How long did the insomnia take to pass?
I started Effexor 75mg today, I've had depression, OCD and PMDD for years and have tried 6 or 7 other medications in that time with varying rates of success, but haven't been on anything for a couple of years because I couldn't find anything where a med made a difference without bad long term side effects. I came back to my GP for meds yesterday after a pretty awful year made them all worse and my usual self-management techniques have been useless.
They put me on Effexor and given experiences in the past I wasn't expecting to feel anything other than side effects for 2-4 weeks but it's been really nice today. I got things done, the OCD in particular was much more quiet than normal, and despite it being peak PMDD time for me I've been feeling pretty neutral. If this is the beginning of this medication then I feel positive that it could be a good one for me.
However after feeling tired all day and going to bed at 10pm I managed only about 3 hours sleep that felt like nothing and am now wide awake at 4am. I feel physically like the dictionary definition of haggard but mentally like it's 3pm on a sunny day.
How long did the insomnia take to pass for you?
Posted Aug 29, 2026, 2:57 AM UTC