Effexor

Does it do its job? No doubt. However, if a dose is missed, you will experience severe dizziness and nausea. Some sensations may even feel like you are underwater due to the severe affect it has on the brain. Also, do not take if you plan on getting pregnant. Once pregnant, the doctor has to stop your use of the pills immediately due to the impact it has on birth defects. If you already take it and plan to get pregnant, I fully suggest weening off the medication. I have and doing that on its own is messing with my head, I couldn't imagine getting pregnant and being pulled off 250mg all at once.

Sadly this medication did not work for me. It was prescribed to assist with menopause. I have been taken off it and the side effects are terrible. Extreme dizziness and nausea.

I was prescribed slow release Venlafaxine whilst in hospital by a Psychiatrist and the dose was increased to 300mg daily by my GP when I returned home. 3 months later I was still struggling with anxiety and decided to explore online the effectiveness of slow release drugs. Well I was not surprised to discover that they do not work. The outer casing of the drug does not dissolve in the stomach and the hole that presumably is there for the drug to escape from is miniscule! I contacted my GP and asked to change to the immediate release Venlafaxine. I am now noticing the difference as this one actually works and I am now taking 225mg daily. I discussed my findings with my GP but sadly she dismissed it and said the dose needed increasing. I am so glad I know my body better than she does! PLEASE DO NOT TAKE SLOW RELEASE VENLAFAXINE IT IS A PLACIBO YOU MIGHT AS WELL TAKE A SMARTIE!

I’ve been on Effexor for years it literally saved my life.

I am now 76 years old so at the very least you can see that the medication kept me going. That said I've been taking effexor since it came on the market. Today I take a maintenance dosage of 300 mg.which I have been on for many years.Obviously I have had to increase the dose just to keep me at a "normal"level.At this time in my life I would love to come off this drug but I am terrified to even consider it.

I am in perimenopause and was experiencing extreme bits of anxiety and depression with excessive worry that did not allow me to sleep. My mind was constantly racing and my mood was all over the place. I would cry a the drop of a hat. I was prescribed this med and it was a complete game changer for me. I now have a level mood and no thoughts of impending doom. I can sleep better and just all around feel better. I would say the only side affect is less desire for sex but I hope that levels out in time.

Effexor changed my life! I have tried so many different anti-depressants over many years and this is by far the most effective. My mood is now very ‘even’ and chill. My anxiety is way down and manageable.

It's horrible. I don't think I've felt worse in my life. I feel nauseous all the time and my depression got worse.

Overall I’ve been thrilled with this medication thus far. My only side effect was some initial stomach upsets which has since subsided. I’ve been fighting this particular depressive episode for a little over a year and nothing I tried was working all that well for me. Now I’m starting to feel like me again.

Don’t EVER take this medication. I took it for ten years. It stopped working for me and I wanted to get off of it because I didn’t want to keep adding pills. I followed all of my doctors recommendations for tapering. I went slowly taking SIX MONTHS to get off of it. When I finally took the very last small dose, about 10 hours later I was the sickest I have ever been. I threw up for 3 straight days. I couldn’t even drink water and therefore ended up in the ER. The ER doctor told me “most people never get off of this drug”. I either had to ride it out or start taking it again. I chose to suffer. After, I could eat and drink again, I had brain zaps, mood swings, irritability and uncontrollable crying. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. The brain zaps lasted for a year and the other symptoms subsided in about 6 months. It’s been about 8 years since I have stopped taking it and every so many often I check the current information regarding this medicine. About 5 years ago there was very damaging information concerning this medication, but now it’s all buried and there is barely any negative information about it anymore. I’m sure the maker has done some manipulating regarding current information. Some countries have even banned prescribing it, but the good old USA only cares about the wealthy making as much money as possible. DO NOT TAKE THIS MEDICATION!!

I started Perimenopause 1 year ago and my complaint to my OBGYN is mood swings, fatigue and hot flashes. She prescribed me this medication. It's a game changer for me. I have better moods, no fatigue and minimal hot flashes. It has worked well for me.

I took this medication for over 10 years. It did help with tears. It did not help and made hot flashes worse. I was advised to stop taking this and it was terrible. This is a very hard drug to stop taking even if you do it slowly. It makes you feel more upset and depressed than you were when you started taking it. I do not recommend this drug. It affects the hypothalamus and can do many negative things.

I first started Effexor at 75mg while spending 9 days in a behavioral health treatment program institution I was admitted into for suicidal ideation. The first couple days I had no appetite and to my surprise it started working wonders! After a year my provider had to up my dose to 150mg during the winter months for my seasonal depression. I was on Effexor from 2022- 2/2024 when my medical doctor noticed a big change in my White Blood Count that had been declining the whole time. Once I was took off I had the worse symptoms of body ticks, emotional, angry, quit the highest paying job that I loved and worked so hard to get my degree in, wanting to commit suicide once again, and isolating myself eating laying in bed not wanting to be bothered. I also experienced the numb mental state of not having any feelings of emotions, anger, sadness, or happiness while taking this medication.

