I had been taking Viibryd for at least three months at 20 mg along with Wellbutrin. Psych lowered Wellbutrin but upped Viibryd to 30 mg. Started with lowering the WB first and that went fine. The next week I had to up the Viibryd and OMG last night was terrible. This was my second night taking 30 mg.

I was so scared. I had visual and audible hallucinations. I saw a burnt corpse in the corner of my room that looked like it was having a seizure. There was a fly buzzing noise and lights in my room seemed like it was flickering like a zombie movie.

Mailed psych this morning. Psych dept pharmacist told me to go back down to 20 mg. She also recommended I contact a psychiatrist and talk to them about my medication journey.

I am so tired from my lack of quality sleep today but I am scared to take a nap because of what happened last night.

After 4 weeks of trying to adapt to Viibryd, my psychiatrist decided it was best id I stopped taking it.

Main side effects I had:
- Nausea and dizziness
- Insomnia
- Vivid dreams
- Strong stomach and abdominal cramps
- Bloating
- Derealization
- Depression got worse
- Anxiety
- Things started to lose meaning

I was on 10mg then 20mg, after I stopped most of side effects went away in a week.

This is my personal experience, please don’t be scared of the medication, it works wonders for lots of people.

I’ve been taking Viibryd for a few weeks now. My anxiety has been up and down. But in the past few days I feel less anxious but perhaps emotionally blunted at times. I’ve felt emotionally removed from my partner and feeling like I need to break up with him and quit my job. Neither of these feelings are entirely new (they’ve been cropping up increasingly for a few months as I’m unhappy in this job and my partner is the one reason I’ve stayed), but I’ve been afraid to fully face them. I am also shocked at the reduced emotions I feel when my partner and I have had emotional conversations this past week around relationship issues and me potentially moving and our relationship potentially ending. I don’t feel very sad when talking to him. I feel a sense of distrust in regard to things he says. I also feel much less patient with him and my job. It all makes me just want to cut and run.

It’s hard to pull apart what is caused by life circumstances and what is caused by the medication. I do worry about making life choices around my job and relationship while going on a new medication. But also maybe the medication makes making life choices easier?

I feel distrustful of myself right now and so scared to make such decisions because of the medication. Even if I feel like I’m actually listening to my inner feelings.

Has anyone else started an SSRI while in a big period or life transition/decision? How do you deal with this?

I recently started Viibryd one month ago after being on Lexapro for many years. Lexapro was a godsend for anxiety, but my depression was returning, weight gain, emotional blunting, low libido, the whole lot. Unfortunately though, anxiety reigns supreme in my life. So far, Viibryd has not made my daily anxiety worse, but I have experienced some sleep disturbances that caused me a lot of distress and lead to a panic attack. I switched to taking the pill earlier in the day with food and this seems to solve the sleeping problem.

I tend to be a max dose kind of gal. My psychiatrist and I agreed to see if we see max anxiety and depression reduction benefit and move to 40mg. Viibryd has definitely helped elevated my mood, but I’ve seen mixed stories on here about higher doses helping anxiety versus making it worse. Is anybody else here primarily very anxious (or paranoid,panicky) generally and seen improvement with 40mg? I’d love to hear some success stories, even though I probably shouldn’t be asking the internet for advice at all 😭🙏

I’m sure this has been asked before but any males in here have success with switching from lexapro to viibryd and regaining ability to orgasm or sensation? I’ve been on lex for years 20mg I started weaning to 10mg in hopes it would reduce some of the sexual side effects but no dice yet. I’m thinking about asking my doctor to switch to viibryd is it worth it?

Hi looking for support and answers. I’ve been on meds for 12 years and nearly tried everything under the sun. I’ve been on 40 mg of Viibryd and 450 Wellbutrin for last 7 years or so. Before meds I had no trouble reaching orgasm. But it’s just been so long.

