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As someone who had to abruptly come off venlafaxine due to side effects, I can tell you that it was complete hell. I experienced vomiting, the weirdest, most ho

As someone who had to abruptly come off venlafaxine due to side effects, I can tell you that it was complete hell. I experienced vomiting, the weirdest, most horrible nightmares every night, sleep paralysis with hallucinations and a recurring feeling of "electic shocks" inside my head. This lasted about a month. I think it borders on inhumane not to mention possible withdrawal symptoms before prescribing this awful "anti-"depressant. My doctor eventually prescribed me trazodone, so I could just sleep the withdrawals off.

mcjiggerlog 10y ago
I went through a similar experience (although not as extreme) when coming off of citalopram, even with a doctor's guidance. Lots of nausea and disorientation, but worst of all were the "electric shocks" which really were very disturbing. Not a single mention of these when having the medicine prescribed!
- nspriego 10y ago
  If I miss taking citalopram 2 days in a row I start getting these "electric shocks" and dizzyness. Glad to know I'm not the only one.
ds18 10y ago
Do you mind me asking what your dosage was and if you went cold turkey or tapered off at all?
- DanBC 10y ago
  I'm not the person you replied to, but I was on 350 mg (which is a reasonably high dose). I was on venlafaxine regular release, not the extended release. If I missed a dose I got full on discontinuation effects. When I tapered off it wasn't great, but it wasn't awful. Some people do report problems even with a very gentle long taper down.
  - radd9er 10y ago
    My wife has been on venlafaxine for years, and has been tappering off it for the past year. She has had horrible withdrawl symptoms from missing a single dose, like you describe. Each time the doses town (tapering), she has a rough few weeks. How long were you on it? Do you have any advice? Thanks.
baus 10y ago
I had to withdraw from Effexor myself. The electric shock symptom is real. It is brutal. Combined with withdrawal from benzodiazepines, those were some of the worst days of my life
- tibbon 10y ago
  A partner of mine had super strong shocks as well from it. Scary. It went on for a while almost any time she's turn quickly
butterfinger 10y ago
Venlafaxine seems to be one of the worst SNRIs/SSRIs wrt discontinuation syndrome. Except for the nausea, I had the same experiences when quitting cold turkey. The most problematic symptom for me were the "electric shocks" when moving my eyes or head to fast. For me, getting off venlafaxine was way harder than quitting tilidine, tramadol or the z-drugs.
- DanBC 10y ago
  I was on zopiclone for over a year. I stopped cold turkey, it wasn't a problem, although I do still miss it sometimes. I see that it's one of the top ten meds obtained using stolen prescription pads in France; or that Dublin drug rehab clinics see more people addicted to it and I understand that there's obviously potential for addiction there. I was on Venlafaxine (regular release, not extended release) and missing a dose was as unfun as everyone says it is. Tapering down (from 350 mg) was, for me, easy enough and I stopped after 6 weeks. My current med has different side effects, but also isn't as effective. I'm not sure tapering down and then back up on a different med is worth the risk.
- radd9er 10y ago
  To both parent commenters, my wife has been on venlafaxine for years, and has been tapering off it for the past year. She has had horrible withdrawl symptoms from missing a single dose, like you describe. Each time the doses town (tapering), she has a rough few weeks. How long were you on it? Do you have any advice? Thanks.
  - butterfinger 10y ago
    That sounds pretty harsh. Did your wife talk to her doctor about the withdrawal symptoms? When I quit, I've taken it for about two years. I was able to prevent the brain zaps by making a concious effort to not move my head or eyes too fast. The other symptoms persisted for some weeks-months.
    - radd9er 10y ago
      She did, she's had several doctors throughout her medication, one of them seemed very ignorant of the side effects. Thanks for responding.
harshreality 10y ago
I'm curious... you, and all other commenters who mentioned electric shocks... which I'd previously heard of as "brain zaps"... What difference would it make if the doctor had told you of that side effect before you started the drug? Imagine you have no idea of what brain zaps felt like. Would you have avoided the drug based on such a vague description? Can you describe the sensation? It's not painful, right? The sensation of an electric shock is sensory nerve input driven by external electricity, but there are no sensory nerves in the brain are there? So it's confusing to me (never been on psych drugs, so never gone through psych drug withdrawal) what these brain electric shocks could possibly feel like. I assume you can't localize the sensations to somewhere that has nerves, like maybe the eyes, or somewhere—anywhere—else that really does have nerves? So it's like re-balancing the synapses after quitting these drugs causes a phenomenon in the somatosensory cortex that simulates non-localized zap sensations in a place there are no sensory nerves? Is it limited to a sensation, or are other senses (vision, hearing, smell, taste) ever involved? Is it perhaps more like a non-physical zap that's more like an interruption or glitch in consciousness than a ghost physical sensation? [edit] So one person's experience with one day off meds was a feeling of floating or vague floating-like feeling of imbalance. That's probably related, perhaps an earlier stage of the phenomenon, but doesn't sound quite the same as the electric shocks people mention they get after quitting. Are the electric shock feelings anything like a rapid (instantaneous?) change in balance, like a shift to zero-g and back?
- agumonkey 10y ago
  Your comment got me curious. I mentioned weird sensations above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13224947 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13224947 Never heard of brain zaps, my issues were more like a constant fuzz in the back of my head (felt like constantly falling in zero G)
- butterfinger 10y ago
  To me, it felt like the moment after some limb went numb and you start to feel it again, just for the whole body. And I had some visual effects like everything being brighter for a moment. It's not painful per se but very disorienting and irritating and it happens several times per hour. I probably would not have avoided the drugs based on the description, because it doesn't sound as bad as it feels, but I would never quit a SSRI without tapering off again.
agumonkey 10y ago
I'm not off meds but since two weeks I had quite strange nightmares. A weird blend of terror and non daily event based (having nightmares after being mugged wouldn't scare me more than that). Waking up in sweat, heart racing and still not sure what reality I was in.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
hvs 10y ago
Most doctors will prescribe a short duration of a longer-lasting SSRI (like Prozac) which will help with withdrawal. Any competent doctor will tell you not to discontinue abruptly or withdrawal symptoms are likely. Unfortunately, too many GPs that don't understand the drugs prescribe them rather than psychiatrists.
outworlder 10y ago
Oh well. Just today I was prescribed half my usual dosage of venlafaxine so that I can taper off and quit (will go back to a small dose of citalopram) I'm not looking forward for the withdrawal symptoms – I know them too well. You will only forget to take it once. Not looking forward to it.
lacampbell 10y ago
I tried to taper off venlafaxine for about a month. It just extended the agony. I eventually just stopped taking it, had 2 really shit days, and that was that. IANAD, YMMV

