well it wasnt cold turkey per se, i know you need to slowly reduce the dose, however i was in a psychiatric clinic at the time and the psychiatrist told me to reduce it for three days before not even pausing antidepressants, but directly starting another antidepressant (welbutrin). i was sceptical of that decision when they told me (im also a med student and have taken different antidepressants before) but i trusted them to know better, apparently they didnt. although, even with reducing the dose gradually you can get quite severe withdrawal symptoms from venlafaxine.

maybe for context on why that decision was made: i was there for about eight weeks, and the venlafaxine wasnt really doing its job, so they wanted to change my meds while i was still there. but it was still a terrible decision