Side effect - has anyone experienced weird noises in the head when trying to come of Effexor?

I am trying to get off Effexor 150 mg. My ears almost feel like when someone opens the back window in a car that is traveling fast. It is a weird thumping. I am glad to hear that I am not alone.

I experienced loud popping sounds in my head that were painful after being given the first dose of Effexor, so cannot comment on the withdrawal. However, I can tell you it may definitely be related. I have a genetic related difficulty metabolizing many medications.

Having been convinced that my noises were from Effexor I now think it's withdrawal from paroxetine, after all. Each time I take 5 mg of it after not taking it for days, the noises subside.

Yes! Soft pulsing swooshes in both ears, like clockwork before I wake and is usually when I have gone the longest since the previous dose. Once I take the dose it subsides within 15 min.s
I've taken this med for almost a decade and I am weaning off of it now with the help of herbal support, magnesium chloride flakes in a warm bath daily and regular coach assisted exercise. So far, much better and faster than I anticipated (titrating).

THANK GOD. I have been searching endlessly for someone with this same problem! I have tried to quit effexor a few times, and I am again now. This wooshing nose is so unbearably loud and it only happens when I move my eyes. I did a bit of research and though that maybe a superior canal dehiscence was the issue. I took a trip to an ENT and after tests and an MRI, the doctor looked at me as If i was insane for coming in and I was left hopeless yet again. What are your other symptoms? Any gastrointestinal issues? Loss of balance and bumping into things? Do hear the whooshing sound even when not trying to quit, or perhaps before you ever took it? Id say it mostly closely resembles "Pulsatile Tinnitus" a symptom of a dehiscence. Are you on Lamictal as well by any chance? I also experienced the same thing on zoloft and lexapro.

Yes! I do experience "swooshing" and pulsing in my ear when I miss even one dose of Effexor. 3 years after I started taking Effexor I was diagnose with Meniere's disease and experienced severe vertigo and eventually significant hearing loss in one ear. When I tried to ween off of the drug is "swooshing" sound in my ear and accompanying irritability kept me from succeeding. My doctor told me the sound I was hearing was likely caused by tinnitus, another symptom of Meniere's. Coincidentally, he recommended a low dose of an antidepressant to battle the tinnitus so I remained on the Effexor. After researching, I am now convinced that the noise I hear is not tinnitus but a symptom of Effexor withdrawal. Sounds like it could be a nightmare but I am planning a controlled withdrawal when my calendar clear up in a few months.

This is called paxil flu, this happens when you suddenly stop an anti depressant, you have to ween off by taking one every other day then every two days so on and so forth

I have never had the courage to try coming off Effexor, after more than 10 years on it, and feeling the withdrawal effects from forgetting to take it for a day. But I recently increased the dose, from 112 mg to 150 to 225, and have started to notice music sounding really weird. Certain higher notes sound like they're echoing right next to my ear, and as I Iisten to songs I've listened to closely many times before, the instruments sound like they're sliding in and out of tune. It's very strange. I see "ringing in the ears" is listed in reported side effects of Effexor, but can't find anything online about other auditory side effects. Of course, what I'm describing may be totally unrelated to the medication.

I think you are very lucky. I find it hard to believe that Effexor is still on the market. If you google Effexor withdrawal, you will see many horror stories. The drug company and many doctors still deny the facts. I was on Effexor XR for about 6 months. At the next dosage increase, Serotonin Syndrome symptoms started. When we decreased the dosage, horrible withdrawal started. Anxiety; hallucinations in every sense except taste (olfactory hallucinations were the worst); vertigo to the point of vomiting; what many call "Brain Shivers". I had to walk a fine line of not too much or too little. This went on for about 18 months as I reduced by dosage by one XR bead per capsule per day. There are stories of 2 to 3 year for withdrawal. We did discover that adding Prozac helped.

When I was coming off effexor I also had the swooshing in my ears/head. Drs do not see this as a side effect but it has been experienced by a large number of pts stopping effexor. It will go away in time and did not cause any other hearing problems after the fact in my case. It will go away once the effexor is totally out of your system.

I am no doc, yet I believe that tinnitus (ringing in the ears) may be a side effect of that med.
Perhaps you have water in your ears? Just a thought. Do you have pain in your ears? Take care.