Help Starting new meds: Venlafaxine. How's your experience?

[HelloHell]

Hello guys, so i just got back from my psych and he gave me a new medication: Venlafaxine (75 mg) on top of my 45 mg Mirtazapine for depression. I would like to hear your experience on taking this med. Any advice is appreciated. Does it help you? Any side effects? i read on old threads that the withdrawal is hell?

 

[Dcap1]

75mgs of effexor (Venlafaxine) and 2 mg of Abilify. I also heard that withdrawals are hell and sexual side effects are bad. I've been on 2 weeks with no side effects yet.

Hello guys, so i just got back from my psych and he gave me a new medication: Venlafaxine (75 mg) on top of my 45 mg Mirtazapine for depression. I would like to hear your experience on taking this med. Any advice is appreciated. Does it help you? Any side effects? i read on old threads that the withdrawal is hell?

 

[HelloHell]

75mgs of effexor (Venlafaxine) and 2 mg of Abilify. I also heard that withdrawals are hell and sexual side effects are bad. I've been on 2 weeks with no side effects yet.

Good to hear that there's no side effects. Can i ask if there's any improvement on your mood/depression?

 

[Dead beat dad]

I can't remember the does but I took Venlafaxine for a while.
It worked and took the edge off the very top and bottom of mood - stopped me doing some pretty dangerous stuff.
Coming off was hard and I got some pretty crappy effects from withdrawal and it wrecked my libido which has not properly recovered.
Good luck friend.
DBD

 

[mapletree]

The mirtazapine is more known for side effects than the venlafaxine, both are safe, mirtazapine is good for atypical or treatment resistant depression, it can be sedating but again, both meds are pretty safe

I've been through Effexor withdrawals before and it was pretty unpleasant for 2 weeks but I didn't die or anything and I'm a moron who cold turkeyed it (don't do that)

Effexor is a fine medication all things considered, has a short half life so if you miss doses you may feel it. If anything it should have less side effects that the Mirtazapine but everyone's different

 

[HelloHell]

I can't remember the does but I took Venlafaxine for a while.
It worked and took the edge off the very top and bottom of mood - stopped me doing some pretty dangerous stuff.
Coming off was hard and I got some pretty crappy effects from withdrawal and it wrecked my libido which has not properly recovered.
Good luck friend.
DBD

Glad to hear that it worked for you! hmm yeah a lot of antidepressant wreck libido, I hope it can recover soon for you! Thanks for sharing

The mirtazapine is more known for side effects than the venlafaxine, both are safe, mirtazapine is good for atypical or treatment resistant depression, it can be sedating but again, both meds are pretty safe

I've been through Effexor withdrawals before and it was pretty unpleasant for 2 weeks but I didn't die or anything and I'm a moron who cold turkeyed it (don't do that)

Effexor is a fine medication all things considered, has a short half life so if you miss doses you may feel it. If anything it should have less side effects that the Mirtazapine but everyone's different

yeap cold turkey is never good. glad you've gone through it and recover! Great advice i'll try to remember to take my meds on time. Thanks for sharing

 

[VivaldiBR]

I start with venlafexine 4 weeks ago. My libido decreased, and i'm not stuck in bed anymore. Im active and studing everyday. But im still having CTB idealization, rumination, and feeling hopeless everyday.

 

[HelloHell]

I start with venlafexine 4 weeks ago. My libido decreased, and i'm not stuck in bed anymore. Im active and studing everyday. But im still having CTB idealization, rumination, and feeling hopeless everyday.

Wow that's good because i've been stuck on my bed all day long forever. Yea ctb idealization is gonna take forever to cure

 

[VivaldiBR]

Wow that's good because i've been stuck on my bed all day long forever. Yea ctb idealization is gonna take forever to cure

The antidepressant alone won't do much, thats why I'm doing others things too: therapy, reading about buddhism and self-knowlegded, meditation, and I told family and close friends about ctb idealization. I will try to add more things like exercise, yoga and so on. But one step at time.

 

[HelloHell]

That's really great! Yup one step at a time, take it easy. Good luck on your recovery!

 

[hoping to lose hope]

Intense melancholy and suicidal thoughts plus self harming and also a really cool personality change that made me a different person.

reading about buddhism

eightfold path does not seem more appealing than simply living as a normalfag tbh

 

[Silver]

My friend has been on venlafaxine for years now and said she loves it because it makes her functional. But feels ill if she is late taking it.

 

[HelloHell]

My friend has been on venlafaxine for years now and said she loves it because it makes her functional. But feels ill if she is late taking it.

Good to know that. Noted, I'll try to take it on time. Thanks!

 

[TotallyIsolated]

Venlafaxine made me able to work again, but only on the higher doses (225 - 300mg) where the secondary effects kick in. I can confirm what @Silver 's friend said about taking it late. The withdrawal symptoms can be nasty.

 

[ThrownAwayTom]

I've been on 2 x 75mg prolong release for a few years now. One day without will have my ears ringing and hearing spike when I move my eyes too quick.

They worked well at first and helped me distance some of the things in my mind from always being on top of me. But I've been taking them so long I have no idea if they do anything any more cos I don't know any different and weaning off them isn't easy. I find it hard to concentrate on certain things for long compared to before, but that might just be my deadbeat mind slowly going stale cos nothing is fun anyway.

