Stopping Effexor COLD TURKEY

Hi there, i am new here. Made and account because i think the ER psychiatrist made a mistake. I will be as detailed as possible, my mind is still a big foggy and i am VERY dizzy.

I was on Effexor 187.5mg and Abilify everyday.
Also had clonazepam and zopiclone if needed.
For about 4 months.

I hadn't slept in 5 days, i was feeling great. i would say hypomanic, probably not full-blown mania. Went on spending sprees, repainted the house, gym everyday, chopped my hair off, you know, just impulsive, productive things i normally wouldn't do.

On day 6 i wake up with this feeling of extreme guilt, extreme disgust with myself, very suicidal. My mom called and i just couldn't sound normal on the phone, she asked if i am okay, i say no and start crying. She sent my aunt to get me and go to the emergency where she would meet me.

I meet a doctor, he says i have to stay the night to meet the psychiatrist the next day, i didn't want to and felt they were tricking me into staying for a month or more but i agreed on one night.

Meet the ER psychiatrist the next day, tells me to stop all my meds, cold turkey. I have to stay another night so i didn't have a choice. by then i was 2 days off my meds. felt sick a little, went home on the condition that i stay at my parents until i see my regular doctor. i said yes, didnt want them to keep me there.

DAY 3. COLD TURKEY.
Could not think straight, chills, vomiting, VERY VERY DIZZY, could not feel my fingers and feet, my brain was tickling or something?? I had NO MOTOR SKILLS.... couldn't control my movement i fell to the floor a bunch, knocked things over. Apparently i broke a glass and it cut my foot.. i have no recollection of that happening. My brother who is 16yrs old calls my boyfriend to come over because he thinks i am drunk or on drugs and says i can't walk or stop crying.

He then takes me to the emergency and the doctor is in shock that i stopped cold turkey, she gave me 37.5mg to ease down the withdrawal symptoms...

WHY DID HE TELL ME TO STOP LIKE THAT? NO ONE COULD BELIEVE IT, I SAID LOOK IN MY FILE, THERE YOU HAVE IT!!

Sorry this post is long, but is this normal?? i am still feeling ill 9days later. seeing my doctor tomorrow.

Now, if she tells me to go back to 187.5mg of effexor, what do i say? i am a bit traumatised right now, i want to go all natural, but i KNOW i was very depressed before...

They THINK i am bipolar, NO real diagnosis until i meet a psychiatrist.
I am in Canada, 23yrs old.

skinl3ss wrote:I was on Effexor 187.5mg and Abilify everyday.
Also had clonazepam and zopiclone if needed.
For about 4 months.

I hadn't slept in 5 days

Did you ever feel like that and stay awake for 5 days before psychiatric drugs ?


Effexor and Abilify , YUCK !

They "think" you have bipolar cause that's all they can do because medical science can not prove it even exists because it is just a list of behaviors not something that be found with any medical test.


So the doctor gave you Effexor and Abilify and all that other stuff that messed you up so bad you landed in the ER and you are considering going back to that same doctor ?

Effexor and Abilify suck and that leads me to believe so does that doctor.


Look up Effexor withdrawal reactions. Do that for all the drugs they gave you.

Does that explain how you feel now ?

They can say you have this and have that and are mentally ill and "need" drugs but since you have found the anti psych forum I guess you have also found the truth about psychiatry.

The truth about psychiatry saved me, I was doing the same thing, pills pills and more pills that paved my way to the ER for more pills that kept and made me sick over and over again.


I think that ER doc did the right thing taking you off those drugs cause maybe he sees alot of your doctors patients show up at his ER.


Keep posting here on psych forums, alot of us have been through what you are going through and know what paths to take and not to take.

I took a long time but the path for me was to throw down my weapons and just walk off the battlefield by quitting psychiatry.

-- Wed Aug 05, 2015 8:04 am --

And quitting psychiatry doesn't necessarily mean going drug free.

Its more of understanding what a fraud psychiatry is and not falling for it.

I wish someone gave me this before I started http://laingsociety.org/colloquia/polofdiagnosis/modelconsent.htm a psychiatric drug consent form.

My advice is to find a new doctor and say you want to get off all the drugs for a wile to see what normal baseline is and then take it from there.

ERs and nasty drug withdrawals all part of my story too.

Hope you feel better soon.

i am now on seroquel.. at night. upping my dose by 50mg per week until i reach 300mg.. sounds extreme. i will tell her the next time i see her that i want to stop all medication.

at least i am so happy to be off effexor.. wow what a mess.
i do feel very depressed and anxious. But i will wait a bit. there's no way i am going back on effexor, ever.


and yes i did have other ''manic'' or ''hypomanic'' episodes before. but i had just thought i was finally rid of my depression... obviously i was wrong.

skinl3ss wrote:i am now on seroquel.. at night. upping my dose by 50mg per week until i reach 300mg.. sounds extreme. i will tell her the next time i see her that i want to stop all medication.

at least i am so happy to be off effexor.. wow what a mess.
i do feel very depressed and anxious. But i will wait a bit. there's no way i am going back on effexor, ever.


and yes i did have other ''manic'' or ''hypomanic'' episodes before. but i had just thought i was finally rid of my depression... obviously i was wrong.

Just my 2 cents: bipolar is a BS and does not exist. It is normal when you feel like sh*t for long enough and then something good happens and makes you feel better, that you are now feeling overly enthusiastic and very spontaneous. It is called happiness. Don't fall for rhetoric calling those nice things something else, some vilified version of it.

Secondly, when feeling very good, if something does not start bothering you to make you feel like sh*t again, you won! You will gradually get into a normal mood as the overt enthusiasm fades.

The only problem you got is that something makes you feel like sh*t for so long, or so intensely, that when it stops you are overly enthusiastic and spontaneous. Figure out what your trauma or depressive reality it, and do whatever you can to work on that thing such as if you need a job, make applications, if you need a partner, go for online dating, if you need to look good, go for a gym (and when feeling like sh*t lift weights - it will make you look awesome and attractive, and it will make you feel good!). After some time of going to the gym, you will figure it out, whatever it is that is bothering you. Maybe isolation from people and no friends is what gets on your mind and makes you feel so bad? In the gym, you could meet new friends, and online you could find a buddy to workout with you, etc.

As for drugs, they are just disabling you, and causing you damage. You have been experiencing some problem in life that would make anyone feel like sh*t, and you need to identify what you are unhappy with in your life and improve it. With that, your mood will be fixed, without drugs, without charlatans, without therapies, without nonsense.

Quackery is speaking the truth here.
I'm a diagnosed "Bipolar II" but I, after 13 years on the psychiatric professional circuit and the accompanying psych drug merry-go-round I don't believe the hype anymore.