venlafaxine withdrawal- please help!!

Hi. I'm new here and wanted to join a UK forum to avoid the hyperbole I kept finding on US sites about "evil" drugs. I wanted to offer a word of support to those out there like me who do not see Venlafaxine as "Evil" but as a very strong antidepressant that, for some, can save lives, but happens to have very strong withdrawal effects.

I had a serious breakdown nearly three years ago fafter being alone at the very sudden, unexpected and pretty grusome death of my mum and was really pretty nuts! I was started on Citalopram initially but had all the side effects (irregular hear beats, anorgasmia and sleepiness) with no benefits after a month so came off. I became nuttier and was put on big doses of Mirtazapine and Olanzapine (basically to knock me out for a while!).

Eventually, I didn't want to keep sleeping and was still pretty mad so was started on Venlafaxine which started to lift the craziness within a week. The dose was increased bit by bit until I felt really well at 225mg where I have stayed until a few months ago when I felt I needed to start coming off. My GP had recommended I stay on the high dose until January (evidence shows that, once a person is feeling well. staying on the "well" dose for two years before coming off decreses the liklihood of relapse) but the side effects (heavy sweating, serious constipation, dry mouth, unbelievable restless legs and disrupted sleep) were now outweighing the benefits.

I have tailed off slowly (reducing 37.5mg every 3 weeks) and took my last pill on Sunday morning. I knew that coming off would be rough so planned a week off work, on the sofa. Nausea and headaches kicked in within hours and vertigo (dizzyness) by the end of the first day. The "Brain Zaps" started yesterday (day two) along with about an hour of mild hallucinations in bed last night.

For anyone else new to this who feels scared by everything they might have read on the internet, I just wanted to say that ALL drugs have side effects. These drugs are supposed to affect the brain, that is the whole point of them! Coming off them can be really very uncomfortable but, despite what you might read on many sites (especially US ones) the drugs are not "evil", just strong - otherwise they wouldn't work. Venlafaxine is one of the antidepressants that is recommended for "difficult to treat" cases and no GP I know prescribes it will-nilly - they seem to prefer CBT and Prozac or Citalopram. In fact, I don't know anyone apart from me who has been prescribed Venlafaxine, and I have met a heck of a lot of people working in the NHS that have been treated for depression!!

All I know is, I was so ill before starting the Venlafaxine that, as soon as I realised that it was helping, I was actually happy to accept any amount of side effects to get better. As soon as I was no longer happy to tolerate the side effects, I knew I was well enough mentally to come off.

It seems to me that it is impossible to tolerate side effects without benefit but if the drugs bring you back from genuine madness, the relief is overwhelming. I honestly believe that Venlafaxine saved my life but for very many it is not the right drug and another one might work (or none at all).

I have been pregnant 4 times and threw up every day for nine months with each as well as feeling permanently car sick and having weird smells, strange tastes, restless legs and disturbed sleep. As a midwife, I know that many women feel like that during pregnancy because hormones and brain chemicals do crazy things to the brain. Strong antidepressants can do the same but this doesn't negate the good that they can do - just like the up-side to the grotty parts of pregnancy!

It is just good to remember that, genuinely horrible as these feelings are, they are not harmful, just a sign that the brain is negotiating a chemical change. I have sent hubby to get Benadryl as this seems a smart move (many antidepressants have very strong antihistamine effects - Mirtazipine being the most notable) and keep telling myself that the withdrawal effects are not at all dangerous - just the effects of coming off a very powerful drug. I also find that avoiding things that involve moving my eyes or head too much reduces the nausea.

I have brilliant support from hubby and my psychotherapist and strongly believe that, if someone is ill enough to need mind-altering drugs, they must also be given psychiatric help to address the initial cause of the breakdown.

You may be interested to know that there is a yellow card system in the UK. If you suffer a side effect from a drug, when you tell your GP about it, insist that he or she reports it via the system or do it yourself at www.yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk It is the only way that the scientists that create the drugs can know what side effects are being suffered. Scientists are mostly good people (my third son is currently working on a drug for cancer) but they are just human and they cannot make a perfect drug. They do want to improve their drugs so people can get the help they need but need input from the users. Actually, the paperwork that comes with Venlafaxine states plenty about side effects and taking care coming off them so, sorry mollysox, you really can't bring a case against the manufacturers for creating a brain-affecting drug that affects the brain and actually says that it affects the brain! Better to help the lovely, poorly-paid scientists by filling in a yellow card ...

