"this drug is a life saver for me.  i&#039;ve been on effexor xr 150mg daily for about 4 1/2 years.  there were some minor side effects at the beginning, such as wakefuleness at night; my doctor suggested i dose in the morning.  i sleep fine every night now.  caution - once i ran out of medication and thought since i felt better, that i&#039;d be fine.  within 30 hours i was in a painful, suicidal state of withdrawal.  i later learned that abruptly stopping this medicine results in a nose dive in your system."