withdrawing from an antidepressant can be horrible for some people. i was on the second lowest dose of effexor xr and i had horrible anxiety & stress when i went off it that i sure never had before. to be honest i'm not sure the stress has ever gone away and it's been several years since i stopped the drug. the one thing that has helped is doing a detox tea but it only helps for a few days. i'd suggest taking stress tabs (hi potency vitamin B complex). i'm not very consistent with taking them so can't tell if they work but they probably would. i also experienced the numbing you mentioned being on the AD but when my doc had me take half the amount twice daily rather than once a day it went away. i couldn't take more of the drug though without the numbing coming back. so, i'd cut him a whole lot of slack as he's dealing with a lot on top of the crazy drug withdrawal. have you asked him how you can support him, if there is anything you can do? maybe that would help.