I took Paxil for a year. Coming off of it was the worst experience of my entire life. I had never felt suicidal in my life until then. To make matters worse, I started taking it under the impression that I could quit at any time. My doctor told me that it wouldn't be a problem. When I saw him during withdrawal, he said I just needed to get back on Paxil. Sure, I should have researched it myself, but I was in a low state and didn't have much motivation to do anything. The doc promised it'd be great...and it was, for a while... even though I could never feel *too* happy or *too* sad on it. But you can't take that stuff forever...now I'm worse than before.

A lot of docs I've seen assume that WD is rare. Some of them weren't even aware that it existed. Being the worst experience I've ever had-- shouldn't more docs know about it before prescribing it?

Selby, I'm not really sure about paxil, it may be true for it as well, but some of the anti-depressants need to be slowly titrated down so that you don't get the withdrawl effect. One I was on was so terrible for me, that I wanted to stop it, but the doctor did insist that even so, I wean myself off of it. I'm sorry you are going through this on top of everything else. Hang in there. It will pass.

Thanks Fraz. After I stopped I then restarted it and titrated off. It was still awful. Sometimes I think that my depression now isn't due to withdrawal anymore. I can't think of any other reason why I would become depressed and wanting to give up though. I never thought like that before, ever. I'm scared to consider that maybe Paxil changed something in my brain for good. I used to be motivated and generally content with life. Though always ADD I was never this bad. I really hope that my diet and nutrition supplements help. I'm losing patience because of times like right now.. I did notice I've been feeling particularly bad for the past few hours and the whole time I've been craving carbs and sugar really bad. Maybe it has something to do with serotonin

Thanks Fraz. After I stopped I then restarted it and titrated off. It was still awful. Sometimes I think that my depression now isn't due to withdrawal anymore. I can't think of any other reason why I would become depressed and wanting to give up though. I never thought like that before, ever. I'm scared to consider that maybe Paxil changed something in my brain for good. I used to be motivated and generally content with life. Though always ADD I was never this bad. I really hope that my diet and nutrition supplements help. I'm losing patience because of times like right now.. I did notice I've been feeling particularly bad for the past few hours and the whole time I've been craving carbs and sugar really bad. Maybe it has something to do with serotonin
Hey, Selby

I had a really terrible reaction to coming off of Effexor. I did eventually titrate down. I think different anti-depressants affect everyone differently. I hated Wellbutrin. Paxil made me gain weight, big time. I have been chronically depressed for most of the last 12 years.

I finally stopped all antidepressants and switched to a mood stabilizer, Lamictal. This worked better than any antidepressant I have ever tried. I was diagnosed as bipolar II, but more on the cyclothymic end, in other words I have the depression but not much mania. A little hypomanic sometimes, but 95% of the time depressed. The lamictal really works for me, but you have to titrate it up very slowly and watch for allergic reactions. I could only take 150 mg, any more than that I have some mental fuzziness and it makes my ADHD worse.

My only daughter recently left and moved to California for college. That has been terribly difficult for me, and I became depressed and weepy. So I talked to my pdoc and had him add 50 mg of zoloft. The thing I have always liked about zoloft is it stops me from being weepy all day and helps me sleep too. Zoloft is now generic, many docs seem to want you to try the latest thing, which of course they have free samples.

Mood stablizers often work for treatment resistant depression. Of course I am not a doctor, just sharing what has helped me. I do know that SSRI's help me and the SNRI's are awful. For me they make do make me manic and then even more depressed.

It is trial and error and having a really good doctor.

Good luck! I'd be happy to discuss further any time. I don't know how long you have been depressed, but feeling suicidal should not be a side effect of coming off of paxil. What other symptoms do you have?

Yes, more doctors should be educated about withdrawel from anti-depressants. At walgreens, any anti-depressant prescription you fill has an insert warning of withdrawel symptoms if you stop it cold turkey or lower the dosage too quickly. I read somethign online about a better way to get off anti-depressant thearpy. You can do one of 2 things:

1. After taking your last dose of anti-depressant, take it with a low-dose prozac. I read that this helps to keep the anti-depressant in the body longer, and helps to minimize the chances of withdrawel reactions and effects.

2. Once at the lowest dose pill form, switch to the oral solution. Fill a glass with the equivlant dosage and drink the whole solution. Then the next week drink 9/10 of it. Then 8/10, 7/10, 6/10, etc., till you are off of it.

The craving of carbs and sugars I'm told is related to the serotonin imbalanced marked by the cessation of SSRIs as well as anxiety.