I love my effexor! For a while, I was only taking 37.5 and, while I knew it was helpful when I took it, I was noncompliant, drinking a lot, and overall not getting the full benefits. My doctor increased me to 75 about a month ago and I feel great! Although I feel like my anxiety is a baseline personality trait of mine, I feel as though Effexor calms my nerves - my body isn’t as tense and I feel physically more relaxed. I still think a lot, but I no longer worry. The only side effect I truly have is that it really killed my sex drive. I also have to be careful how much I drink alcohol because it definitely makes me drunk fast. However, the benefit of being happy is totally worth it, I truly enjoy my life on this medication.

My new doctor wanted to take me off Lexapro to see if Effexor would more effectively treat my anxiety and depression. I have not had a good experience. The first week I had two panic attacks , body tremors, and extreme headaches. I also started to get really irritable at work which is never a good thing. Now I am on my third week and the headaches are continuing and I noticed that I feel hot all the time. But the most disturbing thing is the extreme rage I have been feeling. This is not acceptable at work or in any situation where I interact with people. Everyone has different experiences but this medication is not working for me. Best wishes to all.

I've been on this med for years. Seems to help my depression and anxiety well enough that I can function every day for work. But, does make me drowsy and is difficult to stop taking.

I have been on Effexor twice. Mostly due to issues around a high stress work environment and a change in jobs and location after 20 years. I have had mild anxiety for most of my life but was able to deal with it for the most part. Eventually I broke down and the anxiety just got to the point it had a severe impact on my ability to work, sleep, eat, exercise and enjoy life. My doctor tried several different meds, and finally landed on Effexor. It took about a month before it started to work. The only real side effects were loss of libido, and more frequent bowel movements. I was on 75mg XR dose. I did notice after about 4 months, that I was going mentally numb. I didn't have a lot of motivation, and felt that I was getting to a point of being totally devoid of feeling any type of emotion. No sadness, no anger, no happiness. Just there. When COIVID hit and I started working from home, I decided to slowly ween myself off. It was over a 6 week time frame. I had been on the Effexor for about 9 months. I basically just cut the dose by about 20% each week. I did have periods of confusion, headaches, brain fog and dizziness. Then when I was off it, it took about 3 months for me to fill normal again. I have since gone back on it after having been off of it for about 15 months as the anxiety attacks came back. The 2nd time around it's not working as well. I found myself disoriented and lost on several walks with my dog and trails I have been on many times. Have had my wife ask me where I was going when we were driving somewhere, and then realizing I had no idea where I was going. It doesn't have the same effect of numbing, and my anxieties are still there but maybe not quite as strong. I have since the past few weeks started feeling a bit nervous for no reason, and have had some mild chest/heart pains. I have started to slowly reduce the amount in hopes of eventually weening off it again. But this time going much slower with 10% reduction in dosage. I have just started the process, so we will see if taking the next 10 weeks to will reduce symptoms. I have a visit with my doctor in a few weeks and will talk to him about my symptoms and tapering off or at least reducing to 37.5 mg dose and see how things go.

This medication was promised to have no side effects like an SSRI that gave me rectal bleeding which was listed as a side effect. I was recovering from an acute diverticulitis event. Then with this medication it gave me major constipation which I was battling to prevent a colon perferation or worse. I found constipation in the long list of side effects. After 2 days only I was a wreck. Crying and feeling like I was going crazy. No BM for 5 days or more. I had to quit per my doctor. I even had withdrawal symptoms after just 2 days.

I feel that this medication helped me overall to avoid spirals of depression, as well as limiting the effects of menopause. If you miss or are late with your pills you will feel it the next day, I sometimes had angry and depressed mood. Also, do not take alcohol or canabis whilst on this, as your depression will return promptly. I have come off it 3 times, once was easy peasy, once was horrific, and right now, hopefully for the last time, I have flu-like symptoms which have kept me from going to work. If you have depression, first try B complex and other vitamins, diet, exercise and meditation. They may work better.

After years of fluoxetine not really working for me or doing much at all (dysthymia, anxiety), I finally decided to make he effort to find something better. While venlafaxine didn’t worsen my depression, it began to make me extremely irritable (150mg/day dose) to the point where I almost snapped at people, something I would never do. The dry mouth symptom wasn’t too bad and I did feel a warm / numb sensation in my man part which was odd! Hopefully this will work better for others.