Quitting Effexor Cold Turkey
I had been on Effexor for about a year when I decided To quit after experiencing serotonin syndrome from being put on too high of a dose. I also was experiencing extreme anger, irritability, anxiety, etc while on the medication so it just wasn’t helping me and was making my symptoms extremely worse than they’d ever been, it felt like I wasn’t on any medication to help me. I tried the taper, but each time I did it I experienced extreme withdrawal symptoms for up to a month, so about a week ago after getting down to 150mg on the taper I decided to quit cold turkey, because I couldn’t keep dealing with the withdrawal symptoms I was having for another 6 months or more. Please don’t do what I’m doing without seeking medical advice first and advice from other people who have done the same thing. I also have a great support system and go to college online so I don’t have to go anywhere while I’m going through this, I’ve also been prescribed lorazepam to help reduce symptoms. And I have people constantly with me during the day or checking up on me. This was just the best decision for me :) So here’s the symptoms I’ve had the first week of being off it. I’ll update every week if people want to know or need advice or support :)
Week 1:
Severe Mood swings
Severe irritability and anxiety
Extreme anger and depression
Body aches
Body tremors
Hot flashes
Extreme drowsiness
Super vivid nightmares