I hope this information helps you. Best of luck.

Antidepressants cause me to have a manic episode and I talk about that occasionally, I ususally get manic in three days so the drugs have been discontinued within a week, so I don't take it long enough to get withdrawal, I hope you aren't sufferring still.

AKA as DISCONTINUATION SYNDROME, which, :soapbox: I think a better term because it is not the same as the withdrawal experienced by people who are addicted to a substance and IMHO, keeps people not in the know from making wrong assumptions about addictions and SSRI/SNRI. Good for removing more stigma about mental illness. :soapbox:

That said, I had to stop my Cymbalta cold, stone cold; :eek: I was extremely allergic and the discontinuation syndrome symptoms were safer than risking my throat swelling to the point I could not breathe.... It was not fun-I was subbing one day and had a stressful situation and could not handle it professionally once I left the classroom-and truth told, I thought is was just me screwing up..... The body aches have been terrible, but because the itching, swelling, rash, tingling, edema stopped it sort of made things not so bad....does that make sense?

I started Celexa today-but the kicker is, the Cymbalta was working better than anything else-and I just had to be allergic to it. That is what sucks the most right now. I do have a new doctor-seems really good and easy to interact with. I can see him and my counselor in the same office on the same day-very convenient too.

Effexor was a freaking nightmare to go off of I ended up in the ER-but they did not put 1+1 together to figure it out-god, the chest pain, back pain, anxiety, high heart rate, breathing. I thought it was asthma--not. I truly thought I was going crazy and could not stop crying and just falling apart, plus I hated taking it-an hour late with a dose and I had symptoms. Although the good part of going off SSRI's is getting my libido and orgasmic ability back.

NOTE: If and when I have to go off an SSRI again, I will now take time off work or change my work schedule to work alone or at home and stay out of any high stress situation..... And ask the doctor for a med to help me through the worst-the syndrome doesn't last more than a week usually-but is an individual response too. I was recovering from a severe allergy and discontinuation syndrome at the same time-I truly was miserable, but with depression, who knows when it is depression and when it is the meds.....

I know I raised a lot of questions and probably did not answer a lot of other people's, but hopefully my experience and thoughts will somehow help you all or at least let you know you are not alone!!

VI

You can do a 1 dose Prozac taper to avoid some of the WD.

Your Doctor didn't know about that, i guess.

Paxil and Effexor WDs are supposed to be the worst: eg disconnected head feelings and electrical face zaps, etc. (BTDT)

AKA as DISCONTINUATION SYNDROME, which, :soapbox: I

Thank you, and you're right.. discontinuation syndrome. Experiences of other people taking these meds is very helpful. I am less depressed since I started this thread, but am still searching for an anti-depressant "just in case". I'm looking at Wellbutrin because I, too, could NOT take another SSRI. I like sex, and didn't when I was on Paxil lol.

And I never knew about the Prozac thing.. neither did my doc, ugh.

I would be much more willing to go on Wellbutrin if I knew the withdrawal won't be another total meltdown.

There is an article about it in About.Com.

I forget the URL. I have posted it a few times in the last 2 yrs. on here.

I am finally finished with Paxil after trying for several years to stop. Each time I tried, the physical WD symptoms were bad. I was able to titrate down to 10mg per day over a six month period, then five for a couple of months, then 2.5 and then mixed with prozac. In order to completely stop, I buffered with the same dose of prozac. One of the problems with paxil is that the half life is very short and if you don't take it for even a day or so, you feel the effects. (anybody else get those whoosh / flash things)? I found that a website www.paxilprogress.org (http://www.paxilprogress.org) was helpful though some of the people are pretty opinionated. Wellbutrin XL and a realy good therapist is the magic formula for me. Haven't felt better in 20 years!

Good luck - you can do it!

I am finally finished with Paxil after trying for several years to stop. Each time I tried, the physical WD symptoms were bad. I was able to titrate down to 10mg per day over a six month period, then five for a couple of months, then 2.5 and then mixed with prozac. In order to completely stop, I buffered with the same dose of prozac. One of the problems with paxil is that the half life is very short and if you don't take it for even a day or so, you feel the effects. (anybody else get those whoosh / flash things)? I found that a website www.paxilprogress.org (http://www.paxilprogress.org/) was helpful though some of the people are pretty opinionated. Wellbutrin XL and a realy good therapist is the magic formula for me. Haven't felt better in 20 years!

Good luck - you can do it!
Yes, I hated those brain zaps. How long have you been taking Wellbutrin? Have you ever missed a dose?