mcjiggerlog 10y ago

I went through a similar experience (although not as extreme) when coming off of citalopram, even with a doctor's guidance. Lots of nausea and disorientation, but worst of all were the "electric shocks" which really were very disturbing. Not a single mention of these when having the medicine prescribed!

nspriego 10y ago
If I miss taking citalopram 2 days in a row I start getting these "electric shocks" and dizzyness. Glad to know I'm not the only one.

ds18 10y ago

Do you mind me asking what your dosage was and if you went cold turkey or tapered off at all?

DanBC 10y ago
I'm not the person you replied to, but I was on 350 mg (which is a reasonably high dose). I was on venlafaxine regular release, not the extended release. If I missed a dose I got full on discontinuation effects. When I tapered off it wasn't great, but it wasn't awful. Some people do report problems even with a very gentle long taper down.
- radd9er 10y ago
  My wife has been on venlafaxine for years, and has been tappering off it for the past year. She has had horrible withdrawl symptoms from missing a single dose, like you describe. Each time the doses town (tapering), she has a rough few weeks. How long were you on it? Do you have any advice? Thanks.

baus 10y ago

I had to withdraw from Effexor myself. The electric shock symptom is real. It is brutal. Combined with withdrawal from benzodiazepines, those were some of the worst days of my life

tibbon 10y ago
A partner of mine had super strong shocks as well from it. Scary. It went on for a while almost any time she's turn quickly

butterfinger 10y ago

Venlafaxine seems to be one of the worst SNRIs/SSRIs wrt discontinuation syndrome. Except for the nausea, I had the same experiences when quitting cold turkey. The most problematic symptom for me were the "electric shocks" when moving my eyes or head to fast. For me, getting off venlafaxine was way harder than quitting tilidine, tramadol or the z-drugs.

