Effexor Withdrawl!!!!

[Jesta]

K, so I've been off of it for 3 days and like I'm nauseous, dizzy and it feels like my head is having shocks all around. I read online that this is common, but its pretty bad, like the withdrawal has started to conflict my day-to-day life.

I was on 150mg for 2 months, but for the past 8months or so I've been on 75mg.

I've been having really bad anxiety which is why i stopped taking effexor, my doc wanted to try a new med but once I stopped effexor my anxiety went through the fuckin roof. It's like impending doom. I never knew what anxiety was up until 1month ago, but I vomit every morning with or without effexor in my system. I just took a 75mg dosage but wondering how many days it'll take before the half life of the drug catches back up with my system. I'm gonna ask my doctor for a renewal and a higher dosage of effexor.

Anyone else have anxiety like this? Where it effects your day-to-day life? Does this shit ever go away because I'm dreading it beyond fuckin belief.

Please only serious replies.

 

[silasraven]

smoke more high grade weed and wait it out. i had the same issue last year coming off all kinds of shit. have fun and go riding it makes it feel like adrenalin instead.

 

[mysunnyboy]

that can be a tough one, this may help
http://www.theroadback.org/effexor.aspx

 

[Balzac89]

You gonna ween yourself off it don't try to go cold turkey or you'll never get off it. My friend had to do it after taking the stuff for years.

 

[MojoRison]

I'm sorry to hear that you've gotten caught in the web of pharmaceuticals and hope you have an easier time getting free then some others I know, including myself. I took an SNRI and found the same things {symptoms} were happening to me that everyone else did when taking these medications. I did what they said not to do, quit cold turkey and paid the price. The withdrawl was to say...intense. I will never take another pharmaceutical medication designed to specifically change my brains chemistry again.

 

[sonar]

I've taken just about every SSRI and SNRI (including effexor) and I've noticed they only increased my anxiety. Even after taking them for 2-3 months. I'm not sure why you would be asking the dr to prescribe you a higher dose if you are still looking to come off. If it were me I'd be breaking the 75mg in half and taking half for a few weeks followed by half of the half for a few weeks before I got off completely. With or without my dr's advice. That is just me though. If I remember correctly effexor was beads, at least it was 10 years ago, so it might be harder to do that. I've found family doctors, who are most of the dr's prescribing know very little about psychiatric drugs. Why do we have psychiatrists if every MD out there is prescribing these powerful drugs without much training. It's like a podiatrist doing heart surgery.

I'm never one to recommend benzos on someone, but if you are having THAT bad of anxiety that your are puking every morning it might be something you want to talk about with your psychiatrist as a short term solution. I had really bad anxiety in the morning so bad when I was 18-19 that I would have to carry an extra shirt around with me so I could change it when I got to school in the morning because I would be sweating through it by then.

This isn't going to be popular, but I would recommend cutting back on your smoking. I was at the point where it was causing me more anxiety, not helping. I even quit smoking all together for several years. When I got a little older and more confident I mellowed out quite a bit and was able to enjoy smoking again.

 

[sunni]

do not smoke marijuanna if youre getting off effexor sadly about 90% of what anyone will tell you on this site is to smoke weed and get over it (do not listen to them ) my mother is on effexor and when she goes into withdrawal its fucking scary you need to ween yourself off effexor you cannot cold turkey that drug , i have horrible anxiety problems and ive learned or am trying to learn to live without prescription meds although sometimes i do break down and start crying and say FUCK MY LIFE to things like having to turn back on road trips ect

smoking pot when you have that bad of anxiety is the worst thing you can do so i would cut back or not do it at all , infact i actually had to quit smoking marijuanna for about a year and half because it would effect my anxiety to the point where id just get these really bad attacks , it wouldnt matter what type of pot it was and to this day i cannot get super fucking stoned off my ass like on the couch eating cheetos not moving because i will have an attack lots of people claim marijuanna has no side effects and that its this perfect miracle drug but it isnt , and it does have side effects however thats a different conversation for another time ,

so id say tell your doctor youd like to cut back off effexor and he will continue lowering your prescription ,
as stated i know what your going through its like electricity is running through your body its very dangerous to cold turkey this drug,


edit

Ive lived with severe anxiety since i was 15 and im now 23 so will it ever go away? no. most likely not, but if i do have an attack i count to ten while breathing and i try to tell myself over and over in my head im ok im not going to die nothing is going to happen no one is going to hurt me, ect ect i try to over voice in my head my fears basically
I live without prescription medication sometimes I wish I didnt because my life is still restricted while many people my age are going to music festivals and travelling the world I could not do it. It takes alot of me to take a 3 hour trip to see my grandparents and infact I usually take half a pill of whatever my mom has I call them her travel drugs I refuse to see the name of them because then I will look up symptoms and shit and then yeah game over.
In fact I havent taken an advil or a tylenol or anything since I was like 15 because I get really scared that drugs will kill me or do harm , and then i have anxiety attacks from doing advil I shit you not its really hard to live without medication so if your anexity is REALLY REALLY bad I dont suggest it. alot of people do not understand anxiety and will tell you just go get over it or get over yourself smoke some bed and "relax man" but we all know thats impossible if youre an anxiety sufferer.

 

[OGEvilgenius]

75mg is a low dose. 37.5 is the lowest doseage. The stuff is horribly addictive. I smoked shit loads of pot to try to avoid side effects when I went off it after learning some things about it that were not made available to me when originally prescribed. I didn't take it for anxiety. Although I did have some. Pot of all types is majorly anxiety relieving, but I've found the high cbd varieties really bring a feeling of... I dunno it's hard to describe. Zen? It's not the same at all.

