Posted by Snoozy on May 10, 2003, at 15:58:45
In reply to Re: Effexor alternatives ???, posted by John2222 on May 10, 2003, at 13:53:58
Hi John -
Your doctor sounds pretty enlightened - I'm amazed at how some of them seem to have no concern about letting patients know about withdrawl after 7 + years on the market and probably millions of patients. (Sorry, this seems to be turning into my personal crusade - you had a taste of what the withdrawl can be like, and I am determined that the needless suffering of withdrawl stop!)
I did recently very slowly taper off Xanax (which can be one of the worst benzos to stop) and I think the same approach would work well for Effexor. It sounds like you can cut your pills? My Xanax was in tablet form and I got a pill cutter from the drugstore for a few bucks. I would use the cutter to reduce the dose as small of an amount as I could. Then I would take that smaller dose once, then go back to my previous dose for 6 days. (I was being ultra mega super-cautious!) The next week I would go to 5 days of the old dose, the smaller one day, and so on, gradually decreasing the number of days I took the old dose. Once I had gotten to the new lower dose on a daily basis, I would cut the dose again and go through the same process. (Let me just say that I was doing this completely on my own - therefore the cautiousness).
Finally I was down to actually taking nothing for one day. Went through the 5, 4, 3, 2, every other day routine. About 2 months ago, I had a no Xanax day. I didn't take any the next day, and I felt ok, so I didn't take any after that. I hadn't planned on totally stopping at that point, it just happened. I was completely surprised that I got through the whole thing ok without all of the cells in my body screaming in agony.
It would be nice if they made Effexor in a liquid so that you could easily titrate the dose down, but I only see tablets and ER capsules (for US and Canada at any rate).
Well, I hope you found that helpful if you were able to wade through it! I would say just take it as slowly as is comfortable for you - as I said your doctor sounds pretty enlightened. Keep us posted on how it goes!
> Thanks for your suggestions. Actually the Effexor XR was working fine for me and after a year felt that I could handle it on my own with Effexor. But the tapering has turned out to be worse than I expected.
>
> Today I went back to ~18 mg (1/2 of a capsule) and I'm feeling better, but still have that high-pitched whine in my head and ears. I think I'll keep at this level until that all stabalizes. And then, either decrease some more or stop.
>
> My dr suggested taking it at this dosage every other day for 2 weeks, then every 3rd day for 2 weeks, then stopping for good.
>
> Anyone tried this method?
>
> John
>
poster:Snoozy
thread:225514
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030505/msgs/225619.html