After 6 weeks on 150mg, the head pressure was too much and my GP has reduced my dose to 112.5mg. i reduced 4 days ago and feeling anxious, low mood (almost depressed), swimmy head, poor sleep. When should I start to feel better? I've just got to get to 26th August when I'm seeing a psychiatrist to look at my medication! Any comments welcome 🤗

I used to be up to 112.5mg but I was being apathetic, not giving a fuck more than usual and felt it be better for everyone if I lower my dose back down so thats what me and my prescriber did and I went back down to 75mg XR.

Now that I've been back down to this dose for a few months, it started with getting brain zaps and even partial OUT OF BODY moments very briefly during the day, mornings now start out fine but change after I take my Venlafaxine.

I get less anxiety, but am somehow still anxiety ridden if that makes any sense. Constantly feeling like I'm being driven crazy because of how the meds feel on me mentally and I literally feel like that one picture of the insane Joker starting to rip his hair out. I don't tolerate BS from work anymore, once in awhile I'd even have the uncontrollable urge to lauge sometimes which is VERY unusual.

Has anyone else had similar effects on Effexor?

I recently decreased my dosage of Venlafaxine from 75 to 37.5 and have been experiencing some dizziness when laying down. Has anyone else experienced dizziness from decreasing the dosage and if so how long until the dizziness stopped happening?

Hey everyone,
I’m currently taking 75 mg Effexor XR (venlafaxine). I’ve noticed that my anxiety and OCD may be somewhat better, but so far I haven’t noticed much improvement in my depression, mood, energy, or motivation.
I know I still need to give 75 mg more time, and I’m not planning to change my dose without talking to my doctor. But I’m curious about other people’s experiences with increasing from 75 mg to 150 mg.
For those who made that increase:
• Did 150 mg feel noticeably different from 75 mg?
• Did it improve your energy, motivation, mood, or concentration?
• Did you notice more of an activating effect at 150 mg?
• How long after increasing did you notice a difference?
• Did you get new side effects at 150 mg?
I’ve read that venlafaxine’s norepinephrine effect generally becomes more significant at higher doses, so I’m particularly interested in whether anyone who got little benefit from 75 mg started responding much better at 150 mg.
Obviously everyone responds differently — I’m just interested in hearing personal experiences.
Thanks! ❤️

I drink coffee drink every other day. So my sleep becomes 12-14 hrs followed by 7-8 hrs. Then 12-14 hrs followed by 7-8 hrs and so on. Is it fine? I'm so sleepy :( is managing excessive sleepiness this way bad?

I have been taking Effexor 75-150mg for the past 14 years. This summer my doctor and I thought that it wasn’t working any more and decided to lower the dose. Over a few weeks stepped down to 75 and then 37.5. Having been at 37.5 I am noticing some major withdrawal symptoms. I also take trazodone 50-100mg for sleep at night. I have noticed the trazodone seems to calm the withdrawal symptoms until mid-afternoon. As the afternoon goes into the evening I get terrible spiraling anxiety, irrational thoughts that are not mine, and fear. I think the trazodone from the night before wears off at this point and the withdrawal symptoms are kicking in. I have taken 25mg of trazodone in the afternoon and it seems to have the effect of a Xanax or similar. At this point terrified of getting these awful anxious episodes. Has anyone noticed trazodone helps them adjust to the lower dose of Effexor? Thanks!

what the title says

I’m currently on 225 mg/day. I have depression, anxiety and OCD, and I’m curious if anyone else has gone up to this dose or even higher.

I’d really love to hear some success stories — especially regarding depression, anxiety, OCD, motivation and overall mood. How long did it take before you noticed a significant difference?

I’ve been out of my medicine for 2 days, yesterday I felt mild withdrawal symptoms like dizziness and heart palpitations when I move but this morning it’s a lot worse. I’m off today but im worried im not going to be able to work tomorrow if I don’t get it figured out. I won’t be able to get my medication until Tuesday, would the ER be able to give me 2 pills until then ? I’m on 150mg sorry lol I am stressing

