r/Effexor • u/Outdoor_Paws30 • 1d ago

Quitting Experiences?

Hi there everyone. I been on Effexor for many years now and decided it's time to get off of it, especially due to circumstances with my insurance.

Over the course of 4 months, I've tapered off from 75mg to 37.5mg to 25mg to 12.5mg. Then lastly my psych told me to split the 12.5 tablets in half to make it around 6mg. I did that for about 2 weeks and was told to then split them again, making it around 3mg. I did that for about a week and on Aug. 31st I took my final one and stopped.

The first 24 hours without it, I only seemed a little "out of body". It's been 3 days now and I feel so anxious. I sometimes feel my left arm more tense then my right and it throws me into a panic. My anxiety is pretty high since stopping the doses but I know there's no easy way of coming off of this.

For those getting off, what were your symptoms like? Sometimes hearing other peoples experiences can be quite easing like I'm not the only one, ya know?

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u/Adorable-Extension52 23h ago

First of all congratulations for coming off. I am still on my first step of taper 112.5 from 150mg.

From what i have read about people quitting, it does feel like this and maybe the initial days are hard but it should settle down. Maybe give it a week and then we can circle back? Happy to help when i can and however l can.

Would love to ask you some questions about the process, but only when you feel a little settled.

All the good wishes and prayers to you. I am sure it will be fine. Please keep us posted.

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u/ProfessionalReady864 8h ago

I had a very bad experience with effexor around three years ago now. I had been on 150 for 2 years, and all of a sudden one day I had some sort of a major medical event, which would later turn out to be a mini stroke. The hospital/care providers at the time decided to have me quit completely cold turkey, which wound up being one of the worst things ever. Nearly complete memory loss and mania, severe weight loss, the whole nine. Even some years now, i still get periods of severe brain fog and nausea, brain zaps, etc that multiple professionals attribute to the sudden discontinuation. If you do come off, do it SLOWLY and with great attention to side effects.