Does it help you sleep

My recommendation to anyone considering these drugs is to look into alternatives like CBT and meditation first; only use these as a last resort!  

I also had a terrible attempt at getting off last year, 10 months of protracted withdrawal before I gave up and went back on.  I didn't realize it was withdrawal because it took awhile to ramp up, and I thought the early symptoms were due to menopause!  I saw no fewer than five health care providers during this time and not a one of them suspected withdrawal even though they knew I had gone off recently!

I am now doing a very slow taper that will likely take a couple of years  It just isn't worth it.

As for the side effects, as I had previously mentioned, the brain fog has been lifting.  Memory losses.  Sometimes it feels like a word I want to use in a conversation is just hanging right there in front of me, but doesn't register.  It's very different from the old "it's right on the tip of my tongue" word losses.  My typing used to be a solid 50wpm, corrected as I went along, but now I have to correct every few words because I type letters out of order or get total mish mash of letters.  I'm trying to find a job and those kinds of errors are not acceptable in any job that requires data entry.  I hadn't thought about it until you mentioned it, but I have developed a habit of picking on myself, as well.  Not sure when it actually started, but it's been a while.  It's an anxiety thing from what I can tell.  

Another thing that suddenly popped up is possibly a neurological thing.  Actually, I'm seeing a neurologist tomorrow to begin finding out what's going on.  Within a week of my going totally off the Effexor,  I awoke suddenly at nigh with incredibly painful muscle spasms radiating from my tail bone and through my hips.  When I tried to stand up to relieve them and straighten up, my thighs started fierce cramps.  I had to double over to get them to stop, but that only brought the hip ones on stronger.  The spasming continued down to my toes.  I'd try to alleviate one set and another would fire off.  I was in tears from the pain.  It took several minutes of breathing focus and moving around to get them to finally let up.  I've been prone to nightime leg cramps since I was a child, but this was totally different.  My MD wants me to have a nerve conduction test to see what's going on.  I'm now on gabapentin and that helps most of the time.  At least the cramps are more like my old foot/calf cramps from before.  

As far as getting off the stuff.  My previous psych. who I refuse to go to anymore, tapered me off by weekly cutting the doses in half and said after 4 weeks to stop.  One day off like that and I was back on the lowest dose, about 35 mg.  I was taking my big capsules and opening them up and divying up the little white balls of medicine.  It was very time consurming and frustrating.  After cutting my piles from halves, to thirds, to forths, etc. for 5 or 6 weeks, I'd had enough and just quit.  I was having the brain zaps either way and was just done with the messing around.  I really think I was over dosing on Seratonin through the past five years.  I don't think that's what causes my depression.  Since being "clean", I've joined a gym and go 3-4 days a week.  It really helps.  I'm not a big weight-lifting person, I prefer the pool as it's better on my sore joints and they have very zen music playing in there.  I tried Zumba last week and almost started crying.  It felt so much like this was what I truly need.  Unfortunately, I need to get my joints and muscles back to shape. They just don't feel right.  But the music, and the positive environment in the room was amazing.  I haven't danced in many years and I miss it terribly.  Will see how it goes at the doc's tomorrow.  Good luck with your personal pick of symptoms.  It seems to vary to some degree among individuals.  Either way, it sucks!! 

Muscle stuff...don't go too wild on the exercise because it can trigger withdrawal.  And joints, yes, they don't seem right anymore, like the ligaments and tendons aren't as strong as they used to be.  I started doing yoga last year before WD hit really hard, to tone up my hips and butt.  I've always been a tough one, doing weight lifting over the years, but these poses triggered a tendonitis or something in my butt muscles that got so bad I couldn't sleep at night from the pain!  Even now, a year later, those pains are still there, though not as severe.  Just a couple of years ago I was doing weight lifting without any trouble!  I tire more easily, too.   

I could totally relate on the typing.  I make mistakes constantly, the mish-mash thing, and unable to complete a sentence and reach for words, yup!  We went for sushi last week, and I've had miso soup a million times before, but I looked at the bowl and couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called!

I wish you smooth sailing, Patti!