This is a good thread! Hopefully it helps a lot of people.
Ok, about three years ago I started taking Paxil and I took 40mg. It definately helped my tummy, made it calmer and just easier to get along with I also found my mood was a lot better and I had a lot less anxiety which was nice. Side effects were weight gain (40lbs!!!) and loss of sex drive. The sex drive was a biggie, because it was a total loss which was pretty disturbing.
I started going off Paxil last summer because the weight gain was getting out of control and I was getting very overweight. It took me almost a year to get off it, dropping the dose very gradually becuase I had bad withdrawal effects. I had sleeplessness, nervousness, shakes and electric "zaps". Not fun.
I just recently went on Effexor XR...I'm at 150mg now but I've only been at that dose for about 2 days. So far I haven't really noticed much of a difference in anything but I didn't have a hard time starting it, the only real side effects have been some sleeplessness and agitation at night for the first few days.