Have you ever been on Effexor?

Question

I'm now on my second week of Effexor. The first week I was taking a 37.5mg pill, now Im on a 75mg pill and I dont feel as happy and energetic as I did while I was on the lower dossage. Is this normal??? By the way, its only my 2nd day on the 75mg. Should I just give it some more time?

Answer 1

I have never been on it but my multiple family members have been. Did you up your dosage on your own or did your doctor do that? If it was your doctor than you should wait at least a week before you decide anything. If it was your decision than you should definately talk to your doctor. Also, i'm sure you know that there are other things you can do in combination with your medication to help. Things like excersize and laughter release endorfins, which are your body's happy chemicals. FYI, your body doesn't know the difference between genuine and fake laughter. So enjoy your self and do you best to excersize on a regular basis and maybe you'll see some improvement. Good luck!

Answer 2

Yes, everyone is different. I felt better in a week. My doc got my meds perfect on the 1st try. I feel really lucky.
I'm on Effexor XR 150 a day and 200 of Lamictal.

One word of caution. Do not miss a dose, once you've been on it for a while. Don't just stop taking it. You MUST reduce your dose a little at a time! Don't believe what some tell you about withdrawal. I didn't reorder my meds correctly and I went one day w/o. I did not think much about it. The next day, I felt really weird and I had to leave work. The best I can discribe is I felt like 1/2 of my head was filled with fluid and every time a moved my head, I felt a sloush in my head. I went by the office and my doc gave me a couple of sample to do me. He also told me to put 1 sample pack away for a 'Break Glass' backup in case it ever happens again.

Effexor XR has really made a difference in my life. I am Bipolar II and a have rapid cycles. I also have to take a mood stablizer. Please question your doc as to the real need for you to take it.

Answer 3

Yes, give it more time. SSRI's (antidepressant drugs) take about 6-8 weeks to take effect. I must warn you though, if it does not work for you the withdrawal symptoms are really tough. I took Effexor for PMDD and anxiety and I had to stop it to try another drug. I had severe withdrawal symptoms. Here is more info.

1. Change doesn't happen overnight. It usually takes 6 to 8 weeks to feel the full benefits of therapy. Try to be patient about the treatment process. Just as depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and social anxiety disorder do not develop overnight, it also takes time to feel better.

2. You may experience side effects. As with any medication, EFFEXOR XR is associated with possible side effects. If you experience side effects, talk with your doctor. Click here for important safety information.

3. EFFEXOR XR works best when taken as prescribed. A good way to help ensure that you reach your goal of virtual elimination of symptoms is to take your medication every day, as instructed by your doctor. It is extremely important that you continue to take EFFEXOR XR even if you start feeling better. That is how the medication will work best.

4. Open communication is essential for effective treatment. Make your doctor a partner in your treatment. It's important to communicate all of your symptoms. As your therapy progresses, talk with your doctor about how you are doing, and how you feel your treatment is going. Working together, you and your doctor can strive to help you achieve your goal of being virtually symptom-free.

5. It's important to track your progress. Relieving symptoms of depression takes time. But one way to see improvement is to chart your progress. Think about keeping a progress journal to write down any symptoms or side effects you may be experiencing. Also note how you feel from day to day. You can then share the information with your doctor. It can help determine how well you are responding to therapy.

6. Adult and pediatric patients taking antidepressants should be watched closely for signs that their condition is getting worse or that they are becoming suicidal, especially when they first start therapy, or when their dose is increased or decreased. Patients should also be watched for becoming agitated, irritable, hostile, impulsive, or restless. Such symptoms should be reported to the patient's doctor right away.

Answer 4

i was on effexor, it didn't really do much for me but the longer you take it the more the affects wear off and your gonna need to keep increasing the dosage if you want the same affects as when you first took it.......i am currently taking wellbutrin, and if you like the uppy feeling, i suggest that.

Answer 5

Effexor's Typical Side Effects: The usual for SSRIs and SNRIs - headache, nausea, dry mouth, sweating, sleepiness or insomnia, and diarrhea or constipation, weight gain, loss of libido and a host of other sexual dysfunctions. Most everything but the weight gain and sexual dysfunctions usually goes away within a couple of weeks. Although some women will notice that the sexual side effects will diminish above 200-225mg a day when the norepinephrine kicks in. Maybe.

