I have been taking venlafaxine for over 7 years and can admit that it saved my life a few times in the early stages. I have tried to come off them numerous times,during the past 3 years but have failed every time. The gp honestly dosent know how to help, cut down slowly, miss every other dose...I've tried everything. The side effects of withdrawal are horrendous...shaking, sweating, panic attacks, sickness, violent outbursts, suicidal thoughts. Ive read all the horror stories and truly feel sorry for anyone who has ever taken ven. I'm desperate to quit them but it seems impossible. Any advice would be much appreciated!
hiya tatula :O)
im afraid coming off venlafaxine is really bad news :O(
i accelerated the process by doing it in half the time the psychiatrist suggested, one of the problems is
that venlafaxine only has a 24 hour half life, if youve missed a daily dose of time release caps, withdrawl
can begin after 24 hours O_O
all you can do is take it a day at a time, as quick as you can, the withdrawl becomes a lot easier the
longer you go, sorry i couldnt be more positive, but good luck, hang on in there its worth it in the end :O)
Ken~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks ken. I'm going to have to give it one final try, soon I think. Just need to be brave!
Evening, I have never been on a forum before, but have found tonight that they hold alot of valuable information that I only wish my doctor had for me. I have been on venlafaxine for 6 months. I always struggled with drink, resulting to smoking cigarettes but this was totally excelled on the tablets. I recently saw my gp to tell him I was coming off of the venlafaxine because I'm biting my nails down to nothing, not eating, and overly smoking and drinking, infact they are making me compulsive with everything, like an anthetimin almost. He was useless. Why don't doctors warn us about the power of this drug when they easily prescribe it? I decided last week to wean myself off and tonight I'm going through torture. Brain zaps, insomnia etc. please help with any advice. Thank you
Hi there. I'm so sorry you are having problems too and I totally agree that we should be warned of these horrible withdrawals. I wish we could somehow warn everyone against starting ven as its harder to give up than illegal drugs I bet! I still haven't managed to quit 
hopefully soon eh! Good luck with yours & please don't hesitate to seek help should the withdrawals become unbearable.
Thank you Talulabelle. That's so wierd, that's the name of my youngest niece. Day 4, the worst day yet. Crying alot, head throbs and throbbing all over really. Headaches. I've found caffeine is making it worse so I'm reducing that now. I WON'T give in this time, those tablets are evil. Just getting through every withdrawal symptom thinking about how glad I am that this drug is leaving my system. Kind of looking forward to feeling like me again. I think I've forgotten what that feels like. My dreams and sweats last night were awful so I'm dreading bed time tonight. I am just throwing myself into working to keep my mind off this. Please keep in touch. Thank you for replying
Oh gosh Vicky that sounds awful! Your so brave & you've done really well to get this far so keep at it 
have you tried asking for diazepam? Just for a week or so to help at night time maybe? I remember how awful it us from previous attempts - like having a bee buzzing in my head! I can't wait to feel 'normal' one day too...Ive been numb for 7 years or more so can't wait for that! Good luck xx
Hello fellow ven users. I have been on ven only a short time (8 months) after being on citalopram for 3 months. The cit didn't really work, far too many side effect. But the ven did seem to work! sort of. Was on 150mg a day, split into 2 doses. Whilst my mood improved, my weight balloned, and felt nauseous most of the time, and if I didn't need to get out of bed! I didn't. I also found that I stopped caring! about house work, how much money I was spending, how I looked! also cared less and less for family and friends!!!!
Anyway, about a month ago I realised I was forgetting to take more and more of the tablets. So cut down to just one a day. I felt fine on this dose, but then stated to forget to take just the one a day! having missed 3 days, I took one, felt more nauseous than ever, so decided to stop them completely. That was five days ago. Have felt down, cried, panicked, had brain zaps, vertigo but am not going to take them again. Oh yeah, sleep is now becoming rare, and nightmarish dreams wake me up if I do sleep... Oh well, but I am not going back to the drugs..... Good luck to you all, we will all get better and leave the drugs behind x
Hi mushroom. Well done for quitting and you've done brilliantly! Keep it up may join you one day in quitting, just need to time it right!
Hi ya, had I planned it, it would never have happened.... have been on loads of websites this afternoon, not the ones that tell you what might happen, but studies and reports about what did happen to peeps!
On top off what I thought was withdrawal symptoms.... I now know the crappie bits that I have dealt with during the last few weeks (diarrhoea, flu like symptoms, total exhaustion, not liking anyone, eating rubbish food, then none at all! total loss of personality, confusion, severe headaches with shooting pains) sorry, but this is what I was experiencing, due to missed or late tablets!!!! I so did not connect the drugs with it... but now I have stopped, and checked it out..... I now know and would maybe not have done it with this knowledge...
