I've been on Venlafaxine 75mg for a month, then increased to 150mg last week. It's my experience that they build up in your system over the weeks.
Am I imagining this, and the increase kicks in straight away, or should I expect the good effects (and bad) to increase over time?
Any advice or experience welcome, thank you.
The increase kicks in straight away (half-life = 6 hours). Side effects can take 1-12 weeks to disappear (some are very quick others last a lot longer eg tiredness) and positive effects take 2-6 weeks. The delay between how fast it enters (and leaves) your system and the EFFECTS of the drug are because the nervous system has to adapt to this drug.
As with all meds, how well a med works for you (it works great for me) is unique to you, you can't really go by what others say. If it's going to work you should know by week 4.
Thanks Ian, very helpful! I've a while to go yet then x
I am one 225 mg a day, Ian72355, and it works great for me too. I have no bad side effects except for terrible sweating...I want to stop taking Venlafaxine, but I am told the withdrawals are unbearable, horrific and just awful...So scared to stop because of the awful withdrawal but I cannot handle the constant sweating anymore!!!
I find that although the forum's are invaluable, because there's such great advice, it's full of different accounts because the drugs affects people differently. If you let the scaremongering stop you, you'd never do anything. For example, before starting Venlafaxine, I read online people saying "this has saved my life" and others saying "DO NOT TAKE THIS DRUG!!!". So far, it's not too bad. Hopefully your withdrawal's won't be too terrible for YOU Jacqueline xxx