Girlfriend withdrawing off Effexor. Quit cold turke

Scott99820 how long has your girlfriend been off this? I seriously wouldn't recommend going cold turkey it's horrendous.  Most people on here have slowly weaned themselves down by small amounts over a very long time. I had no choice but to go cold turkey and these are just a few of the side effects from this: vomiting, diarrhoea, retching, horrendous pain in the head, pain throughout the whole body, disassociation to everything going on around, unable to sleep, inability to even lay down......... You are in for possibly a really rough time but you can find some help on here. Wishing you both all the best

Oh my lord. I can't even imagine what she must be going through. Even the lowest dose to go cold turkey is horrendous.

You really do need to take her to the doctor and explain what's happened.

Personally, if I don't take my tablet within a 2 hour period of normal taking, I'm shaking, headaches and feel like I'm not part of the world. 225mg is an awful lot just to quit.

I can understand why people want to quit, but on this you need to slowly withdraw. It can take months even years depending on how long you've been taking the Ven.

Try and encourage her to go to the docs.

Best of luck to you both x

Oh my goodness.  She was on a very high dose so no wonder quitting it cold turrkey is making her ill.  This is an extremely difficult drug to withdraw from.  It needs to be withdrawn from really slowly.

Now she has stopped she will have to deal with the withdrawals, which can be bad, and may take time.  She really should not have quit so suddenly.  The only idea I have is to go back on it and withdraw slowly, or ride out the withdrawals now she has come off it.  I expect she does not want to continue taking it or she would not have stopped, but as she was on a high dose I suspect she really needed to be on it.

Why has she decided to stop taking it?  Was it not helping with her depressi0on?  Does she think she will be better without it?  Keep an eye on her for I suspect she will be getting some bad withdrawals.

 

im currently coming off mine from 300mg to 0 in four to weeks, but thats quite a big drop, when i first went down from 300mgs it was as if i was having a mild stroke as well as this i felt dizzy and totally confused , still am to a point.and my 

My wife thinks im snappy all the time now. ideas? well to be honest with you what seems to be working for me at the moment is mindful mediation, and also i have found eating lots of high protein foods is giving me a lot more energy 

Hi Scott, how is your gf doing? I hope you have got her to see a Dr because the withdrawal from suddenly stopping venlafaxine is bl00dy horrific!! I went through this 5 years ago after my Dr decided I'd been on them too long and that Cymbalta was the way to go!! He told me to stop taking the 300mg dose of venlafaxine immediately, give my body a couple of days to adjust, then start taking 60mg of Cymbalta and all my problems would be solved! I have never been so ill in all my life, and trust me, that is the truth. Besides all the symptoms Helen described I couldn't lie down, if I did I soaked the bed, and to this day I don't know if I was peeing the bed or just sweating profusely. I had to go downstairs on my bum because I was shaking so violently and having the most horrendous tics. My dad found me on my living room floor and thought I was having a fit of some kind. He rushed me to the Dr who thought I may be suffering Seratonin syndrome until he read back through my notes. I needed oxazepam at regular intervals to stop the violent shaking and panic attacks, a large dose of venlafaxine and Zopiclone to make me sleep through the other symptoms. I then had to start the Cymbalta AND carry on with a smaller dose of venlafaxine to combat the withdrawal. This put me at very high risk of Seratonin Syndrome and I was urged to reduce the venlafaxine and get myself off them as soon as I could. Unfortunately I couldn't reduce the venlafaxine without all the the withdrawal symptoms returning so ended up taking the two for a few months, but something didn't "feel" right and I ended up trying to take my own life. It was decided I had a reaction to the Cymbalta (as I had with Prozac about 10 years before). I have been told I will have to stay on venlafaxine for the rest of my life, because of the way my brain is "wired" lol!! Anyway, I'm waffling now, I hope your gf gets the help she needs because I wouldn't wish the withdrawal on my worst enemy. Let us know how she is doing xxxxxxxxx

I've just come off 225 mg effexor , was on it for about a year. It has been pretty awful. I'm in about week 5. The thing I would worry about most , doing it without a doctors care , is that my heart rate seemed very high through much of it. Best of luck to anyone trying to quit. My sexual self is 100% cured. Mentally it feels like 70-80% of the drug is gone. To me, goinh off it felt like what I hear the emotions of pregnant women go through. One word: Extreme. You're basically shedding a personality.