Struggling with Antidepressant Side Effects

I’m a male in my 40’s. I’ve been on 113 mg of Venlafaxine (75 mg + 37.5 mg) for GAD and occasional anxiety attacks. The significant weight gain side effect is really tough on me both physically and emotionally. On top of it, since switching to generic Ven, I feel it doesn’t even work as well as the name-brand Effexor did, but of course insurance doesn’t cover the name-brand once there’s a generic. I was able to lose some weight at one point by dropping to 1,200 calories per day, but the second I started eating “normally” again, the weight very quickly packed right back on. Very discouraging. And staying at 1,200 per day is not sustainable, not to mention that I felt depressed the entire time I was eating that little as I clearly wasn’t getting enough nutrition. In addition, the sexual side effects are something that have negatively affected my sex life with my wife, although we’ve unfortunately/fortunately gotten used to that. In my own perfect world, I could get off this medication. But I’ve tried twice now to get off these meds, and it didn’t go well at all. Of course I find out several years AFTER being on these meds that getting off SNRI’s is actually even more difficult than getting off SSRI’s. Great. I am fine with being on SOME medication, but would really prefer it be one without the weight gain and sexual side effects. Any thoughts around any of this subject would be great. I’d love to get a discussion going. My psychiatrist is great, but has so far not been able to guide me in the right direction.