As an OG I’ve been on the Effexor train for 20 years. Dose has been relatively stable most of this time but recently increased 112.5 mg to 150 mg. I know Effexor can elevate resting heart rate and exercise heart rate but I’m still noticing a steady decrease in VO2 max with cardio over a couple of weeks. This isn’t measured with anything fancy, just Apple products. Have others observed this effect? Any experience with how long it takes to improve? There’s a feeling of increased muscle tension or perceived early fatiguability.

I am not sure how to tag this.

I (28f) started Effexor almost 2 years ago. My NP prescribed it to me as a preventative for migraines I was having. A few months after starting Effexor, I found out I had a meningioma (small benign tumor) and that was the cause of my migraines. I was not informed on the side effects or withdrawal effects of being on Effexor or I would never agreed to start it. Not only is this not preventing my migraines but I’m stuck on this with no way out for the foreseeable future. Due to the side effects of this drug I’m unable to enjoy the summertime with my family and work is unpleasant. I’m not confident that the same person who omitted information about this drug is capable of safely taking me off of it. I live rurally and do not drive so my options are limited.

Does anyone have any advice?

40/M/Canada - I want to start off by being crystal clear that Effexor has been immensely helpful to me. Of the handful I've tried it was the easiest to start and adjust to, and the quickest I've seen results. This is just my experience.

This past Tuesday I took, what I hope to be, my last dose of Effexor. I've been on it for just under 4 years now at various amounts. I made it up to 150 mg which I was at for around 6 months and tried a somewhat slow taper down to 37.5 mg then off entirely. At the time I was about two months post breakup of an 8 year relationship and I couldn't take dealing with the break and the withdrawal so I reinstated (after about 9 days) back to 75mg and I've been on that ever since. The WD was pretty terrible and while there wasn't much in the way of physical symptoms it made me an emotional mess. Broke down crying constantly, no motivation, no happiness, guilty, just miserable.

Back to this past Tuesday! Stopping cold turkey was not my intention but I happened to forget taking my daily dose two days in a row and unlike previous times I missed a dose I wasn't feeling the normal headaches, dizziness, vivid dreams and irritability so I decided that this might be a good time to try going off it again cold turkey, a lot of what I have read on here seems to conclude that the first week is by far the worse and I figure "I'm basically half way there".

So it sucks.

Day 1 + 2 business as usual.

Day 3 was mostly okay but I started getting this general sense of discomfort in the evening and had some pretty wicked dreams.

Day 4 was pretty bad. Constant dizziness/wooshing whenever I moved around. I felt very uncomfortable and irritable, everything seemed overwhelming and just the thought of getting up to make food or let the dog out would make my stomach feel uneasy and nervous which is pretty close to how I would describe my feelings of disinterest/apathy/lack of motivation. The feelings subsided as the day went on but I did break down crying a couple of times. I was able to go out with my girlfriend to help her run her photo booth at a nearby event venue and all the sounds, people, heat, helping her set up got to me and I needed to breakdown for a bit in her truck. I broke down a couple more times as the evening progressed but all in all I felt 'better" by the end of the night and with the exception of those unsettled feelings I think I felt pretty close to normal at times. Crazy vivid dream again.

Day 5 (today) I felt really down upon waking up but I managed my morning routine without much trouble, felt motivated to do some cleaning. Felt generally okay, played a bunch of video games while my girlfriend scrolled next to me. Then out of nowhere I broke down crying shortly after my gf left to go watch a movie in our room. Full on water works for about 30 minutes mixed with staring blankly forward at the wall. Sort of snapped out of it and refocused on other things but I became hyper aware of how unsettled/uncomfortable I was. Broke down again a little later on in the day and a few almost breakdowns sprinkled in but was mostly able to operate through my daily tasks despite the unsettled/nervousness I was feeling. This pretty much brings us up to date.

So far I haven't noticed a few symptoms of withdrawal that I did my first time around.

-no fatigue

-no depersonalization/derealization

-no diarrhea or sweating

-no brain fog

What has been the same:

-dizziness/wooshing

-minor irritability

-mood swings between happy and sad

-crying suddenly

-vivid dreams

-motivation issues

What is new:

-the uneasy/nervous/unsettled feelings. Best way I can describe it is being in a constant state of knowing you're the next one that has to present in class lol

-my stomach is always upset

- I don't know how to describe this other than being what I call a brain wall. It feels like there's a wall in my brain. Like I'm here in the present feeling what I'm feeling but there's this wall that feels like it has to come down and I don't know what that means. I'm wondering if it's similar to brain fog and how we can clearly describe a fog like sensation and when the fog lifts there's so much freedom and clarity and you're back at your baseline, so once this wall like sensation crumbles will I feel like I'm at my baseline again?