Also, I am trying to look at this through the positive prism of "wow! Look at the crazy hippy stuff that my brain can manage" and being excited at the prospect of welcoming back my old drug-free brain. If I find anything else that helps, I will post it up. I know I may be in the minority but I am so grateful that I took Venlafaxine - the withdrawal horrors won't kill me; the madness I was suffering pre-Venlafaxine may well have done!

Hubby is back with Benadryl (thanks for the tip) and a big bunch of flowers so I am going to take a tablet and continue to try and view the wacky zaps as my brain having a party!

Hi I respect what you say but having been on antidepressants for approx 40yrs of my life Venlafaxine and Mirtazapine were the worst re side affects. I was on both at the same time which maybe didn't help. I was on one drug that really worked for me but the powers that be said they were "dangerous and archaic". I tried going without any meds which was a very bad idea. NHS psychological therapy's are practically non-existant or very hard to get with long waiting lists.

good luck with coming off them

Thanks mollysox. I am not denying that coming off Venlafaxine is rough (I am bed-bound with the withdrawal effects right now so really know how grim it is) just that there is no case to bring against the manufacturers. I was ok coming off Mirtazapine cos I kept on the Olanzapine and started the Venlafaxine. I stopped the Olanzapine slowly and actually quite miss the zen-like calm it gave me! I stopped the Olanzapine because it was making me too sleepy to drive safely and not completely stopping me feeling paranoid and nuts. For me, Venlafaxine was the right drug because it brought me back to sanity from a really acute mania, panic and paranoia which had stopped me being able to work or go out. The side effects whilst on it have been really bad but worth enduring to get well again and I am grateful for that. Unfortunately, the drugs with fewer side effects (and all drugs have side effects) were not strong enough to get me well. My friend has just finished a huge dose of chemo and nearly died but, without it, she would certainly have died so, like me, put up with the side effects and is grateful for her life.

I agree with you that the side effects of Mirtazapine and Venlafaxine are the worst but then, they are very strog and powerful antidepressants and should not be prescribed lightly. My GP took advice from a consultant psychiatrist before prescribing them. But then, I could really not be doing with the "chemical castration" of Prozac and the other SSRIs! Citalopram had that effect on me and did not help with the madness one little bit so was a waste of time.

I do marvel at how all these drugs can have such a profound impact on the brain and am glad that we have brilliant scientists that have mostly done away with the need for ECT (i nursed patients during ECT many years ago and would really not have liked to go through it myself) and prolonged incarceration in places like Bedlam (although, with four sons, this house feels like it some days!)

I took a Benadryl and slept all afternoon! Having slept really badly last night due to hallucinations, headaches and zaps, I probably needed it! I have taken another Benadryl now and hope it reduces the dizzyness and vertigo. Hubby will take me to see my pscyhotherapist tomorrow and so I can have a jolly good moan to her and she won't mind if I need to take a sick bucket along!

Mollysox, are you completely off the Venlafaxine now? Apart from Benadryl, staying in bed and sitting it out, is there anything else that may help to reduce the withdrawal effects? I'd really appreciate your experience. Also, have you been on any other antidepressants that are strong enough to work when all else has failed but are not so heavy with side effects and withdrawal effects - I hope not to relapse but you never know! I hope that, because my nuttiness had such an obvious trigger and was not the more typical depression that some people are prone to throughout their lives, I am less likely to be THAT ill again (I cannot believe how manic and nutty I was, really quite bizarre).

Thanks again for your words, it really is great to know that others have been in the world of coming off mind-altering substances and come out the other side!

Back in the day I was given drugs that I wouldn't be prescribed today. I was also given 12 ECT treatments. The only family of drugs that really worked for me were MAOI,s. First Parstelin (withdrawn) and then Nardil. They come with quite strict diet restrictions. I had no reviews but they worked but when I hit a bad patch in 2005 three professionals remarked on how archaic and dangerous these drugs were so I came off them. Nothing has worked as well since but "they" wont put me back on them.

