alt Hacker NewsI echo your experience. Effexor/Venlafaxine are absolute poison. I tapered off of it slowly over the last two months under doctor’s supervision. The day after I took my last dose — small thanks to the tapering — I’ve had constant brain zaps, wobbly vision, horrible perpetual nausea, cold sweats, and inability to sleep more than an hour at a time. It’s been two weeks so far of lying in a dark quiet room waiting for things to resolve so I can go back to my wife/kids/job/life. Still no noticeable improvement. On sick leave for the first time in my life.
I can also confirm brain zaps both when I tapered down and if I missed a dose. It was unpleasant but I put up with it when reducing my dose. I changed from it because it caused insomnia as a side effect badly enough that it was worse than the problem.
My understanding (which may be incorrect, not a doctor) is that you need a higher dose to achieve the N part of the SNRI. I wonder if this somehow linked to the experience. On lower doses of SSRIs I never had any such experiences.