trying to quit Paxil - DO NOT TAKE PAXIL

[earlgrey]

Ugh, so back I guess. Really need help and I don't know who to go to. I have no doctor and the doctor I see is on vacation and when he gets back it'll take 3 weeks to see him.

I'm trying to quit Paroxetine/Paxil. Today was the 3rd attempt. Because I have no doctor and no one is taking me seriously about my side effects I've had to try to quit on my own, or from reading up on it. I really don't know if I'm weaning off correctly but I'm desperate enough that I don't care. I was on 10 and was feeling better, and my Dr. said I should be ok to move to 20, then I lost my fucking mind and was having nightmares daily with shit on fire and faceless people, immedietly went back down to 10mg and that seemed ok, but I can't get off completely. So I've been cutting my pills in half so they're 10mg, and lately halfed again, 5mg. Trying to skip every other day and just see how long I can last without having a withdrawl. At least today I recognized the dizziness was from withdrawl, I tried to make it through the day but by night I felt nauseous and more dizzy, and I said fuck it, and had to take another. The more I read the more this pill seems like a total fucking nightmare. Reading that the people who made it withheld information. I guess I'm on half of half a pill now, so 5mg, but I can't last over 2-3 days without it. It's really hard to tell how much is in my system because I can't tell how safe I am until withdrawls.

[Chiliphil1]

My reccomendation:

I am not a doctor, but I have waned from pristiq which is supposed to be like coming off heroin.

You have to slow down, I know you want off, but if you go too fast you are going to cause more harm than good, as you have seen.

Go back to 10mg for 2 weeks, then go to 5mg for 2 weeks, then 2.5 mg for 2 weeks, then stop.

That is my reccomebdation and generally the slower you come off and the lower the drop in dose the better the results.

I would reccomend to get back on it full strength for at least this time, or until your doctor is back and can reccomend a taper schedule for you.

If at any point the drop seems too much, or you find adverse effects go back to the previous dose for a couple days, slow and easy is the key.

[earlgrey]

I think I'm ok at 5 right now, should I got back up to 10? I really don't want to do that. Right now I'm just dreaming sooo much, but 10 and 20mg is terrible nightmares.

[alankay]

I would go to the dose you are OK on and then take 1/2 the dose in the AM and the other half at Dinner/PM. This will keep the blood level of that med more stable(paxil has a short half life). You could split the 10mg halves into quarters. Then do a much slower taper. But if you are OK on 5mgs that's low so hold there for a couple weeks(one at least). Then you can see if you can split the pill in 1/4's with a pill splitter(from the pharmacy) and take 2.5 mgs(AM and PM) for a week or two and then 1/4(2.5 mgs) a day for a week for two then every other day for a few weeks. You can use flu medicine to help with nausea. Key is the slow reduction to give your neurons time to adapt to the changes in the level of the med over time. They will adjust. Splitting the dose help minimize effects.
Normal dreams are a great sign(normal REM sleep is best/wonderful for the body/brain) PM me any time. Alankay.

[Fashoom]

Yeah I agree with everything Alankay said above. I have been on and off Paxil twice. It is a bit rough to get off but you will be okay, especially if you're already down to 5mg.

[earlgrey]

I would go to the dose you are OK on and then take 1/2 the dose in the AM and the other half at Dinner/PM. This will keep the blood level of that med more stable(paxil has a short half life). You could split the 10mg halves into quarters. Then do a much slower taper. But if you are OK on 5mgs that's low so hold there for a couple weeks(one at least). Then you can see if you can split the pill in 1/4's with a pill splitter(from the pharmacy) and take 2.5 mgs(AM and PM) for a week or two and then 1/4(2.5 mgs) a day for a week for two then every other day for a few weeks. You can use flu medicine to help with nausea. Key is the slow reduction to give your neurons time to adapt to the changes in the level of the med over time. They will adjust. Splitting the dose help minimize effects.
Normal dreams are a great sign(normal REM sleep is best/wonderful for the body/brain) PM me any time. Alankay.

Sounds pretty reassuring for once. Still having a hard time, working 6 or 9 hours is unbearable, I'm just getting really angry and I can't stand to be there. Was a little dizzy today but still taking my 10mg, and at least I'm recognizing the dizziness as a side effect. My dreams have been far from normal, I just get less nightmares on 10. On 20 everything was on fire and people had no faces, I woke up so disturbed I wanted to cry. I only cry like once every 1-5 years.
Anyway on the 10mg I still have a million dreams a night and wake up with mass confusion. It's weird just leaving my house, I'll think I already talked to people about things or already did things when I really dreamt about them. Also its not often you dream about what you think just before going to bed, on Paxil it's like it injects the days thoughts into my dreams. I had a dream last night that a junky girl had a miscarriage in front of me and her stomach was moving and crap. It's pretty disturbing, it makes me wonder if you can get post traumatic stress from dreams.

