Originally posted by sirrahbed
I understand the secret is s l o w l y up and the same when coming off.
For me, it didn't seem to matter how slowly I went. Doctors suggest taking around two weeks to wean down on these medications, I spent three MONTHS. I'd take it down a bit, let myself adjust for a week to two weeks, before I'd take it down another miniscule bit. It didn't seem to prevent the zaps at all. I still had them every time I cut the dose down a bit more, for about a week and then they'd die off mostly. When I finally stopped the last dose (just a tiny bit of a 37.5 was all I was taking at the end), I had them for over a month, severely for the first two weeks.

When I first felt this after missing a dose, it scared me that something was horribly wrong with me. I'd miss doses sometimes and have horrible days but it took me a bit to realize it was the antidepressant withdrawal, because I had not been educated AT ALL about withdrawal effects. I ended up going through a series of tests at the hospital from EKG and carotid Dopplers to lumbar puncture and tilt table test and brain MRI. Never once was the medication questioned or looked into as the source for those feelings. I eventually realized it happened when missing a dose or when trying to stop taking the medicine, but when I asked doctors about it, asking about withdrawal or physical addictiveness, the questions were shrugged off, or I was assured it wasn't the medicine. One doctor even told me I was just having an anxiety response from realizing I had missed the dose... which was total bunk and I knew that.

Not everyone suffers these things from the meds and some have it to a lesser degree. My mother was on Effexor for a time and had no trouble getting off of it, but after reading more on the net, I realize what I suffered is not a rare or freak occurrance at all. After all the heartache and worry I went through and my Mom went through, all which could have been saved by proper education, I agree with action being taken against the companies who have not properly educated people, or even physicians, with all that is involved with taking, or discontinuing, their products.