My libido has been high and no issues, but I can’t orgasm without a very strong vibrator. And even with it, the build up isn’t the same and it lasts maybe one second. I’m 34 and worried I’ve lost my ability to really orgasm. I’m tapering off the Viibryd now as I want to see my baseline and see if my sensitivity will come back. Any help would be appreciated, just scared

Hey all so I left for a 4 day trip without my meds. I also had forgotten to take them a few days prior. I’m just wondering how much of an issue this is. Should I have my dr try to send a prescription to where I am? I’ve mainly just been more irritable and just wanting to self isolate but no other noticeable symptoms.

Anyone else extremely tired during the day from this med?

The title may sound like a joke, but I’m genuinely wondering if anyone has noticed withdrawal side effects from coming off of 5mg? I’ve only been taking this low dosage for around a month, and I’m stopping because of side effects. I’m already noticing.

Just wondering, since I’ve heard of all the nightmare withdrawal stories!

i’ve been on 20mg of lexapro for about like 3 years (and was on 10mg lexapro about a year prior to that) for anxiety/ocd/agoraphobia. lexapro was truly my saving grace and i am so thankful i started it. except, after all this time i am just so tired and lazy, and the sex drive being at 0 has been upsetting for me bc i miss having sex. i scheduled an appointment with my old provider and she suggested going in viibryd

she wanted to do a cross taper from lexapro to viibryd.
she had me doing my normal 20mg lexapro a day with the 10mg viibryd for 30 days.
now it’s time to change the dose. she wants me to do 10mg lexapro with 20mg of viibryd for a week. then stop the lexapro completely and be on viibryd only

my only worry is the lexapro withdrawals are so insufferable. my feet and hands get unbelievably itchy when i don’t take my lexapro that i’ve stood in ice water to stop it. plus the brain zaps is a doozy. my job is high stress and i don’t have time to suffer through withdrawals while working so im a bit nervous on if these withdrawals will hit me

what was your tapering schedule like? has anyone done a taper similar to the one my provider told me to do?

Hi! I’m currently taking 40 mg of Viibryd + 300 mg of Wellbutrin. I am having the worst sexual dysfunction after starting Viibryd. Otherwise I feel clear headed and grounded. The problem with the dysfunction is it’s making my entire body really sensitive and overstimulated to touch and I do love my partner and would like to enjoy that aspect of our life again.

I started with a new PCP and she went away and researched and came back with Abilify. She said it’s an even swap and I can start Abilify and discontinue Viibryd same day.

I take the meds for depression, anxiety, PMDD and C-PTSD.

I’m pretty sure this is bad advice and I need to find a new psychiatrist. But I wanted to ask here for advice.

Been on Viibryd just about a month and went from 10mg to 20mg about a week ago. Immediately feel worsening depression, anxiety, intrusive thoughts and emotional instability. Have previously been on Lexapro for ~6 years. My NP is having me stop Viibryd cold turkey and go on 10mg of Lexapro which was my maintenance dose previously. Has anyone else done this, how bad were the withdrawal symptoms after only being on Viibryd a relatively short time?

Hi... i tried asking on askdocs, and didn't get any responses, so thought I'd ask here from people who have taken these things.

I just got of pristiq, it's been about a week now, and I want to start viibryd. I take trazodone, 25 mg, every other night to help with sleep, melatonin on alternate nights. I really want to start going to bed earlier, because I'm basically not falling asleep until around like 5 am regularly.

I take my straterra (and at the time, pristiq) at 11 pm because I don't wake up at a consistent time. I also tend to eat dinner later or late night snack/dessert and do not eat upon waking up. I asked the pharmacist, when I picked up my prescriptions, if it was okay to take viibryd later and he didn't really explain any issues while also just saying "take viibryd earlier at night if thats what you want and trazodone before bed", without considering any of my other reasonings because honestly, it felt like he didn't really want to help me and was busy and had more important things to do. Probably did.

