Posted by fluff on October 17, 2006, at 7:11:37
Hi! I'm new to this board. I've been on Effexor XR 150mg for 3 years (for anxiety which occurred when I started going through perimenopause; the same thing happened to me post-partum). It's worked wonderfully for me, but I would like to see if I can get by on a lower dose. I'm not sure when, or if, I'd like to be off it completely.
I tried tapering once by going from 150 to 112.5, had a severe migraine and vomiting on day 4, followed by free-floating anxiety on day 7; I got scared that I was relapsing (hadn't heard of withdrawal symptoms) and went back to 150 for another year. Two weeks ago, I decided to try tapering, by dumping only 10 beads out of my 150 mg. capsule, planning to increase by another 10 beads every week or so. By day 5, I felt as if I was walking through jello. This was accompanied by mild anxiety. I couldn't imagine walking around with that "suspended in jello" feeling for the 3 months that it would take me to taper this way to get to 112.5mg. So I was wondering, is it possible to taper too slowly? In some ways, this felt worse than my rapid jump down the first time (although the anxiety was not as bad). Any thoughts/suggestions? I am one of those "exquisitely sensitive to medication" types. Had a lot of trouble starting Effexor, too. Thanks in advance!
poster:fluff
thread:695493
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20061010/msgs/695493.html