Effexor Treatment Withdrawal Plan

After approximately 8 years taking either Effexor xr or Effexor, - for many reasons - I decided to ask my doctor to help with a plan to get off this drug for awhile ... hopefully forever. I kind of feel like I'm losing an old friend and am scared sort of in that regard. However I also just want to live some of my life without the dependency of anti-depressant/anxiety medication. And I know I'll need some support. The support this article may generate is perhaps one reason I'm writing it. I also just want to document the journey I'm about to embark on. This article will share some of my history, my experiences with Effexor, my reasons to come off of it, a doctor guided withdrawal plan, and the results. I'm not quite certain at this time how many parts this article will eventually evolve into, however I anticipate I'll need a couple of chances to get it all down. So please, follow me as I start this 4-week plan to being "drug free" of Effexor.

My History
I was prescribed Effexor xr after Prozac and Wellbutrin didn't work for me for the purpose of depression and anxiety. It took some time to go through all of these medications and give them a chance to work, decide they weren't and then come off and prepare to take the next one. That wasn't fun by any definition of the word. When I began feeling better not only mentally and emotionally but also physically by taking the Effexor xr I began to have hope.

My Experiences with Effexor xr
While my "symptoms" seem to always be present, I do feel Effexor xr held them at bay and I was better able to cope with things. I know it helped curb the "vicious bitch mode" I could go into. It helped me once again gain some resemblance of focus in my life. I no longer had 4000 thoughts racing my mind at once but just 788. Hey, at the point I was at, this was improvement for me so I embraced it. A major factor of the Effexor xr for me was that it helped to subside some physical issues I was having as well with a "spastic" gallbladder. The relief from the nausea and pain of that was priceless to me.

Initially my dosage was 150mg a day. That was two 75mg Effexor xr capsules a day. Plus I was given what I call a Xanax booster. Even though they were prescribed by my doctor in addition to the Effexor xr, I was not comfortable mixing the two and never used Xanax as part of my treatment. At some point, I was eventually cut down to one 75mg Effexor xr capsule daily. Even though I have had some difficult issues to handle during this time, I feel I've came through it relatively unscathed. But on the same note, even though I think I can better handle things and have "made it" so to speak, what it really boils down to is that I am dependent on this medication and it just seems time for me to give life a whirl without it. Maybe it's a control thing and I'm at the point of wanting to take back control of my life or something. I may fail miserably or I may be making the best decision of my life. The outcome is yet to be seen.

Reasons Why I Choose to Stop Effexor Treatment
Where to start? Perhaps first is due to the length of time I've been taking it. I've been on it at least 7 years for sure. And it just seems like that is probably long enough. At this point in my life if I can't handle what happens around me daily on my own without the dependency on this medication, I feel like I may never break free of it and I don't enjoy the thoughts of a lifetime taking this or any other drug if there is an alternative. Maybe it's the medication or maybe I've actually learned how to cope a little better and feel like I can do this but it seems high time to find out.

Second and one of my first complaints about this medication is excessive sweating. As a woman it is not cool to have pit stains. For awhile I thought this was a little bit anxiety related. Then I thought it was because I had started taking a water pill for water retention. I stopped that but noticed no difference in the sweating spells. When I started having some trouble with my menstrual cycle I asked the doctor to see if maybe, just maybe even though I was in my mid-thirties I might be going through some sort of change already. Hormone levels in my body were normal and the menstrual problems were more or less associated with stress at the time. So while that's all fine and dandy, I'm still sweatin' not just to the oldies like Richard Simmons either. Whenever I would get ready to go to work I could feel it on my upper lip, then like a gauge or something it would eventually engulf my forehead, then the back of my neck. From the time I'd leave my house and drive 5 minutes to work, my hair was soaked and so was my clothing. It's a clammy, yucky, heavy, thick sweat and so far from feminine I can't even tell you. And on some level I still think it is anxiety related too because if I'm home alone and all is well, no sweating. If I have to go somewhere I am not comfortable, I sweat. I didn't find any significant mention of heavy sweating as a side effect of Effexor xr and the doctor didn't seem to think it would be related either. However, while reading a health section in our local newspaper one day I came across an article explaining the dangers of excessive heat exposure while taking an anti-depressant. People who do sweat excessively while taking this medication can actually be in danger of extreme dehydration and other heat exposure related problems. So while this didn't stop me from sweating, it gave me a little insight that it was indeed medication related. I just try to stay as cool as long as possible and keep hydrated when I am warm and having a spell. Maybe a silly reason to stop medication for some but it's a factor for me.

Third, and because I'm still under the influence of the medication so it doesn't seem like a big deal to me really but yet it does because I am a married woman is the effect it has on your libido. I love my husband dearly and there is absolutely nothing wrong with him or me sexually, but my desire for such is darn near gone. The "act" is very rarely my idea and it seems like I could easily live my life forever without it again at this point. Not only is this not fair to my husband, I just don't think it's right at my age. I just turned forty.

