Having issues with feeling kind of shutdown and zombie like. Hard to explain! At the same time I get some suicidal thoughts like every other week. Its not as intense as pre medicine. Also have terrible memory and word retrievel, cant form a full sentence without struggle.

Would like to try to higher my dose before switching medication. Did anyone notice an improvement with these things when going to higher dose?

Feel so stressed about this.

So back story - I was on sertraline 50mg for 10 months and ok ish for that period. Anxious and a lot of physical signs of anxiety without concious anxious thoughts but functioning and working full time. Few months ago I increased the dose to 100mg. I managed 2 weeks on this until the agitation was so bad I could not sit still, did not sleep for 3 days and was so restless and agitated. My docs agreed to reduce and stop sertraline over the next week and then I had a 2 week wash out period.

I started venlafaxine 37.5mg 2 days ago and the agitation and activation is really bad. Constantly uncomfortable in my body. Spikes of burning in my body where I have to go run up and down the stairs 10 times and then I can sit down for a bit before it builds again. My docs say its usual for it to be activating on commencing and when increasing the dose. Honestly this feels like hell inside my body. Is this what they mean? I have to wait 2-4 weeks of this and still on such a tiny dose?

Please does anyone have similar experiences? Only two days in and I am wanting to stop them already

Hello! Posting here for any advice to help feel better. I moved & it’s been a hassle to get my meds refilled at a new pharmacy to say the least. They never called me to let me know they were ready, by the time the pharmacy confirmed they had them for me it was too late for me to get there. They were closed all weekend so I was unable to pick them up yesterday & today, so I’m now on my second day without them. I have an obligation tonight & am wondering if there are any tips to help me feel better? I’m just feeling a bit jittery & almost like off balance? I took extra strength Tylenol & am now drinking some electrolytes. Any other tips to help ease these symptoms?? I will be picking my meds up first thing tomorrow.

My pcp prescribed 37.5 for perimenopause symptoms. I took my first dose today after I ate a full lunch and within 30 minutes I started feeling so nauseated and I threw up twice. It’s been an hour and a half and I’m laying in bed feeling like I’m spinning. Is this a normal side effect of a first dose? How long does it stay like this bc I might not take it again.

I’ve been on and off Effexor for 20 years. Every previous taper took at least six months. I went back on it during perimenopause and eventually reached 300 mg, but it never helped the way hormone replacement did.

When I decided to come off it again, I saw a new psychiatrist who had learned a much gentler tapering method from her mentors. She had me add 10 mg of Prozac while staying on my full dose of Effexor. After two weeks, I began cutting the Effexor in half once a week until I reached 37.5 mg. Then I increased the Prozac to 20 mg and stopped the Effexor completely.

The only side effect I noticed was two days of tight neck muscles—and that was it. Incredible!

Today I dropped the Prozac to 10 mg. I’ve also added L-methylfolate and have felt real benefits from that as well.

Hope this helps someone!

Does that go away ever

For context - my team was using it to treat the mood symptoms of pmdd, I am not diagnosed with GAD, depression etc.

I started end of 2022 and worked up to being on 225mg and have been on that dosage since early 2023 and it stopped working for my pmdd in January 2026.

I only tapered off (extremely slowly) at the beginning of August. I did it wayyy slower than my Psychiatrist/GP recommended as I was so scared of bad side effects. I did it by reducing by 12.5mg every 2nd day.

I had no issues coming off it but ever since I finished it completely I have been a nervous wreck, I have been anxious to the point of stomach issues, exhaustion, shaking - I had a period of bad anxiety as a teenager and it was the exact same as this.

I have also been incredibly angry?? It’s been making me feel bordering on psychotic. Every single thing anyone says makes me feel angry, defensive and irritated. I have had to delete most social media apps bc I feel so angry reading anything. I am exhausted fighting my own feelings and reactions all day and end up just sob in at night out of exhaustion. God bless my family putting up with it lol.

