"i&#039;ve been taking effexor xr for about two months now. i was in the hospital after a suicide attempt when the psychiatrist there put me on it. at first i had the worst side effects. i was super tired, couldn&#039;t concentrate on anything, and got dizzy all the time. after about two weeks those went away. i have moderate anxiety and it&#039;s helped a lot with that. i still get nervous a lot but i haven&#039;t had an anxiety attack since i started taking effexor. for my depression though it hasn&#039;t helped at all. i still find it hard to get out of bed, can&#039;t sleep at nights. also, i missed a dose once and it was not good at all. i was miserable. i was tired, had the worst headache, and i was about ready to jump in front of a train."