[alankay]

Take the dose you are doing best with and hold there be it 5mg or 10mg. Wait until you feel "settled" or "most stable" and then you can taper down or maybe even stay on that low dose or switch ssri's. You might be on that low dose for a while until you get your REM sleep debt caught up. Lack of REM sleep can cause high irratability, etc. PM me any time. Alankay

[aljj0032]

Wow this just reaffirms my worries. My phyc wanted to put me on Paxil for the reason that zoloft gave me insomnia and tremors a little I was on it for a month and I had no problem coming off it but I had to continue my Xanax though. I was reading that Paxil has sexual side effects that can last months to years after you have stopped, fuck that

[earlgrey]

Wow this just reaffirms my worries. My phyc wanted to put me on Paxil for the reason that zoloft gave me insomnia and tremors a little I was on it for a month and I had no problem coming off it but I had to continue my Xanax though. I was reading that Paxil has sexual side effects that can last months to years after you have stopped, fuck that

It's hell, the worst I've been through I think. Tons of side effects. On 20mg I was knocked out in my clothes by 6pm. The gravity of sitting in a chair was too much so I had to lie down. On 5mg I don't seem to sleep at all. I just lie there and it feels like I get a few blinks of sleep. I've been single for over a year but my sex drive disappeared, and nothing feels too great.

[earlgrey]

Take the dose you are doing best with and hold there be it 5mg or 10mg. Wait until you feel "settled" or "most stable" and then you can taper down or maybe even stay on that low dose or switch ssri's. You might be on that low dose for a while until you get your REM sleep debt caught up. Lack of REM sleep can cause high irratability, etc. PM me any time. Alankay

I seem to be stable on 5mg. Been doing better for a few days now, so that's good, and my body can't deny that it's ok on 5mg so that low amount is reassuring. I'm going on a big trip soon with friends for a week so I'll probably stay on the 5 just so nothing messes up. Only had 1 bad day this week because I lost my wallet and had to work, so I was worrying at work all day. Had 400$ in it but I found it in my drawer. I'll try to catch up on sleep. I'm starting to see that lack of sleep just makes things worse. It's amazing how much your mind can change, I was getting desperate and thinking so differently.

[Siegfried]

I think it is important not to jump to conclusions.

1) paroxetine (brand name Paxil) takes time to kick in. It does not work overnight or even from one week to another. Most people take 3-6 weeks to actually feel like it is working for them. Unfortunately the side effects tend to be immediate, and take time to disappear. But they usually do.

2) 10mg is not a therapeutic dose. 20mg onwards is. Most prescribers usually recommend to start with 5 or 10 mg per day and then slowly going up in order to limit the potential side effects. Sometimes just a little whiff (5-10mg) is sufficient, though.

3) side effects... I do not think they are usually that bad. They mostly occur during the first weeks of treatment, and then disappear. I know many people who have taken paroxetine, and none who have described the side effects as unbearable. Obviously, if it is not working for you, your doctor should help you find another solution. Thankfully there are so many, these days! But it is not a good idea to tell people not to take paroxetine because you had a rough first couple of weeks, or even because it simply didn't work in your case. ;-)

4) sexual side effects. I believe that they usually do not go beyond decreased libido, and possibly anorgasmia for a few weeks once the therapeutic effect kicks in (this is common to most antidepressants). But after a while most people resume their sex lives without any difficulty. Actually, for many people it boosts their sexual life, since before they were too blue/anxious to do anything with their lovers.

It is very unfortunate when medication does not work as we were expecting. But we must give it a chance, and also realize that what does not work for us may work very well for other people.

[duqgrad]

One time when I was switching from Paxil to Zoloft I had to take both drugs during the same day. This may have been a coincidence but I had the best day ever. It was so good that a nuclear bomb could have been sitting next to me and I wouldn't have cared. I mean could anger me. I'll never forget it.

[earlgrey]

Just to let everyone know, I'm finally done Paxil. I was on 1/8 of a pill, was still having withdrawls. I finally got to see my doctor and he said I should be fine then to stop taking it, so he gave me a prescription for Citalopram. Feeling so much better now, the nightmare is over. Slowly feeling more and more normal like the Paxil's out of my body. Thanks everyone for your support.