Effexor Questions

[greeneyez]

Heyy so I recently started taking effexor and I have never been this depressed in my life. Also, I had some physical side effects (like blurred vision, over heating, and dizziness) I am going to see my doctor today to help me ween off. My question is, has anyone else experienced this with effexor?

[Ritch]

How long have you been taking it?

If you haven't been taking it for 6-8 weeks you could try to ride it out, but of course if it is too much then ask your doctor to help ween you off. I have taken effexor before and not had this issue. But I can not say how important it is to get advice when coming off of this particular drug, it will have very bad side effects if you don't do the withdrawal gradually.

[greeneyez]

I just talked to my doctor and considering I am on the lowest dose and I've only been on it for about 3 weeks he told me to just stop taking it. Now that I've done that I'm extremely dizzy and nothing helps!

[Chris C]

Sorry to hear you're feeling dizzy. Hopefully that will pass quickly. I took Effexor for a little while but couldn't handle the amped up feeling it gave me. Made my anxiety worse.

[NixonRulz]

When I was taking it, I would get those feelings if I didn't take the pill. Miss a day and you feel terrible. Makes you realize how powerful they are.

Like all of those meds, a bitch to come of.

[greeneyez]

Makes me happy knowing it's the meds and I'm not going nuts lol

[anxmeg]

Coming off Effexor I had incredible brain zaps. Feels almost like being electrocuted. It's terrible what it does to your brain.

[greeneyez]

I hate the stuff. Made me incredibly depressed while on it and now it's messing with my equilibrium... I can't win

[hiphopgirl]

I am currently experiencing the same thing and it is comforting to know others experience it too because I told my doctor about it today and tried to describe the brain zap/electric shock feeling and he looked at me like I had three heads.

I was on only 75 mg for quite a few years, I'm not sure how long but it has been at least 5 or 6 years. I recently told my doctor I wanted to go off because I was put on it only for mild anxiety and less than a handful of panic attacks and feel I have been fairly stable and I am beginning to think about trying to get pregnant in the next couple years and I don't want to be on anything then. Therefore my doctor put me on a lower dose first, the lowest one there is I think, 37 mg, and then told me to take that every other day. I have tried to stretch it out and am now taking it every fourth day. Well I just saw my doctor today and told him how bad my withdrawal symptoms are - besides the brain zaps, I have been experiencing pretty intense digestive distress and have had some other symptoms like drowsiness, general fatigue and being very emotional (wanting to cry at everything that is remotely touching/provoking). His advice was to stop completely and now I am terrified of having to tough out the symptoms, especially the brain zaps. It was disheartening that he didn't seem to be familiar with that symptom and didn't have any suggestions for what to do to alleviate it. I read somewhere about taking Omega 3's and I do take those but it doesn't seem to help. I once went 5 days without taking it and the symptoms didn't stop, but he said it would take 4-6 weeks for it to completely get out of my system. And I am just at a loss thinking about going through these terrible feelings for that long.

If anyone has successfully come off this drug and the withdrawal symptoms eventually went away, please let me know so I can find some comfort facing what I know is going to be an inevitably difficult time!


Coming off Effexor I had incredible brain zaps. Feels almost like being electrocuted. It's terrible what it does to your brain.