@farmboy Personally, I'd try to wait it out until it has been 2-3 weeks. I've been there with initial side effects. Not sure if you're a cat person but what helps me is petting my cat. I prefer cats because they don't have to be walked. But any furry animal will do. Pets don't judge and just want to be with you.

Actually going through that now with Prozac. Apparently while it was very helpful in tapering off venlafaxine, I can't be on it long term. Chronic diarrhea sucks. I feel like all the life has been drained out of me. Effective bad way to lose weight though haha. No libido, almost no appetite, just kind of existing. It's... still an improvement over no medication sadly. Going to try yet another antidepressant next - duloxetine (Cymbalta).

So far I'm at 2 weeks after venlafaxine and I haven't been having the dizziness or heart pains. Some migraine but not bad enough to see a doctor about. I'm kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop but at least I know it can come back and that's better than being caught unaware.

@farmboy
Sorry it's been rough. Here are my thoughts--remember we're all just guessing here; each of us has been our own guinea pig. You may have restarted at too low a dose. You didn't taper from 225 down to 75--you plummeted like a rock. Restarting at 75mg felt good at first because you were getting at least some of the Effexor you were used to (and some Hydroxyzine and Buspirone). The most successful way to get off Effexor is to go slow, but you are trying to go slow well into the race after starting off like a jack rabbit.

You had good rapport with the ER doc who intervened with your regular doc. Can you check back with her, let her know your initial improvement is morphing into something very unpleasant and see if she can help? Perhaps increase the Hydroxyzine and Buspirone, or a change to something else?