I've never had brain zaps on Effexor XR, but I remember reading how everyone was saying that if you miss your dose by even ONE hour, you will experience withdrawal symptoms. So if you take your dose at 9am, but make sure you don't vary from that.

Well, when I was on the lower doses, I would start to "withdraw" hours before my morning dose. I would start getting really hot in bed, be dizzy when I rolled over, even have to get up for diarrhea! And I certainly wasn't late with my dose, so I couldn't understand why that happened.

When I went to 300 mg, I found that it all cleared up. I could even be late for a dose, and not feel any type of withdrawal symptoms. Everybody is different, I guess.

God bless,
Sandy