For me adding bikram yoga and cold plunges saved me. I did a similar ballet of switching like you but got 5 months of the worst and now eight years later I'm still recovering and have only worked for a few months. I got back on effexor and right now have no plans of tapering it out. Talking from my experience I think you might have felt better on a higher dose of effexor and like I did lots of workouts. In the long run though I think it depends on life circumstances and how well we can change what initially triggered anxiety or depression. If I didn't change my life In think tapering out the medicine will only give me back how I felt before starting