u/Nothanku_69

Hi all! I have been on Effexor XR capsules since 2019, started at 150mg and tapered my way down over the years to roughly 25mg. (Long story short got stuck in an ocd compulsion loop to lower after some bad tapering advice from my doctor I tapered without medical advice for the past 5 years.) The past 6 months I’ve been stuck in the most horrid anxiety/OCD/depression loop, to the point that I am hardly eating or sleeping. I used the bead method to taper, and over the last week have slowly started to add beads back to get to my goal of a full 37.5mg capsule. My doctor and my mom tell me I’m prolonging this feeling by not going back up now, but I’m terrified at this point to jump all the way back up. I think I just need to hear some success stories about being at 37.5 or upping dosage in general so I don’t feel so alone or scared. Tyia!

Hi all! Not really sure how to start this or what advice I’m looking for really. But I’ve been on Effexor since 2019, started at 150mg and have slowly tapered my way to roughly 22mg. I started my taper in 2021 after having a few nasty run ins with serotonin syndrome (mostly attributed to my excessive drinking and smoking weed as a teenager on top of 100mg hydroxyzine). So I developed a fear of my meds and what I’m coming to find is an OCD compulsion around them, leading me to lower not because it makes me feel better but because I’m scared of that happening again. I’ve been on a pretty steep decline for the last 3 years specifically since lowering from 37.5mg, following my latest serotonin syndrome bout.

Leading me to today where I am struggling for the past few months with extreme anxiety and out of control OCD to the point where I can hardly eat or sleep. I have an appointment with my doctor in a few days to talk about my dosage and adding hydroxyzine back, but I’m so terrified to up my dosage significantly or to take any sleeping meds. I also have a therapist who specializes in anxiety and OCD and is tremendously helpful but I’ve still been struggling so badly. I guess I just wanted to have some support from people who get it and hear success stories about upping your dose. Sorry for long post, thank you all in advance!

Hi all! Not really sure how to start this or what advice I’m looking for really. But I’ve been on Effexor since July 2019, started at 150mg and have slowly tapered my way to roughly 22mg. I started my taper after having a few nasty run ins with serotonin syndrome (attributed to my excessive drinking and smoking weed as a teenager on top of 100mg hydroxyzine). So I developed a fear of my meds and what I’m coming to find is an OCD compulsion around them, leading me to lower not because it makes me feel better but because I’m scared of that happening again. I’ve been on a pretty steep decline for the last 2 years specifically since lowering from 37.5mg, following my latest serotonin syndrome bout.

Leading me to today where I am struggling for the past few months with extreme anxiety and out of control OCD to the point where I can hardly eat or sleep. I have an appointment with my doctor in a few days to talk about my dosage and adding hydroxyzine back, but I’m so terrified to up my dosage significantly or to take any sleeping meds. I guess I just wanted to have some support from people who get it and hear success stories about upping your dose. Sorry for long post, thank you all in advance!