The safe way to taper off antidepressants is gradually. Build a free week-by-week taper schedule using proportional reductions — with dates, dose sizes, and a printable chart to review with your prescriber.
The schedule builder generates a full week-by-week reduction plan — dates, cut sizes, and formulation tips — that you can print and review with your prescriber.
Works for SSRIs, SNRIs, Wellbutrin, and more. Full schedule, chart, and printable plan.
Build a gradual sertraline reduction plan — with dates, step sizes, and a printable chart for your prescriber.
Build a gradual escitalopram reduction plan — with dates, step sizes, and a printable chart for your prescriber.
Build a gradual venlafaxine reduction plan — with dates, step sizes, and honest guidance about the XR capsule problem.
Build a gradual duloxetine reduction plan — with dates, step sizes, and honest guidance about the capsule problem.
Schedules follow the proportional-reduction approach described in modern deprescribing research — smaller cuts as your dose gets lower, because that's how the medication's effect actually behaves.
Every schedule is designed to be printed and discussed — not followed blindly. Slower is always an option, and your prescriber stays in the loop at every step.
Tablets that split, capsules that don't, liquids that exist for some drugs and not others — the schedule flags exactly when your doses get too small for standard forms, and what to ask about next.
Why missing one Effexor dose is felt within hours — and Prozac isn't.
Antidepressant effects don't fall in a straight line — at low doses, each milligram carries far more effect than at high doses. That's why halving 20mg is usually easy, and stopping from 5mg can be brutal. Proportional tapering makes the cuts smaller as you go down, so every step feels roughly the same size to your brain.
See it in your scheduleScience, symptoms, and tapering strategies.
SEPTEMBER 01, 2026 • 4 MIN READ
Effexor withdrawal can begin within 12 to 24 hours of a missed or reduced dose — faster than almost any other antidepressant — peaks over the first week, and typically eases over 2 to 4 weeks after a gradual taper. Here is the day-by-day timeline and why venlafaxine's short half-life makes it uniquely abrupt.
Read Article
SEPTEMBER 01, 2026 • 4 MIN READ
A safe Zoloft taper schedule reduces sertraline by about 10 percent of the current dose every 2 to 4 weeks — which means the right plan depends heavily on your starting dose. Here are worked example schedules from 200mg, 100mg, 50mg and 25mg starting points, and why the last 25mg deserves the slowest steps of all.
Read Article
AUGUST 20, 2026 • 6 MIN READ
Lexapro withdrawal typically begins 1 to 3 days after stopping (or cutting a dose), peaks over the first 1 to 2 weeks, and eases over 2 to 6 weeks — though a slower tail of symptoms can persist for months after fast tapers. Here is the week-by-week timeline, what makes it longer or shorter, and how to exit gently.
Read Article
AUGUST 06, 2026 • 5 MIN READ
Antidepressant discontinuation symptoms affect roughly one in three to one in two people who stop, and duration varies widely. Here is what the research supports about timing, and which factors you can actually influence.
Read Article
AUGUST 06, 2026 • 5 MIN READ
Bupropion doesn't act on serotonin, so it doesn't produce the classic discontinuation syndrome — no brain zaps, less dizziness. But it has its own tapering problem, and it isn't the one most people expect.
Read Article
AUGUST 06, 2026 • 6 MIN READ
Brain zaps are brief electrical-shock sensations in the head, often triggered by eye movement, and they are one of the most commonly reported antidepressant discontinuation symptoms. Here is what is known about why they happen and how long they last.
Read ArticleGet the free taper starter kit by email: the schedule calculator, the printable symptom tracker, and word-for-word scripts for getting your doctor on board. One email, no spam, ever.
Strictly private. Zero spam. Unsubscribe anytime.