Venlafaxine and fatigue

[Covidwoes]

Shamelessly posting here for traffic, as I got no responses on the mental health forum. Does anyone take venlafaxine? I have been taking 75mg for nearly 3 weeks. It's definitely helping, but it's making me feel absolutely exhausted. Has anyone else felt like this on it? My GP gave me the slow release to try and avoid this, but it gave me awful insomnia and nausea. Otherwise it's working for me, but I don't know if I can continue with this awful tiredness! Any anecdotes of experiences welcome.

I am on Venlafaxine 300 mg daily (slow release). Have used it on and off for a good few years and I find it quite suits my body chemistry. I have awful fatigue, but I do have other medical conditions to work around. Extremely bad insommnia for many months but I don't think it is linked to venlafaxine. Do you take it morning or night? I think I would be trying to wait it out till around the 6 week mark to assess re fatigue. Could it be that tiredness is one of the effects of your depression? Insommnia also can go hand in hand with clinical depression. In trying to get stable at the moment I am finding it helpful to visualise a small square table. I need to balance out each of the legs which represent Sleep, Diet, Exercise and Socialisation. Not doing too well on diet and sleep at the minute.

Thanks for your reply @Thistlelass. This fatigue feels completely different to normal. I've stopped driving as much as it doesn't feel safe some days, and I've never been like that. Had bloods done at the end of last week to check all is ok on that side of things, but I think they'll be fine, as this fatigue has only started since taking the meds. I'm hoping it'll lift as the weeks go on. Fingers crossed!

I was exhausted for about 6 weeks when I started taking it. Like you OP I didn't drive a lot of that time .
I changed taking it from morning to night time after 5 weeks and within ten days I felt a whole lot better .
I'm taking it 4 months now and back to normal
Good luck!!