I took effexor for a short time. Wiz was on it at the same time and it was viciously awful. Being even 30 mn late for a dose set VICIOUS withdrawal into effect. Brain shivers, like little electric shocks in your brain, when turning my head t felt like the brain was still moving after the head stopped moving, Wiz became incredibly withdrawn and violent, I developed an absolute and total fear of being in a crowd which within a week became almost complete agoraphobia. I couldn't leave the house for a while, no reason worked, I was terrified but not really terrified of anything specific. That is just NOT who I am so it was a total personality change in a really bad way.
Coming off of effexor was HARD. Wiz had to be hospitalized for 4 days until his new ssri was at a fairly high level. I went back to prozac because I had some and the nurse at the doctor office told me I should just go check into a psychiatric hospital and wouldn't put my messages through to the doctor and told them to NOT book an appointment for me. I thought the doctor told her to do it, but I saw the doctor at the store and she was totally shocked. As she is an AWFUL liar, I knew the nurse just didn't tell her. I had prozac and knew it is often used to treat ssri withdrawal because we had been there done that with Wz n the past. Prozac works for about 2 weeks so a dose every few days eased the withdrawal symptoms enough for me to not lose my mind.
At very low levels effexor is a ssri medication, meaning it works on seratonin. WHen it is bumped up past the starting dose (lowest dose they make) it then works as a ssri/snri medication meaning it also works on norepinephrine and given that it stays in the body for such a short period of time, this makes withdrawal super nasty and you go into it super easy.
There are a LOT of antidepressants that do not have this side effect profile or create side effects in such a huge % of the people who take the medication. I would not ever let a family member of mine take effexor, though I do know that it works for some people.