Thank you to everyone for replies. I'm down to 300mg morning and 75mg at night of the regular (not XR) Effexor. But I think I'm feeling it. I'll be seeing pdoc on the 20th. This is a bad time of year anyway - darker with the time change and allergies active.

I've run across a couple of other people taking the very high (600mg+) dose of Effexor...probably refractive depression!

Vital - many of us dx'd as bipolar take a cocktail of medications that has been honed over years. My doc is about the best in the area and I have every faith in her. Before her, I tried many different anti-depressants and most worked for maybe a month or 3 and then pooped out. What she has done is put me on 2 anti-depressants that work better together - for me - along with 2 meds that are actually anti-convulsants, but are often used for folks with my disorder, two because I couldn't take the max dose of one of them. Then a tiny dose of 2 different anti-psychotics so, yeah it's a lot but it has helped a lot.

The first "professional" I went to got me hooked on Xanax (given to take the edge off the anti-depressant). I had to go to treatment to get off of it. And I've already mentioned my recent problems with the statin drugs...that's pharma at work. Actually my lovely job that kicked me to the curb was a pharma company (not manufacturing any of the afore-mentioned drugs).
I'm pretty proactive these days in researching anything anyone thinks I should take (unless I'm too depressed I guess). Thanks for your concern.

Any responses really help me feel like yeah, I'm being heard and I count enough for someone to answer. Thank you !!!

stephanie