For what it's worth, it's not physically dangerous compared to many other psych meds.
That's a point of its own, yeah.. with some thoughts about, it becomes scary how big the percentage of (very) possibly physically damaging psych meds is. Yet I wouldn't bet on that years without end on venlafaxine doesn't do any bad, at least not as in PAWS-like neurochemical changes..
Didn't think that it is possible but there is definitely something about the norepinephrine and it's not just a matter of 150+mg/d but also present in less. The withdrawal doesn't respond to any serotonergic measures but only to SNRIs (tramadol, DXM) which makes me wonder about using bupropion or atomoxetine (yuck. Just the thought of introducing more NE during withdrawal scares me but it's logic) to get off this shit. Noteworthy that bupropion alone caused discontinuation syndrome, while amphetamine generally doesn't in medicinal dosages, minus the rebound fatigue of course but for me that was easily tolerable. The point about bupropion leaves the possibility of a cholinergic mechanism, while anti-cholinergics are known as rapid acting antidepressants, and tricyclics seem to aid in withdrawal, so... problem is here they don't sell the tricyclics anymore, at least amitriptyline wasn't available.
People got unbearable, protracted withdrawal from AS LITTLE AS 18,75mg, and hypertensive crisis/serotonin syndrome from 75mg (granted, in old people).
Venlafaxine 102,5mg/d increases my resting heartbeat by about 15-20 BPM. Amphetamine (therapeutic) did less. Less venla causes disabling withdrawal. There for sure is a kindling effect like with classical addictive substances in that every withdrawal will be way worse than the previous, and I wonder what this implicates for normal brain function as tolerance too is a factor.
Remembered that kanna was partially effective against venla withdrawal, but it was high potency snuff and caused intense, albeit transient headache when overused. And that was in a previous attempt, some years ago 5-htp was strong enough to take away venla withdrawal, and the physical opioid-w/d-like effects weren't present back then. Thought about using 5-htp+carbidopa but never read any good about this combo, even when it seems to be effective with levodopa for dopaminergic issues but also cause heavy downregulation of receptors or transmitter production ("augmentation" issues in RLS etc) which is the opposite of what I want.