I would love to get some advice too. I was on Effexor 2 years after my daughter was born. I was suffering from what it seems to me to be a very late postpartum depression that I waited too long to get diagnosed. Effexor seemed to be life-saving for me and it worked. I continue to go to this doctor for another year or so who was not a therapist, he just cared about prescribing me medication, but he acted like it and charged me a lot of money to keep seeing him. After a little while, I told him I wanted to try to wean off of Effexor because I felt good. He reduced my dosage with no instructions about how to wean off. I did what he said and I had horrible withdrawal effects. I saw him again, and he said that this was abnormal. He said that nobody experiences this. So, I did my own research. I ended up taking apart the capsules and counting the little balls out...I managed to get off of it after at least a month of feeling like I had the flu. It was horrible. So, 2 years go by and I had another episode of depression. I swore I would never go back on Effexor, but I did because I knew it would work. So now...here I am back on it (75 mg.) and I don't know if I need it or not, but I'm also using a lot of alcohol to cope with my anxiety. Please help because I'm not sure what my next step should be.