• 💊 OTHER DRUGS 💊 Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Notable Threads 1 Notable Threads 2
    Dangerous Combos Addiction Support
    Emergency Services Benzo Guide v.1
    Addiction Stories Scary Case Studies
    Biology, Pharmacology & Drugs 101
  • Select Your Topic Then Scroll Down
    Alcohol Bupe Benzos
    Cocaine Heroin Opioids
    RCs Stimulants Misc
    Harm Reduction All Topics Gabapentinoids
    Tired of your habit? Struggling to cope?
    Want to regain control or get sober?
    Visit our Recovery Support Forums

coming off effexor XR

i have only been prescribed effexor xr just the once.
it really did the job for me at first, made me feel a lot better.
however it wasnt coming off the drug.
for some reason i then reacted badly to it after a month, where i'd have blackouts of memory, (varying from 30mins to 4 hours) and usually find myself crying and confused, not knowing how i got where i was then.
friends have told me i was screaming absolute jibberish at different times and smashing things up in a fit of rage?!
(and i wasnt taking anything else at the time)

i was taking 150mgs, and after talking to my doctor. he said it may be the medication, so under his recommendation i stopped taking it.
felt like utter shit for a week or 2,
didnt have any motivation to go anywhere, get out of bed or anything.
would've failed my course as a result. was it not for special consideration

i didn't notice any sexual side effects.
but even after a short period of time on a much lower dosage.
i was age 19 at the time
it was still not an easy thing to do.

since then i've worked out the original problems which got me into the depressed mindset before the original prescription. (not to mention the amount of ecstasy i was taking in the months leading up to it =/ )
thankfully


not too sure about the suggestion,
but i've been taking 5htp (varying doses between 100mg - 250mg) regularly over the past few months.
has really had a noticable impact on my general wellbeing.
and when cycling off it for 2 week periods every 28 days or so
i've had no negative side effects.

could be a less horrible feeling alternative?


anyways.
wish you all the best of luck with getting off it.
 
i was on 225mg of effexor and tried to go ct (i'm a dumbass)

needless to say, a few days in i had w/d that were insane.. my arms were shaking.. i was very very cold.. i was studdering when i talked BADLY (and i never studder)

it was in-fucking-sane

i ended up at the ER (my fiance was freaked), had to get a shot of something in my ass, and get back on it..

I didnt feel right for a week and a half or so.
 
sorry to bring up an old thread but all of this has made me realise how hard this is going to be!

i currently just started to up my dosage to 150mg of effexor-xr and i'm already considering starting to taper down again

i remember that even when i was on the 75mg capsules if i had 1/2 days without them i would get those electric shock/zap feelings and just feelings of extreme confusion/discomfort

i guess i'm going to have to start by taking one a day again for a week or so, then half a capsule, then slowly taper down to a quarter or something

thankfully i have benzo's and even 1,4b to help with the withdrawals but still, it's pretty annoying that an anti-depressant would make you feel so depressed if you stop taking them! it's almost as if they want you to take them forever
 
geewhizz said:
i remember that even when i was on the 75mg capsules if i had 1/2 days without them i would get those electric shock/zap feelings and just feelings of extreme confusion/discomfort
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was getting those in under 24 afters after the last dose, and you're only supposed to take the XR once a day! And I had only been taking them for a week.

I switched back to Lexapro though and suffered no withdrawal symptoms from the switch. Maybe you can switch to something easier to taper from when you feel it's time.
 
Do you have Effexor XR 75 mg with those little balls in capsules? I had those when I was on the stuff and tapering was much more easier, only had to divide the pill into 2 or 3 doses.

Effexor shouldn't be prescribed because of its horrible w/d IMHO, the shocks lasted like two months for me :/
 
you must taper; my wife decided to just stop taking her effexor, and ended up in ER. pretty scary situation and i would not suggest anyone to just drop off that med.
 
