Extreme fatigue on Venlafaxine XR

It says on the patient info sheet that ven is effective from two weeks. I've been on 225 for 9.5 years, for most of that I've also taken l-tryptophan to boost the uptake of ven. Don't get me wrong, I'm probably still here because of the ven but the side effects are awful, among other things I've gained a huge amount of weight. I have had times where I almost feel !like myself again, but the most important thing for me at the moment is it helps me mask my symptoms from my kids who are 10 & 11. If you look about this forum there are very mixed feelings around this drug. I suppose the question is given that you've had some positive results on hour current dose, do you ride out this dip and see if you come right again or do you take a higher dose and hope for improvement?. One of the GPs at my practice said that depression has peaks and troughs whether its treated or not. So basically we're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Omg the extreme tiredness has / is ruining my daily life. People know me for wanting to sleep all of the time. Its beyond any comprehension how much I want to lay down my head at every opportunity.

The only time I started to feel more energetic was when I reduced the Ven to 50mg. I've since reduced further to 37.5mg but this was the last two days. I'm back layed up on the sofa ever since. I'm waiting this out for my brain to recover and catch up.

It's not easy either way.. increasing your dose or reducing. You go with it or you try alternatives. For some it works others not.

Love and luck

Sara x

I have been on and off Venlafaxine/Effexor for over 20 years. It was/is the only thing to pull me out of episodes of severe depression and keep me out. I currently take 150mg ER. Ive gone off of Effexor for periods and always had severe episodes of depression within a few months of doing so. The reasons for going off have always been related to feeling drowsy/fatigued/sedated. If I took the 150mg effexor at bedtime, I would wake up at 3am and not be able to go back to sleep for hours making the next day s****y and exhausting. If I took in morning, I was absolutely wiped out sedated in afternoon requiring several hours of bedrest. I determined after many years of experience that my choices were

1- be too depressed to function -or-

2- be too exhausted to function.

I chose option 2 because although it was painful , it was less painful

The other day, I thought I would try something. (my MD had previously increased my venlafaxine from 150mg to 225mg because of low level depression persisting on only 150mg) I called my MD and said Im exhausted on 225mg of venlafaxine XR. She offered to reduce. I accepted and asked to have Bupropion added in for activation and and to help knock out the remaining depression still breaking through. I then decided to try this medication schedule:

am- 150 mg Bupropion XL

75 mg Venlafxine ER cap

4-6 cups coffee over the next several hours and afternoon

5pm- 75 mg Venlafaxine ER cap

THIS HAS BEEN A GAME-CHANGER.

Now I no longer feel like someone has shot me with a horse level sedation dart from 2-8pm everyday. Im not depressed and Im not overly sedated. Im still very tired in the afternoon but im FUNCTIONAL. With coffee and will-power I can push through. I hope this helps. Something to try at least. 😃