From what I'm reading here, everyone's response to these drugs is so drastically disparate that I can hardly believe it. I guess that I've been lucky.  My doctor put me on Effexor XR ten years ago.  He worked me up to 150 mg/day over a period of two months.  I never experience a single side effect while on the meds and they worked great!  However, the withdrawal is pretty lousy.  If I ran out and forgot to get my refill then I would start experiencing withdrawal by the second day.  Withdrawal symptoms would cease within 4 hours of taking a single dose.  I have seen people here stating that they are not warned about this and that the drug company doesn't inform people of this fact.  THAT IS 100% FALSE.  My doctor warned me when I started taking it 10 years ago that I could not stop it at once and that I would have to be weaned off of it over a period of 6 months or more.  This information was also in the informational packet given to me with every refill from the pharmacy. The people posting here about trying to wean off of it over a month or two really need to check with their doctors about what they are doing. About a year ago I left my job and was without insurance for some time.  My doctor was good enough to give me free sample packets of Pristiq.  I made the switch straight from 150mg of Effexor to 50mg of Pristiq without needing to wean off of the Effexor because they are supposed to perform the same function and be pretty much the same chemically.  I suffered no ill effects by making this change and continue taking Pristiq at the same dose today. All in all, no complaints here.