Took me 2 weeks before the horrid w/d symptoms stopped, and another 2 before I actually felt like a normal, functioning human being again. I wish my DR had just given me lexapro and I'd never have encounter that fucking Effexor XR. I was sweating, in a blanket with the chills, with the brain zaps and an uncontrollable urge to move my arms and twitch for 2 weeks...I was in no fucking shape (and this was my over spring break in college!) :( good luck
 
BUMP.

I'm in the midst of tapering off 300mg/day of Effexor XR. I've managed to wean myself down to 75mg every other day. So far the withdrawals fluctuate. Some days the dizziness is hellish at best, others mild enough for THC to nullify.

I'm planning on cutting the dose to 32.5mg tomorrow by splitting up the beads inside the 75mg capsule.

Wish me luck. I hope to be off by next tuesday.

This is by no means the reason I decided to get the fuck off this horrid med, but god damn, I can not WAIT to roll again!
 
ive been prescribed just about every SSRI for anxiety and depression in the past (wellbutrin, lexapro, prozac, celexa, zoloft, effexor, paxil) and with the exeption of paxil, the last to be prescribed to me, i always tapperd down. i dont know what "cold turkey" would be like with effexor, but if its anything like paxil, if u dont taper, you'll could have horrible vertigo for nearly a month.

thats what happend to me and it was horrible. i wasnt sure when, if ever, it was gonna go away. i was fed up with seeing no results with all the previous drugs and just said fuck it, i quit. didnt notify my doctor or anything just stopped.

i dont recommend it.
 
EFFEXOR WAS THE MOST HORRID POISON I"VE EVER TAKEN IN MY LIFE!!! I'd rather swallow urine than be on that shit!! The funny thing is... It took a guy by the name of DR. HERTZ the head PHD of Norther Shore Jewish Hospital on Long Island to perscribe it!!!! WHAT A FUCK"N RETARD!! I mean how fuck'n patheticlly stupid are these specialized PHD's? He is the head of psychiatry for Long Island North Shore Jewish Hospital and the guy perscribes POISON!! I had vertigo like you would believe, I couldn't even stand up... My mouth was dryer than a desert and no matter how much I drank I was still dry, I had no sex drive and my girl thought it was her fault, and the withdrawl was almost worse than heroin, yet I've never done heroin. What is it,,,, THE MORE SPECIALIZED THEY ARE THE DUMMER THEY GET, OR WHAT? Then they wana arrest me for self medicating WITH MARIJUANA, or TAKING OPIATES!?!?! R U FUCKING KIDDING ME!?!?! All you psychiastrists should die slowly... take the medications you recommend to the people who suffer from them, you too will see what the ssri POISON does to people. Besides getting you addicted very quickly, the side effects are 100x worse than the benefits. At least with opiates the only possible side effect is addiction, the side effects are wonderful... They'd rather have two negative sides to a medication, then its legal!!?? THE FDA/DEA ARE POISON TOXIC WASTE FOR THIS COUNTRY... I think the only thing they ever did positive was ok drugs that killed people so the families can live happilly ever after with a 10 million dollar law suit, but then again, they had to loose there loved one before collecting the money. CAN ANYBODY TELL ME JUST 1 POSITIVE THING THAT THE DEA OR FDA HAS DONE IN THE PAST.... I'll even give you 10 years..... GO AHEAD!!! NAME JuST ONE.... and were not talking about HIV DRUGS OR CANCER DRUGS... talking about regular medications that are not HIV OR CANCER RELATED.... or hey why not... include those also..... EFFEXOR IS TOXIC POISON THAT THE DRUG COMPANIES PROFIT OFF OF VERY MUCH WHILE WE SUFFER THE SIDE EFFECTS!!! SSRI"S ARE POISON TOXIC WASTE AND ONLY A SYSTEM AS PATHETIC AS THE FDA/DEA WOULD ALOW CHILDREN AND YOUNG TEENAGERS/YOUNG ADULTS TO TAKE THESE EVERYDAY... 3 times a day sometimes even more!!! BUT IF WE SMOKE A JOINT, OR SELL SOME POT, OR TAKE A PILL OR HAVE OPIATES ON US... WE GO TO JAIL FOR BEING HAPPY.... WE HAVE TO BE MEDICATED AND BE MISERABLE THEN WE CAN LIVE HAPPY AND FREE..... ITS A FUCKING JOKE!!!!! hELP US NORML.org HELP US!!!:X :X :X :X :X :X :X :X :X :X :X :X :X
 
