It makes me so mad (and sad) to hear about how much people are suffering when withdrawing from Effexor. If it's done correctly, there is no need to go through such h*ll. You need to decrease slowly and then substitute a low dose of an SSRI at or near the end of your withdrawal.

One of the main reasons for the discontinuation effects is because of Effexor's short half-life. If you substitute a longer acting serotonergic medication, you eliminate or minimize this problem. Prozac works the best as it has a very long half-life.

I tried getting off of Effexor VERY slowly but without any substitution and had a horrible couple of days (after I went off of it completely). I then read about this substitution solution and tried it. It worked so well. I just wish more doctors knew about this or made sure that their patients had this option available to them.

Clipper