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Mental Health stoppin effexor

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misticalmarz

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Joined
Dec 24, 2014
Messages
10
umm ive been prescribed 225mg effexor for about 11months and im not needing it anymore and i havent seen a doctor for months i started reducing myself cause last time i saw the doctor he told me to stop my zeldox ive been off it for two months and i started with effexor one months ago im currently down to 70mg . and and the brain zaps are awful i wasnt warned about any withdrawls i could have i need to know once im off effexor how long will it take for my serotonin to work naturaly and i can go back to living normally because i cant do certain things i want to do because i cant get enough serotonin because its blocked . i was prescribed it for anxiety and i think i was having anxiety due to who i was living with i was still having bad anxiety while on effexor even worst when i think about it but ive found plenty of healthy ways to deal with it but im not enjoying myself and feeling as good as i should . also is there a way to get off efexxor without swapping medicatio because id really rather not take abilifi , is it possible to replace effexor with mirtazipine ? and reduce from there im seeing a psych monday and any imformation from your person experinces or knowledge will truely help thanks .
 
Taper taper with Effexor. It is the worst psych med i have ever come off and that includes benzos. The only thing that came close was quitting drinking. So yeah tapering it is essential. As for Mirtazapine it's a Norepinephrine serotonin enhancer so it does the same thing as effexor pretty much but in a different way. I doubt it could substitute for effexor though.
 
alright thank you do you have any recommendation on how many mg,s to go down at a time , i went from 225mg 150mg , to and slowly down to 70mg . now i think im stuck
 
he told me to reduce a while back , im seeing the doctor on monday , for a check up on my medication
 
i just got back from the doc he gave me a two week supply of effexor 37.5 and said that should be enough , im abit worried im gunna get stuck on that dose, but said i should be rite to stop when those finish , do you think it can be done , cause im pretty pumped and belive i can do it but when the brain zaps start thats when i doubt myself
 
It can be done, but do you really want to completely get off this medication? Any mental withdrawal would be mostly a return of depression ime, but I'm not sure
 
yeah i do really wanna get off the effexor , they only had me on it for anxiety because no doctor had a clue but im 100% why i was having anxiety but ive gotton far away from that and have settelled down and am living in a better area im away from the bad people and all the peer pressure . he had also given me a low dose of mirtazapine to help with sleep because my sleeping patteren is abit weird but i am sure i can do this ive found allot of ways to stop my bad thought patteren , and the best activity for me to do while at home is cooking and that is splended it takes my mind completely off everything its great
 
Standard is 5-10% every 5-7 days. I helped my mother with this one. I'd pop open the pills and count the time release balls inside, use empty caps to make new ones with a reduced (5-10% every 5-7 days) dose until she got sick and tired of throwing up everywhere she went and cut it short at about 25% of her original dose. It appeared rough. Be careful, it can apparently screw with your cardiac health to go too fast.
 
I've sucsessfully went from effexor 150mg to mirtazpine 15mg, the witdrawls from effexer were not to bad just had to taper with the effexor 150mg to 75mg then 35mg it took me 2 weeks.
 
Also ive heard of the mirtazapine effexor combo, has anybody got any experiance with this combo?
 
I'm also tapering off effexor.I've been prescribed anti depressants and anti anxiety medication both for many years. I was on 200 mg for several years am down to 75 mg a day (over a two month period) than will go down to 37.5 mg and adding zoloft to replace the effexor under supervision of my psychiatrist. Just out of curiosity how come you don't think you need the effexor anymore? I have heard about the brain "zaps" but have not experienced any myself. They don't sound like they're too pleasant! I did however feel like I was in a fog for a while coming down from the effexor. I'm changing anti depressants but continuing klonopin for anxiety. I don't know what zeldox is but you sound like you did the right thing by tapering off effexor instead of just stopping- but maybe you should check into the brain zap thing. From my experience 37.5mg might be the next step down and than you could be off of it really soon. See what your Dr. suggests, I'd be interested in hearing how you make out.
Any "unofficial medical" opinions out there on your experience with zoloft? It is one of the few antidepressants I haven't been on over the past 25 years. This is my first post- I did read the rules-so I hope I'm not posting anything wrong. I know everyone's chemistry's are different and we all have different diagnosis's I find it useful on comparing other people's experiences along with my own and what my Dr. advises. Good Luck :)
 
Effexor is a piece of cake to come off if you do it right.


