N&PD Moderators: Skorpio
Venlafaxine (or any other SSRI/SNRI) withdrawal
trance in fraance
Bluelighter
I'm curious as to the actual science behind withdrawal. I stopped taking my venlafaxine 2 days ago and I'm experiencing some really wired sensations. Such as ringing in the ears, my whole face feeling numb, I can't walk straight (I ran into a wall today at work -____- ) so can anyone enlighten me as to why this is happening? No rebound depression or anxiety yet and I'm hoping it stays that way.
Cloroxtastebad
Bluelighter
I am not able to answer your question to why withdrawals happen. Ive researched the topic and found many theories, some I read and I don't know what the hell i just read. Its a complex subject that's for sure.
I can tell you that I'm Currently going throung withdrawals from tepering off velafaxine 300mg over only a 12 day period.
I posted about my withdrawals yesterday because I was having full on audity hallucinations.
I was in my house and it sounded like my upstairs was full of people talking. All.of these overlapping voicces, and sound, of people walking dogs barking, things falling on the floor, and the doorbell.
It was scary how loud it was. My brother was with me and I had a hard time hearing him talk. This went on for about 2 hours last night.
trance in fraance
Bluelighter
sorry to hear about your experience
i had to get back on it, i couldn't take the withdrawals. i'll be going from 150mg to 112.5mg in a few weeks and work myway down.
best of luck to you 
I can't say exactly why it happens but your symptoms are pretty common. I've never tried to go without for more than a day at a time. Does anyone know whether these or other symptoms are permanent? I have heard stopping SSRIs can lead to a long term SSRI withdrawal syndrome that can last years or longer, but I can't say for certain whether this is true of this drug or even SSRIs in general. I am currently taking Effexor and Prozac, and I'm scared to death that the side effects will never go away. I have been able to mitigate some of the sexual side effects with aromatase inhibitors like zinc and resveratrol, but I am still not 100% to where I was before I started. On top of that, I have never really noticed any benefit to my depression, my doctor was supposed to phase me off the Effexor and on to the Prozac, but he never followed through, this was at least a year ago. Now I'm afraid to stop taking either, but I also worry that the longer I'm on them the more difficult it will be to return to normal once I do decide to stop, or if I have to stop at some point.
trance in fraance
Bluelighter
your pdoc has you on 2 different serotonin reuptake inhibitors? doesnt that pose the risk of serotonin syndrome?
and to my knowledge you wouldn't get SSRI/SNRI withdrawal symptoms that would last a year or longer unless you were tapering for a year or longer.
only problem I've known to stick with you is the sexual effects, I'm sure you know what i mean, but thats just from what i've seen online.
Effexor hasn't done anything bad to my libido imo.
Codesan
Bluelighter
I stopped "cold turkey" my 60mg Cymbalta which I had taken for 3 years. I got horrible withdrawals and the worst of it was the brain zaps but then I decided to try DXM to help with the withdrawal since it is a SNRI etc. so I started with about 100mg DXM daily dosed twice AM and PM and tapered that dose for about 2 months until I felt normal. After tapering to about 10mg of DXM daily I just quit and felt fine..at that point I did not understand why people say they had horrible withdrawals lasting up to 6 months from Cymbalta but I managed to make it almost painless with just low dose DXM tapering.
twelvesevndi
Bluelighter
good luck y'all. it took me about 5 months to totally come off of desvenlafaxine.
you will make it eventually!
the most frustrating part for me was the very end. three weeks of taking 5 mg every other day. i just couldn't go any lower or less frequent without getting debilitating brainzaps. eventually i got a break from school and just quit and rode out 3 rough days in bed.
novelagent
Greenlighter
I quit 75mg of Effexor 3 months ago, and still feel dizzy upon standing, and have completely zero sexual interest (I'm a guy). I hope it goes away. I'm going on aricept-- maybe that will help the sexual interest.
Hey guys,
maybe someone can help me out here. I am interested in how long it takes after you have stopped taking venlafaxine until your brain "works" normally again and doesn't interact with drugs? In short: how long do I have to wait until I can take MDMA (as an example) and experience full effects? I'd be interested in both anecdotal and theoretical info. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
I have been on Venlafaxine before once, tapered off, got very depressed due to high benzo use. Got put back on SSRI, withdrew from benzos (hell of a trip), I am now clean for 5 months and over the summer I have the time to check out if I can live without SNRI now. Also I would like to parteeey! I am looking back at the ugliest year of my life, so I am thinking I kinda deserve some fun Compared to the first time, Venlafaxine isn't quite as effective as before. The plan would be to go off now, have some fun until fall, if needed go back on something else.
Yes, it does, took a couple of months though. First time around I quit in January, got together with my girlfriend in July and by then I was working.
sekio
Bluelight Crew
The general rule of thumb is you have to wait until blood levels of your SNRI drop to threshold levels before it is safe to take MDMA again. Normally this is 2-4 weeks after cessation of therapy.
Whether or not you will mentally feel 100% after 2-4 weeks is another question entirely. If you are reasonably happy and have a good solid daily protien intake you should be able to dose MDMA no problems.
Unfortunately it is impossible to tell if you will respond the same as if you were never on SNRI drugs, but I don't expect that it's not going to work all of a sudden. The longer you were on SNRI therapy, and the closer you are to when you stopped therapy, the less effect you should expect from MDMA.
Ideally you would just wait 6-12mos after SNRI therapy before taking monoaminergics if you wanted to guarantee a good effect. You'd probably be just fine even after 3-6mos. But body chemistry is variable and it's impossible to cover all the bases all the time.
Thank you, very helpful!
The blood levels is still what confuses me the most. Venlafaxine has a very short halflife and should be out of your system really quickly. Yet I can say from experience that just because it is out of my system, it still feels like the effects are there. iirc this lasted for about 3 months. My doctor kinda insists that the SSRI/SNRI can't work anymore after it left the body. Everything after that is just the brain recovering.
Before I switched to Venlafaxine I was on Escitalopram and I was told to stop it "cold turkey" and just start Venlafaxine instead. This actually seemed to work. It's my second time on Venlafaxine, first time I switched from Prozac by simultaneously tapering prozac off and slowly starting Venlafaxine. The first month was very unpleasant. Also this was with another doctor, so there seem to be different opinions about the withdrawal even in the psychiatry profession.
FYI the tapering process from Venlafaxine was very easy for me. I think it took me 2-3 months from 150mg to 0mg. Don't rely on the available doses, you can open the capsule, take something out and you will have a very continous decline of Venlafaxine. For me that's the reason why I consider XR/SR drugs the easiest to get off from. I tapered off like that and had other than very minor brainzaps no real withdrawal symptoms. I did have some prolonged effects like sexual dysfunction though.