Improvements on Venlafaxine

early on in recovery, or after a dose increase, anxiety tends to go up, then you calm and go back into depression. you then go backwards and forwards between each state, sometimes with a good period in between. each time you go back into a state, its gradually not quite as bad as the previous one, until you become more balanced, bit like slowing down on a see saw. once you become more balanced, then your rate of revovery picks up. improvements can be hard to notice for some time, then they seem to take off. its different for everyone though. some improve much more quickly, and for others, much longer. the state you were in at the start, probably has a lot to do with it. even though you still feel deadfull or no better, if you get a sense that its working, its just a matter of waiting for the improvements to take off.

I found that the depression improved first and over time my anxiety attacks got less frequent over time.

Hi,

I started Venlafaxine around July 20th and have been at my current dose (150mg) for more than a month now. As Nigel said, I am still circling around, with a cycle that goes from anxiety (2-3 days) to mild depression (1-2 days) to feeling normal (5-6 days), then back to anxiety. I am being followed by a psychiatrist and a CBT therapist. Both agree that the dosage is OK and that it's only a matter of time before this cycle turns into moments of anxiety, moments of depression and feeling normal most of the time.

The psychiatrist, in particular, told me that TYPICALLY depression improves first and anxiety improves more slowly, but that's in fact because - in his experience - most patients he meets have a prevalent anxiety disorder with secondary depression, while only a minority have a prevalent depressive disorder with anxiety as one of the symptoms. In the latter case, he says, it is well possible that anxiety is reduced before depression is taken care of. 

I would say you hang in there and wait things to go as Nigel told you they should. Don't misunderstand me, I know it's hard to take this advice when you're down. I am doing the same and when I have a bad day I just lose my faith that I am getting anywhere better, despite doctors and friends and people on the forum telling me otherwise. But then after my "cycle" is complete I almost go back to feeling normal and all this despair goes away and I ask myself how could I not believe things were going to improve just a day earlier.

I think your expression "desperate to feel normal again" sums it up perfectly. Keep up the great work you're doing and keep us updated. All the best.