My method is to simply stop taking. Don't bother tapering unless you're on a high dose. If you can do a fairly quick taper back to the minimum therapeutic dose that would be good but not essential.

The shocks should start almost as soon as that dose is missed. Just try your best to ride it out for 24/36 Hours. Codeine/ibuprofen helps to relieve the shocks.

When your going to bed after your first day without it take a 10mg dose of Prozac which is half the therapeutic dose.

Shocks gone, should stay gone for a few days thanks to Prozacs long ass half life.

When you again start getting Zaps, take another half.

What you will find is that the time between the zaps (and doses) will get further and further apart.

You will probably only use about 6 tablets over 4 weeks until you're totally zap free.

Done deal :)
 
Good luck. (Dripping with sarcasm and actually saying good luck as well).
Titrate down slowly as possible.
Side Effexor is the devil
 
To answer questions about Mirtazapine; I went from side Effexor 150 - 75mg over 2 weeks and then switched straight to Mirtazapine 30mg. I had been on and off Effexor before this time but this switch was the best possible outcome for my brain. No zaps. No going mental. Mirtazapine should be used a lot more often than it is in my opinion. Side Effexor should be fucking illegal.
I was on mirt for 3 years. Stopped via a 2 week taper from 30 down to 15 and then jumped off. Not a single issue.
I had been up to 90mg at one stage with Mirtazapine but found that was too much. Didn't seem to do much antidepressant wise below 45mg but it fixed my sleep up. I could eat again too. The weight gain is really overblown too. I have lost 17kgs in 12 months and was on Mirtazapine the whole time.
Question regarding combining mirt and Effexor. Pych Community calls this Californian Rocket Fuel. (No joke).
This combo sent me on a sell 10K worth of drum kit mania for a month before I was taken off the Effexor.
You'll live through getting off it. Just won't be pretty but worth it��
 
hey every one , just a quick update to fill you in ive been completely of effoxor since about a 6-7 weeks not one sign if withdrwal im actually feelin allot better in myself its amazing i think my anxiety was from thor meds but alll is well im gettin along fine sorta getting back to everyday stuff im thinkin about gettin some kind of work or anything i went to the beach for the first time in like 5 years and actually swam . i enjoyed it so much i couldnt believe the excitement of floating in waves . but i hve been noticing im allot happier and talkitive through the day i cant really sleep still but whrn i get in bed is when my thoughts can go abit side ways . anyway thank you all for your support . and your time thank you
 
Just a random question to fulfill my own personal interests on this particular drug: how many here taking effexor wound up with thyroid problems?

I see grave's is a very common side effect of a long term regimine and I know it hit my mother. It really got me looking into things and questioning, especially in reference to my own past experience with a whole slew of what I now consider to be totally BS psychiatric drugs (in general) why it's okay to not tell people the whole story before sending them to the pharm with scrip in hand. Having come off benzos and several others after a very long-term stint dealing with the behavioral health system, I sort of developed an incredible fear of doctors that hasn't yet been proven unreasonable to my own person just yet. I can't stand them anymore basically because it just seems like everything they do is nearly invariably self reinforcing, profit oriented and causes far more problems than it solves but that's just my own experience, I guess.
 
I did! 2+ yrs on effexor, now off it (after a hair-raising, falling down, continuous weeping 6 months taper-off!) now effexor-free and YUP, thyroid probs. to be fair, my sister was just diagnosed w Hashimoto's Syndrome, and to my knowledge never took effexor but she did take Paxil for quite some time. I am increasingly anti-medical model as I'm coming up on 40 yrs of this or that treatment, this or that med, this or that hospital, lifestyle change, etc. They never last.

coming off of effexor was worse than kicking H. by far.

I share your increasing lack of confidence in the "medical model" of looking at "mental illness". It has not worked for me. Perhaps it has kept me alive, perhaps not. there's no way to tell. All I know is that the same doc is prescribing wellbutrin, adderall, clonazepam, ambien and gabapentin. Not working for me anymore, not for some time. but it's taken me quite a while to acquire the self-knowledge that it takes to effect REAL change and re-wiring. Once that process is engaged and supported properly (therapists, lifestyle, etc) then it becomes possible to reject the medical model for a more holistic approach. Until then, it's kind of like braces for the mind. It's medieval technology, a sledgehammer vs a laser, but you gotta start where you are.

That's been my experience so far.
 
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