DanBC 10y ago
I was on zopiclone for over a year. I stopped cold turkey, it wasn't a problem, although I do still miss it sometimes. I see that it's one of the top ten meds obtained using stolen prescription pads in France; or that Dublin drug rehab clinics see more people addicted to it and I understand that there's obviously potential for addiction there. I was on Venlafaxine (regular release, not extended release) and missing a dose was as unfun as everyone says it is. Tapering down (from 350 mg) was, for me, easy enough and I stopped after 6 weeks. My current med has different side effects, but also isn't as effective. I'm not sure tapering down and then back up on a different med is worth the risk.
radd9er 10y ago
To both parent commenters, my wife has been on venlafaxine for years, and has been tapering off it for the past year. She has had horrible withdrawl symptoms from missing a single dose, like you describe. Each time the doses town (tapering), she has a rough few weeks. How long were you on it? Do you have any advice? Thanks.
- butterfinger 10y ago
  That sounds pretty harsh. Did your wife talk to her doctor about the withdrawal symptoms? When I quit, I've taken it for about two years. I was able to prevent the brain zaps by making a concious effort to not move my head or eyes too fast. The other symptoms persisted for some weeks-months.
  - radd9er 10y ago
    She did, she's had several doctors throughout her medication, one of them seemed very ignorant of the side effects. Thanks for responding.

harshreality 10y ago

I'm curious... you, and all other commenters who mentioned electric shocks... which I'd previously heard of as "brain zaps"... What difference would it make if the doctor had told you of that side effect before you started the drug? Imagine you have no idea of what brain zaps felt like. Would you have avoided the drug based on such a vague description? Can you describe the sensation? It's not painful, right? The sensation of an electric shock is sensory nerve input driven by external electricity, but there are no sensory nerves in the brain are there? So it's confusing to me (never been on psych drugs, so never gone through psych drug withdrawal) what these brain electric shocks could possibly feel like. I assume you can't localize the sensations to somewhere that has nerves, like maybe the eyes, or somewhere—anywhere—else that really does have nerves? So it's like re-balancing the synapses after quitting these drugs causes a phenomenon in the somatosensory cortex that simulates non-localized zap sensations in a place there are no sensory nerves? Is it limited to a sensation, or are other senses (vision, hearing, smell, taste) ever involved? Is it perhaps more like a non-physical zap that's more like an interruption or glitch in consciousness than a ghost physical sensation? [edit] So one person's experience with one day off meds was a feeling of floating or vague floating-like feeling of imbalance. That's probably related, perhaps an earlier stage of the phenomenon, but doesn't sound quite the same as the electric shocks people mention they get after quitting. Are the electric shock feelings anything like a rapid (instantaneous?) change in balance, like a shift to zero-g and back?

agumonkey 10y ago
Your comment got me curious. I mentioned weird sensations above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13224947 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13224947 Never heard of brain zaps, my issues were more like a constant fuzz in the back of my head (felt like constantly falling in zero G)
butterfinger 10y ago
To me, it felt like the moment after some limb went numb and you start to feel it again, just for the whole body. And I had some visual effects like everything being brighter for a moment. It's not painful per se but very disorienting and irritating and it happens several times per hour. I probably would not have avoided the drugs based on the description, because it doesn't sound as bad as it feels, but I would never quit a SSRI without tapering off again.

agumonkey 10y ago

I'm not off meds but since two weeks I had quite strange nightmares. A weird blend of terror and non daily event based (having nightmares after being mugged wouldn't scare me more than that). Waking up in sweat, heart racing and still not sure what reality I was in.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

hvs 10y ago

Most doctors will prescribe a short duration of a longer-lasting SSRI (like Prozac) which will help with withdrawal. Any competent doctor will tell you not to discontinue abruptly or withdrawal symptoms are likely. Unfortunately, too many GPs that don't understand the drugs prescribe them rather than psychiatrists.

outworlder 10y ago

Oh well. Just today I was prescribed half my usual dosage of venlafaxine so that I can taper off and quit (will go back to a small dose of citalopram) I'm not looking forward for the withdrawal symptoms – I know them too well. You will only forget to take it once. Not looking forward to it.

lacampbell 10y ago

I tried to taper off venlafaxine for about a month. It just extended the agony. I eventually just stopped taking it, had 2 really shit days, and that was that. IANAD, YMMV