Has anyone taken their teen off of Effexor (Venlaxifine)?

[Anonymous]

I’m thinking of trying to get my kid off of Effexor. We probably won’t do it until spring/summer.

Has anyone done this and can you share your experience? We would taper off very gradually but I want to hear how hard it is and why.

[Anonymous]

Yes. We had to taper off slowly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. We had to taper off slowly.

How long did it take? Did you switch to something else or go off completely? Did your child have withdrawal symptoms?

Mine has been on it a few years. I think it makes her tired and flat, with no motivation.

[Anonymous]

Do it very slowly. Bad withdrawal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do it very slowly. Bad withdrawal.

Is this the same PP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do it very slowly. Bad withdrawal.

Is this the same PP?

Different one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do it very slowly. Bad withdrawal.

Do you have a teen you took off of it? Was does “bad withdrawal” mean. Like what happened?

[Anonymous]

I went off it in my early 20s. The withdrawal is legendarily horrendous—I spent a weekend vomiting, shivering, and having bizarre hallucinations. Obviously not enough tapering!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went off it in my early 20s. The withdrawal is legendarily horrendous—I spent a weekend vomiting, shivering, and having bizarre hallucinations. Obviously not enough tapering!

You can read about it online, it’s well known with Effexor. One reason I refused to put my child on it.

[Anonymous]

My adult niece took Effexor for awhile. She is and has always been very highly functional and motivated. Ph.D. Excellent career. Anyway, she tapered off very slowly and she described it as torturous. I spent a few weekends with her because it was so terrible. I don’t remember the details. But I have never allowed my son to be put on it because of her experience.

[Anonymous]

For reference, it took me nine months to get my kid off of setraline. We had to step down very slowly and sometimes go back up when symptoms were bad. at the end we used the liquid version to get smaller increments and finally wean off of it.

[Anonymous]

I haven’t taken Effexor but I have gone on and off Lexapro several times. The withdrawal is real and supposed to be even worse for Effexor. Unfortunately there’s not great evidence that lengthening the taper really prevents all withdrawal symptoms. That is because these medications don’t affect the brain in a linear way - the biggest drop is when you go all the way to zero, even if you have been on a very low dose.

One thing I’ve seen recommended though is switching short term to a longer-acting SSRI like Prozac. Supposedly that can make the withdrawal smoother: https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/going-off-antidepressants#:~:text=Many%20of%20the%20symptoms%20of,)%20for%20shorter%2Dacting%20medications.

Another thing you can try is reducing the dosage now to see if you can reduce side effects and still have some benefits. I went down to 5 mg Lexapro from the lowest officially recommended dosage of 10 mgs. That reduced almost all of the side effects I didn’t like and still had benefits.

[Anonymous]

^^forgot to add - you can get through the withdrawal as long as you are prepared. just prep yourself and your child to feel sick for a while, like a flu or chicken pox. wait it out and take all the time off needed. be prepared for a LOT of irritability!

[Anonymous]

Went off Effexor as an adult. Been on it forever. Horrific withdrawal. Go super slow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went off it in my early 20s. The withdrawal is legendarily horrendous—I spent a weekend vomiting, shivering, and having bizarre hallucinations. Obviously not enough tapering!

You can read about it online, it’s well known with Effexor. One reason I refused to put my child on it.

I read these anecdotes online and talked to our psychiatrist who I trusted about this concern - she acted like she had never heard of such a thing and said as long as you taper off there should not be an issue. We were desperate at the time to control my kids meltdowns, but now I wish I hadn’t started her on it.