Hi Rick, I was on effexor for 10+ years until it stopped working for me. The side effects of this drug are really rotten. I'm now on cymbalta which doesn't knock me around nearly as much. Going from 37.5 to 75mg is most likely going to be hard. I know as i did it all the way up to 300mg. Please look after yourself xx

I am on it right now 150mg plus abilify 10mg. It makes me insanely tired. I need to be on caffiene all the time in order to function. :/ I don't have the nausea and dizziness though.

Thanks. I am so ready to quit this right now, but I can't consult my pDoc until Tuesday or Wednesday. Today was yet another day of sleeping nearly 12 hours & feeling almost disoriented every time I was standing up. It's truly a weird feeling - like your internal gyroscope isn't working right. My pharmacist said dizziness is the #1 complaint she receives from people trying Effexor. And the #1 reason why they stop.

I've noticed too that I'm almost spastic - like I've lost my fine motor coordination. It's like you always feel you are on the edge of dropping something.

This one really bites. It just isn't worth the side effects so far. And the only thing keeping me from stopping it right now is not being able to consult with my Doc about it - not that I think she can offer me anything that will convince me to continue.

I'm running out of drugs to try! I have always run into more side effects than symptom relief. What good is feeling less depressed if you can't feel good while standing up?

Just exasperating.

I am thinking on starting Effexor because I am running out of Amitriptyline (Elavil). It is considered narcotic in Ukraine. I have 19 pills left and I have to manage to go off it somehow. I just dropped it by one pill from 75mg down to 50 mg and I am already having horrendous headache, very high blood pressure and dizziness. I have to only prey to survive withdrawal when I will be out of all 3 pills. As I read online, it takes 3 months to normaly withdraw from Amitriptyline. I do not know yet how long it takes to withdraw from Effexor but I imagine that it probably should be near the same amount of time. Elavil did removed my anxiety (while I was taking it). I hope that that will not be back as soon as I drop it. I heard from many people that Effexor has nasty sideffects and withdrawal but they also told that they were able come out of depression. I am having horrible depression with high anxiety so there are only 3 medication that can be effective Trittico, Elavil and Effexor. Trittico was not as effective as Elavil in reducing anxiety. There is only one medicatioon I did not try yet- Effexor.

I was on Effexor XR for nearly 10 years. I didn't have the side effects you mention. It stopped working and was Hell to wean off of. Brain zaps were the worst.

I think that if anyone is prescribed Effexor, they should ask the MD why that is the choice. Sometimes its a good med but the side effects/withdrawal can be hard. But if the MD has a good reaason why they choose this over other drugs, it might help.


Also, if you are concerned about your reactions the meds and can't get an appt. with MD, go to the ER of a hospital what has a psychiatrist on staff (most do). You should to have to suffer!


Goos Luck.

It probably depends on the person. i realy did not have that much staff from effexor yet. I just started taking it. In other words I was not lethargic when i started taking it as I got from all other antidepresants. I feel like biggest problem with it so far is mild nausea which I did not have with other antidepresants and strong stomach pain which i also did not have with other antidepresants.

may be the problem s that i took it on empty stomach. it suppose to be taken after eating because it is bad on stomach. And i did not drink water after taking it. It suppose to be taken with water. I guess i will run drink some water. I am bad about drinking water so sideeffects from drugs are worse on me. I was in ER after taking Ativan and Lithium in unconcheus state and they told that i was dehidrated and were giving me water in my vain. That was 6000 trip. Still do not know how to pay for it. Also when i did not drink enough water with Elavil I started having major heart problems which were reduced by drinking more water. Other thing Elavil for example very depends on the time you take it. When i took it 1-2 hours later i had major head ache the rest of the day. It seems did not affect anything when I took it 1-2 hours earlier. Sofar i did not get that from effexor. i took it 1 hour later and it seems did not make that much difference so far but stomach pain is bad.

Hey Rick. I know I'm getting in late on this post, but wanted to add my experience. I went on effexor XR about a year ago and had very little side effects ( other antidepressants i tried were much worse with initial side effects and I ended up stopping them because of it ). I started on the same low dose you did and felt better within a week. I stayed on that dose for about 3 weeks and then the doc upped it to 75 mg. Within 2 days, I started feeling really weird.... so my husband took my blood pressure.. my normal blood pressure is around 105-110/70. It was 185/115! I completely freaked out. Called the doc's office and the nurse said that a RARE side effect is increased blood pressure and to monitor it for a few days.. it hovered around 150-16-/90. My only choice was to stop taking it or go on blood pressure meds. I chose to go off of the effexor. I do know alot of people though who really do well on it, but I also know that it is ( from what people have told me and stated here ) , it is a really hard one to wean off of.

I wish you the best!

Gaye

HI Rick. I had to drop from 350 to 275 mg after muscle jerks and palpitations. I'm sticking with it, as Prozac stopped working and Mertazepine made me feel really ill. I get sweats, my weight is still going up and if I miss a dose my blood pressure plummets and I get flu-like symptoms. If you're getting side effects at such a low dose you need to tread carefully.

I stopped taking effexor because my blood pressure went high and could not be controlled. It was not easy coming off and I felt quite unwell for up to two months after. I came off cymbalta cold turkey and the same thing happened. The SNRI are the worse to come off.

I did quit. And the side effects going off it were almost as bad as going on. Brain zaps - what great fun that was! A truly startling thing and jeez! God forbid something like that happens if you are driving a car!

But the ultimate last straw regarding side effects and the reason I stopped was: tinnitus. Looking back I started getting ringing in my ears by the end of week one. By week four it was non stop sessions of ringing in the ears that would last for 3 to 4 hours each time. And it always got worse the closer I got to the next dose. Dizziness - one can always sit or lay down. Nausea - that I could deal with. But there is nothing you can do for tinnitus as a side effect. At that point I told my pDoc I was quitting and why. SIX WEEKS after stopping Effexor XR I'm still having problems with the tinnitus. I am really hoping this isn't one of those side effects you get permanently stuck with, even when you quit the medication.

As to the person who said one should ask why a pDoc chooses any given medication: In my case it was because years ago a different pDoc started me on brand name Effexor and I did not recall any side effects at all. I don't recall any symptom improvement either. Way back when the Effexor was stopped due to a complicated medical industrial complex SNAFU involving a pDoc who left and a replacement pDoc who was Prozac fixated. Anyway, the thinking was if plain old Effexor was so benign then I would have no side effect problems with generic Effexor XR. HA! So much for medial logic. Sigh...

In search of one honest man. And one beneficial medication. Again...

i didnt find the side effects of effexor that bad, but i took it after 9 years of paxil, so not a huge shift cuz i was used to SSRI's. But i quit taking it and went back to Paxil cuz the Effexor didnt work for me at all.

my doc told me that antidepressants are like birth control pills, everyone reacts a little different, and you sometimes have to keep trying different onees until you find one that you can tolerate and that works. Lucky for me Paxil and I get along very well. I have heard of more people having problems on Effexor than having good results though, so I don't understand why doctors like prescribing it so much... drug reps must be really pushing them to prescribe it or something.

I found it was a "good fit" at first terrifico, and it did help a lot with the suicidal ideations. I am getting tired of the hot flushes and sweats, which are not particularly lady-like!

I get nausea often. I am not sure whether it's to do with the effexor. I haven't noticed any other side effects...