chalked it all up to the fibromyalgia.

Approximately 7 years to later, she decided to come off the medication as she noticed it was starting to cause more harm than good. According to her partner, they didn’t take the tapering process lightly, but rather consulted with pain specialists for guidance.

After a 3.5 week taper, she surprisingly no longer had any of the original pain and discomfort from her fibro condition! But, that’s not all she lost in the process. She tragically lost her love, empathy and affection for me and our elderly parents. One month after the drug had left her body, she suddenly became suspicious of our kind loving gestures towards her and would become irate over the smallest action we took or words we said. Her love for us was tragically transformed into anger and resentment. Two years later, she is spellbound and has no insight into this change in her. Our once cohesive family is fractured because of the damage that the drug, followed by the rapid taper caused to her brain. We cannot get through to her. Not only did the drug exacerbate her medical condition, but it destroyed an amazing person and cohesive family.

Although I have been switched to Trintellix, the withdrawal from Effexor is painful – at multiple levels. Is it gastric? Acid reflux and heartburn? Indigestion? Various body pains? Joint pains? Or this heavy anxiety, especially health anxiety…it is painful. Brain fogs? Very low physical and social energy days? Or the days when you feel bad about yourself and not good enough? Or when you become short-tempered and rude? Or the random panic feelings and heart palpitations? The list is long; symptoms come and go in waves. Some days are good, and some aren’t – there’s no specific pace or rhythm. It’s hard to commit to any plans ahead since I never know how I’ll feel by then. Many have said the withdrawal timeline is a year or even longer, but I am accepting this.

I took Effexor for about 3+ years, and it worked great on me. I was really doing great, but now thinking back of the whole journey, nothing in earth worth experiencing this painful withdrawal journey.

Has anyone withdrawals after quitting Venlafaxine years ago? I zeroed almost three years ago and I still have insomnia, heart palpitations, night sweats and crazy anxiety. When will this go away?!

I was on lexopro for years and got off of it. I tapered off somewhat. However Im expericing what feels like brain damage. My brain doesn’t function like it use to.

Yeah I get confused, I’m not sure if my anger towards some people is real or just me being extremely sensitive. Sometimes it’s legit and sometimes it’s ridiculous, I’ll stay up all night fuming at what someone said, something that wasn’t really even that bad.