Been on 75mg for 2 months following a taper from Sertraline for severe PTSD. I ran out last week so requested an urgent script from the GP and asked them to tell me when it was ready to collect.

Nobody contacted me. I‘ve been begging them every which way for an update since last week, but being a typical British GP surgery, they don’t answer emails and the phone lines are constantly jammed. I’ve been sat in withdrawal for 5 full days. It was manageable at first, just severe vertigo but then I suffered a bereavement during my withdrawal and obviously my mental health absolutely tanked.

I‘ve got a hold of my meds now thankfully, but I’m SO angry. What’s more, when they finally answered because I sent a hail mary crisis email to literally everyone at the surgery, they were like oh whoopsies you contacted the wrong email address silly, we can’t help you! WHAT? I am in psychological crisis and you want to lecture me about email addresses when my script has been SAT NEXT TO YOU since the day I requested it?!

I need some validation that this is as fucked up as I think it is. Yes I ran out of my medication and didn’t realise til the day of because I am mentally unwell and I forget shit. The GP deemed it urgent enough to process it within hours and the fucking bureaucratic bullies on the front desk couldn‘t be arsed to let me know. Apparently email etiquette is more important.

So the fact I’m dizzy, brain zaps, really tired, a little nauseous and cried today could be from this downgrade? 2 nights I’ve taken 75 tonight will be 3rd. How long? Too much at a time ?

I know that if i even miss one dose the physical symptoms are horrible. My doctor told me to keep reducing the dose every month or so but still I just can’t handle the anxiety and fear of the physical withdrawal symptoms. How long did it take you to ‘get over’ the withdrawal period?

Hi all.

I was wondering if any other Canadians (if there are some here) have struggled with their practitioner or family doctor prescribing medication then being unable to help the patient with withdrawal and tapering?

I’ve been on Venlafaxine XR for over 5 years, being taken mainly for PTSD, depression and mood stability. They started me at 150 then switched quickly to 265.5mg and the side effects from them have honestly made my life a lot more difficult. (Sweating intensely, nightmares switching to night terrors, and I’ve noticed a decline in my depression.)

plus my partner and I want to start planning for a family soon and being on medication while pregnant/TTC is making it a lot harder for us.
(it doesn’t have a lot of studies on women being pregnant and having a healthy baby while on Venlafaxine )

I’ve tried doing as my doctor said and to drop one of my 37.5mgs out of the 4, the brain zaps had me throwing up and gave me an intense migraine for over three days so I had to switch back to my full dosage.

The longest I was able to make it was 5 days before the withdrawal became too much. My partner has also come with me to my appointments and even made remarks on how much it has affected me.
We also asked my doctor if it was possible for a placebo pill to be prescribed and he said he didn’t have or know any available. I genuinely almost cried.
All my doctor said lastly was “ok. Best to do it your own way then.” And didn’t offer any other advice.
The female practitioner i went to see was not any help either. Just continued to be pushy about birth control since I’m still “so young to think about having kids.”

From what I’ve read online so far some people have had luck by counting out the milligrams within the pills and taking a certain percentage out but I’m very unsure what to start at for myself.

I currently take 1, 150mg and 3, 37.5mg

I appreciate any advice for this as I currently feel so stuck. Thanks

Hi all! I’m just about 8 weeks in to Effexor, the first month of which I was cross tapering off of Zoloft so I’m about 1 month in total on just Effexor. This past Thursday I started feeling very anxious again which I had not felt in the last two months (I was doing really well), and yesterday I found myself crying out of nowhere. I’m reaching for my emergency Klonopin now and I didn’t need that before. I have an appt with my psychiatrist on Friday and I’m thinking I need an increase in dose. Can anyone advise their experience here and if I’m thinking the right way?

I feel like a zombie and I want to feel life again. But the anxiety is so painful, my life is just a mess. I am on 112mg, I was on 150 that made me numb. On this dose I feel the anxiety in my chest. Is it better to go back to escitalopram? Did anyone tried this

I'm wanting to get back into some gummies for chronic pain and want to try these, I'm on extended release 37.5mg. I've been meaning to talk with my doctor about it, she's really chill and would probably walk me through any concerns. But I wanted to ask here as well. I know there's plenty that have no issues but some that do. I know I can't have cold/cough medicine cause that causes palpitations if that has any indication

Anyone else suffer from severe flaking skin on the face!!!!!

God am I now paranoid everything is linked to this!!??

No sleep again!!!

I don't know if it gets any better. But I don't like the way it makes me feel..it makes me feel so tired all day long and hard to sleep at night along with brain fog and body aches. Also super unmotivated. Started 37.5 and now 75mg. It just make me out of it

I CAN'T. IT'S BEEN 4 DAYS AND I ONLY GET LITTLE PLOPS OUT. I COULDN'T PUSH SOME AND HAD TO PULL THE REST OUT BRUH😞

I've tried magnesium, a colon cleanse pill thing i didn't finish, salt water, fruits, straight not eating.

My future is set. I'm going to die because I couldn't take a shit.

Hi all, I am currently in the process of tapering off Effexor. I have been on a dose of 112.5mg for 26 days now, and in that time I have noticed my belly is CONSTANTLY bloated, feels full of gas all the time (that doesn’t relieve when I expell gas), and I am getting various stomach/side pains now and again. Is this all normal whilst taking Effexor/tapering off Effexor? The rest of my body hasn’t changed at all in terms of weight, it’s all in my belly. I eat mostly healthy, have lots of water, and go for regular walks, so I doubt it’s my lifestyle causing this. Anyone else experienced this?

Hi all, I’m finally trying to get off this drug after accepting it isn’t helping me and may be the cause of hypomanic episodes I had this year after the dosage was increased to 225mg.

