My SA link

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/forums/topic/27641-member21-tapering-venlafaxine/

Hi Member21

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

Thank you for starting your intro topic and linking your SA thread above.

 

Would you perhaps when you have time tell us a little about your journey so far and where you are at currently?

 

I hope you find the forum supportive, you are very welcome here.

 

Chippy

Thank you for crossing over.

 

Hopefully this place can provide you with similar support.

Hello Everyone

 

First I would like to thank Chippy and Luke for the welcome.

 

In the past couple of years I have been quite stable (since I switched to a fixed no. of venlafax beads). However I have been able to taper very slowly.

Also I feel that my behavior has become less regulated. I sometimes repent, and am ashamed of the way I behaved, or what I spoke.

Since 2019 I have been under the care of a psychiatrist who lets me do the way I suggest. I see him once in about six months. He is also my cousins best friend.

 

As can be seen in my signatures, I had to hold for about four months (Aug-Dec 25), after which I have tapered total two beads venlafax(one bead at a time).

Now it is going to be four weeks since my last taper on Jan 19. Till only 3-4 days ago I was feeling some anxiety off an on. Also after the last one bead taper I thought I shall not reduce further for next 2-4 months (due to the anxiety, restlessness, mental blankness).

But I have noticed that I was in a mild hypomania today...having grand thoughts, all life problems/tasks seeming easy.

This makes me wonder, if I should taper venlafax by one more bead.

Suggestions and opinions requested.

 

Edited February 13Feb 13 by Member21

24 minutes ago, Member21 said:

First I would like to thank Chippy and Luke for the welcome

It’s our pleasure. 
 

24 minutes ago, Member21 said:

In the past couple of years I have been quite stable (since I switched to a fixed no. of venlafax beads). However I have been able to taper very slowly.

Also I feel that my behavior has become less regulated. I sometimes repent, and am ashamed of the way I behaved, or what I spoke.

Since 2019 I have been under the care of a psychiatrist who lets me do the way I suggest. I see him once in about six months. He is also my cousins best friend.

Good to hear. It’s great you have a close friend who can help you. 
 

25 minutes ago, Member21 said:

As can be seen in my signatures, I had to hold for about four months (Aug-Dec 25), after which I have tapered total two beads venlafax(one bead at a time).

Now it is going to be four weeks since my last taper on Jan 19. Till only 3-4 days ago I was feeling some anxiety off an on. Also after the last one bead taper I thought I shall not reduce further for next 2-4 months (due to the anxiety, restlessness, mental blankness).

But I have noticed that I was in a mild hypomania today...having grand thoughts, all life problems/tasks seeming easy.

This makes me wonder, if I should taper venlafax by one more bead.

Suggestions and opinions requested.

It’s totally up to you. You should listen to your body. Perhaps don’t make the decision just yet and see how you go the next few days. 
 

Chippy

On 2/13/2026 at 6:20 AM, Member21 said:

As can be seen in my signatures, I had to hold for about four months (Aug-Dec 25), after which I have tapered total two beads venlafax(one bead at a time).

Now it is going to be four weeks since my last taper on Jan 19. Till only 3-4 days ago I was feeling some anxiety off an on. Also after the last one bead taper I thought I shall not reduce further for next 2-4 months (due to the anxiety, restlessness, mental blankness).

But I have noticed that I was in a mild hypomania today...having grand thoughts, all life problems/tasks seeming easy.

This makes me wonder, if I should taper venlafax by one more bead.

Suggestions and opinions requested.

So nice to see you here @Member21

I will tag @FindRest to see if she can give you any insights.

I really appreciated your help on SA in understanding this drug. ❤️🙏

 

On 2/13/2026 at 8:20 AM, Member21 said:

In the past couple of years I have been quite stable (since I switched to a fixed no. of venlafax beads). However I have been able to taper very slowly.

Welcome! This is good to hear as I know you had a few issues a while back (on SA) when you were consuming a variable number of beads per dose.

 

On 2/13/2026 at 8:20 AM, Member21 said:

I feel that my behavior has become less regulated. I sometimes repent, and am ashamed of the way I behaved, or what I spoke. … Also I thought I shall not reduce further for next 2-4 months (due to the anxiety, restlessness, mental blankness) … was in a mild hypomania today

The symptoms you mention above could also be caused from tapering the sodium valproate (SV) alone, and may not be from just the Venlafaxine (Ven) taper. I see that within 5 weeks, you tapered Ven twice and SV once. That’s a lot, especially for a sensitive nervous system.
 

