Thank you Lucy. No most people withdraw too quickly and that is when they experience side effects. Slow, slow, slow, and you should be all right. Yes I lost all the extra weight too.
Yes you can do this. Good luck.
I reduced my dose from 550 beads (inside the capsue) to 540 beads per day for one week. For the first few days i had nausia, buzzing in my head and night sweats. This has mainly stopped now (day 6) but i couldn't believe I was still getting withdraewal effects at such a small reduction. If i reduce at a rate of ten beads per week i should be off them in around a year...though i suspect it will take a bit longer as there will be times when i'm busy at work etc...when i wont be able have side effects and work as well!
Cool to know that I could lose some weight.. I put on 15kg when I first go onto the VF, then went back by 5kg. Cholesterol is going up, but I suspect that it is an age bias cause i was straight down the middle with blood tests until 40, then went up by exactly 1 each year.
RE: med mods.
I got the doc to give me 150's , 75's, 50's and 25's over a period of time.
Instead of splitting the atom, I then went
period, dose
1 150
2 150
3 150
4 75
5 150
6 75
7 75
8 75
9 50
10 75
11 50
12 50
13 50
14 25
15 50
16 25
17 50
18 25
19 25
19 25
19 25
19 0
19 25
19 0
19 25
19 0
19 25
19 0
19 0
19 0
19 0
BUT if I missed on of the combinations, or took the wrong dosage, then I had an issue and had to back up one dose for a couple of weeks.
A change no matter if planned or what still hurt me. This is my 3rd week cold turkey, and I'm stll getting issues with reaction, but it is the same reaction that I can but into the background 'noise' just like my ringing ears.
Hope this helps.
Thanks...hope you start feeling better soon!
Hi Anne,
I am in Canada and only have capsules as well. I have been looking everywhere for tablets. I talked to the pharmasist and called the company and was told capsuls are only sold in the US and Puerto Rico.
I am on 75mg of effexor and I'm trying to wean off. Today is my first day on just one capsul and I'm just waiting for the withdraw to hit. I would live to reduce slower than a whole 37.5 mg at a time!
Hi Barbchristine
I'm also in Canada. Maybe you could try 75 mg one day, and go down by a few beads less per day until you get to about 37.5 mg, to do it more gradually?
I've gone from 225 mg to 150 mg to 75 mg without much incident. But from 75 mg to 37.5 mg daily, was another story. I had all the withdrawal symptoms but found that Omega 3 and a multivitamin did help a lot.
I then took 37.5 mg every second day and after that, started reducing the beads in the capsules by about 10 per day. Luckily I have been on vacation since going on the reduced bead schedule because this is where I am having a bit of difficulty (but also forgot to pack the Omega 3 and vitamins). I find I'm itching most of the time, forgetful and a bit weepy, but luckily no brain zaps.
Unfortunately for my poor husband, I'm also quite quick to snap at him, so I try to bite my tongue when I can. I go back to work in 3 days, so that might also be part of my issues right now. I'll be glad to be done with this. I was put on Wellbutrin to help get through it.
This will be my third time on Effexor XR and it has been a great help every time, even with the withdrawal symptoms. I'm trying to make some life changes to avoid needing it again because I'm 57 and am hesitant to take it a fourth time.
I hope you can find what works best for you. My doctor told me to stop after one week of the 37.5 mg capsules every second day, but I physically could not. That is when I started reducing by 10 beads/day.
Good luck to you!
You will definitely lose weight. I was taking Abilify and Effexor and gained over 40 lbs. My weight is going down. I'm off the Abilify. It didn't start going down until I began to wean off Effexor.
hey.. i want to know... what gonna happen if i take 10 dose of venlafaxine - prolonged release at a time??
You need to weigh the beads they are different