On the up side, I hope I'm over the worse bits, and the fact that I have carried on and stayed at work.... maybe I have control of the depression...
When I was on the tabs, and feeling better, I did not understand the posts about how evil this drug is... I do understand now, but also want to add, its not an addiction, from my point of view, its an easier option as no one wants to feel as ruff as I have, and maybe I should have done it properly, slowly...... but an interesting thing did come up on the sites I looked at... a single or one or two prozac tabs (they are very slow half life SSRI's) removed all withdrawal symptoms from some individuals! interesting thought.
Good luck, and never give up x
ps: I meant never give up on trying to be well without drugs, and thankyou, you words and hope give me strength x
Oh bless you, I know you meant don't give up on giving up I've tried so many times and have experienced all the symptoms you mention, just never been strong enough too see it through. I feel strong now thanks to many people like yourself, and I'm hopeful that one day soon I will be able to make it off these drugs! Thanks & good luck to you too x
I am so glad I found forums like these. I started taken Venlafaxine in October last year and it really didn't seem to be doing anything but then in January finally saw a consultant psychiatrist who increased the dose. It wasn't until I got to 225mg XL OD that I started to feel slightly better but my scores hadn't improved much on those questionnaires they make you do so it was decided that the dose should be increased to 300mg daily, as 150mg twice a day as increasing from 150mg to 225mg of the XL made me feel really. Anyway the increase was a disaster for me, after 5 days I started to suffer badly from those very rare side effects quoted on the leaflet. At first not needing to sleep at all was great (before I had trouble getting out of bed) but I was basically 'high' all the time, in the end I started had a panic attack at work it had been over a year since I had one, severe sweating, heat intolerance so if it was warm I would feel very faint, tremors, palpitations, racing heart and I nearly collapsed when trying to climb the ladders to put things in my loft. Turns out my blood pressure had become really high too so I had to come of venalfaxine cold turkey! At the time I thought oh the withdrawal can't be that bad, the leaflet doesn't suggest that it will be and the consultant didn't seem phased at all by the prospect of me stopping 300mg daily abruptly.
I started Lofepramine the next day which was supposed to prevent/ lessen any withdrawal and serve as my next antidepressant (I have tried cit, sertraline before with no luck) and the psychiatrist gave me some diazepam to help calm me down as I was supposed to be on bed rest because of the effects on my heart, kind of impossible when you are so hyper!
Anyway I have been to hell and may have finally made my way back. It was only the forums and other peoples experiences that helped to understand what was going on, the leaflet is useless!
The first 3 days were the worst, I had drenching night sweats, horrid dreams, severe vertigo which caused vomiting, tremors, the brain zaps (which i had never heard of but they do exist) and if I didn't take the diazepam I didn't sleep at all, but because I was effectively 'high' taking the diazepam and sleeping meant I dreamt at lke 100 mph it was soooo disorientating so after day 3 I stopped the diazepam. I was in a terrible state and crying all the time but then I get distresed when I am physically very unwell anyway. By day 4 the sweats weren't so bad, the vomiting was bad (but I hate vomiting), I figured this vomiting was due to vertigo and found that travel sickness tablets helped a lot (I tried kwells first with good effect then got sea-legs (meclozine) so I only needed to take them once a day). By day 6 the night sweats were gone but I was still really dizzy and feeling sick. The dizziness started to subside and my sleep improved. Now it is day 15, I have more energy and have spent the last two days out of bed all day. I'm still having problems with my stomach, severe nausea and some vomiting but with the help of some domperidone that is definitely getting better other than that I feel pretty good. I am planning to go back to work next week (I will have been off sick for 3 weeks)
I can honestly say it was a horrendous experience and I seriously considered not starting the new medication but I know that without medication at all I was suicidal so it isn't really an option for me. I am not sure how much the lofepramine may have helped with the withdrawal or whether the switch complicated things more. Also I always suffer really badly with my stomach whenever I start new tablets of increase doses so the extended duration of my stomach problems may not be normal.
I wanted to post this because while going through this all I wanted was an idea of how long things would/or could possibly could last? I have no support network at home so have had to go through this on my own (possibly a good thing in some ways considering the violent mood swings) and sometimes for me knowing how long and whether other people have experienced the same things gives me some comfort.
