Ive been on venlafaxine for 12 years 150 mg. now i'am trying to get off it. This is the worst med i've ever been on . I had to take granulas out a little at a time. I got down to 15 mgs and then stopped , iI still have brain zaps. Ive had breathing problems( using inhalers) on meds for acid reflux , Since i stopped the venafaxine, I take no meds for breathing disorder or acid reflux. and my memory seems a lot better
Hi Ron
It took about a week and a half to start feeling 'normal' again after taking my last dose, even then I didn't wake up with the feeling that it had just gone! Instead it slowly got less severe as the days wore on . My biggest problem was sleeping as I felt I was going mad, but I do remember a particularly bad brain zap where I was talking to someone when it happened and although the other person did not mention it, I'm sure I must have looked as though I was having a seizure - just 1 - she must have thought me pretty odd!
Hang in there though, it all feels very strange but it's worth getting off them, if you can be happy without them that is. Good luck with everything!!!
Hello ron 07101,
I took my last Venlafaxine on 05/01/14 & I'm still having the brain zaps & electric shock/buzzing sensations radiating through my body going down to the soles of my feet.
{I have a few posts/updates on this thread}.
I too have had wheezy chest & breathlessness whilst taking them along with a chest pain. However, I have recently had a full medical (including ECG, BP & Blood tests) which were all normal - I'm just overweight so I'm working hard to lose a bit!
< < <NB...Anyone taking Venlafaxine should have an annual ECG > > >
The withdrawal effects (for me) seem never ending and are debilitating at times so I will be glad to get to a time when they stop & I feel refreshed & drug-free!
I am under medical supervision whilst undertaking this process so I have been reassured that the side effects will eventually subside.
roxii13, your brain zap tale really made me laugh & I'm sitting here nodding my head in agreement as I often wonder if others can see what I'm feeling! lol
Regards everyone x
Hi Ron,
I'm by no means an expert (just another pour soul who blindly trusted docs into taking Venlafaxine not knowing how addictive it was) but I read that you really aren't suppose to take the granules out of the capsule. It's a big no no (apparently?)
You'd be best off getting the tablet form, crushing it down and weighing the powder form to taper down each day.
I'm still on a high dose but working my way down.
The Road Back Org (website) have a supplement that's supposed to help the brain zaps. Again, I'm not at that stage yet but the other people on that forum have said it really helped them.
If anyone on this discussion is still suffering from withdrawls, brain zaps, dizziness:
Please try to supplement Omega-3 into your day. 1000mg a day is recommended, I personally take 2 450 mg Flaxseed oil caps a day. This has dramatically reduced the severity and frequency of the dreaded brain zaps, and also the dissiness. They still happen once and a while when I'm tired, but during the day they are nonexistent. I've been Ven free for 3 weeks now and still get the occational zap or 3. But I'm confident that without the Omega-3 I would be driven to drink. Good Luck All
Hi there! Childrens gravol works for withdrawl symptoms and brain zaps!!!
Please can you tell me what is childrens gravol? I have terrible brain zaps still a week after stopping citalopram and feel like they will never stop? Thanks
Hi Ron-Just reading your note and wondering how you are since going off the anti deps. I have been taking these for 4 years and have been weaning off over the last 3 months. Down to a tiny crumb every 36 hours and feeling pretty good but cant seem to go without. The brain zaps and foggy head and vision are a real problem.
I wait til the zaps start before I take the small amount. These sure are potent drugs and I would hope that Doctors make sure the patients really need them before prescribing them. All the best-Di
Hi! I had to use 50mg of gravol to stop the vomiting, diarrha, dizziness, and vertigo every 4 hours for 5 days then took 1 gavol daily for 3 days. But the brain zaps and ringing in my ear won't subside. The withdrawl symptoms from effexor was like having the worst flu ever.
