Paroxetine - Help

Hi guys. I guess now it's time for me to open up a bit. A lot of the time I post here it's usually just lighthearted fun and all that sort of stuff, mainly because I'm pretty ignorant, but I digress...

... Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has had any experiences with Paroxetine/Paxil/whatever. I got put on paroxetine around April. Throughout my entire life I've never really truly been happy, and have felt like an absolute outcast in any given social situation. In fact, it took me up until recently to realise that I am truly alone. My mind never really bothered me full until I just fell into a massive void in '07. My mind just pretty much collapsed, really, and I think I'm so far beyond breaking point that now I'm in a constant state of apathy, uselessness, unrest and absolute despair.

This year is when I thought I'd change things. For a while I thought "Medication is definitely not going to work", but it got to the point where my social anxiety and depression just made me want to withdraw from the world forever. I wanted it all to end; still do, in fact. Anyway, I figured "Oh what the hell, medication can't make things any worse, can it?", and headed to the doctor.

I was assessed and it was almost like they just wanted me to get on this pill right away. I had no idea about what paroxetine was. All I could think of was "Oh hey, a cure for my OCD and depression!" and was prescribed it right after they diagnosed me with major depression.

At first, the dosage was at half a tablet and I was feeling pretty damn great. I dunno if it was placebo or if it was actually working. All I know is that all of the negativity subsided and I did feel pretty damn good. I went back to the doctor to get reassessed and then I was told that I should take a full tablet, which is 20mg, so I started doing that and then all felt normal.

Eh, it wasn't too long before the drug started just wearing off and then I was just myself. The only difference being that I felt a lot less sensitive emotionally. I started feeling a lot more apathetic toward people's problems as opposed to the empathetic person that I usually am. I didn't like this, and I found that the pill wasn't doing anything for me anymore. I thought I'd just discontinue it when the prescribed pills ran out.

The first day off the pill was just fine; business as usual. Come to around the third day and I started feeling like I had a fever, except I wasn't sick whatsoever, had full body function except now I also felt like I was phasing in and out of consciousness. I was thinking "What the hell is happening to me?". I didn't really think much of it, but then extremely negative thoughts started to kick in. Not only that, but my dreams were all vivid and extremely negative, also. I didn't even get much sleep, either, and when I did get sleep my body didn't feel rejuvenated or anything. It was inescapable and it was evil. I really wanted someone to just put me out of my misery. I didn't know what was happening and then I found out about just how bad paroxetine and withdrawal of the medication is. So then I was just like "... Oh".

Almost immediately I went back on the meds and here I am today, still on the meds. Thing is, I still feel depressed as hell. I'm sick of it now. My reliance on this med is at max, now, and I'm damned if I take it and damned if I don't take it. I'm sorry to have to type this much about my experience with this drug, and I'm sorry that it's a cruddy story told in the most unexciting fashion. I just wanted to know if any of you have been put on this drug. It would be particularly useful if you have given up this drug completely. I would like to give up this drug completely but I really don't want to have to put up with the heavy withdrawal period (which I hear can last for 2 months). I hate myself for just taking this drug. I should have known better, and at some stage I DID know better than to take pills pushed onto me. I've been fooled and, in turn, I am a fool.

I tire of existence.

Whineflu, I think I can shed some light on this, but not here. I will send you a pm. Sometimes the "advice" on these type threads is more than I can abide to read.

You can get off Paxil by cutting your dosage over time, but I don't think you should. If you are still feeling despair, then it's possible your dose isn't high enough

I have taken many of these things over my lifetime and I've noticed that the effect of each is different. Prozac makes me edgy. Paxil makes me relaxed.

I really don't think you should get off the Paxil, but to really discuss this, we'd have to lay out some philosophy. For instance, I believe that the mind and brain are two different things. I do not believe that Paxil has any effect on the mind. I believe that the mind can be subject to maladies that a drug like Paxil cannot treat -- the extreme being possession by an outside force. I am not suggesting that you have this problem, I'm just laying this out there. It's my belief that taking a drug like Paxil can throw a monkey wrench into the control system that these attackers from the mental realm use, so it can be beneficial here.

The brain controls our moods and mediates our experiences. A drug like Paxil can have a huge impact on the brain, but the required dosage is different for everybody. In my case, Paxil makes me happy, but a bit under-motivated. I really prefer that to anxious and depressed.

I don't think Paxil is harmful, but it does have some very strong side effects and it takes time to get off it. Please talk to your doctor about the amount of Paxil you should be taking to treat your brain. (He or she can't help with the mind trouble, if you have any, obviously.)

