Hi there,

I recently got prescribed venlafaxine, a SNRI used to treat a particularly severe bout of anxiety and depression secondary to breathing difficulties induced by covid-19 in July last year. Now I would normally use a combination of exercise, harmalas or psychedelics to treat these mental health disorders but all three were out of the question. Exercise was too difficult to endure in the initial five months, harmalas was a interaction concern with a beta-2-agonist I am currently on, and I don't think I am in the best physical or mental health to endure a psychedelic exerience on something like DMT. Hence the reason for putting myself on prescription antidepressants.

I started at 37.5mg two weeks ago, and by day fourteen had the dosage increased to 75mg. The initial effects I felt was one very similar to a large dose of harmalas listing: drowsiness, nausea, simulation (after drowsiness worn off), bruxism and a lot of yawing and teary eye like I'd get on mushrooms or the tail end of a ayahuasca experience.

The first time I noticed positive effects was a little over two weeks in which my anxiety and depression were greatly reduced to a level where I began feeling like myself again for the first time in a long time. This wasn't without its side effects though. I am now quite dependent on this drug. If I miss a dose the symptoms I had before starting this drug come back with full force. Not only this but I do believe it has caused quite an imbalance with dopamine since I feel a lot more apathetic and less motivated in doing certain activities I previously had no trouble doing like exercising and studying. I do believe this to be a fair trade off having said that.

Anyway, like it says in the title I'd like to know your guys experiences with SSRI's / SNRI's. Thanks in advance.

Glad you're having a decent experience with it, venlafaxine was one of the worst for me. I've tried SSRIs and SNRIs and adjunctive medications, pretty much all with side effects I disliked more than the mental illness (loss of motivation, creativity, too much weight gain, mood swings, akathisia etc.), or no efficacy at all. The only one I've tolerated to date and continue to use is bupropion, an NDRI. It helps me almost exclusively with cognitive losses from depression, and not much else.

I was considered a candidate for TMS but due to the lack of availability nearby (it's daily treatments for six weeks, so traveling for it isn't an option), created my own psychedelic therapy schedule with mushrooms, to very good effect.