Tulabelle: If i'd have had the choice I obviously would have withdrawn the ven slower and planned it better but it wasn't an option for me. My GP seems to think that being on immediate release tablets may have made it a bit easier so swapping from XL to immediate release in the first instance may be helpful and makes it easier to cut down gradually, and I think they also do a syrup so you can do it really slow if you want.
The main thing I would change if I could though was to not have to keep getting up and heading down to the pharmacy or GP for help when all you really want to do is stay in bed. So if you plan it and your GP is willing to help, you could have some diazepam, tablets for vertigo and sickness all at hand to make these symptoms more bearable. I know some doctors refuse or don't want to recognise that these symptoms occur but we know they do and and there are other medications out there that can make it a bit easier. I understand though that some people won't want to take any other tablets, I just don't think I could have coped without.
Anyway thanks guys and good luck and be strong because the withdrawal doesn't last forever x
Thank you for your post, I think its so important to share info like this. I have experienced most of the side effects you mention and they're horrific! It does scare me to do it again but it needs to be done, I want a normal life! Thanks for the advice, I'm going to see my gp and ask for some help with this. It's not fair to make people go cold turkey, when I last did a complete stop (no slow cut down) I ended up in psychiatric hospital :-/ never again! I'm nearly 30 and want to start thinking about a family, which is impossible with venlafaxine as its a big no no during pregnancy. I'll keep updating this post but may be a while before I do anything as I have some physical health problems to deal with first...there's no way I'm dealing with both at the same time! Like you, being physically ill tends to affect my mental state too! Thanks again :-)
HI,
I was on Venlafaxine for about 6 months. Was told 2 weeks ago I had to come off them.
They had been mimicking signs of heart problems, why didn't my GP tell me this was possible 6 months
ago? I thought I had developed cardiac problems, which was scary.
My GP didn't even tell me about withdrawal symptoms, just changed my tablets and I didn't know
till I picked up my repeat prescription. No note, phone call, anything to let me know what might happen.
Now after only 2 days, feeling dreadful. Flu like symptoms, brain zaps. But most worrying for me, I can't
seem to control my temper which is frightening.
My GP's surgery just seem to humour me about anything to do with Mental Health so I went to my
psychiatrists office and spoke to someone there.
Just a piece of advice for anyone who feels their GP doesn't take them seriously about this, My psychiatrist advised me to ask to see another doctor. Which I will, if I ever get off the sofa again, haha.
To all the people who have posted, thanks x (p.s I'm now on Sertraline, anyone else been given this as a replacement?)
hi, sorry i posted same message twice. First time on a discussion forum, was a bit nervous. x
Oh my gosh that's awful! I don't think these doctors understand the damage caused by withdrawing tablets like that, it makes me wonder if any of them know what they're doing?! I was exactly the same as you when withdrawing, so angry and aggressive. I threw my dinner accross the room at the wall one evening for no reason. It's very hard to control but I guess it must get easier with time? Keep your chin up and be proud of yourself for coming so far :-)
thanks so much for that. U keep ur chin up too x
Hi, i just want to say, thank goodness for these forums. I thought i was going mad until i read the above.
I have been on Venlafaxine for two yrs now and it has worked for my depression where other tablets never did .
I decided that it was time to come off the tablets as i have been feeling so well. Within 24hrs the dizziness started also i was being very clumsy and bumping into things. My lips started tingling and my face felt funny. Then i was shaking, crying screaming. . I never use bad language , but i totally shocked my husband, and my self, with the language and very violent out bursts. This was not me. I didn't realize that it was the
medication that was responsible for the above.
I am afraid i have just gone up to my pill pot and took a full dose again as i can't stand the withdrawal.
As i said earlier, thank goodness for these forums otherwise i think i might have murdered my husband for no reason.
Sorry to hear of your troubles Midge, I completely understand. I meant to post here to say I've managed to stop taking ven now thank god. It took me 6 weeks to completely stop and if I'm honest it was the worst 6 weeks of my life. Dizzy head, forgetfulness, sickness, tantrums, panic attacks...you name it, I had it! I went to work every day as I thought it would keep me focused. Most days I couldn't remember the 20 minute journey I had just driven. I made loads of mistakes at work but luckily my boss was lovely as I had explained what was happening. I've been off about 3 months now and feel totally normal (whatever normal is?!). I've said it was the worst 6 weeks of my life but its the best thing I've ever done and I'm so glad I stuck it out.
Don't think you need to conquer this on the first attempt. I tried many times before but simply wasn't ready mentally. The most important thing is to stay safe & keep loved ones informed of how your feeling. Always discuss with your doctor before changing anything too...very important.
These tablets saved my life (and sanity) on occasions, I just wish they were easier to quit when you feel better!