Hi everyone,
I’m going through Effexor withdrawal for the past 5 days. I’ve had insane anxiety (like panic attacks multiple times a day and crazy mood swings) and I’m dizzier than I’ve ever been and just feel like my senses are off. It feels like all my senses and the inside of my brain are on fire. I feel like I need validation that this is normal and this will get better because I feel like I’m going crazy. Deep down I know I will get better but wow this is so scary and difficult. Is there anything that you guys have done to help yourselves throughout this process. The funny thing is, is that I have been on effexor at 75mg previously like 2 years ago and that first withdrawal was so much easier. I had brain zaps and more dizziness that first time but no where near the level of anxiety and anguish that I do now (and I had only gotten up to 35mg this time).
My advice is to taper down your dose very slowly. I have reduced from 75mg/day via 50mg/day for ~10 days, 37.5mg/day for about 10 days, then 25mg, 18.75mg, 15mg etc, over the course of a few months. I’m currently dividing my original dose in 8, so less than 10mg/day. When I was caught without this med while travelling once I had horrible withdrawal symptoms—it was absolutely awful and just as you describe. When I tried to taper down too quickly I had withdrawal symptoms at one point. But when reducing slowly, no issues at all. Reduce your dose a little and stay there until you feel ok. The withdrawal is terrible but it’s possible to taper off this drug without problems. Good luck 
Thank you for the advice but I was on 37.5 which is technically the lowest dose of the XR version and my Dr never did the whole taking out the beads thing. I asked him about it once and he said he never does that with patients. So I basically just stopped the 37.5 without any additional tapering since I technically didn’t really have anything to taper.
your doctor is probably right that you can come off of 37.5 without too much trouble but it can definitely be uncomfortable. you dont need the doctor to sanction you tapering down yourself, provided you can do it in a controlled fashion. this involves bead counting/weighing.
its cumbersome, but regardless you’ll probably start feeling better soon
