Effexor XR: My Story

I have been on this drug for about 5 yrs now. during this time i have stopped it once, during one of my pregnancy's. my third pregnancy i could NOT go off of it, i felt like i was going to go crazy, I feel like I cant live without it.

and like most ppl say, after a few hrs of not taking it i get dizzy, and know i have to get it in my system.

my bf just started it, and i feel like what is going to happen to him when he tries to go off will be horrible.

ive been on and off it for these yrs, and coming off is horrible. the panic attacks come back, and its just horrible. I dont know how to get off of it. im scared to. Im a mother, and i need to be ok for my kids.

Effexor is great when you are on it, but try and come off, and your screwed. when i first started it, it made me sick, but i stayed on b/c my dr told me it would go away, which it did, but going off it was 100 times worse.

i find the worse side effect going off is extreme dizziness, and nausea, and just all around loss of touch with the world. and i am not wanting to go through this again.

the only time i have gone off this was when iwas pregnant with my second child, and i weaned myself off by the time i was 5 months. and it was horrible.

i almost killed my bf at the time, went crazy, slept all the time, couldnt function and not to mention the illness related to it, i thought it was partly bc of the pregnancy, and i now realize that it was the drugs.

after i had the baby i became severely panicky, and they put me on celexa, which made me crazier, and i lost part of my vision due to that, so they changed me back onto effexor again. it made me feel better, and i still feel better, but i hate the weight gain, and i want to live drug free!!!

Hi everybody, I am still on it, and scared to get off of it. but after reading all these comments to my bf, he decided to go off of it. that was 8 days ago. he is still experiencing extreme dizziness and snaps at anything. gets mad at everything. even if it is stupid and shouldnt be getting mad.

The first day for him he was fine. acted all tough saying that he was fine, and that he could get off of it easily w/o any withdrawl symptoms. well that was not true.

the second day was bad, he walked right into a tree, and fell in the bathroom while going to the bathroom.

the third and fourth days were really dizzy, sick, and just didnt want to get up. the brain zaps were happening to him, but not too often, which is good. he described it as a weight in his head, and every time he moved it would follow... kinda like when you know you have missed a dose.

so today is ok. he is still really snappy, but is getting better. i am so proud of him that he came off of it, and is doing ok.

its definately a nightmare though. he screamed at me, and yelled about nothing, and just all around treated me horribly. i even thought of leaving him! and I am on this stuff too.... so i should know better.

anyways, i will update if i finally decide to go off, or if anything happens to him.

good luck to everybody trying to get off this, you can do it he was only on this medication for not even 5 weeks before he decided to come off.

this is crazy waht it does to your brain. i wish i never took this, and found something else. also if anybody at all wants to talk to me about this, feel free to email me at

alot of the comments on here are a bit older, so i wasnt sure if anybody would even read this...

I almost feel guilty as my life has become so enjoyable and so easy... when I used to be so miserable.

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