The Effexor dilated my pupils so that everything was "whited out", like being out in a snowstorm. It was very unnerving. I did not stay on it long enough to see if that side effect would pass, after two days of it I was very upset. I also had constant yawning, which is a known side effect, and "brain freezes" where I felt these shivers all over my scalp. I have had them when I had migraines as a kid, but not often and this was constant. All in all, it was not a good few days.

While I was trying it I started to research the drug and was very upset at what I read. I am surprised at the article in general as some of those drugs do not seem to me to belong on the list and some would be hard to justify discontinuing. I do think that tranquilizers are over prescribed for the very elderly, but I have also seen my mother completely overcome by anxiety, a shaking, irrational mess, and I cannot imagine a doctor not giving her Xanax.

Effexor is the only medication I have ever taken where the drug companies hunt you down and try to get you to refill that prescription. I received mailings from them for about a year asking why I wasn't refilling and urging me to do so. I suspect there is a lot of profit in there.

I felt that there were a few prejudices in the article, but all in all we are as a society over medicated. Of course I feel myself to be an exception and my medication to be totally justified! I just don't get the author's affection for Effexor.

My husband and I play strategy games daily and he is under orders to tell me if I start slipping mentally. My brains were really my only asset and I can't afford to lose them.