Just wanted to say I've been venlafaxine free for about 2 months now. Prozac bridge worked for me: I started 20mg of Prozac while still on 37.5mg of venlafaxine, and after two weeks of both, stopped venlafaxine. And the first couple of days were rough but not nearly as bad as trying it before. I stayed on the Prozac for a month but couldn't stand the diarrhea it caused, so talked to my doctor and switched to Cymbalta. It seems to work...slightly. Had a dose increase starting a week ago and it might be helping. No noticeable side effects - yay.

I'm still very depressed but I have a tiny bit more energy when I'm not getting sucked into a depression vortex. So my bad days are just as bad, but my not-bad days are almost okay. It's an improvement, even if it isn't enough.

I think a big obstacle is my allergies. (synthetic scents, and as severe as people think of peanut allergies) The isolation (and almost daily getting pummeled by my immune system) hits me hard. I just got rejected for two jobs explicitly because of it. I have a lot of times I think I can't stand living like this. I'm still here though and haven't made an attempt in a year or so now.