I have taken effexor for only 5 weeks and decided that the side effects were deepening the depression I experienced. I don't want to scare anyone with the effects of my coming off of the med even after a short amount of time...and I don't think these are related in any other way other than bad timing, but in case it is...I thought this should be brought up...Here it goes... Two Friday's ago, I took my last dose of 37.5mg of effexor as a step down from 75 mg. I had only been on the med for 5 weeks, but the doc thought it necessary to step down so I did. Friday afternoon I started having what I equated to side effects of coming off the meds...dizziness. This got worse every day after taking the last dose-so much so that I would have trouble keeping balance. I called my GP doc and he told me to contact the psychiatrist to see if this could be from coming off the med. I got the reply from the psych that it is "possible." The following Tuesday morning, I drove myself (I know...not smart, but needed to keep focused on something) to the ER having extreme dizziness, excrutiating headache and numbness from the left side of my face, down the neck, shoulder arm and hand. I also had mild numbing in the left leg. After numerous tests over a 2 day period (an overnight stay at the hospital) all tests showed up clean and they couldn't say if it was from coming off of the med or; and at 39...this scared the heck out of me...I had a mild stroke (a t.i.a. they called it). I saw my psychiatrist this past Tuesday and after a 45 minute med check appointment (which we all know is usually only allotted 15 minutes) including some fast paced med reference research...It was determined it "could" have been a withdrawal symptom, but not listed as a possibility....needless to say...we still have no idea. As it is, I am being treated as a person having a mild stroke and put on low-dose aspirin therapy My reason for bringing this up? I want anyone who is on the med and thinking of coming off of it to really discuss this with your docs. I would hate for anyone to have this happen and their not knowing what "could" possibly happen. It was pure hell, and I wish this on no one...I am still having side effects from this "episode" as the doctors are calling it. The d