Anxiety and venlafaxine - please read

[Chimpannazee]

Hi everyone
so I posted on here about 3 weeks ago and am now on my 4th week of venlafaxine after going from 75mg to 112.5mg last week.
The anxiety i felt before was absolutely crippling and completely overwhelming and ended up with the crisis team at the time. I think I have PMDD too so the week to ten days leading up to my period is always vile but these last two months were horrific. Marriage separation in Feb too so a lot going on.
I do think I’m improving slightly in that I’m having more better days and am able to go to work albeit very anxious especially in the mornings. My question is how long did it take for it to really start kicking in? I hear so many positive stories but am so scared that I’ll be the one it doesn’t work for etc. I’m weaning off of Mirtazipine at the moment but I feel as though I still need to take half a tablet in the mornings just to calm me down for the day. My head also feels as though it’s in a vice at times, like a real tightness in my jaw and head. Another question I have for those anxiety sufferers…I have really struggled this time with physical symptoms of anxiety. Am currently waiting on mri results due to numbness in my left side intermittently..CT scan was all clear and they think it’s stress related…do any of you also have such extreme feelings when it comes to anxiety? It’s almost hard to believe there isn’t something seriously wrong with me.
Think I’ve accepted that this is going to be a long road back to feeling better again but think I need a bit of a handhold at the moment. Thankyou for reading xx

I can't comment on the meds as I'm not medically qualified but there's a couple of things that jumped out at me.

First of all it's quite normal to feel anxious or jittery first thing in the morning. As you start to come out of sleep and after you wake there's a rise/spike of the stress hormone cortisol which is designed (it's believed) to be your chemical alarm clock - effectively propelling you into your day. Simply knowing that this is completely normal is often enough to stop it being a problem or even being aware of it.

Secondly yes, anxiety can cause a whole range of physical symptoms, again due to the chemicals released in response to the signals from the brain that you might be in danger and therefore you need to be constantly prepared to react to that (non existent) threat. The fight or flight response.

This video is excellent for understanding how your body works in terms of stress;

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And this one is great for learning how to alleviate all that accumulated tension;

Thankyou so much for this 💜