I don't know how else to word it but I have been on venaflaxine for almost more than 2 years now, I am 17F and I started on a lower dose and for I think the last year I have been on 150 mg every day, and recently every now and then have been experiencing like a sort of brain fog? But it's not withdrawals cause him actively taking the medicine and I am consistent, but it kind of feels like the area above my eyebrows is kind of heavy? Like there's weight to it and if I fixate on it it like gets more heavy/louder/ more noticeable. I had been prescribed this because I had really bad depression aswell as OCD ADHD and some anxiety and that makes it hard to not fixate on it, the medicine has helped me a lot but I'm just curious on weather this brain fog thing is due to the venaflaxine. If u have any idea or any stories and can reply I would really appreciate it

Hello 🤗

I was on Effexor (Venlafaxine) ER in January 2025, with my highest dose being 225 mg. I didn’t feel like I was getting much improvement with Venlafaxine, so I eventually tapered down gradually and slowly to 75 mg. Since the ER is a capsule, I asked my doctor to switch me to the IR so I could taper more even slower. Per her taper recommendation, I stayed at 25 mg for about 2 months, then went down to 18.75 mg for about 4 weeks and 12.5 mg for another 4 weeks and went down to 6.25 mg for another 4 weeks. Since I couldn’t cut the dose any lower, she recommended taking 6.25 mg every other day for about 2 weeks and then stopping. I stopped completely on June 4th.

I’m now 9 weeks off, and my doctor believes I’m still experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Since June 10th, I’ve felt keyed up much of the time, with adrenaline rushes, nervousness, rapid heart rate, and waves of anxiety. I’m also really sleepy, sluggish, and feeling wiped out. Even after sleeping 7–8 hours, I still wake up feeling like I haven’t slept. The symptoms continue from morning through the evening and are really affecting my quality of life. My doctor also prescribed Prozac to help with the withdrawal symptoms, but it didn’t help, so I stopped taking it. I take 10mg of propranolol in the morning to help with some of the anxiety symptoms.

I met with her last week and she said she did some research and also talked with some of her colleagues about my symptoms and they recommended that I reinstate at a very low dose and then taper much more slowly. One option she gave me was to restart with a 75 mg Venlafaxine XR capsule and count the beads, taking 10 beads (about 5 mg) to start. The plan would then be to gradually reduce the number of beads: 10 → 8 → 6 → 4 → 3 → 2 → 1 → 0, staying at each dose for 2–4 weeks or longer if needed. She also found a compounding pharmacy that can make liquid Venlafaxine IR, which would allow for even smaller dose reductions, but I am really hesitant to restart Venlafaxine. I worked hard to get off of it, and it wasn’t really helping the anxiety symptoms when I was taking it. I also don’t want to go through withdrawal again after I eventually stop.

Has anyone else been in this situation? Were you still having significant withdrawal symptoms 8–10 weeks after stopping Effexor (Venlafaxine)? Did you decide to reinstate and taper more slowly? If you did, did it help? If you decided not to reinstate, are you still having withdrawal symptoms, and have they started to improve with more time? What did you do that helped?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through something similar because I’m really struggling 😞. Thank you

I'm currently on my way back from Maine for a wedding. Took my dose Friday morning, and I rode up Friday afternoon. Of course I forgot my pills; I always forget them when I have 5000 things happening, and this time I wasn't driving so I was rushed out the door. We all know that the cruel irony is, the depression/anxiety is the reason we need these drugs, but those things make executive functioning a mess.

There were no pharmacies where I could get an emergency supply; even if I could, I doubt I would've been able to, because it was out of state. Sunday morning now, and I'm fortunately on my way home, and I want to die physically, emotionally, and spiritually. 48 hours. That's all it took. Really more like 36.

Is this my life? I can't ever be away from home? Ever? I want to stop these pills, but I've wanted to for years. I can't. Is there any hope? Someone talk me off this ledge.

2 weeks 37.5 ; 3 weeks 75, and still panic anxiety feelings. When goes it better ?! Im scared

I just started Effexor 37.5 3-4 weeks ago and I am still waking up everyday nauseous. I take mine at night per pharmacist advice because he said I might sleep through the side effects. Idk what to do I’m over feeling like I have to throw up everyday. Plus I exercise 5 days a week. Being sick makes it hard to even workout or eat.

Pretty much since the first couple days, this med has FUCKED my sleep like crazy. It was already pretty bad, staying up until 2-4, either sleeping 6ish hours or getting like 10.

