So, after playing around with my venlafaxine dose for the last few months I decided that I just couldn’t take the higher dose as it just kept sending my OCD and anxiety through the roof. I came back down to 300mg which made me feel a lot calmer but my mood just wouldn’t lift. Psych decided to try increasing my quetiapine to 300mg first, then a couple of weeks later I upped Mirtazapine to the max 45mg, which i’ve now been on for two weeks. I’m getting the usual increased anxiety and OCD, feeling zonked all the time and my mood still isn’t great. Not sure what to think, probably too early to tell if this will work. I soooooo hope it does as i’ve really had enough now. If this doesn’t work the next step will be weaning off the ven and starting vortioxetine.

I’ve been googling meds again (OCD ) and really don’t understand what all the fuss is about regarding venlafaxine, and why all the doctors I’ve seen have referred to it as ‘the big one’ which I assume they mean it’s a very powerful drug, but looking at the pharmacology it looks pretty weak, the Ki numbers are much higher than vortioxetine and most of the SSRI’s so I assume that means it isn’t as potent (hoping PDU sees this ). If this is the case then I’ll be pretty pissed off that I was given ven in the first place seeing as it will be a bar steward to withdraw from