Oh boy-now I am really scared. I have been on Effexor XR for 20 years for severe panic disorder (20 years ago it was Prozac (didn't work), Imimpramine (didn't work), or MAO inhibitor (refused)-and Effexor was the only other choice-(
ironically my soon to be ex-stepmonster was a pharma rep pushing Effexor). For the past two or three years it has been failing and my doc refused to even consider changing it. Instead he kept adding other meds and upping the Effexor to the highest allowed outpatient dose (I currently take 300mg XR Effexor, 50mg trazadone, 4mg klonopin, 4mg xanax, 450mg Wellbutrin, and am down to 50mg from 150mg of seroquil). Needless to say I am on too much of everything and am still having severe panic attacks, agoraphobia, ADHD, OCD, etc.! Finally I got my doc to see it's the Effexor that isn't working, so after the seroquil is out of my system we are bringing down the Effexor and begin a more 'modern' med. If I miss a dose of Effexor, within 6 hours the brain zaps are debilitating. I know getting off Effexor is hard, but these posts terrify me. I had to resign from my job, and am having a horrible time getting SSI/Disability. I was hoping to be able to at least get a part time job, but it looks like I may be totally debilitated. Any thoughts or recommendations???
Another issue respondents, I have been having trouble breathing and chest pain since I started taking the seroquil down. Now I'm wondering if that is the cause.
Thanks, before I look at it, for The Road Back Org. 
hugs
I have had the most horrific experience with Zoloft. I started taking 50mg for 1 week and 100mg for 1 week and so on. I will admit at some point my mental state went from sad, severly depressed, paniky to happy, positive, energy. This however was short lived. When I started the 200mg dose, I came down with horrible Tennitus (constant ringing in the ear - high pitched like a dentist drill). Uncontrollable shaking of my hands, acne (never had that in my llife), couldn't empty my bladder, severe memory loss which is caused by Zoloft AND Tennitus, kind of numb, feeling no emotions really like lost part of myself. I had only started the Zoloft for 5 weeks. So, without doing any research, it was the weekend and I decided to go from 200mg to 100mg. Then hell came along. I woke up in my bed soaked with sweat, I had no control over ALL of my extremities (head, arms, legs, hands), I was scared as hell. I could not hold onto anything. I could not walk without the feeling that my legs were going to crumple beneathe me. OH, and this wonderful W/D sympton.... All my sences were hyperactive. ANY sudden noise made me jump out of my skin. At one point I needed to talk out loud to hear my voice because even my own voice startled me. So I got online and was floored at what I was reading. The extensive list of side effects while on the drug and the severe withdrawl symptoms. I searched for hours, finding many sites just like this one. All of them pretty much said exactly what I was going through. I contacted my Psychiatrist and told him what I did and how this drug was making me feel. He said go back up to 150mg. Once I took that extra 50mg, the body jerks stopped for the most part. But I wanted this crap out of my system as fast as possible. So I took 150mg for 7 days, then 100 and so on. I stopped taking Zoloft 16 days ago. I am still having many brain zaps and the feeling of electric shock inside my body. The Tinnitus has quited/softened a lot, but not all the way. I would not reccomend Zoloft to ANYONE. I had taken Effexor (150mg) for 20 years, I had zero W/D symptoms. I just quit cold turkey. But this Zoloft (SSRI) was a hell I don't want to revisit. So my doc put me on a new anti depressant along with Abilify. I have a trip out of state 10/31/16. I am terrified that I am going to lose my mind and that the Tinnitus will become painful. The lesson I learned is first research the drug before starting on the meds Look up the drug on the manufacturer's website, ask your Pharamcist, and then find this kind of site where people post their awful experiences. Had I done that. I never would have taken it. No questions. I am definetely going to start on the Omega 3 1000mg a day. It seems promising. Good luck to ALL. Research research research!!!! Peace be with you through this horrible journey. At least I have hope after reading these posts and many others like it.
If somebody says "I'm not a medical expert", then you shouldn't give ANY medical advice. Especially when you are as uninformed as this person. ( or most of the general public this Day in age ). Venlafaxine ( effexor ) is NOT an addictive substance and is a very effective class of snri's ( serotonin and norepinephrine re-uptake inhibitor). Yes it has some unwanted side effects, most drugs do. However, the medication does a lot more good then harm. What is bad for one person may be life saving to another. When people talk bad about a medication , it is putting a negative stigma on it. Then people read what you say and are not wanting to try it ( but maybe it was a perfect medication for their form of mental illness. The beads are okay to take out , which is the general practice for weaning off of the medication. You should NEVER EVER crush these pills ( or ANY medication unless otherwise told it's okay) most medications are made a certain way as to work the best in the body. Your doctor didn't blindly lead you into taking the medication. They tried a drug and it didn't work for you. We are doctors, we don't have a crystal ball, that show us how you will react to a medication. Please stop with the misinformation!!
