Effexor withdrawal question

Hi, I am new here. I have been trying various antidepressants, (have restless leg problems with many of them), the most recent of which was Effexor. I was on 37.5 for a week, then 75 for three days. The side effects were not tolerable, and I assumed I had not been on it long enough to have withdrawal problems. Could I have been wrong? Monday was my last pill and last night I had tons of nightmares and really vivid dreams and sweats adn this morning since I got up am having trouble with being dizzy and having these weird little brain zappy sensations - so much that I made dh take ds to school because I was afraid to drive.

Is this all in my head or could there really be physical symptoms after that short of a time? I am a little annoyed that my Dr. did not tell me how hard it can be to get off this medication. I found that myself on line.

Hi Rene

I was on Effexor for 2 years and came off them last May due to hypomania (I was then diagnosed with bipolar disorder). Sorry, don't wish to scare you!! I am not saying in any way this is the case for you.

I did have a break with Effexor for 4 months, had no anti d's at all. With MOST anti d medication withdrawal you will certainly experience "electric shock" sensations in the head, BUT they do ease after a few days. As you haven't been on them that long, these sensations shouldn't last.

My brother is on 75mg x 2 a day of Effexor and has been for 3 years, he often says he needs to change them as he often gets leg and head shakes.

Everyone reacts differently. I hope you start to feel better very soon, take care

Thanks, Babs. I was hoping it wouldn't last long since I was not on it long. The zapping thing is really freaky! I feel like I can't move my eyes quickly without it happening, which is why I am a little nervous about driving the kids around.

yup.......same symptoms i had when i came off of it......good luck.....those "zaps" are out of this world, aren't they? xoxoxo pat

I would strongly recommend you do this with the help of your prescriber.

I was on Effexor only 2 weeks although I was on SSRI's about 10 years when I quit Effexor suddenly, cold turkey.
The withdrawals were awful. The head noise and zaps would wake me up from sleep. The nauea and everything else.. went on for weeks. I believe if I'd not been so stubborn and had tapered off with the help of a doctor, it wouldn't have been nearly so bad.

Please call your doctor and tell him you want off of the medication and ask him how to do it. It might be that you taper off over several weeks to avoid the withdrawal symptoms.

Good luck to you!

ECHOES

You were taking the drug long enough, and in sufficient dosage, to beging to adapt to it. That's all it takes, apparently, to set yourself up for withdrawal symptoms.

At this point, I wouldn't recommend going back on the Effexor. You're well into withdrawal. I've heard many people say that the OTC med Benadryl (diphenhydramime, also available very inexpensively as the generic at places like Walmart) is a good treatment for the brain zaps and such. You need to be aware that the Benadryl can make you quite dopey on its own.

In time, this will fade away. Right now, it's probably scary to experience. If you can try to remain calm during these episodes, at least you will minimize their impact on you.

Best of luck with it.

Lar

Oh yeah, thats effexor withdrawl, your not going crazy I promise!

I even get it if i miss my meds by an hour or two sometimes. The moving your eyes thing SUCKS (in capitals) and I am currently tapering off because my pdoc thinks its aggravating my anxiety.

Hang in there, and it will pass with time. I dont really have any useful advice for you about the brain zaps, but just know that they arent harmful from what I have seen and they do pass.

just be careful if you do go back on it- I can bearly get through the first few days if I have forgotten it without extreme side effects, but then it eases off. I am on 150mg 2x day (having cut down from 375mg/day!) and I feel the side effects are worse than the withdrawl... (until the body gets used to it again).

Good luck with it all

Thank you so much, everyone! I have benedryl here, I will give that a try. At least I know I will be able to sleep then.

I am just dumbfounded that it took such short time for there to be this kind of withdrawal (not to mention dumbfounded that my doc did not mention any of this, just casually said "Lets try Effexor" when the Lexapro was not working).

Since restless leg syndrome has been a problem with almost everything I have tried, he told me that if the Effexor failed, he wanted to try Cymbalta, as it was supposed to sometimes help RLS. Will it have the same type of withdrawal symptoms? If so, I don't think it is worth it. I am starting to feel like I am just meant to have chronic low grade depression and I should just forget the meds!

Again, thank you all so much for helping out a newbie at this site!

I dont know much about Cymbalta but I hear great things.

Effexor from what ive seen has the worst reputation for withdrawl.

And yeah, my doctor did the same thing. Here, lets try effexor. Turns out it was making me worse.

RLS is a very specific problem with different problems not caused by AD's. What you had is likely akathesia.

a note about cymbalta.......made me "speedy"......

the doctor didn't warn me either about effexorxr.....i tapered off by counting those little balls in the capsules. that's how hard it was to get off of. and i still have bad days where i thought i would just lie down in a fetal position and cry all day......but!!! boy did i feel good when i got off of it......

Hi Everyone,
Could you please further describe what you mean by "brain zap?" I take Effexor but you're all making me extremely nervous!
Thanks,
Okie

i know for myself it is kinda like an 'electric shock' going thru the brain... but i only get it when going back on this, all the rest of the time i seem to be fine.

That's what I saw when I looked up Effexor online, too. That really bites for you that not only did it make you worse, but then you had to get off it, too!

Maybe I will try Cymbalta yet.

I had HORRIBLE dizziness when I stopped effexor. I had to open the capsules and remove 1/3 every week, because otherwise I felt awful.

I forgot to take my dose this morning and had to come back home from work. It was only a few hours after the normal dosage time, but I started getting buzzing in my head....not shocks, but like a mild electrical pulse; like when you put your tongue on the 9V battery terminals...if you have ever done that.

ouch.....my pharmacist and i COUNTED those little suckers...... and it took forever to get off of that med......pat

I was on Efexor for about 6 months... first on the 75mg dose then went up to 150mg. Heard some pretty scary things about coming off it etc and I was feeling better and decided to drop the dose back to 75mg. Initially was fine but then started getting bad again... my doctor recommended going up a dose but I wanted to try something new. She put me on Luvox and I had to go cold turkey without efexor for 3 days.. the first day missed I noticed I was getting these head whoosy sensations. Almost like my focus being messed up and brain taking awhile to function to where my head was moving. Didn't feel too sick other than that just a bit fuzzy and tired.

Was on the Luvox for a month, felt so much worse.. so now going back to the efexor. At least I know it helped! I'm just hoping I don't have the initial side effects that I had when I first went on the efexor. They were like hell for about 2 wks but then felt so much better