Effexor discontinuation causing anxiety

[grrrly]

I've been tapering off Effexor for a couple of months now after taking it for 6 years. Initially I had difficulty getting my doctor to understand how difficult the discontinuation is - he originally set up a 2 week taper for me, oh that was fun, the first day that he had me skip a dose I ended up in the hospital! He was happy to slow down the process after that, and I was at least able to go to work but I am still having a lot of trouble with the withdrawal.

I'm now down to 1/4 of a 37.5 mg tablet twice a day, and though the brain zaps, loss of balance and vomiting have ceased, I've now developed severe anxiety and keep waking up in the middle of the night in a panic. I've never suffered from anxiety or panic attacks before, so this is disconcerting to say the least. I'm scared to go to bed in case I have a panic attack.

My doctor thinks that I must therefore suffer from an anxiety disorder, and is keen to put me on a SSRI for this as soon as I come off Effexor. I'm more inclined to think that this anxiety is a direct result of the Effexor discontinuation. Have other people developed severe anxiety whilst tapering off Effexor, and has anything helped?

I'm afraid of how much worse the anxiety may become when my dose gets lowered again. My doctor refuses to give me prozac to assist with the discontinuation effects BTW.

Thanks for any input you can give   

[gwensragingbileduct]

Bloody doctors! Two weeks? Did you kill his dog? Why does he hate you?

I'm completely insane at the moment, from effexor withdrawal. I watched 'Conspiracy Theory' the other night and it made me cry four times! I'm on a final warning from work for being rude to customers (actually this is quite fun and liberating...i'm only rude to the horrible snotty ones), and telling a co-worker to go fuck himself (hee hee) and i jump a mile into the air at the slightest noise. I convinced myself that I wanted to break up with my boyfriend (who has stuck with me through all the madness).

I've come off a lot of meds over the years...cipramil, seroxat, edronax, lamictal, zyprexa, surmontil, mellaril, largactil, librium....but only the edronax compared in any small way to the horror of effexor withdrawal.

I'm just hoping that the insanity will pass like the physical symptoms did (sweating, nausea, falling down (although the brain squeaks remain)). Oh and acne.

[GroovyGwen]

Are you on any other meds Grrly?  If you are coming off effexor, you should be adding something else to do what the effexor did to your mood.  I say your doc is right, an ssri would help.  The anxiety may just be you adjusting to not having the "good" feelings of the effexor.  For all its discontinuation crap, it is a decent drug...

Why does your doc want to put you on an ssri and won't give you prozac?  Seems odd. 

[ConfusedCat]

I might encourage you to NOT listen to me, however in this situation if I had no other choice, I would continue on the lowest possible effexor dose I could get by on and when the two weeks is up tell the Doc I was done and was ready for that script of an ssri.

Unless you think you could print out the effexor discontinuation guide here on crazy boards and get him to read it and possibly persude him to change his mind.

Again, do not follow my advice. It is only a hypothetical, really, kinda, sorta.

CC~

[grrrly]

Thanks guys. I guess I have been hoping that the anxiety is only a symptom of the effexor discontinuation and not of my need to be on medication, I was kind of hoping to come off effexor and not need anything else but that may not be a realistic expectation. I do take Tegretol for complex partial seizures which I guess provides some kind of mood stabilising effect.

I think my doctor's unwillingness to prescribe anything else while I am still tapering off Effexor is because I had serotonin syndrome, that's probably why he wouldn't give me Prozac to assist with the withdrawals. So looks like I am going to have to do the complete discontinuation plus the full washout period before I can take anything else that is at all serotonergic.