Hello, I am new to the site. My husband has recently been diagnosed with possible vestibular migraine and PPPD. He also was diagnosed with Menieres 30 years ago for which those symptoms and the ones today feel and act differently. I have been reading the various blogs on Effexor. My husband just started Effexor XR and currently up to 18.5 mg starting at 1/3 dose for one week and now 1/2 dose for 1 week. On his 3rd week. I know people say they feel worse before better. My question is, does or can the “feeling worse”include increased dizziness and vertigo occurrences and severity? e.g increased to daily and now severe enough to include nausea, headache and vomiting. These have increased greatly since starting. Also, is this expected to be worse until he gets to a dose that is actually helpful for him? whether it’s 37.5mg, 75 mg or other? If that’s the case, it seems this will take a very long time to feel better and it’s hard to know if it is working or actually making it worse. Any experiences are welcome as this is a very lonely and isolating process/condition to survive.
Hello Mike
I’m asking these same questions myself as I started Effexor only 3 months ago - I’ve just gotten to 37.5mg and it’s been 3 weeks today, I can say that everything ramped up for me too. I had, true migraines with aura, nausea, vision issues, head heaviness and felt like I was pretty much back to square one. I will tell you that although I am far from better I have seen a couple of clearer hours in the day where I have felt relatively normal (it’s a novelty with MAV) so is it the Effexor starting to take effect? Your guess is as good as mine but I’m not increasing yet, I’m still getting used to this doseage and the spaced out feeling is a real thing right now.
From what my fellow sufferers have told me this is pretty normal and crawling up on this drug seems the norm. I ask myself daily should I still feel as weird as I do, but I guess only time will tell…
Keep us updated on your hubbys progress 
it starts to help him! 
I guess those of us taking Effexor will have to be buddies for each other. I’m on week one, started with 12.5mg XR on Monday, not noticed anything so far, maybe feeling a bit nauseous and my appetite is reduced, but I’m taking Klonopin, 0.5 mg a day as well. I dont know if I have MAV/VM or PPPD but Effexor seems to help with either. Next Monday will be 25mg so will have to see if the SE increase. I’m praying this one does something as its my fifth medication trial to date.
Thank you so much for the replies. While I feel for anyone with this condition, it’s reassuring to know someone is in the boat with you, even if it is rocking. Lol. Going to sit tight at 18.5mg dose for another week or two and shoot for getting up to 37.5mg. I pray this works for all of us!! Will definitely keep updating on progress and I hope to hear your progress also. Today better than the last few days. But nothing great.
Have any of you tried a daily anti histamine instead? I’ve had success with Zyrtec, took daily for 11 years and had no major vertigo or dizziness… then all of sudden started having issues again… I switched to Claritin and now I’ve settled down again!! I am also doing Postural physical therapy… as I have trouble with neck pain/tightness which could be a contributing factor… hope this helps. Btw I tried and antidepressant strictly ( I don’t have depression) for the vertigo and headaches and hated it! Made me fill like I was under water. I stopped.
Hello Deb13, have not tried an antihistamine, but know histamines can trigger migraine. Just the daily dose? How did you discover it worked for you? Did it work right away? It’s certainly wonderful when one finds something that helps.
Now on Effexor 25mg, started on Monday this week, felt a bit better yesterday as even though I’m taking a 0.5mg daily Clonazepam, which has helped a lot, I still get breakthrough rocking and disequilibrium, but obviously not as bad a pre Clonazepam.
Also had a migraine this week, which I wasn’t expecting, not sure if it was a reaction to the Effexor. I seem to have one decent day and one not so good day at the moment.
Due to titrate upto 37.5mg next Monday. Just wondering when I’ll know for sure if its helping. How long did it take for other Effexor users to see a difference? And was 37.5mg enough or did you have to increase the dose again?
How’s it going on 37.5 mg? My husband tried to go from 18.75mg to 25mg and it was a disaster with side effects. Went back to 18.75, held for 2 weeks to stabilize. Taking a much slower approach today added 5 more beads. Didn’t feel anything weird. He seems to be doing better during the day and the towards evening symptoms of imbalance and nystagmus ramp up. Maybe getting to a higher dose of Effexor will help?? We sure hope so.
The good news is I’m tolerating Effexor better than any other Anti D so far, tried Sertraline, Amytriptyline and Nortriptyline before and had to stop all 3 due to unacceptable side effects. Effexor has made me rather nauseous on occasion and I’ve had some increase in the evening of IBS symptoms. Also had a couple of migraines last week but from what I’ve read here things often get worse before they improve.
On the minus side no improvement in balance or rocking when walking but its unrealistic to expect that after just a few days on 37.5mg. As much as I’d like there to be. Patience is the name of the game, which is so hard when we just want to feel like our former selves once more.
I hope this works for you and my husband. ! He takes diazepam as a rescue treatment occasionally, 2.5. He hasn’t experimented with any other BZD. How well does clonazapam work for you?
I’ve been prescribed 0.5mg to take daily if required. It worked well to start with and I did see a noticeable reduction in symptoms. I know Benzos are used for anxiety and panic disorders and while I dont have either of those problems I cant deny I did feel calmer and happier, but then lessening symptoms will also make you feel better.
One of the issues with Benzos is tolerance, which is where I think I am now. I dont think Clonazepam is working so well as I’ve probably been on it around 6-7 weeks. I dont want to increase it as I’m very wary of becoming addicted. So I’m going to try and do without or cut down to emergency use only.
If its not helping me as much as it did then there’s probably not much point taking it. If I was still getting the same benefit then I would say stuff the consequences and take it but as I’m not then I dont want another mind altering substance. I already resent having to take Antidepressants as it is.
Venlafaxine seems to be a crazy strong one, I had to abort after 2 days as it made me violently ill, and I mean horrific like a norovirus both-ends volcano 
and felt horribly queasy for two days after taking it, never known anything like it. Sounds like I dodged a bullet from what I hear about the withdrawals.
Wow that sounds like major reaction. I have a friend that takes it and she ended up with a totally unnecessary endoscopy to investigate why she had constipation. The uninformed doctor who referred her for one should have realised that it was her venlafaxine causing it. So yeah I’ve heard it can slow your bowel, but not speed it up! That sounds yikes! 