I have been on Effexor for a little over a year. It was a wonderful anti-depressant - definitely made me feel better. However, there were things I didn't like about it - like my complete LACK of sexual desire. But anyway, I started losing my hair and, after some research, apparently alopecia is an uncommon side effect. So the plan for weaning me off has been 2 weeks at each dose. Two weeks ago, I went down from 225 to 150. I was okay the first week, actually. Then little by little I just started going into rages and crying over the most ridiculous things. I am so all over the place. Flu-like symptoms, body aches, don't feel like doing anything. So now I have two weeks at 75 and then what? Can someone please give me some pointers on staying out of jail when I want to ram my car into crazy drivers on the road.
Tapering Effexor XR from 225mg to NONE. Help!?
- Asked
- 21 Apr 2013 by mjdiaz410
- Updated
- 19 Jan 2015
- Topics
- effexor, effexor xr, tapering
Responses (4)
Thank you for your post,my daughter has Alopecia and is on Effexor, but since she had small bouts with Alopecia years before taking Effexor I did not relate the two until recently when no treatments are working for the Alopecia.
I've been on 150mg Effexor for over 8 years. I have seen many family members go off of it, i am not looking forward to the withdrawal process with my daughter!
From what I have seen in my family, I think you need to take longer on each dose reduction, and see if there is another drug you can add , like maybe Wellbutrin ( dopamine enhancer) which will at least help level out some of the brain chemistry, but wont have withdrawals when you quit taking it. A compounding pharmacy may be able to customize some doses for you to taper off without having to drop 75mg at a time.
I have not met a doctor yet who really understands just how powerful the withdrawals are from this drug!
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