Fourth reason for wanting off the drug is the dependency and the way a skipped dose has made me feel more than a time or two during my course of treatment. I've recently read alot of articles about Effexor. Articles about the benefits and articles about the effects and withdrawal. It seems that when a dose of it is missed or a plan to come off the drug is in place, alot of us complain about a similar feeling in your head that I personally call Straight Tripping. There are a million terms out there on the internet for it but this one is mine. For me it's like if I move my eyes from one direction to the other, my eyes move and it's like a camera going off in my head. I like actually hear the shudder of a camera going off at the point when I move my eyes but then it seems like it takes my brain(?) or whatever it is going on, just a second to catch up with my eyes and complete the photo. This can range from being very mild to very, very disturbing depending on the amount of time it has been since I've had the last dose and the time I get the next one in my system. Also accompanying is a dreaded feeling of dizziness unlike your garden variety dizziness. Maybe fuzziness is a good term too. I've seen silver squigglies, black shadows and experience blurred vision. Maybe you can see why I call it Straight Tripping now.

Probably the last reason and maybe the straw that finally broke the camels back I would have to say is the cost. I cannot afford any extra's right now. Nothing. So while I do have insurance, the Effexor xr was costing me a $20.00 monthly co-pay. And since the insurance we are with now encourages using mail order prescription services over actually having a pharmacy fill it, after the third time of physically using a pharmacy and not enrolling in the mail order program, the co-pay doubled to $40.00 a month. The mail order program maintains the $20.00 monthly co-pay, however I have to order and prepay for 3 months at a time and frankly even $60.00 at one crack can cause this household extreme financial upheaval. Using the pharmacy was the chance I was willing to take because I could control whether that money went for medication on a particular day or buying food for my family. So, I began the quest of asking my doctor for a generic form of the drug which at the pharmacy is classified differently than the Effexor xr and therefore would only cost me $10.00 a month for the first 3 months. So I am currently taking the regular version of effexor which is not time released as the xr version. While I was taking one capsule daily, now I must take two 37.5mg daily. I didn't care for taking medication once a day now I have to take it twice. Again, the effects of waiting too long on that second dose or needing to take only the one pill a day to make them last longer lands me right back to that straight tripping feeling. And the regular version seems to tear up my stomach. It just doesn't seem worth the hassle the drug is causing me now to continue it and not give life a chance again without medication.

Aside from all the above mentioned, I also have experienced the numbness to feeling this drug seems to induce over time. Once a very emotional person, I am now a little harder and colder in some instances and there are times when I really feel like I should be more compassionate but can't. Every now and then I used to have a big old cry and get things out and sort of cleanse the mind and soul. Not anymore. The only time tears cross my eyelids for the most part is more out of exhausted attempts to handle something which ends up in extreme anger with tears at that point. I also seem to experience the sensation that life has or is passing me by while I'm all doped up trying to cope with my issues. Maybe it's just age. They say time passes quicker the older you get but does that mean that events and holidays and such all sneak up on you without anticipation and then there's a feeling of mourning for not being able to enjoy it like you once did or should? I don't know but I'm about to find out.

My Physician Guided Effexor Treatment Withdrawal Plan
Okay, so now as far as my doctor knows I have been taking the two 37.5mg tablets a day. To wean off the medication the plan is to begin taking just one 37.5mg tablet once a day for the next two weeks and then take one every other day for the next two weeks and then stop at the end of the four week period. Hopefully I'm not doing myself a disservice but for the last two weeks probably I have only been taking the one tablet anyway due to not having the money to buy it. I'm kind of feeling a little ahead of the game really but the anxiety over it is still a little unnerving. So yesterday, August 26th, I went and got my last prescription of Effexor for 21 tablets. I've documented yesterday as the first day of treatment with only the one 37.5mg tablet. I'm kind of sure I can take these first few weeks alright. I'm trying not to worry about getting to the every other day phase of it and the side effects I know I'm in store for. I've read just absolute horror stories about coming off this medication and I pray that my transition will not be like the majority I have read about. My hope is that the physical side effects will be tolerable and disappear quickly once I am finally off of it. It will take time and no one knows the outcome but for me I feel it's the right decision at the right time. I will deal with the consequences when I have to and have given life anew another chance.

Withdrawal Plan Day One
Yesterday, Tuesday, August 26th was technically day one of the withdrawal plan. On Monday I had only had the one 37.5mg dose and I ran out. I didn't get to the pharmacy on time to pick up this latest round so I had to wait until it opened at 9 a.m. Tuesday for my pill. I am used to taking it between 4 and 5 a.m. before I go to work. It was closer to 10 a.m. by the time my son got my medicine to me and I was definately ready for it as the straight tripping was starting. And because of mind over matter, once I took it I felt better just knowing it was in there now and eventually take the big head feeling away. It did. The evening went well without any episodes. In the past when I've had the withdrawal feelings, if at all possible I'd just go to bed or at the very least avoid things like using the computer or sewing where focus is required and seems to exasserbate the effects.

Withdrawal Plan Day Two
Today, Wednesday, August 27th is day two. This is my day off from work so I slept in a while but by 6:30 a.m. I was finding my pill bottle and swallowing my tablet for the day. No straight tripping but maybe like an underlying nervousness. I don't know. I can't judge it or explain it. But I'll take it. Hope the dose holds me for a good while. Hopefully until tomorrow morning.

It is at this point that I feel I've shared all I can of this journey to this point. In a few days, probably even a little longer, I hope to report back with the progress of how I am doing on the withdrawal plan. My hope is to have a success story here in the end. But I'll need prayers in the meantime. Wish me luck and thanks for checking out my article. I hope you'll stop back to see how it goes.