One pellet at a time

I was put on venlafexine for one month.  I had tapered off of one drug and my pmd tapered me up to 300mg venlafexine extended release.   After experiencing some significant side effects (mostly sexual) he advised to just stop taking it.  Needless to say I went to the emergency room 72 hours later with a BP of 182/118.  Not knowing what happened, I thought it was a heart attack.  My PMD felt that since I was only on venlafexine for 4 weeks it should have been fine.  And yes....I switched Primary care physicians immediately.  

I have slowly been tapering off of the 300mg ER since mid April.  I have started to see a psychotherapist as well as a psychiatrist to help me get off of these meds.  All agree that I was not a good candidate for meds in the first place so we are all working to eliminate.  However I can not get off of them.  My doc put me on 10 mg Prozac as he believed that that will help with some of the withdrawing symptoms.  I remove 1 pellet from the venlafexine every 4 days.  If I go more quickly because I am getting impatient, I always feel the effects and it is like a roller coaster.  Night terrors, irritability, anxiety, headaches,  etc.  I’m down to 20 pellets per day of venlafexine.  At this rate I should hopefully be off this drug by September.  Slow and Steady wins the race I am learning.  It will take me 6 months to finally get off of this drug.  

I share this story for two reasons.  1 so that others who are super sensitive to this drug know that you are not alone.  And 2 in case anyone has any other suggestions I am open to hear them.  But I know that I am finally going down the right direction.  

I credit this method with removing one pellet at a time with the triage nurse who reassured me I wasn’t having a heart attack in April. She said sees this all the time.  So unfortunate that some physicians aren’t educated on this better when they prescribe the drug. 

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