Paxil

Yo ! As a fellow who has had Paxil in his life I greet you. Let me tell you a little about myself.

Started taking it when I was 17 because of sudden chest pain which was attributed to anxity.Got diagnosed with Panic Disorder and was put on SSRIs. The worst I've been is when I was too afraid to leave my apartment and developed Agoraphobia somehow. My dose was 2 pills each morning ( 40 mg ) for the next 10 years  if im not wrong. Right now im 27 and last month I decided to try and get off it so I went to the doc and told him. I know there are alot of people saying you should stop it slowly but my doc for some reason told me to go from 2 pills to 1 for 10 days, then to 1/2 for another 10 days and finally to 1/4 for 10 days again and stop. Was surprised that after taking the drugs for so long his plan was to get off them in about 30 days but who am I to judge right?!

Currently Im clean for the first time in many years and the things I went through when I started to lower my dosage were :

-diarrhea

-dizziness when moving my eyes

-sharp pain for a few split seconds in the back of my neck and around my head (think it's called brain zaps not sure)

-Vivid dreams

Most of these things stopped or got weaker. I don't have diarrhea anymore.

I don't know about the rest of the people but when i got of my meds it seemed like my emotions started to work again. I mean like before that I diden't feel any strong emotions at all. But stopping my medication made me feel more "alive''. My only down side right now is that I am feeling something like nerve pain not sure what. It's not sadness or fear. Just like my body is in a state of sharp pain. Imagen having someone twisting a sharp knife inside you. Not pleasent but that's what happend to me after stopping Paxil.

Btw - this is my first post in this site so greetings to everyone.

Hello

You are not alone!

I have been weeding myself down from 20mg to 12mg for the past year. Am on holiday and went down last week to 10mg. Started to feel panicked and depressed. So have gone back up to 12mg for a week then will try to go down to 10mg again. Been very strict about not going back up until this point but have decided as long as the general trend is reducing I am not going to make myself suffer more than is necessary. 12 months of horrible withdrawal takes its toll. Giving myself a break.

Hi Donna the Paxil is out of your system now. That is the problem, it has a very short half life and is why we get these awful withdrawals. The drug is out so quickly that the body reacts to the loss and produces these symptoms. I think you have withdrawn much too quickly and will probably experience very bad withdrawal problems. It should have taken you a year or more. I wish you well x