Posted by Cyndy on January 27, 2005, at 13:16:36
In reply to Re: Effexor Withdrawl - I did it, so can you, posted by Petra on January 17, 2005, at 22:02:40
Hi again-Petra's idea about gentle weaning taking down the dose gradually is great. If you will go buy some gelatin caps at your health food store, you can place the tiny white balls in them and the long acting effect should not be lost.
This has got to be the only way to wean off without the terrible side effects. I have been dizzy all day and I took 75 mg this morning.
Thanks for sharing your success, Petra.
Cyndy
Hello there fellow AD users. I have quit Effexor XR twice in the past 2 years. I feel your pain. When I first tried to quit, I went down from 225 mg to 150 mg and the withdrawal was severe. I had a fever, dizziness, night sweats, headache, nausea, nightmares, ect. Weaning down from 225 to 150 to 75 to 37.5 was not an option for me. The only way I was able to wean off was to open up the capsules and divide the little beads into smaller doses. I used a razor blade to divide the doses into little piles on a piece of computer paper. If you divide a 75 mg dose into four, you get four 18.75 mg doses. Divide it into six and you get 12.5 mg doses. So basically it's just a matter of deciding what dose you want to take each phase of your weaning off. I would go four days on each dose before going down. It took me 5 weeks but it was painless. A much better way to wean off. Now I know that when you break open the capsule, you are destroying the extended release capacity of the pill. It does not matter. It worked for me. Here are the exact doses I took going down every four days(some people may need 7 days of each dose). 225, 187.5, 150, 112.5, 75, 56.25, 37.5, 18.75, 12.5, 7.5. So once the dose is divided you just lick the tip of your finger and press down on the beads and they will stick to your finger. Just stick the dose on your tongue and drink plenty of water to wash all the beads down. I hope those of you that are suffering will try this method. It works. God Bless, Petra
poster:Cyndy
thread:12459
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050124/msgs/448684.html