[childofchaos831]

It's been a couple days now, and I'm really starting to feel it. My head is heavy, kinda all foggy, hadx a lott of difficulty getting to sleep last night (and if I went into what all I take at bedtime, you'd wonder how I even wake up in the morning).

Hows long does this last? My pdoc said if it bothers me to just start taking it again, but I want to just get thru it and be done. I've heard so many horror stories about getting off it, I don't want to be stick and dependent for the rest of my life, you know?

I'm gonna go to an NA meeting tonight andx get my 30 day keytag for clean time, but I kinda just need to know that there is hope atf the end of *this* tunnel.

[JuggaGROWrX]

So have I, I had my meeting with my med doc yesterday and I am told that my Venla was a horror drug and she cannot for the life of her understamd why my previous psych doc would put a severe history bipolar 31 year old on this medication. I resumed telling hernit wasnt a psych/med doctor at all but my primary care physician attempting to take care of me at the time I didn't have insurance and paid out of pocket for everything and so he tried to fill all shoes if you will thinking he was doing me a service. 2 years later Im on this drug that Im told I shouldn't be on, leaving me to question the past 2 years of my life and all the situations that have ended both in anger, irritability and confusion. Today I am supposed to double up on my Lamictal (Lamotrigine) from 25mg to 2 pills at 50 mg and at the same time start to taper off 2 years of taking 75 mg. of Effexor ER daily... now needs to be cut in half to 37.5 mg then 75 then 37.5 every other day and so on until I feel good enough to just take the 37.5 daily and go from there, she said to "Be on the lookout for brain zaps, or electrical shock feelings in your brain/head." Oh ok! Brain ZAPS! Aka Seizures? wtf is going on with this medication and the difficulty and scary stories coming off of it is enough to stress anyone out, I hope your feeling better at least and my thoughts are with you at this very moment as I type this I have faith that the both of us will see this through and get off this ****. I would like to hear your story continued if you don't mind updating this exact thread as I have just subscribed to it on Tapatalk and will contract to so the same if not for me for others to see what I went through in this situation and maybe someone will see it someday and relate. Best of luck to you

[childofchaos831]

I am seriously debating taking one of the venlafaxine right now. It is 5 am. I can't sleep. I tried, and had to get up, from being nauseous, and tossing so much my sheets came undone. Last night, I didn't fully fall asleep until about 6 am, and then didn't get out of bed til 3 pm. I just feel like utter crap right now. I feel like with my cpap on, I can't breathe, but I take it off, and it's better. I've taken my night meds, so my brain isntf fully functioning. I really just want to sleep right now, and I can't...

[unlived]

There's a trick that sometimes works and definitely worked for me. Get your dr to prescribe Prozac and take that instead of Effexor for a week or so then stop. It has a longer half life so is easier to stop.

[childofchaos831]

I was going to call tomorrow already, about seeing if hee would send in an rx for the 37.5mg ones... I can ask about that as well. Thanks.

I did end up taking one, and I fell asleep pretty quickly, actually. This just makes me more aware that I need to get off this medicine more than ever.

[childofchaos831]

My pdoc called in a prescription for the 37.5mg so I'm gonna take those for a month or so, and then try again. All of this definitely made it clear to me I need to get off this crap. I think I just need to go slower...

[Guiness187055]

Just detox super slow the brain zaps are no joke. My wife and I both had them coming off of Cymbalta. Hers were worse than mine.

Horrible medication to stop. I stopped it about 9 months ago and I had horrific affects and I was only taking 75mg. Brain zaps were awful. Think it took about 3 months for the affects to disappear.

[childofchaos831]

Ya, I had been on 75mg for a while, when we tried stopping it... that did not work well. Going back okn at 37.5mg for a bit...

[JuggaGROWrX]

Originally Posted by childofchaos831

My pdoc called in a prescription for the 37.5mg so I'm gonna take those for a month or so, and then try again. All of this definitely made it clear to me I need to get off this crap. I think I just need to go slower...

Im on my first day of 37.5 and so far so good. I am alternating between the 75 and 37.5 every other day until I feel comfortable enough to solely take the 37.5 only. Just the thought of those brain zaps is freaking me and my wife out. Not cool man. Not cool. My medical marijuana will see me through this I hope.

[battlesymphony]

It's best to reduce it slowly, although I was on 300mg and had it reduced bit by bit a week at a time and when I came off it completely the withdrawal effects were hellish but only for a short period of time maybe a week or less. Everyone is different but it definitely wasn't as difficult coming off it as I thought it would be. Good luck with your journey.

[vishva8kumara]

Oh, those SNRIs and their withdrawal.. I too have gone through over 3 months of living nightmare getting off of Cymbalta.

I had to taper off in more than three attempts. I got pissed off of my therapist, and wanted to get off of meds too. I was convinced that my situation cannot be fixed, so I just stopped taking Cymbalta within one week; and oh boy, one week is not at all enough.

Cymbalta is available only in 30mg and 60mg, so I had to open the capsule and remove 1/3 of pellets to make 40mg. So I went on 40mg for a week, and when the discomfort was bearable, I moved down to 30mg.

From 30mg I again opened the capsules and removed 1/3 to make 20mg. The 1/3 I remove from the capsule in 2 days makes up another 20mg for the third day. On 30~10mg I had to go down over a month or so.

I even had to go on on 5mg for several weeks and still had so much of withdrawal symptoms for months afterwards.

At the peak of the withdrawal there were several instances where I was convinced that I was terminally ill and going to die, and I was waiting for death to come soon; and later realized that it is only Cymbalta withdrawal.

It is like having fever and body pains all over like after being beaten by 3 strong men the day before and constantly zapped like being plugged to mains power supply while riding on a boat on a rough sea. That still does not explain Cymbalta withdrawal very well.

[vishva8kumara]

Believe me, this is not going to last forever. I know getting off of an SNRI is excruciating for a long time period that feels like forever. But the discomfort ends.

It has been almost a year after I have stopped Cymbalta, and that withdrawal was completely gone by end February this year.

However I'm back on Lexapro which is only SSRI. SSRI withdrawal is a cakewalk compared to SNRI withdrawal. I have told my PDoc that if I'm ever to take another SNRI, that would be in a life-or-death situation, and would not wish to stop taking that SNRI till death.

Wish you all the strength to get through this difficult time.

[vishva8kumara]

It is a big misconception that getting off of an AD is like detox. A detox is the last thing you would want to do when getting off of an AD.

Actually what you need is to NOT detox quickly, and wean off gradually. When your body is used to the sh**-load of norepinephrine in the brain, and when that is suddenly lowered, your brain throws up all sort of tantrums to get that back.

When getting off of SNRI, Mirtazapine was very helpful to me to be able to go to sleep. It is very similar to the end game of an SNRI. What SNRI does is stop re-uptake of norepinephrine and seratonin. Mirtazapine on the other hand increase the release of norepinephrine and seratonin without effecting the re-uptake.

But Mirtazapine is much easier to get off of and taper off than those SNRIs. And over here Mirtaz has a much relaxed policy at the pharmacist, so I could taper off at my own phase.

[childofchaos831]

I think I did it! Spread out the doses slowly and just kept going... haven't had any since Sunday night (8/20). Feeling pretty okay. Some minor physical symptoms, but those could be related to allergies and other stuff. So far, brain zaps and sleep problems haven't been an issue. Yay!

[splitimage]

That's great news childofchaos.