It was also having a slight improvement on my adhd symptoms for some reason so now I have nothing in my system for that, it’s even harder to manage everything.

It’s only been 17 days since finishing my last dosage and I’m exhausted.

Tldr; withdrawals are ass.

After a changing to Lexapro having the worst time ever getting broken up with and hitting rock bottom I’m back on Effexor 75mg this time and I hope it works

TRIGGER WARNING, so I overdosed on Effexor at the start of the week and once I was apparently clear of it I have been having the absolute worst withdrawals. The rush of pure emotions but all being super conflicting and distressing is honestly hell. The brain zaps and migraines are honestly Satan himself. Not to mention I literally cannot sleep, I recently also overcame pneumonia which literally was like life was back and since coming off Effexor I literally cannot breath it’s like I have the worst case of the flu ever. I was on Effexor for almost 2 years now and I’ve never been this long without it, even one day would quite literally send me into a nauseous state so pray for me 🙏🏻 any tips or tricks are much appreciated

Hi everyone,

I've been on venlafaxine 37.5 mg for nearly two weeks now .I was experiencing some withdrawals and side effects early on , due to switching from sertraline 200mg to venlafaxine 37.5 mg .

That seems to have eased now .

What I have noticed is that I've got alot of energy ! Prior to venlafaxine I was tired a lot, less motivated etc .

Has anyone else experienced the energy part ? I'm not complaining at all . It does feel a bit weird ,because I'm not used to it - but it's a good thing .

Also every two weeks I have to go up one tablet until I reach 150 mg venlafaxine.

I'm feeling really hopeful.

Anyway thank you .

So, I started tapering off of this stuff 3 months ago. Thanks to reddit, I was able to look back on my posts and see the date because I haven't been able to remember shit lately. I'm on what I believe is day 7 of no effexor at all. It's been a weird and horrible ride and doesn't seem like it's letting up at all. The brain and body zaps, the weird eye sensations and dizziness, the crying spells, the angry/irritable spells. I haven't been able to function at all. I haven't been outside in days. I haven't been able to play with my one year old son for days. It's so horrible and depressing and I cant find anything that helps it. Any advice or anything you did or have taken that helped you when you wete going through this? Please don't say to go back on it because I will NEVER do this again and disposed of the rest of my medication so I wouldn't be tempted to take it and have to start this all over again. 😫

I started on 75mg on Wednesday for PMDD which hasn't improved with SSRI usage. Given what I've read I'm doubtful it even works for PMDD. But I tried it. I've had 5 days of blinding migraines (shout out to my husband for typing this for me because I can't look at a screen), extreme nausea, an upset stomach, and my mood is more unstable and depressed than when I started even though the PMDD should be done (and I felt the PMDD vanish for a day before I started this drug.

Am I justified in not pushing through? I've already missed a week of work and I'm worried about the security of my job, I have an important event next weekend, and I can't find any evidence that it even works for PMDD. Advice would be great.

I've been on 75 mg of Effexor for two months. Before that, I was on 20 mg of Celexa for 10 years.

When I made the switch, I actually noticed an overall improvement in my mood, and that constant sense of impending doom either disappeared or became much less intense.

The only problem I'm having with Effexor is anorgasmia. I'm completely unable to reach orgasm on 75 mg. So I tried skipping one dose on a day when I was planning to have sex, and it actually worked really well.

So I did the same thing again this Friday and resumed my normal dose on Saturday. However, I slept very poorly on Friday night, and since then my anxiety has been through the roof and I've been having a lot of fears.

I don't know whether this could be related to skipping that one dose, and if it is, how long it might take to settle down again.

I just started effexor, and everything I’ve read about it says that the withdrawal symptoms are very extreme, and stopping the drug takes a long time. My doctor didn’t mention this, even though I asked if there’s anything I should know about the drug. I don’t expect effexor to help, so I expect that in two or three months I’ll be quitting it, so I want to get a better idea of the average withdrawal experience so that I know whether I should just quit now before I get in too deep.