Look into some high cbd varieties, they're supposed to be really helpful with anxiety.

 

[OGEvilgenius]

I've taken just about every SSRI and SNRI (including effexor) and I've noticed they only increased my anxiety. Even after taking them for 2-3 months. I'm not sure why you would be asking the dr to prescribe you a higher dose if you are still looking to come off. If it were me I'd be breaking the 75mg in half and taking half for a few weeks followed by half of the half for a few weeks before I got off completely. With or without my dr's advice. That is just me though. If I remember correctly effexor was beads, at least it was 10 years ago, so it might be harder to do that. I've found family doctors, who are most of the dr's prescribing know very little about psychiatric drugs. Why do we have psychiatrists if every MD out there is prescribing these powerful drugs without much training. It's like a podiatrist doing heart surgery.

I'm never one to recommend benzos on someone, but if you are having THAT bad of anxiety that your are puking every morning it might be something you want to talk about with your psychiatrist as a short term solution. I had really bad anxiety in the morning so bad when I was 18-19 that I would have to carry an extra shirt around with me so I could change it when I got to school in the morning because I would be sweating through it by then.

This isn't going to be popular, but I would recommend cutting back on your smoking. I was at the point where it was causing me more anxiety, not helping. I even quit smoking all together for several years. When I got a little older and more confident I mellowed out quite a bit and was able to enjoy smoking again.

Have you tried high cbd varieties?

 

[sunni]

75mg is a low dose. 37.5 is the lowest doseage. The stuff is horribly addictive. I smoked shit loads of pot to try to avoid side effects when I went off it after learning some things about it that were not made available to me when originally prescribed. I didn't take it for anxiety. Although I did have some. Pot of all types is majorly anxiety relieving, but I've found the high cbd varieties really bring a feeling of... I dunno it's hard to describe. Zen? It's not the same at all.

Look into some high cbd varieties, they're supposed to be really helpful with anxiety.

if you didnt take it for anxiety then smoking a shit ton of pot trying to get off effexor when you do have anxiety problems is the worst thing you can do

and no i disagree pot is not majorly anxiety relieving for some people, trust me.

 

[OGEvilgenius]

if you didnt take it for anxiety then smoking a shit ton of pot trying to get off effexor when you do have anxiety problems is the worst thing you can do

and no i disagree pot is not majorly anxiety relieving for some people, trust me.

So you've tried high cbd varieties?

Some chemotypes are indeed horrible for anxiety. Some have the opposite effect for many people.

 

[Canna Sylvan]

Most people never try a sativa. For lots of people prone to anxiety, indica causes more anxiety and sativa less to none. I quit Lamictal cold turkey, worst 2 weeks of my life. I only did it for not quite 2 month too. Fuck pharma!

 

[sonar]

do not smoke marijuanna if youre getting off effexor sadly about 90% of what anyone will tell you on this site is to smoke weed and get over it (do not listen to them ) my mother is on effexor and when she goes into withdrawal its fucking scary you need to ween yourself off effexor you cannot cold turkey that drug , i have horrible anxiety problems and ive learned or am trying to learn to live without prescription meds although sometimes i do break down and start crying and say FUCK MY LIFE to things like having to turn back on road trips ect

smoking pot when you have that bad of anxiety is the worst thing you can do so i would cut back or not do it at all , infact i actually had to quit smoking marijuanna for about a year and half because it would effect my anxiety to the point where id just get these really bad attacks , it wouldnt matter what type of pot it was and to this day i cannot get super fucking stoned off my ass like on the couch eating cheetos not moving because i will have an attack lots of people claim marijuanna has no side effects and that its this perfect miracle drug but it isnt , and it does have side effects however thats a different conversation for another time ,

so id say tell your doctor youd like to cut back off effexor and he will continue lowering your prescription ,
as stated i know what your going through its like electricity is running through your body its very dangerous to cold turkey this drug,


edit

Ive lived with severe anxiety since i was 15 and im now 23 so will it ever go away? no. most likely not, but if i do have an attack i count to ten while breathing and i try to tell myself over and over in my head im ok im not going to die nothing is going to happen no one is going to hurt me, ect ect i try to over voice in my head my fears basically
I live without prescription medication sometimes I wish I didnt because my life is still restricted while many people my age are going to music festivals and travelling the world I could not do it. It takes alot of me to take a 3 hour trip to see my grandparents and infact I usually take half a pill of whatever my mom has I call them her travel drugs I refuse to see the name of them because then I will look up symptoms and shit and then yeah game over.
In fact I havent taken an advil or a tylenol or anything since I was like 15 because I get really scared that drugs will kill me or do harm , and then i have anxiety attacks from doing advil I shit you not its really hard to live without medication so if your anexity is REALLY REALLY bad I dont suggest it. alot of people do not understand anxiety and will tell you just go get over it or get over yourself smoke some bed and "relax man" but we all know thats impossible if youre an anxiety sufferer.

Not to side track but my anxiety started getting much better in my early to mid 20's. That's about when I let go of my latent teenage angst. About 22-23 I started working out at the gym 3 days a week, which I recommend to ANYONE with anxiety, guys or girls. For some reason I feel that was a major catalyst for lightening up, talking to people, and getting out of the house. Before I knew it I was dating very attractive women and had all kinds of friends. I think it was the extra confidence I got from being in amazing shape.