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Venlafaxine?


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Guest heartplace

Anyone have experience with this medication? It turns out my mom has a client with OCD (I think she has Pure O like me) and she was talking about how well Effexor XR, or Venlafaxine, worked for her. I know everyone is different when it comes to these meds but I would just like to find out how it worked out for anyone here. I'm not liking what Fluoxetine does to me so far so I'm looking for suggestions for ones that may work better.

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It's got to be worth giving it a go if the one you're on doesn't suit you.

I was on it for a while and it didn't help me - but we all have different reactions to different meds.

Worth a try, heartplace

Take care

whitebeam

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This medicine worked very well for me. In fact it made me almost recovered from a very bad relapse in 2010. It greatly reduced my anxiety and improved my mood, sleep and mental stability. But be aware that this medicine is very hard to come off. It is notorious for withdrawal symptoms. Many people face horrible symptoms while completely withdrawing Effexor. Missing a single dose can trigger withdrawal effects. This medicine is generally prescribed for MDD(Major Depressive Disorder) but given for OCD and GAD also.

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I was on Venlafaxine for about 2 years or so. I did find that it had bigger side effects and withdrawal effects than the other antidepressants I've been on long term. For example if I missed my daily dose I would start feeling strange and sad - nowadays I'm on sertraline and that doesn't happen if I miss a dose. Venlafaxine also gave me bad night sweats (which haven't gone away yet even though I moved on to sertraline), and my skin would feel very light sort of prickley feelings if it was very hot. I also had vivid dreams that were generally not particularly nice. Though they were annoying these side effects were bearable.

I did feel that venlafaxine helped my depression, though I didn't see any noticeable change in the OCD. Venlafaxine is an SNRI rather than an SSRI, so it works on noradrenaline as well as serotonin.

In summary it might be worth a try, though my CBT therapist advised me that sertraline often seems to be the best for OCD in her experience. I got a lot better with sertraline plus CBT, it's difficult to tell how much of that was due to the sertraline, though my suspicion is that the CBT was the biggest factor.

Like the person above says, venlafaxine does seem to have a reputation as being difficult to come off. I actually didn't have trouble switching from venlafaxine to sertraline (gradually reducing my venlafaxine dose as I increased my sertraline dose). However I can imagine that coming off venlafaxine to nothing (rather than to sertraline) would be tricky, given that it had noticeable withdrawal effects from just one missed dose. Though I was taking quite a high dose of it.

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Guest heartplace

Thanks for the replies!

I'm thinking I probably shouldn't try Venlafaxine out. But LizzyHoy, you have me considering sertraline now :)

I'm on Fluoxetine right now and it causes me vivid dreams...I can't imagine what Venlafaxine could possibly do.

I've been on an addictive antidepressant before (paroxetine), and the withdrawal symptoms are pretty much impossible for me to bear so I don't think I'll bother with Venlafaxine.

Edited by heartplace
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