r/EffexorSuccess

Hi everyone,
Today was actually my first day increasing Effexor (Venlafaxine) from 37.5 mg to 75 mg after 3 weeks, and honestly, I did it with a lot of fear.
Over the last year I’ve tried several antidepressants (Lexapro, Paxil, Sertraline, Trintellix, and Mirtazapine). Either I couldn’t tolerate them well because I’m very sensitive to medications, or they simply didn’t help enough. I’m still taking 7.5 mg of Mirtazapine alongside Effexor.
My biggest fear with Effexor is that I’ll eventually realize it doesn’t work for me and then be stuck dealing with horrible withdrawals. Reading stories online sometimes makes me feel trapped before I’ve even given it a fair chance.
I’d really love to hear from people who:

were helped by Effexor,
came off it successfully,
or found that it wasn’t nearly as scary as their anxiety made it seem.

Thank you 🤍

Hi all! I have been on Effexor XR capsules since 2019, started at 150mg and tapered my way down over the years to roughly 25mg. (Long story short got stuck in an ocd compulsion loop to lower after some bad tapering advice from my doctor I tapered without medical advice for the past 5 years.) The past 6 months I’ve been stuck in the most horrid anxiety/OCD/depression loop, to the point that I am hardly eating or sleeping. I used the bead method to taper, and over the last week have slowly started to add beads back to get to my goal of a full 37.5mg capsule. My doctor and my mom tell me I’m prolonging this feeling by not going back up now, but I’m terrified at this point to jump all the way back up. I think I just need to hear some success stories about being at 37.5 or upping dosage in general so I don’t feel so alone or scared. Tyia!