I took Effexor for a month, saw what it did to me, then quit cold turkey, which you're indeed not supposed to do, but I couldn't help myself, I'd rather have the awful brain zaps, nonsensical reality glitches and kinda feeling off for the next year with strange heart frequencies than take another one of 'em.
No idea how to deal with longterm use of it, people do seem to be able to develop a flexibility with it, but I've also read about people who open the pills and start weening off the little pellets inside just so they don't have to go from one to zero. Been a while, the world has evolved and many more tools are available so it might not have to come to that, but that's been my impression of this particular compound.