Hi WhiskyTengo,
Thanks for asking. My psych team and I actually decided to stop this particular med after >5 weeks of trying a relatively low dose. I felt very unstable on it, much more than during the months before starting, and I tended to experience extremes: either elation or very depressed moods, changing rapidly, within days. I am experienced when it comes to mood swings, but the extent of it that I had experienced on Effexor was just really off for me, sober or not. I was also often sick to the stomach and had no appetite. My psychiatrist, therapist, and myself considered many possible aspects of the issue from early sobriety to possible PAWS to hormonal imbalances, and I had blood tests done again with normal results, but the thing was that I've tracked my feelings and progress over the past 6+ months since sober and those 5 weeks on Effexor just looked off no matter how we looked at it. Some days were awesome but it introduced depressive symptoms that I had not experienced for a long time. So I am weaning it off now.