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Comment by butterfinger | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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.

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.

She did, she's had several doctors throughout her medication, one of them seemed very ignorant of the side effects. Thanks for responding.

Have her ask her doctor for a prescription to Prozac. It lasts longer in the system than Venlafaxine so it eases the withdrawal.

Interesting, she has been offered that but hasnt tried it yet. thanks for the advice.

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