Hey everyone,

Hi Jodi! Welcome. Congrats on the success so far! Youll be an amazing community member with all of the skills youve picked up along the way down to 0.5mg. What do you think has been the most important aspect to your success thus far?

Thank you for the warm welcome. I think the most important aspect or skill I’ve learned that has helped me to get this far - has been learning acceptance. I have always been very accepting of pleasant experiences, but never very accepting of unpleasant experiences. So learning to accept the not so pleasant aspects of my experience (that can especially occur during the taper process) has helped me tremendously. I feel that one skill would be the most important aspect of my success thus far. I want to say too, that I’m still learning to apply this skill to the withdrawal experience - it’s not something I’ve totally mastered - it’s more of an ongoing daily practice.

Very insightful. Sounds like a psychotherapy technique called "detached mindfulness". Really comes in handy when we feel like our thoughts are taking over and negatively affecting our lives. Do you do any psychotherapy?

Hi Jodi Interesting story! Have you tried including keto dieting in your taper process? It helped me. Might be worth thinking about :) Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

Hi Jodi! Nice to have you here. I'm from the United States. I'm so glad you have a supportive psychiatrist who is allowing you to taper down slowly and is also helping you with coping skills.

Catina, have you had bad experiences with doctors who have not been supportive?

Yes, I have. I was being treated at a mental-health facility, and they were completely ignorant of safe tapering. They also were not supportive when I told them I would need to break open the capsules so I could slowly taper. For some reason it was looked at as a grave sin! In fact, I was bullied by one psychiatric nurse practitioner, who wanted me to basically cold turkey off the "lowest" dose of Venlafaxine. I left that place and found someone who supported a slow and safe taper.

Yes mindfulness has come in very handy throughout this tapering process too. No I haven’t been doing any psychotherapy, I’ve been doing ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy) for the last 12 months. I also did an 8 week online happiness trap course which was also really helpful for learning coping skills. This is where I’ve learned the acceptance skills from. Hi domagoj, it’s lovely to meet you. No I haven’t tried a keto diet (I’ve heard great things about this type of diet though). I’m currently on a paleo diet which I think might be similar. I haven’t really noticed much of a difference with the paleo diet. I will defintely look into keto though thank you for the recommendation. Hi Catina, it’s so nice to meet you. Thank you for reaching out. I did a lot of searching to find this particular psychiatrist. I’m so glad I went to that effort though, as he has been wonderful. I’m sorry to hear of your bad experiences with finding support. I have had a few similar experiences myself of cold turkey / abrupt taper advice (in a mental health facility and with previous psychiatrists), so I can relate to the experience you shared. It was those bad experiences that spurred me on to do my own research and seek out someone who is knowledgeable and supportive of tapering. Have you been able to find any support since that experience?

"relate to the experience you shared." — @Jodi

"d. It was those bad experiences that sp" — @Jodi

test🤫