Could Paxil be causing extreme muscle fatigue?

Hello, I've been on Paxil for just over 15 yrs now and for the last year and a half have developed extreme muscle fatigue and pain. It's to the point where I am having trouble with my daily routines. I can not walk through a store and shop without feeling like I could collapse because my muscles are so exhausted. This started as episodes in my thigh muscles and spread to be episodes in the muscles all over to even the muscles in my face. When I speak any louder than my normal voice my vocal chords get exhausted and my voice gets weak and raspy. When I'm eating something that takes chewing the muscles in my jaw get fatigued. I have no trouble swallowing thank God. The episodes at the beginning of this were infrequent and didn't last long, maybe 15 minutes but progressed to happening to each muscle that was used every time it was used and taking much longer to recover.

After seeing a neurologist and having all different tests done for jyst about every muscle disease, he has come to the conclusion it is the Paxil that is causing all of this. He told me neurologists don't like Paxil and that I was on too high of a dose, 60mg a day. He told me to cut down to 20mg a day and prescribed Zoloft to start in 2 weeks or sooner if the withdrawal effects get too bad.

Big mistake taking that drastic drop in dosage advice! The withdrawal effects have been horrible especially on top of how I've been feeling with the extreme muscle fatigue in the first place.

Here is a list of my withdrawal symptoms: electric brain squeezing, flu like symptoms which include sweating one minute to freezing the next (I'm on day 17 of lower dose and still feeling hot/cold throughout the day), muscle pain like you get with the flu, stomach pain with semi loose bowel movements, big time anxiety episodes, irritable and overly emotional, trouble sleeping throughout the night and when sleepy because of this during the day I constantly wake up in a panic feeling like I'm on the verge of a severe anxiety attack.

I contacted my regular physician to talk about these withdrawal symptoms and what would help ease them and she told me the drop in dosage was too fast and I should not be taking the Zoloft the same time I'm taking the Paxil even at the lower dose. Yikes, it's hard to know what to do when the two Drs. you are relying on to help you contradict each others medical advice.

At this time I am alternating 20mg and 10mg and not taking the Zoloft until I stop the Paxil. I plan on calling my regular physician tomorrow to find out when to next lower the dose of the Paxil so that I can finally be off of it and find out if it is what has been causing the worsening, all over extreme muscle fatigue.

My advice to anyone about to start taking Paxil, don't. Ask your physician for an anxiety medication with less severe withdrawal symptoms. Reading these symptoms on a list is nothing compared to actually experiencing them in real life. I will try a low dose of Zoloft and look into cognitive behavior therapy to help me deal with my anxiety.

If anyone else has had these extreme muscle fatigue episodes while on Paxil please let me know. I'd really like to know if my neurologist is on the right track, I have had extremely low quality of life for the past year and am afraid of it becoming a permanent situation.

Thanks for reading!

Darylannables

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