I would strongly recommend not tapering both drugs within the same month, or make the gap even longer. SV is a ‘brake’ that dampens activation Venlafaxine is notorious for. So, in essence, your first bead drop in December stirred up your nervous system and things became activated on a system level - then you followed that less than 3 weeks later with removing a brake (SV) that could have been holding that in check, increasing activation and symptoms of its own - followed 15 days later by another drop in Ven = even more activation/destabilization.

 

You can see from my signature that I also tapered two drugs during this whole process (Effexor + Ambien). I learned early on that I couldn’t do both in the same month. Things calmed down a whole lot when I made sure there was at least 6 weeks between each one, sometimes several months. For my remaining taper, I plan to only taper Effexor. I need my CNS to be as stable as possible to continue on this final stretch.

 

On 2/13/2026 at 8:20 AM, Member21 said:

This makes me wonder, if I should taper venlafax by one more bead.

I think tapering again while you’re having these symptoms will only compound the issue at this point. I would wait 2-3 weeks then reassess. 
 

Edited February 15Feb 15 by FindRest

Thank you FR for your detailed reply.

 

I had read somewhere on the SA forum, and also used to think  that a lower dose of an AD like venlafax allows for a lower dose of a stabilizer like Valporate. I thought that reducing venlafax would itself be a sort of "brake", and not activation.

 

Another thing I felt was that dropping 1 bead out of 66 should not be much noticable to the system, and that 3 weeks would be a good time since this is like microtapering....instead of dropping 3-4 beads (5% of 65) at a time...dropping them one by one every 7-10 days should not be a big deal. But I see that in the recent past I have not even been comfortable with approx. 1% per month.

 

Talking about the hypomania that I was talking in my last post - the very next day it was much milder. And since then I have been feeling some anxiety, restlessness, overwhelm. Though it has been improving very slowly, but its not the time for a venlafax reduction. However I am tempted to reduce Valporate. The thought being not to let any tapering opportunity pass by. But one symptom that advises me against it is - when I feel a slight need to visit the toilet...very quickly the urge escalates, and am unable to hold it for even a few minutes. Secondly to let the system stabilize after the appearance of a withdrawal symptom. So I shall wait for some more time. 

 

 

Edited March 1Mar 1 by Member21

In the past I had also posted that when I taper venlafax, sometimes I feel cold sensations in my head and shoulder area. I feel so while walking, doing breath work.

One explanation that comes to my mind is that after an antidepressant withdrawal stress hormones are elevated - causing a subtle burning sensation in the head-shoulder region. Doing walking or other such work temporarily lowers those stress hormones. So that drop might be resulting in lowering of subtle burning /inflammation...which feels as a cold sensation.

 

So recently I have been using this sensation as an indicator of stress hormone levels while tapering venlafax. I try to delay a drop for one to two weeks after such a sensation has ceased.

On 3/1/2026 at 9:15 AM, Member21 said:

In the past I had also posted that when I taper venlafax, sometimes I feel cold sensations in my head and shoulder area. I feel so while walking, doing breath work.

One explanation that comes to my mind is that after an antidepressant withdrawal stress hormones are elevated - causing a subtle burning sensation in the head-shoulder region. Doing walking or other such work temporarily lowers those stress hormones. So that drop might be resulting in lowering of subtle burning /inflammation...which feels as a cold sensation.

I noticed that sometimes I felt that the blood circulation in the head-shoulder area was low. So the walking, exercising, breath work may be improving blood circulation in the region, which was giving the feeling of cold-sensations.

 

Though it has been improving slowly for me, but still I easily get anxious, overwhelmed. So holding my ven'fax taper for now.

 

I tried some help from chatgpt. After I entered my details it suggested that I may be calorie deficit. (since I am on a vegan - plant based whole food diet, with oil & sugar restriction.)

That calorie deficit is resulting in weight loss, and lean look. More importantly that could be the reason behind the stall in tapering I have experienced in the last 2 years (since I started this diet).

Has it been concluded earlier that high fiber, low calorie diet can hinder pyschiatric drug taper.