Good morning. I am a member of this group which is chose because my doctor(psychiatric nurse) too me off Zoloft because of the possible side effect of blood sugar drop and I was on Zoloft a long time. She prescribed Effexor 75 mg. I don't remember if I was have negative side effects but I did note that I was gaining weight so I stopped after about 2 weeks. I was a mess and when I called her she said it was withdrawal from the effexor and put me on 37.5 with the goal I think, to stop all together. It was during the holidays and my first Christmas without my husband and we decided we would leave things as they were. I knew I could not handle withdrawal with everything else going on. I know 37.5 is not a therapeutic dose, but I am not having problems that I know of with taking it. Yes, I have depression and was thing about having her increase the effexor. As I read the posts on Effexor and withdrawal and the horrible experiences I become very frightened. As far as I know I haven't had negative side effects even when the dose was higher. I became concerned because I was reading the horror stories of withdrawal. Many of you have said that your depression and other symptoms returned when you stopped taking it. I am asking what the terrible side effects were that caused you to stop taking Effexor. I have only heard about the withdrawal. I have friends doing well the this medication and I do believe that many of us need a medication to hep with depression. I have also seen posts saying you went on a different medication for depression. If Effexor was working, as I have heard many say their symptoms returned when they stopped why did you stop? I am confused aand on the fence here on whether to continue or not. Thank you.