HELP! MY PARTNER HAS CHANGED DUE TO PAROXETINE WITHDRAWAL.

Hi there,

Thank you for your reply, you have certainly helped to ease my mind.

My partner is on 5mg at the moment and he is changing to Mirtazapine at the same time, now on 30mg of that.

It is difficult to know what are the withdrawal effects from Paroxetine or the side effects of Mirtazapine which is gradually going into his system.

I have told him how different he is and indeed I was expecting some changes to occur, but he is now snapping at me and has not a good word to say about anyone. He has gone from a nice and kind person to someone I do not know.

He is seeing his GP next week and he insists that he will be finishing with Paroxetine after that. He will not see reason at all. He thinks that it would be better to get it "over with".

He is now having hot flashes and episodes of the "shakes".

Terrible to see as I feel there is no hurry and these drugs should be slowly tapered like you have done yourself.

Many thanks for your help.

dear Anne,

I have just directly swapped from lexapro 3 weeks now to paroxetine they are both from the same antidepressants family ssri and the transition has been fantastic no withdrawal at all , I am just waiting now to see if I am gonna respond to paroxetine .

with regard to your partner it really looks like it's a withdrawal effect from paroxetine and the effect of starting an antidepressant from a different family of paroxetine as mertazapine is a tetracyclic .this is the hardest bit of depression meds to find the right one the right dose and also the start the increase, the reduction or the swapping. but bear in mind it will all come good once he will be on remission. sorry if I have been long I really feel for him and you as I suffered a lot myself .please do not hesitate to contact me as much as you want .

ps : this is from my experience with meds ,your partner should stay in touch with his physician especially during this period .God bless.

Hi Mahfoud,

Thanks for that valuable info, what a diamond you are.

Getting the mixture right and the dose takes the time I guess with these meds and what you have said makes perfect sense.

I wish you well with your transition and hope that you feel better soon. Nobody can really understand unless they have been there as you have.

His GP is obviously working from the GP Handbook which recommends quite a rapid reduction timetable. In my mind this needs a serious update.

I feel it is best if I ask him what he would like me to do as my suggestions have fallen on stony ground, if he wants to be left alone at this time so be it. He lives only 5 mins from me but this may be the saving grace right now.

Myself I have tried antidepressants and ended up binning them, they made me feel worse, like living in a fog so I ended up long term on diazepam which is another tale, needless to say I am coming off those very carefully under strict supervision.

Thank you for your offer to talk again, I will most certainly need more help in this difficult time.

Thanks for making me smile for the first time today:) Bless you

you are most welcome Anne.

Morning Mahfoud,

Hope you are good today.

Just thought I'd tell you the latest in my saga. My partner appeared last night not in the best of moods. He said he was burning up.

It transpires that he had stopped the last 5mg of Paroxetine yesterday because he wanted rid of it!!!

The evening progressed and I had to tell him how I felt about this impatience of his and he admitted he felt miserable and didn't know what to do with himself.

I convinced him to take the 5mg Paroxetine and go for a walk but that didn't help much either and he said that he would be better alone and went home.

I am now feeling the stress myself and have planned a walk for us both this afternoon.

We do live in a beautiful place and the countryside can be so therapeutic as it is good for the health to walk out in it. Nature's antidepressant 😃

I feel that he has seen sense at last and will talk to the doctor as soon as the bank holiday is over.

Just a catch up, hope you are doing OK and your new eds are starting to work.

All the best, God bless

dear Anne,

first I am glad that he decided to see his gp, try not to give up on supporting him during this period he is not himself and hopefully you will come to realise it yourself once he is stable .

As you can see it is very hard to cope with this kind of illness for the patients themselves and for people around them.I can hardly understand the way I feel myself when I play with the meds but once they work it's totally a different story even I would still be with the symptoms but my functioning improves a lot .

Again I am here for any support you need from me yourself , keep me updated pls .All the best and be patient things will get better I assure you Anne.

Dear Mahfoud,

Thank you for your help yet again, no I will not give up my support.

I can understand now what my nearest and dearest went through when I was forced to come of Diazepam too quickly many years ago, but thankfully times have changed in that respect.

My partner admitted that he wants to be his old happy self again but patience is the key word. He does realise that he is not acting normally and he has a strong faith, at church right now. This I feel could be the saving grace and to be encouraged at this time.

He was stable and happy before the changeover so I hope he will be again.

I dearly hope you have support for yourself during your transition.

Have a great afternoon and yes I will update you on the progress.Bless you.

I will pray for you dear

Hi Mahfoud,

Thought I would update you on progress.

My partner saw the GP today and she diagnosed that he was suffering from "Serotonin syndrome" due to switching from one antidepressant to another, so this could have been potentially life threatening, so he has to detox for 24 hours and go back on half the dose of the new tablets.

I was right to be worried and relieved that this has been discovered.

I hope you are doing OK with your transition and begining to feel better now.

Keep in touch, God bless.