Last Updated on December 13, 2023 by
Alternative to Meds Editorial Team
Medically Reviewed by Dr Samuel Lee MD
Table of Contents:
- Video: Effexor Withdrawal
- Video: Testimonial
- Effexor Tapering Complications
- Is Effexor Overprescribed?
- Effexor Discontinuation Syndrome
- Effexor Tapering Guidelines
- Important Things to Know About Stopping Effexor
- Effexor Titration
- Getting Off Effexor Safely and Comfortably
- Quitting Effexor Holistically at Alternative to Meds Center
There is an ever-growing need for qualified rehab professionals who offer Effexor tapering, weaning, and titration. Within the purview of mental health treatment, there is a deep need to more thoroughly evaluate a person’s life situation before prescribing antidepressant medications.13
There are many factors — other than a medication deficiency — that can cause depression: impaired hormonal states, nutrient deficiencies, adrenal fatigue, lack of exercise, failed life aspirations, and more.14
Does Your Diagnosis Require Effexor?
Alternative to Meds has been primarily invested in medication withdrawal for nearly 2 decades now. Using holistic, orthomolecular, and environmental Medicine, we have published evidence decisively showing that well over 77% of clients at the center suffer from fewer symptoms and feel better than they ever did while still medicated. Guiding our clients on a path to better health and what we call natural mental health is our primary goal.
Many people find it hard to believe that we find success with people “as bad off as they consider they are” and seem to think that others had a much easier time of it than them. Make no mistake, we are not some drug rehab trying to teach a person how they can just live with the symptoms. Far from that. We are driving into the genetic and physiological underpinnings of these situations. Watch this video to see a woman that was very debilitated by antidepressants and benzodiazepines, finally finding her life back like a miracle.
The immediate-release version of Effexor was discontinued after 1997. The generic version, venlafaxine, is available in both time-release and immediate-release forms. One of the reasons given for discontinuing the immediate-acting Effexor and replacing it with the timed-release version, Effexor XR, was to lessen the amount of nausea that Effexor reportedly inflicted upon a very significant percentage of users.10 The time-release Effexor tapering process becomes a more complex process. It is more complicated because when you cut the pill exterior, it loses the time-released attribute.
Drug advertising took a giant leap into broad media exposure in the early 80s when drug manufacturers were allowed to place direct-to-consumer ads for prescription medicine on television. Soaring sales statistics from then to now reveal how effective these ad campaigns have been for the profits, but not necessarily for positive influences on consumer health.19 Since then we have seen an emergence of softer, more benign terminology, such as replacing the word addiction with dependence, or substance use disorder, and substituting the phrase “discontinuation syndrome” for withdrawals.7 Physicians are directed by regulators to actually inform their patients about the side effects and possible addictive quality of these substances, but such measures have clearly not brought the epidemics of prescription drug addiction under control.8 We note that patients who come to us for help typically report no such efforts were made to inform them about how to go about stopping the drug, nor any discussion had occurred about discontinuation syndrome in the doctor’s office. In fact, the majority feel that had they known what was ahead for them, they would have decided on an alternative plan for treatment, one that didn’t involve heavy drugs like Effexor XR. The truly unfortunate lack of training on the part of prescribing doctors on how to help their patients who wish to begin tapering Effexor or similar drugs has left both patients and prescribers floundering. 7,9,25
Except in the case of serotonin syndrome or other medical emergencies, gradual tapering is best.2
Each person’s body is unique, with a wide range of varying responses to stopping Effexor. Some antidepressants such as SSRIs are designed to primarily target or influence the amount of serotonin in the system.4 Other antidepressant drugs primarily target adrenal hormones, by heightening or dampening the excitatory effects of adrenergic receptors along the CNS pathways.5 Still other forms of antidepressant drugs will affect another neurochemical, dopamine.6 Dopamine is known as the “reward” chemical because it stimulates the pleasure centers, enhances response at the reward centers, and also affects mood, laughter, and other types of emotional response mechanisms.
This is why it is important to follow FDA guidelines and not engage in abrupt 
At Alternative to Meds Center, the goal is not merely to guide each client on how to quit Effexor or other drugs, but to learn methods that are most likely to promote natural mental health. Thus, there is no need to rely on artificially numbing or dampening unwanted symptoms. Nutrients play no small part in healing and 
