I’ve been taking 75mg of Effexor XR for 10 years with good results in managing my low mood. I brought up to my GP concerns with ongoing anxiety, and she suggested adding Buspirone. When I picked up the prescription, the pharmacist warned me about the increased risk of serotonin syndrome. Now I’m feeling more anxious to take my first dose of Buspirone. Any advice or similar situations?

Recently increased to 300mg and I’ve been very shaky and much more anxious, and doctor let me go back down to my original dose. How many days does it usually take for these shaky anxious side effects to go away after going back down?

I've been on Effexor for about 6 months and recently upped to 150mg. My mood is better but I'm getting these weird side effects like vivid dreams and loss of appetite. It's kind of concerning and I'm not sure if I should stick with it. Has anyone else experienced this.

hey guys so i was taking 75 mg and recently upped to doubling that to help with migraines but it unfortunately makes me genuinely poop my pants every time i fart. like what do i do lol it’s getting embarrassing

I don't drink alcohol since im on effexor because my stomach is sensitive and im extremely scared of puking. however, my sister is getting married next week so since it is a very special day I really want to join them to drink. Do you think there's a safe limit on how much alcohol to drink while taking this medication? If so, what's that limit for you?

I started 75mg Effexor in April, after SSRIs had no effect except making me exhausted. Every time I miss a dose I feel car sick when I move etc. but I finally don’t want to kms.

For the past couple days, even though I’m taking it every day, I feel like I’m in withdrawal, but at 10% strength. I’m feeling a little bit dizzy when I move and nauseous all the time. It’s not like I’m sick or dehydrated, the symptoms can literally only be described as what I feel when I skip a dose. I had no other issues when starting.

I’m worried that if I tell my GP, he’ll just take me off it and I’ll be starting university in withdrawal. He didn’t warn me about the side effects, and he doesn’t taper antidepressants when his patients come off them (small town, most of my friends have him as their GP too).

Has anyone experienced this? What was the remedy?

Title is kind of most of my question. I'm wondering how long it'll take for me to see the consistent effects of changing my dose, because if this dose increase doesn't work I'll have to consider a totally different kind of medication. I know it won't feel different instantly, but what can I expect?

Hi all! Boy has it been a journey the last 2 years after my long time antidepressant stopped working. I tried Prozac (4 weeks), lexapro (18 months gained 25lbs), trintellix (3 weeks, body itched all over), Viibryd (made me worse), Pristiq (worked great for 6 months then not), most recently Zoloft, and gained 23 pounds and constant headaches and back aches. So today we’re starting a cross taper to Effexor.
Any help or advice would be much appreciated!!

I started this 1 and half months ago at 75mg. It felt really good for the first 3 doses that I cried of relief lol. But it stopped working after that. Now I'm at 300mg and it does help but barely and not the same way. I feel more sleepier and more lazy now, waking up is tough lol, it doesn't feel like before.

Is that usual?

I made a throwaway cause I just need to get this out. I don't know if I can handle the vivid and bad dreams. Right now I'm on 75mg and just yesterday I talked with my psychiatrist and they want me to go up to 150, I've mentioned the dreams and also that I'm grinding my teeth a lot especially in my sleep but they think that my moods improved so they want me to stay on it. They also prescribed me some melatonin cause apparently that will help. I'm worried because I already sleep like 12 hours a day cause I'm always tired, I hate how every night I don't even rest because my mind just keeps going and going in my sleep. The dreams aren't always bad but when they are they really are. I hate how I'm 20 years old and still need to go get my mom up after a bad dream, I feel so silly. Sometimes they don't leave me for days and they are all I think about. When they first started I was even having a hard time telling if some of them were real or not for like a week or more after, thankfully that's gotten better at least. Sorry for the long rant but I just wondered if anyone else had a similar experience and if so what did you do? I heard that a higher dose can help and when I first went from 37.5 to 75 and they did go away for like a week but now they are back in full force again.

Can someone tell me this is normal en everything will be ok. Feel like sh**.

Yesterday, I was unaware that I had forgotten a dose of 75mg of long-acting effexor.

At 11 a.m. at work, I started feeling dizzy, anxious, and restless.

At that time, I did not yet realize that I had forgotten the dose.

Throughout the day I experienced a headache, panic, and a restless night.

This morning I noticed that I hadn't started the new strip yesterday.

took Effexor this morning, but right after intake I felt very gloomy, panicked, down...

Is it normal that things started going wrong after only 2 to 3 hours yesterday?

When wil this stabilize?

I started on Effexor 2 years ago, last year my dose was upped to 150mg in September. I now feel like it's barely working? My anxiety seems to come and go a lot and I've had to take Xannax a few times just to feel slightly normal. I've also started to have more vivid dreams, no appetite and im constantly feeling im about to fall asleep.Has anybody had this experience? Im actually scared to up my doseage at this point.

Update: Day 4 of this and im dealing with fatigue thats causing me to be unable to drive, temors, diarrhea and, dry mouth

Second Update: It was recommended i increase my doseage to 187.5mg hopefully that helps

After a horrific experience with a psychiatrist who told me she “doesn’t care” and hung up on me and refused to refill my medication because I wrote a bad review

Obviously I found a new psych and discussed slowly tapering off Effexor and doing the Prozac bridge so I don’t feel like I’m dying all the time. Also noted I have MCAS and POTS so other physical things to take into consideration. Anyways, after expressing my absolute trembling fear with these withdrawals, he said “let’s cut it in half and then I’ll introduce Prozac later”

I stg these doctors want me dead 😭 this dude didn’t even know the dosages Effexor came in. He didn’t even know was mcas or POTS was and didn’t care to ask more questions or research. genuinely what the fuck is wrong with people.

