"i am now in the final phases of weaning off effexor. when i started this drug i thought it was amazing, it was a miracle drug i wasn&#039;t having my usual major mood swings and panic attacks were less, but as the weeks went on it was less an less effective. i missed a pill once and made sure that i never did again because of the immediate withdrawal i had felt worse than i ever had before. about 4 months into taking this drug i started to experience side effects and oh man are they awful! i mistook the side effects and thought increasing the dose would fix the issue, but nope it just increased the severity .so now i am in the final stages of discontinuing effexor and i feel awful. i wouldn&#039;t advise not taking the drug, as it works great for some."