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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The online anecdotes are always going to be outliers and more severe than average. But she definitely was wrong to claim there is “no issue.”