Effexor withdrawal, anxiety relapse and noise sensitivity

[benzo]

Hi,

Long story short: I was prescribed Effexor 5 years ago after a bout of tinnitus gave me a nervous breakdown. Over the last couple of years I have developed terrible noise sensitivity and I have had serious bad luck, having purchased and sold several places, all due to noise issues. Fast forward to two years ago: finally thought I would be able to enjoy the long sought-after peace and quiet when we purchased a detached house in the countryside. Turns out the countryside isn't so hot, I had to endure construction of a wastewater treatment plant, the neighbour's cockerel, the other neighbours' Great Dane incessant barking (that got better though), renovations of the neighbours across the street and then the absolute worst: my idiotic neighbours next door decided to put some budgies in an aviary in their garden and next to our terrace and they will NOT shut up. The neighbours has since installed some flimsy plastic walls but they barely block out the noise.

I seriously flipped over this and I promised my wife to go see a psychiatrist who doubled my dose of Effexor to 150mg, I quit after a week to the sexual side effects. So I thought to myself, why not quit altogether, it's been 5 years maybe it's time to go off the meds.

Effexor is notorious for withdrawal symptoms but I managed to get through the first couple of weeks by tapering off slowly, I had some physical symptoms but tolerable. What's worse is that 1 month after quitting completely, my mental state seems to be deteriorating; I am getting serious mood swings, feelings of despair etc. Anyone here has tried to come off Effexor? Would love to hear from some people, since it's not clear if I'm experiencing withdrawal symptoms or some sort of depression/anxiety relapse. Difficult call since I would love to stay off the meds...

[webslave]

I sympathise with your predicament, benzo, but I doubt you'll get the feedback on quitting Effexor that you need here. However, I know there are a lot of newsgroups devoted to exactly this sort of topic. Examples
http://www.crazymeds.us/CrazyTalk/index ... -horrible/
http://www.psychforums.com/depression/topic86049.html

and many more.

Good luck