Treatment Experience
My doc prescribed Effexor 75 when all other medication failed to have any effect on my anxiety and depression.

It took only 2 weeks for me to start feeling a difference. I'm sure most of you know what it's like to feel like **** everyday. That dead sinking feeling that never goes away. When no medication has helped you in any way...

Well gradually, I started feeling better. That sinking feeling started to lift and I felt more able to tackle my problems. My depression had caused my therapy to hit a brick wall, but with the depression easing, I was able to make a few breakthroughs.

I don't know I will ever be completely released from the icey grips of Anxiety Disorder or Depression, but Effexor has definitely helped take the edge off.

Treatment Experience

I was on Effexor XR 150mg for about 2 years before recently stopping. I had tried to go up to 225mg but would wake up in the night with a very wierd/vivid state of mind and pulsing sounds in my head that would keep me up for 20 minutes. I went back to 150mg after that and stayed at that dose.

 Before Effexor XR I would label myself a shut-in. I would avoid social situations and any that I would force myself to go to I would feel terrible doing.

 After being on Effexor for a while I found I was slowly able to push myself to go out and do things that I previously would have avoided or dreaded doing. It helped me cope with the anxiety of being in the situations to some degree. After a couple years of being on it and avoiding a switch to other medication I decided to stop it and try some new meds. I do think Effexor was able to help me as a first step but I don't really feel like it's a very effective treatment for social anxiety. Perhaps for someone whos anxiety isn't too severe it could be an option but I think there are other options out there that don't have as many negatives as this.

 As for the side effects and the cons of the drug I will list what I had.

• Constantly Tired , napping in the afternoon (no sleeping during the day since stopping)
• Anorgasmia (Unable to orgasm , went away after some time but still felt wierd)
• Zombie/Drugged feeling , always felt like I was sedated or drugged in a way
• Night sweats
• Waking with the wierd feeling mentioned at the top , would periodically happen even after being off of 225mg for a while.
• Brain Zaps (Starting and Stopping the Medication)

After weening myself off Effexor and noticing just how different it makes you feel (side effect wise) I have a hard time reccomending it to anyone considering the amount of other options there are.

Treatment Experience
I was on a fairly low dose of this medication for around 2 months. I did notice a slight improvement in depressive thinking,and a small elevation of mood, which was nice, but I don't think this is an effective anxiety treatment.

I continued to have panic attacks throughout my treatment. They tended to be of a shorter than usual, but I noticed that whenever I was coming out of a panic attack, I'd get this sweeping nausea and a sudden headache. It was like the medication was working to stop the panic attack, but produced painful side-effects in the process. Eventually the nausea/headache feeling actually kept me from going out in public as much as the panic disorder did because I always felt like I was going to vomit.

I was completely unable to have orgasms on this medication. Also, I always felt full and had little apetite. I would go 2 days on nothing but a salad and a glass of water and not even notice.

I wanted to stay on the med just for the weight loss potential, but I actually GAINED weight because not being able to eat slows your metabolism to a crawl.

I had withdrawl symptoms when I stepped off this med.

Treatment Experience
After trying Prozac and Zoloft with no luck my psychiatrist prescribed me Effexor. It helped greatly the depression I was experiencing, but only mildly with anxiety symptoms. My feelings of hopelessness that I was having at the time went away and I had a lot of energy and motivation to do the things I needed to get done. This was a big change from Zoloft, which made me very apathetic.

I am at a relatively low dose, as I am very sensitive to medications, and have not experienced any of the more uncomfortable side effects others mentioned, even when I've missed doses. I have had mild anorgasmia and constipation, though. Lowering the dose a little bit got rid of these symptoms.

I've found taking Effexor in combination with Klonopin works great for both my symptoms of depression and anxiety.

As with all medications, your experience will be based on your biology. Everyone reacts to medications differently.

Treatment Experience
I just recently came off Effexor. I was taking 225mg at night. I did not have any withdrawal symptoms coming off it. I was on it for about a year and a half. And it worked tremendously. It crushed my anxiety. Situations where I would get the fight or flight feeling, the adrenaline rush. Those feelings and thoughts were gone. Literally a miracle. The drug won't help unless you go out there and conquer your fears.

Treatment Experience

I've been on Effexor XR 150mg capsules for about a year and some change, now. So far, it's the only medication I've taken that actually prevents my symptoms from flaring up in the first place. To me, it's more important to prevent the symptom from appearing, rather than just zap it away as soon as the flare-up gets out of hand.

 While it's worked rather well and allows me to be personable and deal with customer service situations at work, I still have serious issues with figures of authority in particular.

Treatment Experience

I was on 100mg of venlafaxine for a month. It had no affect on me what so ever. Because it is expensive without insurance I quit with very little tapering but the withdrawl wasn't bad. The only withdrawl symptom I had was some weird sensations in my head, neck and arms that pulsated, I guess it was the "shock" people describe but it didn't feel like a shock to me. The sensation  was bad except that it made it harder to fall asleep.

I will add, though, that I tend to have a high resistance to many different meds and usually need a much higher dose than normal to work.

Treatment Experience
Me:
Overweight male of 26 going on 27 years, have been proven to be rather treatment resistant to pharmacological treatments, the jury is still out on the CBT one.

Ok, So I was started on this drug around 18 months ago. I started on 75 mg and went a month later to 150 mg. That continued for 2 months. And as I wasn't getting anything other than vague benefits at most I was increased to 300 mg in dosage. That hasn't increased the benefits to any remarkable or noticeable degree. So I started taking 450 mg, and have been doing that for around 10 months. This still hasn't had any concrete effects. All improvements I've had with my condition can also be attributed to other causes than the medication so it's at best vague if it's actually doing anything for me. So this is the last month I'm going to be on this drug.

Common side effects for me have been excessive sweating (after starting the 300 mg this kicked into high gear). And recently some involuntary muscle spasms as I'm falling asleep or relaxing have been becoming frequent. Other probable effects are constipation, headaches and so on...

Overall I don't think this drug is of any use for me even as an anti-depressant. And it's most certainly useless as an anti-anxiety med for me. So try it if you want to but based on myself it's not a guaranteed to be a useful treatment or even a helpful one.

Overall I can't recommend this medication as a possible treatment.

Treatment Experience

After the passing of a couple of family members I found myself with the blues.  The doc gave me Effexor 150 x2 per day which has been effective.  It took about 3 months to work and I just about took it back.  I felt even worse a couple of times, but since then it has stabilised my mood.  I have had a couple of times when i have been out of town and forgotten my meds - totally don't recommend missing them out, fuzzy head. 

 

Would recommend though

Treatment Experience
Rasied my blood pressure, mood swings, increased appetite and cuased a bit of panic so it didnt really help with social anxiety