Escitalopram to Venlafaxine, thoughts?

Hi Mat!
I’m someone with a positive review for venlafaxine. I started taking it Sept. of ‘21 at a dose of 37.5 mg. I ended up reaching 150 mg by the end of October as the lower doses weren’t having any effect. The only side effect I had was having to pee more than usual! After almost a year at that dose, I started tapering back down without feeling any ill effects. I now take a mere 6.25 mg a day and will just remain on this as long as I can. (My past history has been if I completely stopped taking a med, sooner or later the anxiety comes back and then the original med that I was on no longer works.) So I’m just going to stick with this super low dose as long as I can. But my main point is that of hardly any side effects for me!

Wildcat,
Thank you for your response. I agree, there are a lot of negative reviews about meds. I feel bad for those that struggle to find the correct med, I've been there.
I have heard that Venlafaxine has such a short half life that many users go into withdraw within an hour of their missed dose. That's the part that makes me nervous.

As a 30+ year suffer of severe complex sleep apnea, I have tried many drugs prescribed by my doctor that have been nightmare venlafaxine falls into that category. Unfortunately I suffer with suicide ideation and for whatever reason within several days of being on this things turned south in a hurry. That’s just my experience yours may be different. I would look for some positive reviews and then make an educated decision while being monitored professionally.

Has been the best anti depressant i have been on gutted when it stopped working go for it hopefully it will be good for you

Hi, Mat!
Did you have terrible side effects on the fluoxetine and/or escitalopram? There's a chance that you may not have any side effects at all. Everybody's response is different and the drugs themselves are from different classes so don't work in entirely the same fashion.
The thing about reviews is that the majority are written by people who've had problems but there are tens of thousands of users who find it easy to tolerate and very effective. They are less apt to sit down and write reviews as they're busy living their lives.
Also, with these exceptions most side effects only affect 10% or less of users.
"Very common (10% or more): Headache (up to 38%), somnolence (up to 26.1%), dizziness (up to 23.9%)".
For what it's worth I took venlafaxine for many, many years and was very happy with it.
I hope it works as well for you. In my opinion I'd risk some temporary side effects if it means I live a "normal" life. Anxiety disorders are the worst to live with and treat. Don't let your anxiety prevent you from taking a chance.
Regards, Wildcat