15 years at 150mg (extended release)....but completely off for nearly 10 days on a 4-5 week taper. Sweating when I tapered - YUP (I think I bought most of the icepacks on Amazon)..... I usually get some facial numbing going up or down on the drug - but I suspect you may be speaking about emotional blunting. In that case, Effexor can mellow the top end (I've had experiences of feeling really good and productive when I've cut my dose for a few days to try and reboot the drug at my old dose)....but that's not it's primary function....and the emotional blunting is something I believe gets reported for all the SSRIs.