Venlafaxine further reduction
Posted , 3 users are following.
Well I've been on the lowest dose of Venlafaxine 37.5mg for a good few months now, yesterday I decided to half this tablet and start taking 1/2 of the tablet a night. Yesterday the 'normal' brain zaps kicked in and NO I said to myself! I shall not cave in to you LOL.
Tonight further light brain zaps what ever these actually are I have no idea tbh anyway tonight seemed I was unusually hot (hot anyway) but you no that unusually type of hot with a little sweat so I gave in and took the other half and the sweat stopped hmm.
Just to figure now the best way to take the 1/2 a tablet hmm every night, every other night ?
0 likes, 2 replies
Venny christina21598
Posted
Hi,I would take it every night for a month,then a quarter of a tablet then halve that for a month, slowly is much better.I am reducing from 75mg,I'm on the capsules so I have been taking out a tablet from inside capsules one at a time ,I'm now down to 50 mg and when I take the next one out IL be down to 37.5 and I'll get a37.5 capsule from my GP and stay on that for a few months then start again
chrisk89 christina21598
Posted
I have been taking Venlafaxine for about 3 years, before that I was taking other medication from summer 2013. At one point I was taking 5 or 6 of the 75mg a day. This was soon reduced to 4 x 75mg, when I realized it was causing more anxiety at such a high level.
Around 5 months ago I took an overdose of 32 x 75mg venlafaxine and 16 x 40mg propranolol. It was an intentional suicide attempt. After this attempt I tried to go cold turkey but it really was unbearable. To experience such a large overdose and then take nothing, I was not in a good place.
Since then I gradually reduced the medication, went from the 75mg to the 37.5mg tablet. Took half of it, then one quarter and now I've been off it for a week, maybe more. I was struggling at first, the withdrawal symptoms were very intense. But within a few days I felt a lot better, more motivated and happy.
Today however, I woke up feeling like sh*t. I struggled to get out of bed and since then I've had reduced appetite, brain zaps and stomach issues. I was even feeling some depression for a few hours, this is not something I've felt for a long time. It is now the evening and I'm feeling a lot better. Although I still have the same symptoms, they have lifted a bit. It's hard to say whether these are due to the venlafaxine or something I've ate. I'm sure the brain zaps are due to the venlafaxine, they were fading away until today.
Something to consider here... you may get over the withdrawal symptoms and they could come back again for some time. So once they've gone, don't be surprised if they return.