Effexor withdrawal hell

One day I went to my family doctor for a checkup. When he tested my pulse, he said it was high. I told him I get nervous when I go to the doctor. He asked if I get nervous a lot, and I said that maybe a little more than I should. He went into his sample closet, and handed me samples of Effexor XR 75mgs, and said this will make me less nervous. 10 years later, In August 2010, I got off cold turkey. I got the usual brain zaps, but nothing I couldnt handle. These disappeared, and I thought I was in the clear. 2 months later, I began to have extreme fear, dread, and sheer feelings of horror for no reason. Everything I thought about, seen, or heard caused a wash of fright. I paced, moved, and reasoned, but nothing alleviated the feelings. I sweated, was freezing, and had muscle ticks. 2 months after, I realized that this could be due to the discontinuation of Effexor, so I reinstated the whole 75mg, and it took 4 months to begin to feel better, with another year after that to get to my original self. In 2012, I began to taper the Effexor less than 10% per month. Each time I'd drop, I'd get different symptoms like zaps, dizziness, a charged feeling which seemed like on a delay anywhere from 4 days to 2 weeks. I then began doing 5% tapers. This taper went on for 2 years, and this past September, reached half my original dose. I began to have limited symptom panic attacks, headaches, and an overall unwell sickly feeling, so I stopped tapering, and held my dose at about 40mgs. Then the beginning of this February, the same fear, terror, and dread began like what I went through 3 years ago, and is still with me today. I would like to add that I am beginning already to make progress after 4 weeks, but its still very distressing. I would also like to add that I never in my life had felt this way before or during Effexor. This only began after I discontinued it. Anyone have any similar experiences, or know someone who went through this too?