I'm not sure if this is helpful, but I was on 75 mg of venlafaxine (effexor) for several months to a year. Then my insurance ran out. I thought I had an additional month worth of doses, but it turned out that I only had a few doses left. I basically ended up going almost cold-turkey. I basically spent an entire week either sleeping or reading fiction in bed. The brain zaps and nausea felt terrible. I think I am lucky that I can sink that much into fiction and I won't notice the passage of time. After about a week I had to attend an event and during it I felt fine.
I have to say though that venlafaxine didn't really do anything positive for me, nor did the previous SSRIs. I still got the side-effects and withdrawal symptoms when I missed a dose though. I assume they don't work for me because that wasn't my problem in the first place. My own guess is that my issues are from ADHD, but I've only intermittently had insurance since then so I haven't been able to find out.
My experience wasn't like yours, but the withdrawal was terrible. I've read about it online and it seems that many other people seem to have found withdrawal from venlafaxine to be really bad.
I have to say though that venlafaxine didn't really do anything positive for me, nor did the previous SSRIs. I still got the side-effects and withdrawal symptoms when I missed a dose though. I assume they don't work for me because that wasn't my problem in the first place. My own guess is that my issues are from ADHD, but I've only intermittently had insurance since then so I haven't been able to find out.
My experience wasn't like yours, but the withdrawal was terrible. I've read about it online and it seems that many other people seem to have found withdrawal from venlafaxine to be really bad.