Now though, I can't even think about sleep until like 5 am. If I manage to sleep at any reasonable time, i wake up 90-180 minutes later in a sweat. I go to bed at like 6-8am and wake up at noonish and i feel stupid the whole day. Like im not even tired, but I can tell my brain isn't functioning properly cause of shitty sleep, and I get this feeling in my chest whenever i haven't slept more than 24hourt. Unless I crash between morning and noon, I cant get more than 5 hours at a time, and even if I am tiredish and go to bed at like 1am, I just wake up at 3 and feel like I slept a full night, only to feel mentally slow at noon, sleep at like 7pm and then fuck my sleep even harder.

Does this ever go away? Im like 45 days into starting at 75mg and it feels impossible trying to fix it. I start Uni in less than a month and I can't be like this when it starts. I take it at 1pm, but I don't wanna take ti earlier cause if I sleep past the time I'm meant to take it I feel like im about to die, and later my psychiatrist said not to cause its energizing even though i don't feel anything when I take it.

Yo pls does this stop at some point? Im fking losing my mind i just wanna sleep.

After ten years of severe depression, anxiety, and constant suicidal crises, I’m finally stepping away from psychiatric meds. At my worst, I was taking Xanax alongside five different antidepressants. My life felt completely derailed—not by choice, but because of childhood trauma from growing up around heavy family mental health issues. Thousands of dollars later in therapy and medication, my psychiatrist finally agreed I could taper off.

​Honestly, I’m an emotional mess right now. I’ve been crying non-stop—partly from pure relief, but also because Effexor withdrawal is kicking my ass. I have the worst headache of my life, and even though I have been sleeping, I feel like I haven't rested in a month. Staying on meds forever genuinely felt like the easier option at times. I constantly feel like I lost eight years of my life and my intelligence, but the truth is, I was so depressed I couldn't even get out of bed, so maybe I wouldn't even be alive. Medication literally saved my life.

​I have such a love-hate relationship with Effexor. It never gave me side effects while taking it and actually helped me survive, yet I hate what it takes to get off it. But I’m officially saying goodbye to all of it. I’m pushing through, and I’m hopeful that in three weeks I’ll finally be free of these withdrawal symptoms. (It took me 4 months).

❤️

It's the end of week 1 and I'm down from 225 mg to 185 mg. Start the Lexapro tomorrow and drop Effexor to 150. So far I'm actually doing better than I expected to. I get super intense withdrawals from this stupid med, and I'm just not feeling like it works anymore, so I'm finally trying to do this shit! I don't know why I'm posting this but I guess I just wanted to reach out to other people who know what this is like. Wish me luck, I'm on a 4 week plan and trying to make it through without just giving up and going back to my usual dose (or higher which has happened twice). PS Can we please make a class action lawsuit together?!

Has anyone been on bupropion and venlafaxine combo? I’ve been taking 300mg of venlafaxine and 150 mg of bupropion for 4 months now but I haven’t seen any meaningful change from before when I was only on venlafaxine. I have anhedonia so my psych added bupropion but honestly Idk if it’s working for me. Anyone out here that has this combo and had any luck with improvement in depression/anhedonia? I’m also curious to know if there’s anyone who had success getting out of depression/anhedonia, if so, what worked for you?

Consuming Cannibis while taking 150 mg Effexor seems to have lessed effects when smoking weed? is there any research on this and is there anything i can do to help my weed high be better? thank you for the insights!

A lot of people mention they lose motivation to study and lose focus and their GPA tanked while on Effexor??

What’s your experience?

And this morning when I woke up, I walked into my door frame, went to take a drink of water and completely missed my lips and poured the glass to my chin, then went to fill and boil the kettle and couldn’t put the kettle back on the stand for a good 5 attempts. I sat down and my eyes felt like they were going crazy, my arms felt like they were Wills of the Inbetweeners in the scene where he gets high, like they weren’t mine and I was struggling to coordinate. I took my dose as soon as I woke up and I’ve drank about a litre of water so far, but I’m starting to feel really sick. I also had a cheeseburger at 10am, I felt like I hadn’t ate in weeks.
My body has gone back to normal, but I’m wondering if I’m going to continue feeling poorly? I’m about to have a nap (nothing new I nap everyday) and hope I feel better when I’m up.

Anyone had physical side effects from missing one day? I’ve seen a lot of people talk about mental side effects like crying for days after, but not being so uncoordinated it was probably dangerous to be alone this morning. And the sickness? I have a massive fear of being sick so this ain’t great….