 

[Jumper Geo]

I find the website below handy as you can read the side effects and it gives you ton's of information of what and not what to do.

https://www.drugs.com/comments/venlafaxine/

Cheers

George

 

[Chemicalcastration20]

Do not take antidepressants unless you want permanent damage. Your emotions, sex drive will never be the same again once you mess with those drugs. Depends if that's a decent trade of for what your suffering with. Anti ds are the reason I will ctb before new year.

 

[Sinkinshyp]

I took 150mg at night for a couple of years for hot flashes. I'm sure it helped with my depression. When my son died and the doc wanted to put me on other meds he weaned me down to ease the withdraws. If I missed it I knew! you are dizzy and sick. Being weaned down to 75mg for a couple of weeks than switched to other meds it wasn't to bad. I did read that people try to wean off it for a couple of years and couldn't due to the withdraws from it. I was shocked it caused issues like that. Read up all about it- I'm sure it will help. Just be prepared for if you need to wean it down.

 

[Mentalmick]

I've been on 2 x 75mg prolong release for a few years now. One day without will have my ears ringing and hearing spike when I move my eyes too quick.

They worked well at first and helped me distance some of the things in my mind from always being on top of me. But I've been taking them so long I have no idea if they do anything any more cos I don't know any different and weaning off them isn't easy. I find it hard to concentrate on certain things for long compared to before, but that might just be my deadbeat mind slowly going stale cos nothing is fun anyway.

Yes, those eye pulses you get are pretty damn weird

 

[L-L]

I've now been taking Venlafaxine for nearly 8 months. I take 375mg a day - 225mg in the am and 150mg in the pm.

So far, I've not had many side effects that I've been conscious of. There've been two that have been more obvious, however:

1) Sleep Quality for me has decreased pretty significantly. I'm more tired, more often. Doesn't mean I'm less effective in work or anything, and there's even a possibility that it's not related to the Venlafaxine but it seems too coincidental to not be related.​

2) I think the technical term is sexual dysfunction - but I basically have trouble popping the cork. Might sound like a blessing, but sometimes it can be pretty annoying and it doesn't exactly flatter my partner.​

​

Another issue is as other people have commented: the withdrawal/short half life. I take my total dose in two because I feel a little "high" if I take it all in one go, but if I miss one I really feel off. I've never missed more than a half-days dose and based on what I've read about in both scientific literature and accounts like some users have written about and I'm very worried about coming off them.

I'm more than happy to cross that bridge when I come to it, as I haven't felt this consistent in a long time. I'm still a miserable twat and still get angry at stupidly small things, but I'm still here and there's a strong chance I wouldn't be without it, amongst others.

 

[Nymph]

I'm doing fine on Venlafaxine but one side effect that hasn't gone away is really bothering me and it's excessive sweating. I have hyperhydrose type 2 because of it and it's horrible. I got new meds to fix the side effect tho because I've tried a lot of meds and none helped me as much as Venlafaxine. It's still not perfect but I'm not sure it can even be perfect because it's just meds and they're always gonna have a side effect and I'm sick of trying new meds all the time so right now I predict that I'm gonna be on Venlafaxine for a long time

 

[Itsjustme21]

I can't speak for myself but my gf takes the same med as you. She says it has definitely helped her. But far from fixed though. And when she skips one day she will feel terrible the next day. Not only depressed but also sick and just strange.

 

[Sherri]

Agree with other posts helper for a while and that was it, my personal opinion,could work wonders in you as our bodies are different, stopping venaflaxine was hell though, I got brain zaps, every time I would move my eyes I felt another brain zap. Lasted a week and a half. Nothing too hard to deal with but still. I hope it works for you. Good luck.

I've been on 2 x 75mg prolong release for a few years now. One day without will have my ears ringing and hearing spike when I move my eyes too quick.

They worked well at first and helped me distance some of the things in my mind from always being on top of me. But I've been taking them so long I have no idea if they do anything any more cos I don't know any different and weaning off them isn't easy. I find it hard to concentrate on certain things for long compared to before, but that might just be my deadbeat mind slowly going stale cos nothing is fun anyway.

Exactly the eyes moving tottaly agree, I experienced that too.

 

[HelloHell]

Thank you all for answering. The doctor just upped my dose to 150mg, so far no side effect, but i havent felt any improvement in my mood. Maybe it needs more time, we'll see

 

[BitterlyAlive_]

Have you noticed anything yet?

 

[HelloHell]

Have you noticed anything yet?

My doc took me off of it

 

[BitterlyAlive_]

My doc took me off of it

Oh, that's disappointing. Was it still not working effectively, or did you have bad side effects? I hope you weren't on it long enough to get the infamous withdrawals...

 

[self.destractive]

recently had my dose doubled to 75 mg last month

even when i was taking my lower dose, libido completely died, but i didnt mind it much because i felt productive and content

do NOT skip doses. not only does your mood tank quickly, but you feel terrible physically. personally i feel terribly motion sick whenever i look at a screen, even if im stationary and sitting on the couch at home.

 

[HelloHell]

Oh, that's disappointing. Was it still not working effectively, or did you have bad side effects? I hope you weren't on it long enough to get the infamous withdrawals...

It wasn't working effectively. i was on 150mg for around 2 weeks i think, and i stopped cold turkey but no noticeable withdrawal symptoms fortunately :)

 

[rs929]

It wasn't working effectively. i was on 150mg for around 2 weeks i think, and i stopped cold turkey but no noticeable withdrawal symptoms fortunately :)

There's no way you can notice any improvement within 2 weeks