Withdrawing from venlafaxine, help
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Hi I have been taking Venlafaxine xr for about 8-10 years. I currently am in the process of slowly weaning off of 150 mg because it is no longer helping my depression or anxiety. My psychiatrist has me taking a 75mg and a 37.5mg of venlafaxine and he added 20mg of prozac to help the weaning process. I began the decrease 6 days ago. Here is the problem, maybe someone can help me with. I have been having fatigue, no energy, and heart racing/palpations on and off. I feel like a am in somewhat of a daze, like everything around seems surreal. But I also have Graves disease and been off of those meds for 3 months because my levels are "good". So I am trying to differentiate if it is me withdrawing from the venlafaxine ory thyroid. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Also, if any could share if they had success coming off venlafaxine with prozac. Thank you
0 likes, 2 replies
jacqueline66035 kdw12
Posted
The surreal feeling and heart palpitations sound like they could be related to coming down off the venlafaxine. I had the same weaning of ven in the past. Maybe you could ask your doc to check how your doing with your Graves disease just in case reducing the venlafaxine is having an effect on it? I came off ven without Prozac but had to do it very slowly to reduce the impact of the side effects. It is achievable. Keep your doctor/psychiatrist informed if you feel the side effects difficult to tolerate and he or she can slow down the rate of the decrease for you. Everyone is different and sometimes doctors will try to step down the meds too quickly. Hope that things improve for you. Jackie x
betsy0603 kdw12
Posted
I agree with Jackie :-) It sounds like your doc is having you step down rather quickly. What form are you on, immediate release or extended release? Prozac can be used as a bridge doesn't always work, and there is a particular way to do it. Prozac will not replace the Ven since Ven affects norepinephrine as an SNRI and Prozac doesn't. When doing bridging, the overlap of the two drugs is only supposed to be for a matter of two or three weeks, with the Ven then being dropped, but as I said, it doesn't always work well. If you are feeling too uncomfortable than the rate of reduction is too fast for you. You should never do another cut when you are still experiencing severe withdrawal from a prior one, or even mild withdrawal for that matter, because withdrawal means the nervous system has been destabilized and adding a cut on top of that will further the instability and mean even more severe symptoms.
If you are on the extended release form with little beads or mini tablets inside the capsules, you can reduce more gently by removing beads/tablets.