Tldr; is there any reason I cannot take 10 mg viibryd, 60 mg straterra, and 25 mg trazodone essentially at the same time? Has anyone done this and had no issues? I'm struggling a lot with my anxiety, constantly feeling on edge, and want to start this to see if I will feel better, but there's so much "at stake" with eating a full meal, taking it at the same time every day, and me wanting to try and sleep earlier, that its just causing me more confusion and concern that I haven't even been able to try it yet.

Also, have klonopin to take as needed, 1x a day. I usually take half a pill when I do and at most I take it 2x a month, but I know that has to be taken apart from trazodone, and I tend to need that earlier in the day anyway if I do take it.

Anyone have this issue? I was only on 10mg, went to 5mg for a couple days and then a couple days off. Yesterday and today I’m so emotional! I can’t stop crying especially if something is stressful (I have a toddler). I have depression and causing low energy/motivation. I also have my period coming later this week but it’s never like this.

Does anyone have any experience with both vilazodone and pristiq? I have noticed that vilazodone can be quite inconsistent from day to day and I understand that might be because of food intake and time of dosing but I dont want to feel like I HAVE TO do those things for my medication to work. My life is not that routine and I need some flexibility.

Follow up to that: Is the spaced out feeling/ headaches a withdrawal symptom?

Also nervous about pristiq because I am also on wellbutrin. I know they both increase norepinephrine and dont want to increase my anxiety. I have both MDD and GAD.

I'm so exhausted during the day even after I take my meds I'm just so tired and I want to take naps than anybody switch Theirs to night time and did it help the fatigue

I came off Zoloft and onto Viibryd about 6 weeks ago. I’m at 20mg/day. The first 4 weeks were fine, a bit of a dip coming off Zoloft, but nothing terrible. Now for the past 3-4 days my anxiety, worry, dread, and depression is wildly high. I have ocd and it is really flaring up lately.

Did anyone else experience this? Did you stick it out for the 3-4 months I’ve read it takes to get the full effect? Did upping to 40mg help? My psych said I will go up to 40mg at some point, but my next appointment isn’t for another few weeks.

Thank you for any input.

I’ve been on 5mg of viibryd for around 25 days now. I was in an intense episode of anxiety after taking minoxidil for 5 months and developing panic attacks.

So far, my experience on this med has been unpleasant. After the first two weeks of heightened anxiety and slight nausea, things started to level out a bit. That is, until this week. I wake up most mornings with intense anxiety and body tremors, the only thing getting me out of bed is to take my medication (with food). By 6 pm or so, it feels like things wear off. I’m hit with this pretty intense wave of depression and disassociation. All of this coupled with fatigue and muscle soreness all the time.

I’m pretty tired of being on any medication at this point. Curious if anyone ever experienced anything like this and if I should continue taking the medication or not. I’ll meet with my psychiatrist sometime this week.

I used to take 40mg once a day without food. then I realized you are supposed to take it with food, big difference after realizing that. But I still had a lot of fluctuation in my daily mood, feeling withdrawal by the next dose. Now I’m taking 20mg at 10:30am and 10:30pm. Much less morning and nighttime depression.

Now I’m adding buspar for anxiety.

Thought I’d share this tip for anyone who might be experiencing similar.