Its been and is a long old struggle

It really has been a long struggle for you. So frustrating. I thought that it was still possible to get MAOIs - they are still listed in the BNF. My GP "specialises in psychiatry and, when I was so poorly and not responding to citalopram, he contacted his colleague, a consultant psychiatrist who advised mirtazipine and, when that was not hitting the spot, olanzapine alongside. She also arranged for me to be seen by the local psychy team and I saw both her and the registrar although I had a wait of a couple of weeks despite being in need of "being seen in the next twelve hours!" because I fell between two PCTs (funding and all that!). I was moved off mirtazipine cos I was asleep all the time and, although no longer a danger to myself or other (you can't do much when knocking out the zeds!) I was still very paranoid and distressed when asleep and awake. Olanzaine calmed me down a bit and helped me to get through some group sessions but still didn't "hit the spot - you just knnow, don't you. when it's the right drug for your brain? So then I was weaned off Olanzapine and onto venlafaxine and almost immediately felt a switch. I'd kept a diary all that time which helped me see what did and didn't help and, looking back, I am still astonished at how long it took to find the right cocktail and just how awful it really was.

I insisted being put on the waiting list for our local NHS psychotherapy unit (which, frankly, is an amazing place) as soon as I realised that I was becoming ill and was on the waiting list for around ten months but the wait was worth it as I really benefit from it (I went to the same place following a bout of post-natal depression eighteen years ago). I did go back to my GP a few times a week to push for psychotherapy - not counselling or CBT and that is how I got 6 weeks in group therapy to keep me ticking over alongside drugs whilst on the waiting list for psychotherapy.

I have some friend who won't go for psychotherapy but it does suit me.

Whilst things have got so much better in terms of understanding and treating mental health, there is still a long way to go and, GPs are jack-of-all-trades so often, it seems, have to be really pushed to get specialists involved.

Where are you at in the world now? Are you able to ask for a consultant opinion about MAOIs or have you been refused them even from the top? Seems rough if you have as they are still marketed and if they help and you don't mind missing out on certain foods, surely a discussion should take place at least.

Take care and keep struggling on ...

hi, I read this with great interest, as I have been on 375mg of venlafaxine, 1200mg of lythuim for nearly 3 years, with most of the side efeect and still suffer the depression lows, OCD as intrussive as ever, I also suffer PTSD from time in the military,

Afew month ago, i started to get these increadably intense moments of dizzyness, which went right to my core, stopped me talking, moving, woke me in my sleep screaming, I read in this forum people call them brain zaps.... perfect description i might add, i went to my GP with these new symtoms, and was told the combination of drug had brought on Virtigo... not more side effects, then was perscibed betahistine dihydrochloride,

I am truely sick of this, I am starting to dread seeing my consultant, i still feel the same way i did the first day i walked into the surgery, but i have now to deal with the side effects, I have asked for a second opinion,

has anyone been in the same situation as me, and have any advice, as i feel more lost that ever, I take the max amount of venlafaxine, at two diffrent times through the day, at exectly the same time, how am i getting withdrawal symtoms, what can i expect to happen if the venlafaxine is comfirmed not to be working (i am believed)i have so many other questions, but as always, i have forgotten them.... thank you side effects, I await all and any comments, thank you in advance....

Hi Latts

You are having a horrible time. As confusing as it may seem, you are not withdrawing from Venlafaxine so are not experiencing withdrawal symptoms. All antidepressants work by altering the brain chemistry in some way by inhibiting the re-uptake of certain neuro-chemicals. Whenever there is a change to the brain chemistry, you should expect some brain fireworks and body symptoms alongside - inevitable I'm afraid. So, when you start or finish taking antidepressants, there re changes to the brain chemistry and o you will get side effects. The severity of these vary from drug to drug and also from person to person. So, as my original brain chemistry is different from yours, any tweaking of that with drugs will affect us differently. After taking brain-changing chemicals for a length of time, hopefully, your poorly brain is reset. Now it is possible that, if you continue taking big doses after that, you may get symptoms telling you either that your brain is "overfull" or is just now resistant to the drugs you are taking.

You can insist on a second opinion, even in a different area. I always try to make a detailed diary of symptoms and changes (good and bad) which I then take along to show the doctors in case you are not so clear-headed when in their office.

It took me months to get on the right medication andI knew when it was the right one because I just didn't care two hoots about the side effects! Talking to my pschyotherapist, this is typical. So, by comparison to the side effects I had on the venlafaxine, the side effects I had on two months of Citalopram were nothing but I couldn't tolerate them at all and took myself off. The Mirtazipine was used to knock me out and I put up with it because I knew I had to be kept safe. However, I hated it so much that I had to phone the helpline every day to have someone talk me down and convince me to keep taking the tablets. The Olanzapine made me feel calm for the first time in months and I didn't care about the dry mouth, dry eyes and sugar cravings one little bit. I even quite enjoyed the nighttime hallucinations (just a fun floorshow!) but still knew that it wasn't hitting the right receptors in my poorly brain AND I was still too sleepy to drive safely. Within a week of taking Venlafaxine I just knew that it was "my" brain drug. I was more than happy to put up with anything (and, indeed, I did). I then knew when my brain was "full" because I could no longer tolerate the side effects and prepared to wean off slowly. Just keep on at your consultant until you get the right drug for you or find another way out of the poorliness. The evidence supports good therapy alongside medications but it is also known that, with good general health and psychiatric input, people recover from breakdowns without drugs - it just takes longer (I really don't think I would have survived as long as it might have taken to sort me out). With other mental illnesses there is an ongoing lifelong problem needing lifelong support from psychiatry and meds but you have to take the right drug - there is no point in taking a med that impacts on the serotonin receptors if your problem lies with dopamine.

