I have been on Effexor for over 7 years. I am trying to wean myself off of it with my doctors help. I am now down to 20mg from 225mg. It has been a real struggle. I literally now have to open up the capsules and count out 20 little white dots and then I mix them into applesauce or I just down them with water. This whole process has taken me so far almost 7 months. I tried going a bit faster but I has so many side effects that I couldn't. I feel pretty good and have minor side effects, but for me the whole sucess of this is going really slowly and lowering the amount very gradually.