Effexor XR and feelings

Effexor XR has been a life-saver for me! I have been taking 150mg per day for about 8 yrs. Recently, 75mg was added to my daily dose because of a temporary new stress or on my plate - divorce. With the increased dose came constant sweating and unbearable dry mouth. I dropped back to the 150mg dose and the sweating is back to being manageable and the dry mouth is much less. I can't imagine living without Effexor XR - this anti-depressant has literally saved my life -- I know now that life doesn't to be so horrifically painful as was the norm for me prior to taking Effexor XR. I have no other side effects - I have gained some weight but only over the past two years and that possibly can be attributed to my age (50) and the stress of a bad marriage. The half life of Effexor is short and I do sometimes get the electrical shock feeling in my head -- that usually a red flag that I missed a dose. To be on the safe side I keep a dose in my purse as a back-up. All-in-all, it feels great to be 'normal', even if it means using Effexor XR - I hope it never goes off the market. Way-back-when, I initially started out w/ Paxil (helped, but I felt just below the surface of reality and had horrid withdrawals) - then tried Wellbutrin and after a day was so terribly spaced out that I could only minimally function and couldn't even leave the house - got off of that stuff immediately! Effexor just lets me function and feel feelings at a normal volume. Thank you Lord!!

night sweats, hot flash, panic feeling, fast heart rate, headache. AND THAT WAS IN ONE DAY! Felt spacey and out of this world. No joke. It started out good then it was like whamo! I took it on Thursday and Thursday night I was in the ER having an EKG done and blood tests done. Even in the hospital, laying in the bed, I had stomach pains, burning in my stomach and my heart started jumping. No heart issues, everything fine. I got severe thirst and anxious. Doc said it was reflux.. Mmmhuh. I only take Synthroid for my thyroid disorder and Prevacid for reflux. (And I don't take it every day) That is it. Friday, woke up feeling like I was drugged, flu like symptoms. Friday was little better, still kind of out of it, like I was coming off a high, kind of down. That night, around 5, I woke up with the heart palpitations and the anxiety and I just had to tell myself to calm down and I went back to bed. Today, my tongue feels funny, dry. And I only took one. I turned the meds back in..... If one day side effects are like that, I am not taking anymore. It is about trust in God!!!