Good luck with your consultant and insist that you are taken seriously and treated with respect.

OK. I am day 10 post-Venlafaxine and have decided to provide a day by day account of withdrawal so that those coming to this site after me can have a answer to the question "How long do the withdrawal symptoms last?" Before I detail my experience, please remember that it is just MY experience and your may well be different, but at least it will give you somewhere to start as well as a benchmark.

I have been on Venlafaxine MR since July 2010 and on 225mg since January 2011. I have been cutting down by 37.5mg every three weeks and then took my last 37.5mg tablet at 09.00 on Sunday 28th November 2012. I had taken a week off work so that I could stay in bedd if necessary.

DAY 1 Monday - Fine until midday then nausea and dizzyness. Easily moved to tears.

DAY 2 Tuesday - Nausea and dizzyness from waking so stayed on sofa all day and kept warm. Very emotional and quick to anger which is not like me at all - apologies given to family! Avoided all caffeine and ate well. Enjoyed cold fizzy drinks (just like for pregnancy nausea.) Went out with close friends for supper and enjoyed a pint of cold lager but made the mistake of having a cup of regular coffee and had terrible palpitations by the time we got home. Could not sleep as "zaps" started. Not at all worried by these as I knew they couldn't hurt me and I actually had them a few times a day all the time I was taking Venlafaxine. Now having them every minute or so. When I was young, my uncle had an electric shock machine (as you do ...). There were two copper bars to hold and you'd get a thump across your chest! He was a science teacher if that helps excuse him!. Zaps feel identical but across the old brainbox! Mild feathery hallucinations in the dark (I'd hoped for a much better show!) along with splitting headache and aches.

DAY 3 Wednesday - Feels exactly like having the flu but with no snotty nose and cough so, not as bad as the flu! Stayed in bed and Hubby bought me flowers and Benadryl. Took 1 tablet 3X as packet warned against taking any more. Stayed in bed all day and slept. Dizzy (very dizzy - just like being on a ride at Thorpe Park, but without the queues and screaming! Achey in m joints and very cold - I suffer anyway with the cold but Venlafaxine was my central heating for two years. Wore a hat and scarf in bed. No improvement in zaps but wearing a hat helps (reduces peripheral vision.) Emotionally less fragile.

DAY 4 Thursday - Slept well last night. Less nausea, same dizzyness. Struggling to concentrate at all as eyesight so blurry with dizzyness. Saw my psychotherapist (hubby drove me there) and was far too fuzzy and dizzy to remember much! Went by train to see oldest friend for lunch and gossip. Wore hat and scarf and was fine so long as I didn't move my eyes too much! Minimal nausea, fewer zaps and enjoyed a damn good lunch with a tipple and a few fags (which actually help lessened my bubbling angriness). Eating helps with the nausea but not having any relief from the Benadryl which I still take 3X daily along with a multi vit, Vit D drops and Omega 3 caps.

DAY 5 Friday - Walked 2 miles to train station (hat down low to reduce dizzyness) and went to London to meet my sister for lunch and gossip. No nausea, fewer zaps (they are worst at night in bed) and dizzyness is subsiding. Feel just like I am recovering from flu - I think I am fine until I go to do something and then I feel weak, tired, tearful and dizzy. I am continuing to not let any of this worry me - frankly, I'd be more surprised if, after two years on a strong mind-altering substance, my brain and body didn't have a bit of a rough ride readjusting. It's quite nice to know that my brain can work solo even if it is a bit out of practice. Great to see my sister as she walks me in and out of great places to eat!

DAY 6 Saturday - As the dizzyness and zaps slowly reduce little by little, my emotional fragility seem more marked. Spent day on the sofa doing emails and watching TV. Take away curry and Strictly Come Dancing in the evening - who cares about withdrawal symptoms when you can sit in your jim-jams and laugh at Craig Revel-Horwood!

