No, it is not \"you.\" I went through the same thing in January of 2003. I seriously thought I was crazy. I was thinking about dropping out of school. No one explained to me that these experiences were from the medication.
My doctor put me back on the stuff in June 2003, and when I ran out the next month, the exact same thing happened, although not as bad, because this time it was a lower dose.
Be careful about confusing withdrawal symptoms with symptoms of an underlying disorder. That will throw you off. I am now on month 5 of no meds, and I feel great. Not \"too\" great, but I have been consistently calm and under control. In fact, I look back on my period of withdrawal from effexor as by far the worst I have ever felt, other than the akathisia I experienced when I first went on zyprexa.
I am a special case; I seem to be prone to negative withdrawal symptoms from psychiatric medication. Also, I was pressured into taking meds, and was singled out by a school I was attending as being someone that needed meds. This was at a time when this school was pressuring lots of people into mental health treatment.
But I have been surprised by how much I have been able to accomplish since I have gone off the stuff. It\'s like I was a different person for a while, and now I\'m back to normal.
The withdrawal symptoms for effexor lasted for a few months in my case, and it\'s easy to attribute the symptoms to an underlying disorder. But my philosophy is: live and learn. Doctors don\'t know everything. Going on meds was a mistake, and I will never do it again.
Incidentally, this is important: Go on fda.gov and type \"effexor\" into the search engine. The FDA sent out a \"dear doctor\" letter recently where they describe effexor discontinuation symptoms. \"Emotional lability\" is listed among these symptoms. I believe \"dysphoric mood\" is also listed among them.
Hope everything works out.