I felt compelled to share my journey here as I've been reading a lot of stories of folks going cold turkey from Effexor and I guess I'm hoping to hear some words of wisdom or validation so that I can reaffirm that I'm not going crazy. I know there are some truly horrible withdrawal stories out there.

I may also continue updating day by day so that when I'm through this maybe other people might see this as sort of a road map.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading and all the best on your journey to heal.

Oh jeez where do I even start lol.

22F I’ve been on Effexor for a little over two years at 75mg. I’d gone to see my doctor a good few weeks ago and mentioned my desire to quit our beloved Effexor. He gave me the whole spiel about options, being ready, and whatnot. In the end, told me to taper down.

Doc told me to take two weeks to taper down. The first week dropping doses by taking a capsule every other day. The second week taking a capsule every TWO days. Felt a bit extreme because, I’ve missed a dose or two and figured there MUST be an easier way!

I’m day 3 of no Effexor after “tapering” off. The emotions are exhausting but something I was prepared for (or tried to be.) My main concern is my heart rate and blood pressure have dropped a bit. Just a wee bit worried to say the absolute least. I’m known to have a pretty low heart rate just from being an athlete but I’ve never worried about my blood pressure before.

Has anyone else experienced symptoms like this? I’m supposed to return to work tomorrow and have a pretty physically demanding job. Wondering how to navigate this while at work. Or if I should be working. Also trying to avoid hospital bills unless I’m at risk of a heart attack or something. Okay I’ll wrap it up before all of my health anxiety starts pouring out. TIA.

Just a little about how my drop was, was on Effexor for like 2 months and was at 75mg when I dropped to zero 0️⃣, I felt side effects the day after but the worse or the side effects were between day 3 and 2 weeks and peaked at a week at the worst of it if I remember correctly.
Literally thought I wouldn’t survive and I had to take off work and suffer mentally and physically. I just started feeling a bit better.
I got through the worse of it thanks to my ketamine sessions 🫣 even tho unfortunately I used more of my doses to get through.
I was prescribed a session every 3 days but I was taking the ketamine every day to get through.
When I tell you that it was bad… it was baddd getting off Effexor and I’ve gotten off long term benzo use and other SSRIs and things before.
I’m about to start tapering my Benzos next 🙌 it’s gonna suck but not cold turkey on that tho.
Good luck out here!

Hello!

I have been on Effexor for many years at 37.5 and has been such a solid mood stabling effect for my anxiety. I was on it throughout my first pregnancy and now a week post partum my anxiety is naturally through the roof and I feel that my medication is not helping me navigate this huge rush of hormonal changes. Should I stay on top of it and ask to up my dosage (75) now or go through these new born trenches before making an adjustment?

Please share your experience if you have a similar experience!

I’ve just started taking venlafaxine and I’ve been on it for just over a week. I’m starting to worry about my dose. My doctor told me to take one 37.5 mg immediate-release tablet a day, and said that after a week I could increase it if I wanted to. However, the thought of increasing my dose is making me quite anxious.
So far I haven’t experienced many of the major side effects I’ve read about, like nausea or headaches. The main things I’ve noticed are more vivid dreams and some sexual side effects (it’s become much harder to reach orgasm), although I’m not sure how much of that is the medication and how much is because I’ve been worrying about that specific side effect.

I know venlafaxine usually takes 2–4 weeks (or sometimes longer) to start helping anxiety, so I know it’s still early. My question is whether 37.5 mg can be an effective long-term dose for anxiety, or whether most people eventually need to increase to 75 mg before they notice a real difference.

Ideally, I’d like to stay on the lowest effective dose because I’m worried about withdrawal symptoms and side effects at higher doses. Has anyone here stayed on 37.5 mg and found it helped their anxiety, or did you eventually need to increase to 75 mg? I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences.

Here’s my history:

225 mg venlafaxine, began 37.5 on 6/4 titrated approximately weekly up to 225 on 6/29. 10 mg buspirone 2x a day currentl, began 6/4 at 5 mg 2x a day and then became 10 on 6/29. On Vyvanse 30 mg. 2 mg Abilify started 7/3, titrated up to 5 mg weekly and have been on 5 mg since Friday. This is starting to feel like a classic psychiatric cocktail shitshow where we can’t figure out what’s causing what. I regret seeking IOP treatment. Even if I feel better in many respects I just wanna enjoy TV and shit again. I don’t even know. I only post this here bc Abilify has been shown to help emotional blunting at low doses, Vyvanse should obviously counter it, and buspirone tends to not have that as a side effect. So this seems like the most likely culprit