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Seeing as my therapist is considering making me switch from Escitalopram to Venlafaxine, I'd be very grateful to read about any experiences from the people who are on the latter medication.
I'm a long-term sufferer of panic and anxiety (15+ years), have been on various medications before, and the highest dose of Escitalopram (20 mg) appears to not be working so well for me...
Thank you so much in advance. :)
Hi Ana,
After having issues on SSRIs and then not getting very far with Mirtazapine I started venlafaxine a few months back and believe it helped quite a lot with not as bad start up as I expected. Dry mouth was the worst, I think.
It reallly made a difference to my anxiety, though I'm feeling a bit rough at the moment which I'm putting down to a combination of hormonal issues and the lead up to Christmas, which is a hard time of year for me.
Thank you for your reply; tt means a lot to me. It's good to know that Venlafaxine succeeds where SSRIs fail. My therapist says to give Escitalopram a few more weeks, but to be honest, I'd much rather make the switch as I'm in a bad place.
I am on velafaxine for anxiety/depression my doctor said its more for depression though. Hasn't helped anxiety and funny enough I have recentley been put on matrizapine for anxiety. What doesn't work for one works for another though. Good luck
Hello. I am also on Venlafaxine, and have been taking it for around 13 years now. I don't recall any side effects when I started, but it was some time ago now. When I recently had my dose increased I did notice a dry mouth for a couple of weeks but that's all really. I get night sweats with it too but to me that's no big deal given the horrid side effects I've had from other AD's I tried before Venlafaxine. I still suffer from pretty horrendous anxiety, so it's definitely not a magic pill but I believe I'd be a hell of a lot worse without it. Good luck with it.
Thank you, everyone for your replies. Katy, I get night sweats on Escitalopram, since moving up to 20 mg. I'll see what my therapist says about switching to Venlafaxine when I see her tomorrow morning.
---------- Post added at 22:00 ---------- Previous post was at 21:59 ----------
btw, Katy, you say you still have horrendous anxiety, but have your panic attacks got any better?
I first started taking Venlafaxine when I was 19. At that point I had been agoraphobic for a whole year, couldn't get over the front door. I began taking Venlafaxine and received a few sessions of CBT around the same time and things certainly improved.
TBH, it's hard for me to know how much Venlafaxine helps me keep a lid on things. I have been taking it for such a long time now, I don't know if I'd have the same amount of anxiety/panic attacks or more if I wasn't taking it. I did try to come off it very slowly a few years ago, my anxiety went through the roof and I couldn't handle it. I've been told this is a common occurrence when you stop taking certain AD's and things usually settle, personally I couldn't handle it though. Again, it's hard to know if what I was feeling was part of my body adjusting to no longer having the drug, or of it was the underlying anxiety and panic that Venlafaxine had been keeping a lid on.
Sorry, this isn't really answering your question. What I will say though, is that I know some people via a support group that I go to that recently have had wonderful results from Venlafaxine. One girl that was very depressed, was at the point of suicide, and had been signed off work for a year has found it massively beneficial. After taking it for three months (along with fortnightly psychotherapy) she went back to work and is doing very well.
I hope something in this rambling is helpful to you :-)
Thank you so much. I've found your message really useful, it wasn't rambling. :) It's encouraging to hear how useful Venlafaxin can be. I've started my cross-taper from Escitalopram to Venlafaxin.