[eileenpal]

I am planning to go off effexor after about 10 years. Originally went on for panic attacks. I have had therapy, etc. and feel I am in a place to go off of effexor. While on effexor I have gained weight, had fuzzy head, sweats etc. and hope to someday be free of these. After reading the many withdrawal issues people have, I am looking for any natural remedies people have used to help lessen or make the withdrawal more bearable.

Thanks in advance for any help you may have.

Eileen

[smiley1984]

Have you tried withdrawing before? and if so what symptoms did you experience? I would suggest taking stuff to help relieve things like headaches and nausea but don't know of anything to make it easier.
You just need to taper slowly, be aware it may not be nice, plan to do it at a time when there won't be a lot of pressure on you to do things from work etc so you can have a day off and spoil yourself with a nice massage if you feel terrible - just think you will be saving money not taking the med so you can splash out occasionally.

[Christina86]

Taper off slowly.

You ARE doing it with a doctors supervision, right? I wouldn't recommend doing it otherwise.

Natural remedies, I don't have many. I tapered off a bit, I took Gravol (anti-nausea) which is basically a ginger mix... I took Advil for my splitting headache and just generally stayed in bed and moped. Lots of caffeine actually helped, and chocolate.

[Beholden]

Caffiene and chocolate seem to me to be good for what ever is wrong!


Except I'm not supposed to have caffeine anymore, darn

I got off that AD and didn't really have much trouble, but I was worried aobut it. I did it more slowly than my primary doc suggested, 1/4th at a time each week rather than 1/2 dose.

My only natural aid I was going to suggest is ginger. Ginger is acutally being used now for people who have nausea from chemotherapy, and it is proven to work. I'm not aware of the product mentioned in the other post, but it sure is worth a try.

I don't recall having any nausea from withdrawal though.

Good luck with being cleared of the reasons you were put on the drug in the first place.

[AAAAA]

Hello Eileenpal and welcome to PC! I would definately do this under the supervision of a doctor. They will decrease your dose gradually so that the withdrawal will be a breeze. When I stopped taking Effexor I did not see my regular doc and there was a miscommunication with the fill in doc. When I went in for a med check over a full month later, my regular doc was asking how I was doing on the new meds. I told him I didn't like the side effects of the new meds and went on to describe them. Turns out it wasn't a side effect of the new meds, it was a side effect of quitting cold turkey.

Ever forget to take your meds on time? Those brain zaps are horrible. Vivid, realistic, horrible dreams. My were 14 when I quit taking the effexor, but I dreamed they were toddlers again and I got irritated with them and threw them down a construction site. Seems petty now, but at the time I was absolutely positve that I'd done it. It took a lot of convincing that these things were not memories but figments of my imagination. It was horrible not being certain what was reality.