I also have EXTREME vertigo; like I\'m constantly falling over, passing out, followed by a brain zapping sensation. I\'m nauseas, have a racing heart beat (I can feel my heart beating in my head), if I turn my eyes from side to side I get electrical shock sensations in my arms, hands and feet. I have become sensitive to light; I get headaches regularily now. My hands and feet are freezing cold, but sweating constantly. I got tremors, shivers running up and down my body.

The first few days of being Effexor free I experienced visual hallucinations; if I looked up at the sky, or anything that was a solid colour I would see thousands of tiny white \"sperms\" swimming everywhere. Everything in my perifferal vision seemed to be swaying back and forth, and I would see streaks of light flashing all over the place. I still have auditory hallucinations; sounds like a screechy microphone every now and then.

The most alarming side effect being the crazy vivid nightmares. When I fall asleep I have vivid nightmares all night long, and when I wake in the morning it feels like I haven\'t slept at all. I feel tired all the time; don\'t feel like doing much of anything. I bet I could sleep all day every day if that were possible; unfortunately I have to earn a living.

I seriously hope someone files a class action suit against the makers of effexor, as it seems to me that they were more interested in making money then actually helping people.

Another point worth mentioning is that the effexor only worked for a couple of weeks. After that I developed a tolerance to the shit and started feeling shitty on a daily basis (like the side effects I mentioned above). My dumb-ass doctors solution was to keep increasing the dosage, to the point were I was up to 150mg a day. So now, I lost my medical insurance and can\'t afford to pay the $60+ dollars a month to keep taking the shit. I was only MILDLY depressed before I started taking this shit; now after stopping it I feel absolutely F*****G CRAZY.

Thanks for listening,

Kevin D.

ps. DON\'T drive if you experience the side effects I have. I just recently ditched my truck at highway speeds because I\'m so messed up from the withdrawal from this med. It\'s pretty hard to drive when you feel like your constantly falling over and passing out (vertigo); I obviously shouldn\'t have been driving, but no were have I found anything saying that you should NOT drive while discontinuing this med; it only says to use caution when driving or operating heavy machinerey.