Successful Taper

Hi all! I just wanted to share my personal success in tapering off of Effexor after being on it for almost 20 years.

I was prescribed Effexor when I was around 16 years old, and have been trying to taper off this medication since I was in my early 20’s. The physical and mental side effects were always too much for me, so I always ended up going back. I remember starting a blog or Live Journal at some point in college called “Feeling the Effexor” to document my tapering attempts and journey that I desperately wish I could find! Anyways, at some point in my early or mid 20’s I was able to reduce from 75mg XR to a 37.5mg XR dose, but had a heck of a time trying to taper from there. I probably tried 5+ times in ten years, but kept getting blocked by extreme and scary side effects.

This time around, I decided to commit to a SUPER slow taper, meticulously count the balls in each capsule, and any time I had severe side effects I would either pause at that amount of beads or add an additional one back in until I stabilized.

To start, I opened and counted 4 Venlafaxine 37.5mg XR capsules and counted the beads / balls inside, and took the average to select a starting quantity of 107 balls.

I started by removing 9 balls to kick start the process, but learned quickly that I needed to reduce much more slowly. After a bit over a week I started reducing my count by 1-2 balls at a time.

At the halfway mark, I started to count how many beads were LEFT in each capsule to make it easier. This math must have been a little inaccurate because some of my worst side effects occurred during that week.

Overall the taper took 141 days (the chart above ends at 140 for a cleaner view), but I did it! I’m Effexor free! It was not fun, and the mood side effects were more intense for me than physical while tapering this slowly, but it was just tolerable.

Towards the end of the taper I started to notice I was feeling consistently depressed (15 balls and below), but I wanted to see if it was simply a side effect / if I could get through it with exercise, self care, and time. Unfortunately, about a week after completing this taper, I noticed my depression was much more severe, so I started on a super low dose of 25mg Zoloft. (Side note - I chose Sertraline w my doctor as it is supposed to be the most tested to be safe for pregnancy, and I may TTC this year.) I can report back if anyone is curious on how this works once it kicks in. I’ve heard others suggest doing a Zoloft bridge with the Effexor taper, but I really wanted to see if i could tolerate being antidepressant free. It's okay that i cannot at this time, and honestly makes sense given just how long my brain has depended on chemicals to help my mood.

Anyways, for anyone looking to get off of this drug, it IS possible and I’m rooting for you! I hope this helps!

Hi all! I just wanted to share my personal success in tapering off of Effexor after being on it for almost 20 years.

I was prescribed Effexor when I was around 16 years old, and have been trying to taper off this medication since I was in my early 20’s. The physical and mental side effects were always too much for me, so I always ended up going back. I remember starting a blog or Live Journal at some point in college called “Feeling the Effexor” to document my tapering attempts and journey that I desperately wish I could find! Anyways, at some point in my early or mid 20’s I was able to reduce from 75mg XR to a 37.5mg XR dose, but had a heck of a time trying to taper from there. I probably tried 5+ times in ten years, but kept getting blocked by extreme and scary side effects.

This time around, I decided to commit to a SUPER slow taper, meticulously count the balls in each capsule, and any time I had severe side effects I would either pause at that amount of beads or add an additional one back in until I stabilized.

To start, I opened and counted 4 Venlafaxine 37.5mg XR capsules and counted the beads / balls inside, and took the average to select a starting quantity of 107 balls.

I started by removing 9 balls to kick start the process, but learned quickly that I needed to reduce much more slowly. After a bit over a week I started reducing my count by 1-2 balls at a time.

At the halfway mark, I started to count how many beads were LEFT in each capsule to make it easier. This math must have been a little inaccurate because some of my worst side effects occurred during that week.

Overall the taper took 141 days (the chart above ends at 140 for a cleaner view), but I did it! I’m Effexor free! It was not fun, and the mood side effects were more intense for me than physical while tapering this slowly, but it was just tolerable.

Towards the end of the taper I started to notice I was feeling consistently depressed (15 balls and below), but I wanted to see if it was simply a side effect / if I could get through it with exercise, self care, and time. Unfortunately, about a week after completing this taper, I noticed my depression was much more severe, so I started on a super low dose of 25mg Zoloft. (Side note - I chose Sertraline w my doctor as it is supposed to be the most tested to be safe for pregnancy, and I may TTC this year.) I can report back if anyone is curious on how this works once it kicks in. I’ve heard others suggest doing a Zoloft bridge with the Effexor taper, but I really wanted to see if i could tolerate being antidepressant free. It's okay that i cannot at this time, and honestly makes sense given just how long my brain has depended on chemicals to help my mood.

Anyways, for anyone looking to get off of this drug, it IS possible and I’m rooting for you! I hope this helps!