I Am A 55 Year Old Female And Wiegh 52kgs

I am a 55 year old female and wiegh 52kgs I short only 5 foot two.
Ive always presented myself as very happy go lucky and love people and life but since the age of 15 ive been able to mask how i really feel, and then got married at 26 and had three kids which consumed my life in a good way, however they have left the nest and i kind of feel a bit "empty" just working my day job
I saw my GP who diagnosed depression and provided medication via, I take 225mg of Efexor daily. For a long time this worked well, and then with my GP's permission we decided thats it was OK for me to slowly come of it. I was off it for approx 3 months, and then suddenly i started to feel down, so my GP siad best i start the journey back onto it.
The journey back on to it was similar to the first time I went on it not very nice at all very depressed tired, feeling of hopelessness etc. but after about 3 weeks it appeared to be working. but then i started to have some ups and downs so the GP recommended splitting the dose between morning and night and gave me other anxiety tablets like lorazepam 1mg ( which I take half of one often in the morning).
Im currently taking 225mg of EFEXOR at night, I get very tired and often go to bed at 10pm and then wake up at 6pm ( sometimes after waking up other times during the night) when I wake up a feel very anxious and take a 1/2 a lorazepam, which then seems to knock me out and i feel terrible and dont want to go to work . Work starts at 9.30am. The last 5 days or so i felt really rough and hopeless
My husband ( being the anayltical as he is) monitors me and seems to think my GP may not be giving best advice. He thinks that when i wake up in the morning if its 6am or later I should get up get a good breakfast and take the EFEXOR then all 225mg and take the lorazepam at night.
He thinks because Im little taking even 1/2 of 1mg of lorazepam first thing when i wake up ( without food in my stomach) is like taking an Overdose and making me sleepy. He also thinks that Im loosing the full benefit of the EFEXOR because its wizzing around my brain at night and a large part of it done gone by the morning so i dont get the full effect ot it during the day.
My husband is not a doctor, but he doesnt particularly like my doctor as he sometimes feels im just another "patient" and although its not an exact science, hes concerned of the long term effects of the expereinemntation approach of taking these drugs. He said i ought to get another opinion. I also looked at blogs on the internet and it seems most say its best to take EFEXOR in the morning.
My husband thinks that because im so little and always appeared to have a fast metabalism and always have been an "up" sort of person ( at least on the outside). this needs to be taken onto account.
I can say there has been a lot going on in our lives over the last year, with my daughters getting married and leaving home one of them moving over seas, my son talking about going flatting and my husband loosing his job 18 months ago.
I just want to stop feeling down and right now im shaking, but my husband thinks this could be a side effect of the drugs. right now all i want to do is sleep