I’ve been back down to 112.5mg for a while when I finally called my doctor’s office asking for help tapering off it. My doctor has been out so I was given instructions from another telling me to begin taking 75mg for a week, followed by 37.5mg until my appt with my regular doctor at the end of this month.

I thought I would be okay since I somehow saw no difference between 225 and 112.5 but this has been a bit awful. The physical symptoms are one thing, but my mood has tanked badly and I’ve been struggling with not the best thoughts. But for right now I’m lucid enough to realize it’s from the withdrawal.

I am desperate to get off of this so I’m gonna tough it out, but could it be that I’m being tapered off too quickly, or is this normal? Thanks

I’m about 1.5 weeks in on 37.5 mg. My mood, irritability and anxiety surprisingly all feel slightly better. It’s modest but feels good. However, I am TIRED. Napping and skipping my work outs. Does this go away?

Thanks so much - any insight is greatly appreciated! 🙏💕

Hi all - I took Effexor XL 37.5mg for 6 days and didn’t feel too many early side effects, but discontinued when I noticed sexual dysfunction, as I have a history of sexual dysfunction with SSRIs and I’m not willing to go down that path again. However, on day 2 after quitting I feel extremely lethargic - unable to go into work, unable to stay awake for more than a few hours, feeling like I’m trapped in amber, feeling like a zombie. I really didn’t think the withdrawal would be so noticeable after only 6 days on a low dose.

Can anyone advise what I should expect going forward? How long will this take to get through? Do I need to do a slower taper? I saw posts about opening the capsules and removing some of the beads on here, but my prescriber hadn’t mentioned any of that, and again I didn’t expect to have this kind of issue after such a short trial.

It has been 17 days since I dropped it. Is this still withdrawal or is this just how I normally am/will be?

I've been on 300mg a while now but recently had blood tests done and my liver function is abnormal. I am having other follow up tests to see what could be wrong. However I am wondering if anyone has experienced liver problems on a high dose of venlafaxine? I'm considering discussing with my GP about

I was about 45-50 days THC free. I quit before so I can start on a new depression medication. Smoked last night and I have been throwing up all morning and afternoon. Throw up 3 times. This has never happened. As

I am not new to THC carts or taking a extended t break and coming back no problem. I'm not sure if Effexor has anything to do with it or not. I'm not sure if it changed my system or were I longer can handle high thc content like I used to before.

Today is day 9 of taking Effexor. Went from 37.5 mg for the first week to 75 mg I've been taking 75 mg for the last three -four days and I've been fine.

So my anxiety and panic like to flare up from time to time so knowing that I’ve been on Effexor twice before (2018 and 2025) and have had great success with it - i went back on it for a 3rd time.

its funny cause the first i took it, no start up side effects at all. the 2nd time, I had to go the hospital 3 times because of how bad the anxiety, panic attacks, etc. got. Luckily this time around, i knew that the side effects would come again.

Now on day 18 (started at 75mg) and that was hell in the beginning and now on day 6 of jumping to 150mg. unfortunately I'm feeling like a zombie right now and the morning anxiety is dreadful as well as the afternoon dread and anxiety.

How do y’all cope during the start-up period?

I was given bridge meds but I only take them if it gets out of hand and i can't function (unfortunately right now, It's been happening a lot)

anyways stay strong everyone 💪

I've gotten off the medication twice so if anyone needs help, feel free to ask away.

Hello everybody! I am diagnosed with Bpd, Depression and Anxiety. Lately i have been feeling bad, very depressed, anhedonic. I also lost my job and didn’t help that. I have been splitting on my boyfriend and I feel very bad for him because he doesn’t deserve this. But somehow I try to manage everything an go on.

Since 2 days ago, I was taking 2,5 mg olanzapine at night, and 75 mg Venlafaxine and 10 mg Escitalopram in the morning. My psychiatrist chaged a bit my combo.

Yesterday, I started taking 5mg Olanzapine and 300 mg Gabapentine, and in the morning 20 mg Escitalopram , and 150 mg Bupropion. For now I feel pretty stable and had a decent mood.

I read that Venlafaxine gives you a pretty rough withdrawal, so I am curious to know if anyone switched from Venlafaxine to Bupropione and how did it feel. Also, if you have any recommendations or a good word to say, would be very helpful.

In the last months I tried many meds and they didn’t work so good on me so I really hope this time, this combo of medication will work on me.

Thanks, and have a great evening! 🫶🏼

So last night I was literally dropping by 7pm but when I went to bed at 10.30 thoughts were on a loop and total insomnia all night….

This is a bit of a roller coaster, was this similar for others then settles?

I’ve dragged myself out of bed at 2pm!!!!

😬

I've been on venlafaxine for about two months now, major depression/ generalized anxiety

I take it at the same time every day and it just seems like sometimes I digest too quickly? Or something and I start getting the brain zaps and confusion and dizziness and erratic emotions, I'm really not sure what's happening but when I bring it up to the doctor they don't really know either so I'm taking it out of the capsule and putting it in applesauce at her recommendation. That worked for a few days and then one day I started feeling extra dizzy and after a few more hours I was having the brain zaps again. What's going on, is there any way this could be related to eating habits? If anyone has some insight that would be so very greatly appreciated 👍

Been working on coming down from 225mg and was at 150mg for a while, so decided to go down again. Just gone from 150 - 112.5mg. Smartly, I decided to do this as I've started a masters. Holy crap. I forgot how bad it was... like the brain zaps, cognitive symptoms (I feel like a ghost), and the flu-like symptoms. I'm not doing 'hyperbolic tapering', tbh I only heard of the concept through this sub-reddit, but is it worth it?? I don't know if it's something I should consider raising with my psychiatrist. I know it's supposed to get worse the lower you get, so I am a little terrified...