I did find that my mind had probably been under attack for years and I didn't know it. I discovered this when I caught some recurring themes in my dreams. I was able to solve this problem myself by using prayer -- essentially, I simply put the Lord's Prayer into my own words and made sure I emphasized "deliver me from evil". I have experienced quite a bit of relief from this tactic, so if you think it might have an effect for you, give it a try. I don't see how it can make things worse!

Good luck to you, and please don't give up trying. Our time here is short enough, and we are sent here to learn and grow as much as we can. You can U2U me if you would like to discuss this in private.

As I always say to people that need meds, the trick is to find the right med at the right dose. I battle with depression/anxiety and since I no longer have medical coverage, weened myslef off my medication. It sucks.

I wish you luck with whatever you decide hun. If you need someone to talk to, please send a private message.

Star and Flag because this hits close to home. Rewind 9 years. I had just experience the birth of my son, my wife and I had not been together that long, and had not meant to get pregnant. When she met me, I was working at a corporate sales job that was sucking the soul out of me, and I had not gotten over my "the one that got away" relationship from college. I was drinking so much that I usually woke up drunk. My wife had just finalized a divorce when we met, and as soon as we met, we pretty much were doing the "Leaving Las Vegas" routine (you know, drinking ourselves to death). When we found out she was pregnant, everything changed for a while, and there was renewed hope and excitement as we decided to stay together and start a family. However, a sudden job change that landed me at a poorly run startup and the impending birth of my son put so much stress on me that I spiraled out of control. I was having panic attacks that would last all day. My heart would race to the point that it felt like it was vibrating. I was constantly concerned that I was going to die of a heart attack. I hate the current medical profession and drugs, so I put off going to the doctor as long as possible. I finally did, and was given Clonazepam or Klonipin as an acute rescue drug and put on time release Paxil as a maintenance drug. I was able to get my sanity back for long enough to start looking for a way to get off the drugs because that's not the life I wanted. I started researching and reading voraciously, and learned the following:
1. You never stop taking Paxil cold turkey; you have to gradually reduce your dose, and when you are down to the lowest dose, you have to start taking it every other day, and then every three days and so on and so forth. I was done after taking it once a week, but not before I found a natural replacement (I'll get to that).
2. Apparently some of us, for whatever reason, are more prone to these types of problems, and overcoming it depends on several factors including lifestyle, nutrition, and therapy.
3. My reading led me to the conclusion that all of the hard living (drinking excessively, high protein diet, staying up late) all were depleting my body of several key nutrients, the most important of which was Magnesium.
4. As I was stepping my doses of Paxil down, I started trying different types of magnesium and continued reading. I tried a magnesium citrate preparation called natural calm, which provided instant, yet short lived results, and had a laxative effect beyond the 1200 mg per day threshold. I tried Magnesium aspartate, but it didn't work well at all. Then I finally discovered what would be the key to my salvation. Magnesium Chloride. There is an over the counter preparation called Slo-Mag, but it's oral tables, and you have to take a lot of them. Finally found an article on transdermal magnesium therapy and started buying Magnesium Chloride bath crystals.
5. Further reading let me to incorporate the following additional elements to my regimen: Stay hydrated, get exercise, drink at least one container of all natural coconut water (not milk) per day for electrolyte replacement. Get some form of exercise every day. Read every day. Find some way to develop spiritually that makes sense for you, whether that be church, meditation, etc. Start reading the label of anything you put your mouth, and avoid GMO foods, MSG in all of it's various forms and names, Corn products that were grown in the USA including but not limited to Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and Corn Syrup solids.

I know that sounds like a lot, but I was only on Paxil for 6 weeks including the gradual step down, and I have been off of it for 9 years now, and I only have mild panic attacks when I allow myself to stop doing those things above. There is a ton of research available online, and at one time in my life, I could recite most of it, but its been so long, I no longer have it on instant recall. I will tell you that you can get the magnesium bath crystals on www dot ihsite dot com, and do a google search for "magnesium and depression," "magnesium and anxiety," and "transdermal magnesium therapy." One thing I do remember is that taking Magnesium Chloride is important, because if you don't, your body will rob chloride ions from other metallic elements in your body to make the magnesium into magnesium chloride, and that is bad for some reason.

Anyway, I hope you don't feel so alone now, and I hope that this information helps you get a handle on things. I can't guarantee that all of this will work for you, but it has worked for me for the better part of a decade, prior to which, I thought I was going to die every day.

Cheers,

Bryan

I am sorry I cannot offer any advice on this but I know this road and I believe it is the most wicked thing a doctor can do so that you can be part of the big system of Life.

