Venlafaxine Withdrawal – What the Doctors Don’t Tell You

Lately, I have come off Venlafaxine (antidepressant) from the slowly lowered dose of 37.5mg on doctor’s orders. Ever since, I have been experiencing what I call ‘brain spasms’. They are also known as ‘brain zaps’ or ‘brain shocks’ and they are a symptom of Venlafaxine withdrawal.

However, no-one warned me about them. A brain spasm feels like an electric shock going through the brain, followed by a temporary sense of light-headedness. It is a jolt, like ‘seeing stars’ after a blow to the head, I can best describe it as ‘silt’ though my mother doesn’t understand that. These zaps were occurring every minute for the first four days but their frequency is decreasing now. Moving my eyes from side to side tended to set off a quick succession of them. It can take a month or so to be rid of them entirely.

Before discovering what they were, I believed the doctors were subjecting me to ECT (Electro-Convulsive Therapy) remotely. Indeed, during my year-long hospitalisation, the consultant psychiatrist was intent on forcing this ‘therapy’ on me until my parents made such an objection. Surely treating patients of other conditions in a similar manner would end up in court?