emjay said:
Yeah, I don't know what that doc was thinking prescribing Effexor. Haldol would have made way more sense.
Click to expand...
Haldol is the most toxic poison that they have in the hospital!!!! I was shot up with haldol when I checked myself into a mental ward for depression after being outta work for 6 months and having no money. I flipped out in the psycho ward because they keep you in a fuck'n room for 24 hrs a day or better yet a hallway. I saw nothing positive from my experience being a patient with intensive psychotherapy and drug therapy at all.. I had such a serious side effect from HALDOL!!! I had a convulsive seizure were all the muscles in my body tighted up and it was difficult for me to breath or for that matter walk, move, or sit. I was currled up on the floor in excrusiating pain and tightness. I was screaming from this drug in pain and hysterical crying from it. All they had to do was give me a cannabis brownie, or let me smoke a joint, or give me valium, but valium sucks.... why couldn't they let me smoke a joint?!?!/! I would have had no side effects and I would have been able to relax.... Instead they mixed fire with fire again and got an explosion.

Yo, Emjay... Your a big fan of haldol eh!? Does it work for you? I"d bet $500 dollars right now that out of 20 people that use it, only 1 person who's all fucked up and wired like an alien probably benefits from it.... The majority it kills more than it helps... GOD DAM PSYCHIATRISTS!! THERE ALL A BUNCH OF RISKY DRUG DeALERS THAT DON"T EVEN KNOW ABOUT THE DRUGS THERE DEALING TO PEOPLE!!!
 
Last edited:
It was a joke. Haldol being an anti-psychotic, I was calling you psychotic. And although it was made in jest, you haven't done a whole lot to disprove it :)
 
My friend just recently got on Efexor XR 75mg and he said they're working awesomely and he hasn't felt this good his whole life. Do they actually work? because I was hoping to get on them. And say if they work and you eventually taper off them, do you feel better than before you started taking them?
 
Excido said:
Do they actually work? because I was hoping to get on them.
Click to expand...
They work for SOME people, but it's really impossible to tell if it'll work for you without trying. For me, the side effects were so bad (much worse than other ADs I've been on) that I switched to something else after only a week.

Excido said:
And say if they work and you eventually taper off them, do you feel better than before you started taking them?
Click to expand...
Again, it depends on the person. There's a relapse rate of about 30% after six months. Concurrent psychotherapy improves this number significantly.
 
Jeeze, I took Effexor for two weeks and the effects while on the drug were horrible enough. Upping the dosage from 37.5mg to 75mg was as close as I have ever come to wanting to put a gun to my head.

I can't even imagine how bad the withdrawal (or discontinuation syndrome for you PC assholes) is.

Yuck. I refuse to take any anti depressants ever again. 3600mg of Gabapentin a day does perfectly fine for me.
 
Undergoing a long Effexor taper.

I've been taking Effexor for over three years. It's the most addictive drug I've encountered. However it did lift me out of depression, but left me in an apathetic state and disinterested in just about everything.

I was on 300 mg's for a long time. a few months ago this was reduced to 150, after another month or so I went down to 75 mg's. I also made the move from the extended release capsules to the tablet, which don't stay in the body as long. Now I'm on 37.5 mg's and will continue with this dose for another month. Then it'll be 18.5 mg's for maybe 5-6 weeks. I'm hoping this will minimise and WD's.

I'm looking forward to being free of it!!!
 
Agreed I am tapering from a dose of 300 mg after 4 years. I did it once but ended up back on it thinking it would help my abusive personality. Wrong. Slow and steady I open the capsule pour out some beads every day increasing a small amount of beads every few days. i will do this for four months I imagine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top