Downunder-man,I find Effexor XL to be a good drug and trust me I have been on many. I used to worried and wonder how awful it would be to wean off of Effexor so I did last summer under the care of my Dr. and it was not that bad for me. What was bad was by December I was in a deep depression and just restarted the Effexor a couple of weeks ago - beginning to see the light again. I am not going to worry about weaning off as long as this med seems to work for me, I will accept that I need the medication if I want to have a life outside of my house.
Each of us responds differently and many of the meds I have been on that have failed I have seen others swear by. Good luck.
Kindly,
Kitt