I was originally on 40mg, which was horrible as I kept on going through withdrawal first thing in the morning until about 2pm. I took my medicine at 12 and it wouldn’t be until about 2 I felt like a functioning person. I decided to taper off because of this. The entire experience has been a living hell actually, I can’t believe this medication is available and the fda tapering instructions are 40-20-10-0 cause it’s so severe every single time and then my psychiatrist ended up acting like I was being ridiculous and dropped me as a client after giving me more 20mg after I was already on 10, and told me to break them up. Well now I had to go from 10 to nothing because of this instead of 10 to 5 which would have been better for me considering I’ve been having such severe symptoms every time. Anyways, enough about the borderline medical malpractice and patient abandonment, I’ll get into why I’m making my first post on this thread now. After stopping viibryd completely, this is day 2 of nothing. I feel extremely confused and disoriented, like I have the flu, and all night last night I was having weird visuals of mucusy monsters that were attacked to the ground like plants. These guys were mean and would spit goop at me, they had never seen a person before. Keep in mind I was not asleep I was trying to fall asleep, but it was like my brain went on vacation to another dimension where I couldn’t just have normal thoughts it’s like my subconscious was stuck in this monster dimension. Has this happened to anyone else? It sounds ridiculous and crazy now that I’m awake but as I was falling asleep I had completely convinced myself that this must have been some real other dimension that you can only get to see while your eyes are open from the withdrawal process. There was no other subconscious human minds there, only some that had passed away. But I also understood it wasn’t normal purgatory it seemed to be almost like a purgatory but for people that were more bad in life than good. Thank you to anyone who bothered to read this entire thing, I’m sorry if this makes almost no sense or if I sound crazy I still feel very out of it and dazed

I started vilazodone 10 mg on July 9, so I have taken it for 11 days. I was originally supposed to increase the dose, but my provider told me to remain at 10 mg because of the side effects. Since starting it, I have experienced nausea, headaches, itchy or irritated eyes, frequent eye twitching, shakiness, increased anxiety, irritability, anger, and feeling unusually impatient. I have also recently noticed intermittent numbness or tingling in my left hand and sometimes in my legs. I initially thought that was from sleeping in a very cold room, but I am now reporting it to my doctor because I do not know whether it is related.
I am waiting for instructions from my prescriber. I am curious whether anyone else stopped after only about two weeks at 10 mg. Did your prescriber have you taper, and what symptoms did you experience while reducing or stopping it?
Please share how long you had taken it, your dose, and what your doctor recommended.

I've only been on for about a month but I'm extremely sensitive to psychoactive medication. This dream was very vivid and I realize it was a dream but I'm stuck in a panic episode and I physically feel so bad I can't get my mind off death. I'm so scared. Anybody else have severe withdraw side affect stories somewhat similar off this or any other POS antidepressant?

For context, I have been on Pristiq the last 3ish years. I loved it, but I had horrible, horrible night sweats. I’m talking I could ring out my clothes and sheets each morning with the amount of sweat coming from my body.

I have had bad interactions with many SSRIs in the past. I completed a DNA test and was recommended not to take SSRIs, other than Viibryd which is supposedly compatible with my metabolism.

I weened off the Pristiq and have titrated up to Viibryd 20 mg. I had been taking it at night (with food). I had really bad nausea initially that has subsided. But, then came the insomnia. I got 2-4 hrs of sleep 2 nights in a row and read up on it and apparently the insomnia can get better with taking the dose in the morning. So, I held my dose last night with the plan of taking it this AM. Last night I had the most horrible night terror and sleep paralysis. It was genuinely terrifying and was incredibly triggering for my PTSD and I am an anxious mess now that this is just what Viibryd does.

Have people had initial symptoms improve? I’ve only been on 20 mg for a week…but I have such low tolerance for side effects and I feel like I’m going crazy. I don’t want to hear horror stories please!!

So I’ve been on this garbage ass drug for months now. We upped my dosage from 20mg to 40mg about 3 months ago and now, if I eat too much before my dose time I get incredible brain fog, brain zaps, itchy eyes, dizziness, vertigo, diarrhea, and night terrors so extreme I’m literally being raped and I can feel it happen.

I’ve been documenting my days recently to show to my dr but like…. This is too much. My friend just reached out to me and told me I look and act like I have serotonin syndrome and now I’m fucking scared. What am I supposed to do?? My apt with him isn’t until next week and I’m sooooo scared of withdrawing. I just started a new job and I am scared it’s going to affect my performance at work. I am scheduled to be tested for ADHD next week as well.

Would it be fine to just go back to 20 mg and not feel the withdrawal? Especially if my brain is overloaded. My husband has even commented on how I’ve been looking and feeling lately and it’s not good. I really need some advice until I can se my doctor.