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Mental Health Opinions about Venlafaxine

Was it effective?

  • YES

    Votes: 5 38.5%

  • NO

    Votes: 5 38.5%

  • SO-SO

    Votes: 3 23.1%
  • Total voters
    13
supersonic89

supersonic89

Bluelighter
Joined
Sep 17, 2019
Messages
1,249
Hi folks.

I just want to hear opinions on this antidepressant. Did it help you in something for your condition? Depression or anxiety

In the past it seemed like the best AD I have ever tried, but that was 10 years ago and my memory is not very good, so I would like to read opinions about it.
 
I'm on 300mg of effleor slow resealse. They brought me off my bed of depression to working full time and enjoying my family. Personally I think they saved me. However Effexor doesn't work for me unless it's the genetic branded one with slow release.
 
Wow thank you very much for your experiences @JohnBoy2000 and @Max.christie . :love:

My father has been taking venlafaxine/effexor since August and I've seen his mood improve a lot and he almost seems like a different person. He was always an anti-medication but this time he is seeing how this drug is doing him very well. He was constantly stressed, anxious and depressed, but not now.

I've read very good comments about venlafaxine combined with mirtazapine or bupropion. Really interesting (especially the venlafaxine/bupropion combo). I thought it might be too stimulating, but apparently not because some people get tired with venlafaxine.
 
Venlafaxine is effective, even more so in combination, but it is also the single most physically addicting drug I know of and this includes morphine. Getting off opioids is a walk in the park compared to stopping venlafaxine even at just 75mg/d. Brain zaps, lethargy, flu-like symptoms, restlessness, dysphoria, etc.pp. very similar to opioid w/d including diarrhea and runny nose yet subjectively different, less acute, but much much longer lasting. I've quit morphine several times. I've used meth, dissociatives, etc.. but what hooked me is venlafaxine. I've been off it now for five days, spent four of in bed like a zombie, and today I gave in and ate another 75mg venlafaxine - boom, after 20mins I began to improve, after 1h back to normal. Fluoxetine, paroxetine, St. John's wort, 5-HTP, nothing even remotely touches the brain zaps and depression induced by venlafaxine withdrawal. It's horrible.
 
Max.christie said:
I'm on 300mg of effleor slow resealse. They brought me off my bed of depression to working full time and enjoying my family. Personally I think they saved me. However Effexor doesn't work for me unless it's the genetic branded one with slow release.
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Only name brand EFFEXOR works for me. generic APO did not work, had withdrawals too early and felt shitty.

No difference in cost here so no point in substituting anyway.
 
Generic venlafaxine should substitute, I felt no difference between the brand and various generics of various counties. Changed absorption can lead to a slight headache but when you feel shitty from a generic then certainly something weird is going on ...
 
Effexor was one of the worst meds ive taken. I felt very fucked up in a bad way on it. I quit after only 6 weeks on it and got some of the worst withdrawls ive had from any drug from it. The brain zaps lasted weeks and since this was 2003 this was before i even knew effexor was addictive so i didnt know wtf was going on. I thought i was losing my mind. I had no idea how to treat it either i honestly thought i was having a stroke at some point.
 
VerbalTruist said:
Coming off of it was HELL for me. THe sexual side-effects were devastating. Personally, I hated it.
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Strangely I "only" get the sexual side effects when trying to quit. While on it I'm fine but developed severe hypertension (today 160/100, BPM 105 - I'm not overweight) which also resolves upon discontinuation, but I don't tolerate the withdrawal, gone through like 5-6 days of zombie mode without ANY improvation, tried 40mg/d fluoxetine, 40mg/d paroxetine, NONE did a single bit more than just inducing pounding headaches so I went back on fucking venlafaxine. Just 75mg/d are enough to overpower any other SSRI. Argh.
 
I didn't have any more than quite minor issues coming off of it. For what it's worth, it's not physically dangerous compared to many other psych meds.
 
AlphaMethylPhenyl said:
For what it's worth, it's not physically dangerous compared to many other psych meds.
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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.
 
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It's a disgusting medication. I was on it for about a year. I had to be dosed 300mg/day to get a response from it. It did improve my mood but the side effects were causing agony. About 45-60min after taking the capsules (Effexor XR extended release) i would start sweating excessively and it would continue the whole day. It also caused tremors like nothing else I've tried before and i was extremely conscious about it. At some point I just had had enough. Just thinking about the profound sweating and shaky hands gives me the shivers.

Instead of stopping it my doctor switched me from venlafaxine to sertraline, which was ineffective but at least i avoided the withdrawal everyone tells horror stories about.

My experience with atomoxetine (for ADHD i had to take 100mg/day to get a response) is identical. So it's quite obvious the extreme noradrenergic stimulation isn't my cup of tea. Strangely I don't have those issues with methylphenidate or amphetamine.
 
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LivingOnValium said:
Strangely I don't have those issues with methylphenidate or amphetamine.
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Wondered the same but never found an actual answer yet. Might have to do with the fact that DA and NE are just one biosynthesis step apart, and that both will have their autoreceptors. At least this, along with the oxidative stress from DA, explains the stim rebound.

Finally found something against venlafaxine withdrawal: Dextromethorphan, lol. It was the first drug/med I've ever biosampled, and so far remains to be the best antidepressant to me. I just went through countless chemicals and addictions because of people telling me that it all was addiction and drug-based delusions. The "first plateau" of DXM is not, it's actually sustainable for a crazy long period (more than 3 months in my adolescence, unfortunately began drinking at night for sleep because again got no real medicine.. the alcohol caused problems, not the DXM..) but one needs to inhibit liver enzymes, most probably CYP2D6, like it's done in nuedexta (DXM/quinidine combo - quinidine must be a freaking strong inhibitor, it turns like 20mg DXM active). Just straaange that "poor metabolizers" seem not to like DXM. Guess they can't trip on the higher "plateaus" but most just only try once and in too high.

Will post about this in NS&PD. I know they'll say it's not possible but I'd bet that chronic substance use increased my metabolism. 20mg/d fluoxetine didn't actually prolong or potentiate the DXM at all. But it did restore a bit of the magic, which is remarkable. 50 trip limit, lesions and stuff.

Also, propranolol + DXM goes well. Again something docs didn't wanna give me. I've lived with tachycardia for years and had even more of it on DXM but now textbook values and NO sedation. The newer, cardioselective bisoprolol felt just weirdly wrong.
Neuroscience's strange.
 
It's effective somewhat but the side-effects are terrible: head-zaps, dizziness, nausea, etc.
On Lexapro now and has none of the these, plus works better.
 
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