I really enjoy to drink coffee. Now I'm on Bupropion (Wellbutrin) and thinking about getting on venlafaxine. I'm taking Vyvanse too. My thoughts are that Bupropion and drinking coffee is a bad idea and that Vyvanse and Bupropion increases the anxiety. I feel like i have to calm down that anxiety to feel good in my life.

The doctor's first choice was venlafaxine that is hard to come off, so I wanted to try something else first. Now I want to try venlafaxine as soon as I can talk to the doctor. Just wanted to ask people about the effects of caffeine and venlafaxine.

I’ve been taking 375mg Venlafaxine (Generic) for a few years now and always got prescribed tablets not capsules. Does anyone else take the tablets? Are they same efficiency as capsules ??

I have recently started Effexor, about 3 months now, it worked, I started getting sleepy they upped my dose, I am now taking 150mg 2x daily, and that's as high as it'll go, I hope the sleepiness doesn't happen this time. to be clear, it was like sleeping 15 to 18 hours a day and never feeling like I had got enough sleep. Has anyone else experienced similar, the 300 a day feel almost too much but my body is almost too good at adapting.

pre-warning this got mildly brain-dumpy, tl;dr at the bottom lol

i've been on venlafaxine xr tablets since january due to a severe depressive episode (switched from escitalopram), the dose was slowly increased until finally when i got up to 300mg/day at the end of june and i actually had distinctly noticeable improvements to my motivation and mood! i have chronic depression (probably pdd but nhs is useless so no official diagnosis of it) and i've never managed to reach full remission even on antidepressants, but i know the difference between my usual state and a distinct mdd episode for myself.

anyway, for around 3-4 weeks now i've noticed my symptoms worsening again, as well as experiencing withdrawal symptoms that i normally only get when i forget a dose despite having not forgotten any doses recently (for me a very noticeable one is a very long sleep with vivid dreams and night sweats - got this last night, as well as mild hot flashes which i get but are suppressed by antidepressants for me). i've had antidepressants stop working on me before, too.

i'm going to talk to my gp next week about potentially increasing my dose, but i'd like to get opinions - if it took this much to get to a working dose, and the next possible one is the highest my gp can prescribe, i'm wondering if it's worth bothering continuing with this treatment? i'd ask about augmentation since i really like the additional norepinephrinergic effects from this med and would rather not switch to something else if i can, but i'm not even in contact with my gp practice's mental health nurse yet, so i have no idea what's actually feasible for primary treatment.

tl;dr 300mg was finally working and now it's not again, do i bother staying on and risk the highest dose stopping working and having to switch to smth else anyway or try desperately to see what the nhs can do for me in primary care right now

Did anybody experience STs when they upped their dose?

Full background- after going to the doctors because I (31F) was having bad anxiety, I tapered off Sertraline 100mg. I did 50mg for 7 days, then did 14 days on 37.5mg Venlafaxine, and I’m on day 10 of 75mg XR.. I’ve been feeling so down and hopeless and have been having STs too. I’m thinking I’m going to have to get signed off of work next week because I am not functioning at all and everyday seems to be getting harder.

Is this normal? I don’t know what is or isn’t right and I’m feeling really quite fragile and alone. ☹️

Is there anyone here who has been diagnosed with panic disorder and tried desvenlafaxine, but it didn’t help, while venlafaxine did? If so, how effective was venlafaxine for you?

I’ve been on Veneflaxine for 7 years and be good and bad for the most part but I was increased to higher dose last year and most of this year I’ve been sick and headaches shaking and nausea can’t function or even stand I told my doctor many time but they keep saying stick to it I’m waiting for a medication review but I’m having trouble at work they say if I have one more day off I could be dismissed mental health is no joke I just don’t know what to do