Lisa,
I have never heard of the first medication you mentioned, but have great benefits with Effexor over the years, but alternate off it to another SSRI occasionally.
Are you in the USA, as perhaps that€™s the reason I don€™t recognize your other med?
As for pond, I do think it€™s great that she (I think, sorry pond if I am wrong), but you shouldn€™t feel €œbad€ for using medications. So often it depends on the person and the extent of the problem. I tried for the first few years to avoid meds at all costs using therapy and more €œeastern€ healing methods (e.g., meditation, yoga, even running and cycling€”all of which I still do, but have learned that personally I find that medications in addition to the other things have helped enormously.
Re: your Effexor€¦was the dosage brought up very slowly. It can be a difficult medication to adapt to if given too, much to fast.
~tony