# Effexor Withdrawal Advice



## unidlehands (Nov 15, 2004)

Okay,

I cut down from 150mg to 75mg a day, a couple of weeks ago, and apart from an hour or so of the well known brain zaps each day for about three days all was okay, pretty easy to cope with.

So, in my ignorance, on sunday I decided i would cut out the last 75mg and goto nothing, what a mistake that was. I usually take my tablet before bed, so didnt bother taking it on Sunday night. Woke up on Monday morning with constant brain zaps whenever moving my eyes (basically zaps of dizziness when moving my eyes), this was much worse than what I experienced when i cut down the dose a few weeks earlier.

So I managed to go through all of yesterday with constant brain zaps, which were quite uncomfortable, and went to sleep last night at about 10pm. I had an awful nights sleep with constant dreaming and this morning woke up shattered with constant brain zaps still, so i thought enough is enough and took a 75mg tablet at about 9:30, its now 10:45 and I am starting to feel much better and the brain zaps have pretty much vanished.

Well, this was my own fault I suppose, I had heard about the withdrawal symptoms of this drug and thought it wouldnt effect me badly, I had also been warned by the doctor that I would need to come off them very slowly. So I will take the advice of the doctor and do as he says.

I am not trying to worry anyone here, i just want to make sure that you DO NOT try to quit cold turkey as I tried, make sure you take the advice of your doctor and take it very slowly.

Cheers,

Graham


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## Guest (Sep 20, 2005)

I also was taking Venlafaxine (Effexor) for about a year or so. I remember getting 'brain zaps' when i came off them. My g-friend used to know when i got one cuz she used say a blank expression would come over my face all of a sudden when it happend. And in worse cases i used to get it by just moving my eyes like you expressed. peace.


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