"i was put on effexor for severe depression at 75mg.  this got raised every time it stopped working until i reached 225mg.  i was on it for about 3 years.  to be fair it worked really well the first 2 years.  but, after the second year i went flat, felt no emotion at all, didn&#039;t care about anyone or anything.  it was worse than the depression that i was originally treated for!  then came the time to get off of it.  this was like hell!  i have had to detox from opiates in the past and that was a piece of cake compared to this.  it took me over a year to get off of it and ended up taking tiny beads until i was well enough to stop.     if you can avoid this medicine do it!!"