You REALLY don't have to suffer that much from Effexor withdrawal!!! I should have added in my original post earlier on in this thread, that the info I provided was not something I just made up. I got the information from PyschoBabble's medication tips where the very respected psychiatrist, Dr. Ivan Goldberg, talks about using Prozac to ease the withdrawal from other SSRIs as well as SNRIs. Here's the link:

http://www.dr-bob.org/tips/split/Ant...scontinua.html

This concept did work for me when I stopped Effexor! I restarted Effexor at a later date with no fear of the withdrawal I'd be facing in the future.

Also, other doctors have mentioned taking Benadryl. That has helped a lot of other people who have posted on other boards. It has limitations though as it usually causes fatigue. I didn't personally try it because I don't have a good reaction to Benadryl. But if you do handle Benadryl well and it isn't contraindicated with any of your other medications, you may want to try it.

Please look into either of these suggestions. I hate to see people suffering unnecessarily.