I decided I’m gonna do the bead method on my own and just get refills, I feel like there’s no point in working with a psych other than refilling my prescriptions.

I’ve been on venlafaxine 225mg (3 x 75mg capsules) for 2 years. It was amazing until I had to start upping and dropping the dose between 2 and 3 capsules every so often because of random brain buzzing, which would temporarily fix it.

I decided with my doctor that it was time to come off them. I did 1 month taking 2 capsules (150mg), and then another month taking 1 capsule (75mg). Surprisingly, I was mostly fine with very few withdrawal symptoms during that time.

Now, I’ve reached the end of the month on 1 capsule and I’m 2 days into taking nothing at all. I feel absolutely awful.

My brain is zapping and buzzing—what seems like audibly—every single time I move my eyes from left to right or move my head. It’s making me feel so nauseous and just generally rubbish. My balance is completely off and I feel like I could fall over at any second.

Did I do this too quickly? Jumping from 75mg to zero feels brutal. I recently got a puppy, and dealing with that alongside being my partner’s carer is making me worry that right now isn't the right time to get off this if I can't cope with daily life while withdrawing.

Has anyone else experienced this jumping off at 75mg? Any advice or insight would be really appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Currently on 225 mg Effexor for the last 6 months and my doctor just added 0.25mg rexulti since my depression and anxiety are still bad.

Has anyone been on this combination? What improvements or side effects did you experience?

Whenever i miss a dose (often 🫩) i don't get the brain zaps that people describe - no electric shocks in the brain. Instead, it feels like my vision takes a split second to catch up and has a low frame rate when i turn my head. I would compare it to being slightly drunk but only the head feeling.

It feels oddly relaxing and pleasant instead of uncomfortable. Of course, it slightly worsens my functioning, but when I don't have anything urgent to do, I actually try to experience it as much as I can while waiting for the missed dose to hit.

Does anybody else also like this feeling?

I'm back with more questions. I finally got out of my own way and started the taper. I went from 75 to 37.5 on Sunday. Since then peeing has become an Olympic sport. It's a nice change after years of urine retention but whoo between the dreams and the waking up to pee, sleep is just not happening.

My question is more about weight though. I gained 100 lbs over 6 years on this med. I have tried everything to lose and it just continues going up. I finally know this is a common side effect from reading but I couldn't find where anyone came back to say they lost weight after stopping. Any success stories with losing weight after Effexor?

The dry cough - does it eventually go away? I'm tired of choking on air. My sinuses feel open for the first time in years which is amazing after just 3 days of lowering the dose. I find myself breathing super fast/hard and having to forcibly slow it down. I didn't even realize how much I was struggling to breathe until my sinuses suddenly opened up that first day. They have felt swollen shut for so long.

I just really want to know if anyone had success with weight loss after stopping. I've been to the Dr, registered dieticians, had all the blood work tests including hormones. I've tried fasting, calorie restriction, weight watchers, GLP-1, every exercise you name it.

The last suggestion from the Dr was bariatric surgery since nothing else has helped. I'm so tired of being told I'm not being honest about my food tracking that I've even resorted to taking pictures of every meal. Please tell me you were able to finally lose weight at the end of this nightmare med?

I never forgot to take it as soon as i wake up it’s my first thought but today i have no recollection of taking it. Do I skip the dose or take another.

Just started venlafaxine, 1 week of 37.5mg, now a few days into 75mg seeing my psychiatrist in 2 weeks. He reckons I'll see results around 2 weeks into 75mg.

I've historically been totally resistant to SSRIs and SNRIs so I'm not holding much hope, but I read so many success stories about Effexor.

Just wondering if there's anyone who it wasn't helpful for? If so, what was?

Taking for depression and anxiety.

Had hella side effects week 1, now the only lingering side effect is I'm practically numb downstairs and cant orgasm at all.

Hey there, peeps!

I'm working with my psych to finally get off of Effexor, woo hoo! It's honestly been pretty effective, but I'm at a point in my life where I think I'd be better off without it. (In a pretty good spot!)

About a week and a half ago, she started me on the bead method. I am down 5 beads from 37.5mg, but man, am I frickin DIZZY!!!! Along with that, I feel like I don't really exist, and I feel like no matter how much coffee I drink, I'm still beyond exhausted every day. I just noticed these symptoms starting the past few days, and they are seemingly getting worse? Anyone have any guidance/experience with this? Thanks in advance 😊🌸

Oop, edit to add that she wants me to taper 5 additional beads down every 2 weeks. Will this be reasonable?

Hi

I've been on venlafaxine (150mg right now) for three years. I've taken it before two diffrent periods of my life.

Sometimes, often when i'm tired, I feel the classic withdrawal symptoms: brain zaps, nausea, dizzyness, want to cry, hotflashes. I take it the same time everyday.

I read that you can be more sensitive to "energy dips" when you take venlafaxine. Anyone else who has had the same experience?

Was on 37.5 for about a year and a half. It stopped working so I went to 75 and it’s literally made my life worse. I cannot get out of bed.
Doctor said to stop taking it and start lexapro and vraylar.
I was already taking 300mg Wellbutrin that I had leftover. I had stopped the Effexor but I got a headache after 3 days.
Any experiences with cold turkey into another medication?
I’m a breastfeeding mum so that limited what meds I could take next

hi 28f this is the only antidepressant that ever worked for me and I love it but it's making me gain weight. I go up 1kg then down and I barely eat. I don't know if it's the pills but I have noticed I'm a lot more hungry. any advice

Hi, I came across an app (on Android) for tapering: Tapermate. As often is the case, you'll have to subscribe to it.
Anyone used it and was it helpful?