Was this withdrawl?

Hi all, I am on 75mg Effexor (Venlafaxine) for depression and anxiety at the moment. Last week I was away and ran out of it on about Thursday, so had to stop it. Then on Saturday evening I started to feel very tired, almost exhausted. I went to bed and had an awful night of barely sleeping, feeling like thoughts were wizzing through my head. The next day I was an absolute zombie, I could get up and walk around for 30 minutes but it would drain me and Id have to lie down afterwards. On the night I went to bed early and read a bit, and I started to feel a bit less tired (typical!), I tried to sleep anyway but it took me about 3 hours to fall asleep, usually it never takes me that long.

Anyway I woke up this morning feeling a bit more refreshed after at least some sleep, but still got this feeling of exhaustion when I walked around. As its Monday I was finally able to go to the pharmacy and refill my script and took my 75mg dose soon after. Gradually the exhausted and tired feeling has gone and now I feel completely fine.

Was this a withdrawl symptom from the drug? I had no idea it could reduce me to some sort of zombie!

Sounds like withdrawl to me, it can be awful.

I remember coming off other AD's and started with the racing thoughts that would not stop, severe headaches, brain zaps and eventually acting 1/2...don't like to say it but...1/2 crazy and couldn't control myself and couldn't function.

So pleased you are feeling better :)

yes and that was a soft withdraw.

Lesson learned, always make sure you have enough meds and your scripts are filled.

withdraws can in the worse case scenario be life threatening. You do not want to chance ending up in the ER or Crisis center, because you can not explain yourself due to withdraw from the meds.

I am glad to hear you had no real adverse side effects and are well enough to post. Please take this lesson to heart and grow stronger from it.

Peace and courage
Trina

Thanks for the advice. I have to confess I often miss a dose and then take two the next day. I never seem to have withdrawl if I just miss one day but I'm definitely going to make sure to take it properly from now on!