I agree with you, sears, Effexor needs to be taken off the market. The withdrawal is wretched and painful. I was on 225mg Effexor XR for 12 years. I tried several times to taper down and get off but the withdrawal symptoms were so mentally and physically disturbing that I resumed taking the drug. This time I started in January 2020 and very gradually tapered down to approx. 10mg for the last week of June. My last dose was on July 1st. Still – nearly three weeks later – I have severe withdrawal symptoms with headaches, body aches and pains, brain zaps, fatigue, chills, disturbed thinking, severe mood swings, high anxiety, strange dreams and nightmares.

Doctors need to stop taking advice from drug pushers at pharmaceutical companies and educate themselves about the dangers of this drug. Doctors must try to grow some compassion for mental health patients, and stop prescribing drugs that make our lives hell on earth. Effexor was not superior to any of the other antidepressants (which eventually pooped out) I have taken, so I don’t know why it was prescribed by a celebrated psychiatrist at one of the “world’s greatest hospitals” in the Northeast.