PDA

View Full Version : Deciding rather or not to take PAXIL



mclaugs
03-27-2008, 02:26 PM
Paxil Intake: 12.5/mg per day for anxiety.

Around 5 July 2007 had first panic attack after a night of heavy alcohol consumption. Didn’t happen for a while after that but slowly got worse after drinking. Decided to slow down my drinking, and then the anxiety started creeping up on me as I was going through my first and second semester of college. I was in the army previously and had been overseas seen my share of things but I don’t think that caused my anxiety to get really bad. It didn’t start getting bad until I drastically changed my lifestyle and started going to school. Because of all the homework and projects it can be pretty stressful. So I went to my doctor and told her the symptoms that I was having. Which were generally 1. Feeling faint really out of it like my brain wasn’t comprehending what my sense’s were telling it. Like they were a couple of milisecs behind normal time. 2. Shaking 3. Cold chills 4. Tingling sensation in my fingers 5. Couldn’t sleep at night because of racing thoughts 6. Heart racing, felt like I was going to have a heart attack and die.

Because of these symptoms I went to the emergency room once, again after a heavy night of drinking. Everyone thought I was crazy. But all the tests came back negative and they gave me an IV and some nausea medicine and let me go. I felt like a retard. After that the attacks became more frequent tried smoking weed to see if it would calm me down but it made it really bad and unbearable. I had to hide it from my friend the whole time. Never try that again. So I can to the conclusion that I should try a more conventional route and my doctor gave me Paxil 12.5mg. I went in the same day and got a prescription for a whole year in 30 minutes. Makes you wonder if this stuff is over prescribed. But I am contemplating on taking it for my anxiety but I want to decide before it s too late I don’t really want to go through withdrawal stages heard very bad stories about it. So far I have had the following things occur to me.

Day 1: the first day of taking it, 30 minutes after ingestion side effects start to occur; first major side-effect is light headedness, almost as if I was drunk. 2nd side effect was a pain in my groin area that is very sharp when genitals brush along something. But on the plus side racing thoughts and worrying about everything went away might have been from the drowsiness, and sleeping was really easy to do because from being drowsy noted plus.

Day 2: After reading all the articles online I am kind of worried about paxil withdrawal and contemplating on continuing my treatment with this drug. Skipped the second day dosage and decided to possibly take it on day 3. Been drowsy all day took me an hour just to get out of bed this morning. I felt like a turd. All day today had a really bad sinus headache that wouldn’t go away. Then every once in a while I felt super great happy for no reason, still could be from the side effects don’t know. Or maybe its just in my head that I feel better, who knows. And the sharp pains finally went away. Found it really easy to talk to people that I usually wouldn’t hold a conversation with. Kind of weird, but anyways at night I fell asleep generally quick.

Day 3: Symptoms wore off and started to feel like my normal self again. Nothing new to report mood is okay no panic attacks sense started my therapy. Maybe it’s already working, but I doubt it. Decided to take second pill of 12.5mg at 2pm side effects came back about a half an hour later so far feeling drowsy and a acute headache.

Robbed
03-27-2008, 06:04 PM
Well, my feelings about medication are pretty well-known around here. And my suggestion is that you first try to work with your anxiety in other ways before resorting to meds. The fact is that meds are NEVER a cure. I feel that they tend to promote feelings of helplessness and hopelessness (based on people I know who have used them). And if you are on them, you will likely not learn the coping skills that could ultimately bring you through this thing and give you a better life in the end. And then there are the side effects.

Anyway, you might want to try a good self-help book or two. I myself am a big fan of the Claire Weekes books. There are also self-help sites online that you may find helpful. Anxietycenter.com is one that I have found helpful. They CAN at times get a little religiously preachy. But the information is good from a CBT standpoint. Also, you may consider counseling. Most universities provide at least SOME free counseling for students. Just be careful, as a poor counselor can be a bad thing. Also, MANY counselors will give you heck about not wanting to take medication.

Good luck