I hope I'm making the right decision...and I hope it works

I've been trying to get off my medication for a while now and I think after only being on 75mg of Effexor I need to go back up to 150mg. I kinda wished I would be med free but I'm wasting my days sleeping in. I'm OBSESSED with sleeping and dreaming that I stay in bed way past normal. like 12 hours or so.

I don't know if I'm depressed or if sleeping so long is making me depressed or if I'm depressed and sleeping too long is making it worse but I just can't keep going on like this. I've also been eating a ton and gained 8 lbs in a short time. >.> It's been a month or so and I don't feel any better so I went back up on my dose 2 days ago and I feel better. Whether that's a placebo affect or not I don't really care anymore as long as it works.

I'm a little disappointed though. I thought maybe I could do it on my own you know, but it looks like I can't.

Hello apples_: If you need the medication... you need the medication. It's good you recognize it & are willing to do what is necessary to heal. This is to be celebrated!

Risk of suicide during treatment with venlafaxine

This is one study about your medication. There are also court cases about Paxil, the infamous SSRI, the judicial system in the US and Canada have been finding that some ADs without proper monitoring can make people suicidal and/or homicidal, many lives have been lost because of psychotropics. These days, war veterans are on polypharmacy which is not substantiated by scientific evidence, we simply can't find large scale study of this kind. There are house bills, senate bills being introduced to find out what's going on about veteran suicide cases through independent studies, I'm banking on these bills to produce some results that we can all benefit in near future.

ETA: The difficulties of going through the withdrawal symptoms are insane from what I hear, if you're a female and want to have a baby in the future, that's another thing to consider. Someone even tapered off of Effexor by decreasing the dose by 5mg every 2 weeks, so I'd imagine it'd been a hell for you to manage it on your own. The increase increments worries me, I say, when you feel better, please reconsider to try to get off of it, and try to remember what you went through.

Quiting effexor@bluelight.org

This came up on my random searches. They mention Tramadol as an aid to quit Effexor, I don't know if it can be legally done or not, it's just that they are discussing more than the replies you're getting here right now. Side effects, effectiveness aside, I believe that any of us could use informed decisions and informed opinions on certain medications. As of now, I see this particular drug as just an addictive substance that shouldn't be on the market, I hope you reach the same point of the risk assessment as I, good luck to you.