DAY 7 Sunday - Another quiet day at home but felt well enough to cook the Sunday roast. Still dizzy but more and more able to see clearly. No more Benadryl as it wasn't helping and no caffeine or alcohol as both these make me feel ropey. Day by day the zaps become fewer. Used a hypnotherapy phone app to get to sleep - brilliant!

DAY 8 Monday - Working in London - went by train. Felt ok. Still quick to tire and still have dizzy brain fog but able to function well enough to cope. My normal coldness is back so have taken to wearing hat, scarf and jacket indoors as well as outside! Evening meeting which was fine. Zaps not troubling me but are still there in the background. Started reducing my food intake in an attempt to lose the stone gained over the last two years.

DAY 9 Tuesday - Spent the day at home doing admin. and also saw GP. Very short-tempered now - seems to be an inverse correlation between zaps/dizzyness and emotional fragility ( as the former reduce, the latter increases). Ran Cubs in the evening followed by a pre-camp meeting. Very hard to stay calm and also feeling adrenalinised - I guess the noradrenaline receptors are working overtime. My hypno app gets me off to sleep fantastically well and wearing a hat and scarf in bed (yes, really) helps to stop me aching.

DAY 10 Wednesday - My first drive and felt completely safe to drive as no visual difficulties at all. My period started which made me realise that I have been withdrawing whilst pre-menstrual (what a hero!) Feel really adrenalised which I never like so trying to keep relaxed. I'd forgotten JUST how much I feel the cold and my hubby had forgotten just how much I enjoy shocking him by putting my icy hands up his jumper!

So there you have it. 10 days is a small price to pay if the drugs stop you being nuts ( and I really as bonkers!) but a bit of a bummer if you are only coming off because Venlafaxine is not your drug. I'm not 100% over the withdrawal side effects - I still feel dizzy, snappy, mildly nauseous occasionally and zappy on and off but it really has been ok.

WHAT HELPED: Taking a week off; resting when rough; meeting with close friends; seeing all the side effects as a sign of progress - my brain is waking back up; wearing a hat; cold fizzy drinks; paracetamol for headaches; keeping very warm at night; hypnotherapy app (I have no idea what gets said after the first ten minutes cos I'm asleep by then!) and a sense of humour. Also, just understanding enough about brain chemistry to know that none of this will actually harm me, I am just having a brain chemistry readjustment and it is bound to be a bit rubbish along the way.

WHAT DIDN'T HELP: Benadryl, caffeine, evening alcohol (my tiny lunchtime tipple was ok); fretting; reading hysterical websites; being around people that make me ANGRY!

Hope you find this helpful and reassuring. You may be differently wired and have a better or worse time withdrawing from Venlafaxine but try not to worry about what the side effects of coming off are doing to you. All chemical and hormonal changes (pregnancy for instance) cause whacky things to happen in your brain and you are quite safe. Make sure you see the GP at least once a week until you feel well and tell him/her ALL your withdrawal symptoms so that they are logged in your records. If you want them to be centrally logged so the scientists get feedback and can make better drugs, insist that a yellow card is completed.

I will write again when I am 100% through.

Best of luck and all good wishes.

Hi, I'm not from UK but from America. I stumbled upon this forum while searching for info on withdraw symptoms of venlafaxine. I have been on 75mg daily for a little over 2 yrs. I lost medical insurance and the pills are too expensive so I decided wean myself. I had 3 pills left so I began to cut them and was able to cut my doses day 1 in half, day 2,3,4 & 5 in fourths then days 6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13 into eighths. Then I was out.. The first day off the venlafaxine wasn't too bad but now I'm on day 3 of no meds and it is HORRIBLE! I am so irritable, can't sleep, headache and the worst part is those dreaded "brain zaps". How long does this last??

Hi Naymama

If you see my last post, you will get an idea day by day of how it was for me. Everyone is different but, given that I usually take a long time to clear drugs, it's probably not far off.

By day 12 I was fit enough to take 26 Cub Scouts away for a weekend holiday. I am now day 21 and, apart from having a rotten cold, I am fine. Looking back, I see that I said I'd taken my last tablet on 28th November which, of course is nonsense given that it is only 18th November today! I took my last Venlafaxine on 28th October. Personally, I have had a rougher time being pregnant when I threw up every day for nine months (& I had four kids so that is a lot of time chucking up!) if you don't fear the side effects like the zaps, they are nothing more than a signal that your brain is trying to get used to working solo.

