salty,
Effexor may or may not work for you. I took it for 5 years. I do have to say, yes, it stopped me from being suicidal. However, it also gave me very "flat" emotions--I couldn't get excited about anything. I just felt sort of numb. I couldn't cry either on it. Both my grandfathers died while I was on this medication (one I was very, very close to), and I couldn't even cry to mourn their passing.
I had a strange side effect on Effexor. It dilated the pupils of my eyes so hugely that whenever I would see the eye doctor for an exam, he wouldn't even have to give me the stuff to dilate my eyes to check the retina. This made me look stoned all the time, but worse yet, it made me extremely sensitive to light so that I had one giant never-ending headache on this med. The docs all denied Effexor could have this effect, but when I stopped taking it, my eyes went back to normal and the headaches went away.
Effexor has a terrible withdrawal too. Even tapering, it was a nightmare for me.
So if nothing else works, you could try Effexor, but I would try other meds before this one to see if they can help first.
Linear Mode
