Posted by baddog55 on March 4, 2004, at 20:11:34
In reply to Re: How long does withdrawal from Effexor last?, posted by jeenobeano on March 4, 2004, at 19:11:52
Jeeno,
that's exactly how I tapered off too. But I went a little further and went to the drug store, bought some Acidophilus suppliments for $2.00, (because the capsules are clear) dumped them out, and divided up the effexor into them. that way, you can kind of see that they are equal. Started dividing 75's into 37's, then 37's into 18's, etc, got all the way down to 9's and then off. It was a little work, but it worked! I really think tapering S L O W L Y is the only way to get off this without losing your mind! Luck to you all!
> I've been grappling with Effexor weaning for... well, nearly 3 months now. I was on 75 mg of the XR stuff for almost 2 years, and over the course of the past 3 months have managed to sloooowwwwwly get down to about 37.5 mg.
>
> I tried going straight from 75 to 37.5 and it was a living hell. So what I've been doing is opening the capsules up and taking out 1 or 2 extra beads every day in an alternating fashion -- i.e., Monday I'll take 1 more out, Tuesday I'll take 2 more out, Wednesday 1 more out, etc. Every three weeks or so I'll have a day or two where I'm feeling VERY mild versions of what everyone's talking about here; when that happens I stay put for a day or two and then it passes.
>
> My method is probably not for anyone who's suffering terribly while on Effexor; as you can tell, it will end up taking me nearly 6 months to wean completely off at the rate I'm going. But in my case, I felt totally fine while on Effexor and have no urgent need to get off it ASAP; also, I have the lowest pain tolerance on the planet and could NOT handle any more symptoms than I'm experiencing. And yes: I've told my pdoc about this method and he's given it his thumbs-up.
>
> I wish all of you the very best.
poster:baddog55
thread:1016
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040304/msgs/320339.html