Regards.
I personally was on this drug for 15 years....I recently tried slowly getting off of it, March of 2016....It was the hardest thing I ever did by far!
My primary said it should be out of your system in a few day, and he had disbelief when I described the withdrawal symptoms that I had. Truly a lot of misinformation is given to doctors by pharmaceuticals when they are pushing the drug to be used and prescribed in their practices! And more importantly, to the patient when it is being prescribed! I documented dailey my symptoms and experiences! I have now been off of it for 9 months. Most side effects are gone now, but some are still with me! Crazy how this drug works. So my thoughts are unless you have personally been on this drug for a time and experienced the affects yourself of what it does to your body, know this...the brain zaps, the flulike symptoms, fever chills, tennitis, inability to control real emotions are real. They do improve over time once the drug is out of your system fully over a period of time, but that transition is very difficult for patients! This should be known by any physician who is prescribing this drug, and he or she should be mindful and more helpful to their patient when they are trying to get off of it. Validation and understand is huge, and compassion goes a long way. My thought are they should have to try it before prescribing it, they would understand better what is real verses what they are being told by the FDA or pharmaceutical companies or Reps that come into the five and hand out the free samples! Just saying
Hi everyone.
I'm a health professional currently on day 4 of withdrawal from Venlafaxine. I genuinely believe people shouldn't be allowed to prescribe this med. If you're on it, begin to get off it as soon as possible. If your GP had just prescribed you it, don't take it. If I had known half the things about this drug I do now id have flushed them the day I got them. The withdrawals are something else all together. In my life I've been on virtually every anti d, anti psychotic, anti anxiety going. You name it, it didn't work. So I've had to withdraw from each and every one. Some were bad, others were awful. Venlafaxine is something all together on its own. I'm so shocked I can't find any suicides documented for venlafaxine withdrawal. If I didn't have the incredible supportive family I do, I'd be the first.
Someone please tell me it gets better.
Hi Bryony,
I agree this medicine isn't for the faint hearted. I have only taken it since July this year, and hope to get off it too , not because it hasn't relieved the depression but I believe the side effects could cause a lot of problems.
I am fearful of the withdrawal from it, but will do it very slowly as I think to do it otherwise would upset the balance of brain chemistry too much. Any tips you post would be welcomed. Thanks
I started this in March 2017. Was on 75mg now on 37.5. i tried weening off a couple months ago and I failed. I am now on my 3rd day not taking it and It's consuming my life. I feel the zaps all day and like brain fluttering. I had to sleep in my daughters bed as I was having like night terrors. Laying with her just calms me so much I could fall asleep. Last night I stayed up later to get tired and eventually fell asleep trying not to be creeped out by nothing! I've thought 2x's suicide. When I was shoveling out my car and I knew the exhausted was prob blocked I could have just shut the door and yesterday driving I thought I could drive right into a snowbank on the highway. I know it's the meds so I am OK but I've already been crying in the bathroom at work today. The zaps are horrible and to see that they could last a while awful . I'm going to look into the Omega 3 and the Children's Gravol cause I will not start back again I refuse but I need to get through this. I HATE this medication! What does this med do to your brain to cause the withdrawal symptoms?
Hi. I’m currenly going through withdrawal after 9 yrs in this awful poison. You need to take strong fish oil. Fresh ginger 2tbsp per day. Natural detox. It will help immensely w brain zaps. Get Himalayan salt. Put in glass jar and let it saturate overnight. 1 tsp ea morning. Iconic properties on the salt are amazon for you. Cut sugar. Lots of water. Chamomile at night to rid yourself of insomnia and nightmares. I hope you’re doing ok now
You can do this. Use natural things to cleanse yourself. Fish oil is a MUST! Also vitamin E. Fresh ginger- natural detox. Also try coconut charcoal pill. Absorbs toxins from cells. Yoga! Breathe through it. This will help w brain zaps. I promise.