Effexor's Dosage and How to Take Effexor: Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride) comes in immediate and extended release flavors, although hardly anyone takes the immediate release form anymore. Just be sure to check your prescription for that XR to make sure you are getting the extended release form. For the XR flavor, you start at 37.5 to 75mg a day, taken with food, at either breakfast or dinner, depending on if you're apt to get wired or tired. Once you get the wired/tired issue straightened out, you take the med all at once at the same time every day. If you start at 37.5mg you can move up to 75mg after a week. As with any antidepressant, it takes a month to feel any positive effect, so give it a month. Seriously, don't move up above 75mg a day for at least a month. You'll know if it's going to do anything then. If you feel nothing, give up and take a much easier discontinuation. After that you can move up in 37.5-75 mg increments, allowing at least a week between each increase until you reach the maximum of 375mg a day for the most severely depressed of patients. The older immediate release version is pretty much the same, except that the dose is divided into two or three doses a day.



Days to Reach a Steady State: Three days.

When you're fully saturated with the medication and less prone to peaks and valleys of effects. You still might have peaks of effect after taking many meds, but with a lot of the meds you'll have fewer valleys after this point. In theory anyway.

How Long Effexor Takes to Work: Up to one month.

Everybody hates their meds because of the costs and the side effects, but people just loathe Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride) because the discontinuation can be so harsh; it's the med everyone wishes they never took. Yes, people will change doctors because some doctor had the nerve to punish them with Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride). Yet for many people it is a godsend, because the combination of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake is literally just what the doctor ordered for the darkest of depressions. Of course Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride) has to be complicated about it, it can't just work on everything all at once from the beginning. Oh, no. First it starts to work on your serotonin. Then somewhere around 200 mg a day it starts to work on norepinephrine. Then around 300 mg a day it starts to work on your dopamine. Mileage will vary for each individual, and there's no guarantee on getting all that much dopamine action. Of course as you up your dosage to get to the next neurotransmitter, you keep pushing the previous neurotransmitter, whether you need more action on them or not. And that's what leads to problems, and why people have to stop taking Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride). So they stop taking it from a higher dosage, and they stop taking it quickly, and they learn about things like brain shivers.

For people in the bipolar spectrum Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride) should really be the last of the modern antidepressants that is tried. I feel that the risk/reward benefit runs too high on the risk side of things. More than most SSRIs Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride) is likely to trigger not just mania, but rapid cycling. Combine that with the very rare, but still real chance that you could be stuck taking Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride) for the rest of your life, even if it doesn't work. That complicates things greatly in Bipolarland.

Try everything else first, and if you just react badly to SSRIs, forget about Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride) entirely.

As for unipolar depression, if you're in the blackest pit of despair and your doctor recommends Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride), go for it. What? You don't think I care about you people? I do. For people with unipolar depression a lifelong addiction to Effexor (again, this is a very rare side effect) is just a pain in the ***. Of course Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride) works with popular liver enzymes, so there would be dosage adjustments required for some meds, and you'd have extra side effects for having to take 37.5-75mg of Effexor every day, but it wouldn't be making you manic or triggering rapid cycling. As long as the reason why you had to stop taking Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride) wasn't too bad, and that reason isn't too harsh at the low dosage, the exceedingly small risk of permanent Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride) maintenance is well worth running when weighed against the benefits you'd potentially receive with Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride).

Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride) is also approved for GAD. Yet it frequently makes the anxiety that is part of bipolar much worse. I can't honestly give a good risk/reward analysis for Effexor (venlafaxine hydrochloride) and anxiety. Given the experiences I've read of everyone who has taken it for bipolar and depression, I'm surprised it was even approved for anxiety.

Answer 6

i just started it about 2 weeks ago they put me on 150mg a day ive had the same problems tho they have seemed to deminish i have noticed that when someone makes me angry i cant let it go and its the same with other moods. so im not sure if they will stay or go

Answer 7

definelty more time. your body hasnt gotten used to the new dosage yet. the reason you stopped feeling so happy since starting 75 mg is cause your bosy is being reintroduced to it

Answer 8

You haven't been on it long enough to be feeling any effects from it. Give it at least another week or two.