Good luck and don't worry, it does pass. The reason for the marked withdrawal effects with Venlafaxine is that the drug has a very short half life. This means that your brain gets kind of thrown in the deep end of having to work slowly rather than being lowered in slowly.

Best wishes

Rachthemidwife, thanks so much.. I actually did see your day by day post after I posted my question.. It is definitely helpful to know what I might experience.. Did you by chance try the benedryl? I Know you mentioned that the benadryl didnt work for you but i think i may give it a try today. Unfortunately I've got the flu so this was not the best timing for me to have to quit the venlafaxine.. I'm trying use "mind over matter" in dealing with the symptoms though.. Thank you again for your. Response.. Having "support" helps this process even more!

Rachthemidwife, thank you.

Been on venlafaxine for ten years and reducing down from 225mg SID. Horrendous. Despite having a degree in psychology and a medical background (vet nurse - four legs and fur but pharmacology nearly identical) I've been trawling the net as this withdrawal is just so shockingly hideous - yes, I'm having the full experience and head is crackling away like millions of tiny rice crispies in milk as I write.

Reason I want to thank you is for your realism and lack of melodrama, reading most other accounts of this withdrawal is enough in itself to make One want to leap off the nearest bridge. For me, a constant reminder that my brain and CNS is undergoing a major physiological change helps me veer away from that precipice. I should be at my work Christmas do tonight but the zaps and nausea put paid to that. Have just taken a tablet and will go back a step and slow down the withdrawal even further. So tempted to stop and sweat it out but now know that's not going to happen. Reading your diary is hugely helpful - thank you do much and please do keep us updated with your progress x

Hi Annasch

So sorry that you are having a rubbish time coming off Venlafaxine. All the symptoms pass but it can be very scary having your brain re-setting itself. I also think that, emotionally, it can be very testing coping with such a huge change after a period of (hopefully) feeling great on meds and facing into feeling mad again for a while. Certainly I found the emotional side harder than the physical withdrawal. I knew that the physical symptoms would pass but was seriously scared of going back to nuttiness!!

Since my last post, my stinky cold went to my sinuses and my middle ears became noisy and full. I actually had a few days of panic when I thought that the intensely fuzzy head and dizziness was actually me relapsing back into madness. My husband and psychotherapist supported me through my anxiety and then I contracted the flu!!! After three years of not so much as a sniffle, now my immune system seems to be very low. However, having flu has actually reassured me that I am not going nuts, just very under the weather. So I am spending Xmas relaxing and necking antibiotics and multivitamins (great combo!).

Hang in there and just withdraw at a pace that suits you. Don't be frightened by the side effects - see them as a really good sign that your brain is adjusting. The side effects will disappear without a doubt so try not to worry about how long it takes - it will take as long as it takes and then all will be well. Your brain needed help for a long time and now it has to get back to flying solo. That's going to take a while and you just need to be very kind to yourself.

Have a lovely Xmas

Rach

I was on Sertraline for 10 years and after a breakdown a year ago I was eventually put on venlafaxine. However was unable to sleep so had to be on zopiclone and after 6 months of headaches and feeling 'not right' I was tapered off - my blood pressure was sky high and had constant headaches. Took last Venlafaxine on Christmas day and feel a chemical mess - depression and anxiety have returned and am taking lorazepam to even out the anxiety. My psychiatrist has recommended mirtazipine but my GP wants me to be clean - not sure of what to do next as am fearful of taking yet another strong drug. The diary has been helpful - I was so unwell yesterday I called NHS 24. Just hoping I can come off everything and fly solo. The awful thing is I felt great on 37 mg just before I cut right down.

Hi there just joined the forum I have been on Venlafaxine 110 mg for over year now until in November my mood went down so GP upped dose to 150mg I then started to have the most terrible night sweats ,bad temper lack of sleep and of course tiredness .I then broke down again 12th of December and was told to reduce the drug back down to 110mg then i started to feel really down and suicidal and angry.However the night sweats where a lot less .on new years eve i was taken my police in handcuffs to my local psychiatric admissions unit for my own safety .I am back home now after finally seeing a psychiatrist who has advised me to come off the venlafaxine over next 3 weeks and go back on e citalapram that i was on before . seen gp this morning this was compleat waist of time as he did not know how to reduce my meds without notes from the psychiatrist witch he is awaiting .surly if a GP prescribes a drug he should know a bit more about it .in the mean time its a waiting game again as my life ticks away