Venlafaxine

[Will1990smith]

Hi everyone, I'm just looking for others views on Venlafaxine, I've been on it a while now and I still suffer the side affects... They can be crippling. I'm scared to come off them because it's hell if I even as much as miss one dose, plus when they work, they make me feel normal.

Any thoughts?

[stewart]

Hi Will, while it does take the body a while to start to benefit from the medication, this time is normally a few weeks, a couple of months at most.
If you are scared to come off them for whatever reason, you need to tell your doc this, he / she could try you on a different med, or even a combination of meds are needed in some cases.

make notes of what is going on around you when you feel yourself slipping, it is a good idea to mention those (if any) things to your doc, the more they have to work with, the better the chance of them
finding out what meds will be best

[Will1990smith]

I've tried so many and these are the only ones that work, it's just the side affects are like nothing I've ever experienced

[MamaLou]

I took venlafaxine for 2 years and I had side effects the whole time and had no relief from the major depression that I still struggle with. When it was time to come off it, the withdrawal symptoms were horrific. I was so unwell.  I felt like a drug addict trying to come off hard drugs. It took a long time to recover.

Sorry this if this is negative and unhelpful.

[Will1990smith]

I'm just don't know what to do

[SteveW]

Sorry to hear about your troubles with Venlafaxine withdrawal, you have joined quite a large group. I helped a number of people come off Venlafaxine when I was working and learnt a number of lessons. The first was the time scale involved. Some GP's had ridiculous time scales like trying to get people off in a month. We never managed less than 3 months and one woman took 6 months.

The second was dose decrement. The smallest available Venlafaxine pill is 37.5 mg. The logical thing would seem to be to come off in 37.5 mg decrements. We came to think that smaller decrements were better. We resorted to the many pill cutters that are available on Amazon for around £5. This enabled 18. whatever mg decrements.

The third was cross tapering. This is where you introduce a second anti-depressant at the same time as you begin Venlafaxine wind down. Every time you decrease the Venlafaxine you increase the dose of the second anti-depressant. This obviously requires the co-operation of the GP. It helped a lot in some instances but hardly at all in others.

We also treated individual symptoms either with over the counter products or things that were prescription only. This stuff required a lot of phone calls to GP's. We were very lucky with co-operation and could easily have run across GP's that didn't want to know. Diazepam was the most difficult. A colleague therapist asked for a list of symptoms we had encountered and what we tried to get rid. The list is on the laptop I am using at the moment so I will paste it here, even though it will make this quite long.

agitation    Diazepam from GP
anorexia
anxiety      Diazepam
confusion
impaired coordination
diarrhea    Imodium
dizziness    Prochlorperazine
dry mouth    Sucking pineapple chunks as in terminal care
dysphoric mood
fatigue
headaches    Over the counter painkillers
hypomania
nausea       Cyclizine of Prochloperazine from GP
nervousness Diazepam
nightmares
sensory disturbances (including shock-like electrical sensations)
somnolence    Caffeine tablets
sweating
tremor     Beta blockers from GP
vertigo    Prochloperazine from GP
vomiting.    Cyclizine from GP

That isnt a complete list of Venlafaxine withdrawal symptoms, just the ones I met. You will see plenty that don't have a potential remedy. That is because we never found anything. These things were way off 100% effective and sometimes didn't help at all. I never met anyone who said anything other than that they would never touch Venlafaxine again. Hope there is something in this that is of some use to you.

Love

Steve

[Will1990smith]

It's the agitation and brain zaps I can't stand, feel like I'm going mad! They physically hurt my brain but I can't decide wether it's 'all in my imagination' as it were? They're so good for my depression that's another reason why I don't want to come off them... It's just the crippling side effects, and they taste like crap

[MamaLou]

Brain zaps are awful. I had them too. A very odd and quite distressing side effect.

[Will1990smith]

I get the brain zaps daily... Sometimes in my feet too

[Sweetpea]

I really think you should go and see your Dr if you are experiencing these symptoms.  I was changed from one anti depressant to another immediately by my pdoc and was given Clonazepam to help with the change over.

S x x

[Will1990smith]

Well got an appointment to see the doc today... Let's see what ideas they have today :/

[stewart]

hope your time with the doc went well, and you got some benefit from it

[Will1990smith]

Upped dosage to 300mg and two weeks signed off work...

[juliaevans41]

Hi, I have been on various medications but I get on really well with Venlafaxine. I have been on all different dosages for the last 13 years and I get on fine with them.  I tried twice to come off them and didn't get on well.

[stewart]

Hi Julia, good that the Venlafaxine works for you, it is often a hit and miss with the meds, some work and others can make people quite ill with side effects.
Years back I was on Venlafaxine for about 2 weeks, made me quite sick with bad side effects