Effexor Taper Having Chest Pains, Had Heart Attack 2 Mos Ago

I had a heart attack on 9-26-16...I was doing decent afterward for several weeks. I decided to go off effexor 150mg. after 10+ years. The reason is because effexor can cause high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and weight gain, all in which I have problems with and especially now I need to control them more. I've been tapering for a month with mild withdrawal, some days better or worse than others. Mostly irritability, vertigo, brain fog, tired all the time, yet I cannot sleep. Headaches come and go and quite a bit of body, muscle, joint aches. What's concerning me at this point is my chest is very sore, left side. I'm wondering if the tapering is causing discomfort? As of 2 days ago I decreased again and am down to 37.5. I thought I'd be feeling a lot worse, maybe that is yet to come??
Anyhow, the chest discomfort and pain has been worse since I dropped to 37.5. My dr put me on Zoloft 25 mg to help with withdrawal. Sometimes after I take the Zoloft within a couple hours some of my symptoms ease up some. Sometimes, but not always, it helps the chest pain also.
Is the effexor taper causing the chest pain and if so is it normal? I don't want to have another heart attack!! And that pain feels like it at times. Not sure what is causing this chest pain.

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Hello, Steve! How are you doing? Has there been any change?

Anytime you have new, or worsening chest pain, you should have it checked out by your doctor to be safe.

While there is a chance that it is due to tapering off this medication, according to the NIH, only your doctor can say for sure.

Are you on any other medications?

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Hi, thanks for the response. To be honest I'm not doing well at all. Two weeks ago my dr put me on 10 mg of Prozac and told me to stop effexor. The Prozac will help with the withdrawal symptoms. I've read up on it and heard some good results by trying this. I have stopped Zoloft 25 mg two days ago, weaning down by 12.5 for a week and then 6.25 for a few days.
Now all of my muscles ache terribly, get a lot of headaches and sinus aggravation. I'm very irritable, terrible anxiety and pretty depressed, tired but can't sleep, depersonalization, vertigo, nausea, diarrhea, confusion, and so many more symptoms. I'm not sure if I'm feeling so bad now from stopping the Zoloft, still getting effexor withdrawal symptoms, or if Prozac is not helping. I've felt rotten now for about 2 and a half months. I just want these meds out of my system and hope to see that I can actually feel good without any of these antidepressants. I'm just very lost right now and have so much to do but can hardly function.

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Re: Steve (# 2)

Hi, I am almost garenteeing it is the mixture of the Zoloft and the effexor. I was on Zoloft before they put me on effexor and I have had nothing but side effects. I have had a headache and jaw pain, dizziness/vertigo all the time, nausea, rapid heart rate/pulpications, tremors when I sleep, chest pain, iritablity, agitation, hot flashes, cold sweats, anxitey, plus I got another uti. I have been off of the Zoloft for 3weeks and off the effexor for 2 weeks on wedsday. It has been terrible and have felt like crap ever since. Also to make things to worse I have a heart condition where I have a whole and a valve that doesn't close all the way so it has made me a bit concerned with all the symptoms as well.

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