Posted by deirdrehbrt on December 14, 2004, at 18:50:10 [reposted on December 17, 2004, at 9:42:36 | original URL]
In reply to Need others opinions on withdrawal, posted by outback on December 14, 2004, at 18:08:47
Hi... This thread will probably be moved to the med board, but I wanted to give you a bit of an answer here.
You're right... Effexor can have some powerful side effects. I was on it myself for a number of years, and then went to Prozac because the effexor seemed to be getting less effective. I had also switched once to Wellbutrin, and the withdrawl from effexor was hell. I was on a much higher dose than you are, but the second time I came off, and went to prozac it wasn't as hard.
The most important thing I have noticed about coming off this med is to do it slowly, especially if it is not being replaced with another SSRI. I went from 150mg to 75 without too much of a problem, and stayed there for a week, then down to 37.5 for a week, and was supposed to stop, but felt horrible. I had to go to 37.5 every other day, then every three days, etc. and finally got off of it, but it was really hard. I wish you luck.
Maybe you could find a doc to prescribe another SSRI that is easier to come off of, and use that as an intermediate med. Just a thought...
I don't think you've spoilt Christmas, you just need to get to feeling a little better.Good luck,
Dee
poster:deirdrehbrt
thread:430752
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041217/msgs/430754.html