"i took effexor xl about a year ago for about 6 months. at first, it worked great. then, i got sick and couldn&#039;t take it for a couple days, and omg the withdrawal. i felt like i was going to pass out, and throw up. i was dizzy. it was awful, and it took two more days of taking it before those feelings went away.  i finally decided to talk my doctor about getting off the effexor. i had to step down at half dose intervals and in turn, go through the withdrawals 3 times over the time frame of three weeks. just as the withdrawals subsided from one cut, i had to cut again. "