I just want to send a small measure of support by way of you knowing that your plea has not gone unheard. I do think you have empathy because you care enough for yourself to expose the nature of your predicament so candidly. Bless you, you do have a Heart and it is felt!

I am so very sad myself. I know, another one of those people who jump in and say "me, me, me", but I crashed yesterday so badly that had I not had some intervention a building would have burned or a soul would have left this earth by my own hands. I broke down and today I am actually crying again. Finally the pain erupted in me because I went outside and began destroying what I love so dear, my gardens. I cut roses down to the ground, I shoved an arbor over and smashed it to pieces, I cut down a 15ft Buddleia and a 20ft Mimosa; I did this because they are going to be sprayed with herbicide to kill them and I finally took the job into my own hands and did this myself. I did this because my landlord is evicting me after 8 years and I have built such a gorgeous garden/sanctuary that I knew she was not only intent on destroying me but also destroying what I built.

Perhaps this was not the best catharsis for me but I am safe again, safe from an evil that obviously resides in me enough to hate from my core. I had to let those emotions flow and sadly now I look out to a destroyed garden. I did what I find unspeakable, and I will have to continue until it is over, everything has to end and everything has to be released. I know that the plants and trees are still alive, I will leave their trunks in place and they will regrow long after I am gone, they will be sprayed from that day on because that is what my landlady does to control plants on her farm, even the fields are dumped with chemicals and herbicides. (I guess I am justifying my actions and there is nothing that can).

Maybe I am hoping that by sharing my own heartache that you will know that one of those tears is for you. I certainly am so thankful to finally wake to a new day and find myself crying for the first time in years. It was time.

With all that we face (conspiracy or religious, or just plain galactic doom) there is nothing we can take with us in the end. I am recognizing that Great Spirit is working in my life and that I am being ushered to where I need to go in order to save myself from my own madness.

I look back to a past that was filled with rejection, each and every moment is as livid as it happened yesterday. Being kicked out of my home at 14, then kicked out of foster at 17, to leave Trade School before graduation because of harassment (never getting a diploma for my efforts), being kicked out of the military for being gay, job after job, and home after home I have been kicked out. Now the final blow.

I often wondered what it would be like when I finally "snapped", now I know that it is only destructive to my health and that others are completely unaffected by it. No one really feels another's pain in just that way, but because I have felt pain and frustration I am hoping you know that I can understand. I too was given medications to help me over my great hurdles, but I always had a rule that if I take something I take it for only a week or two and then I stop, at least that is what I have always done. I am a visual thinker and I see pictures in my head, but every time I was medicated the pictures stopped and I was left with an empty room in my mind. I could not think properly without my pictures. I guess I was fortunate that I recognized this early on.

I know I am probably just using you to continue my process of release, but if you believe there is hope than know that I am hoping for your betterment and health, I am touched by your thoughts and I am so very pleased you cared enough for yourself to express them. Thank you and Bless you!

I've been on Paxil for eight years. A few times I had to go a week or ten days without it when money was low, and after 4 or 5 days I noticed the difference. It was like the weight of the world gradually began to come down around me. Once I got back on it, these feelings went away. How much therapy have you had? The best outcome in Psychiatric illness is a combination of meds and therapy. Professionals will tell you that. What most don't realize is that these diseases are chicken AND egg, brain disease and behavioral. If you don't have a problem in your brain with Serotonin, a neurotransmitter, it is doubtful Paxil will affect you at all. I have read, and can say that it was true for me, that sleep deprivation can be the first signal of later depression, etc.
For me, negative emotions and misperception were the real problems. That was the behavioral aspect of my illness. Concentrated therapy as an in-patient during two hospitalizations helped me to get to the bottom of those two things. Taking and staying on the medicine was the other part. Now, I asses my mental, emotional, and psychological status every day wanting to make sure I stay on top of things. I have tools to deal with the things that arise in life and relationships that give me trouble, and I do pretty well. It isn't because my problems weren't that bad, as I was quite suicidal twice. I almost consider myself a poster boy for success in dealing with depression. PM me if you like. Rick

I was a drug rep and sold Paxil. Paxil is known for being somewhat sedating (thus, takes the edge off anxiety), and usually should be dosed higher than the literature shows (psychiatrists know this, general practitioners tend to underdose). For the record, I believe that all drug companies create new disease states to add indications for their drugs. Anxiety is anxiety. Period.

If you look at the double-blind studies, anti-depressants are not as effective as diet, exercise, and life changes in mild to moderate depression. Severe depression, on the other hand, takes very aggressive and high doses of antidepressants or antipsychotics. My experience, and that of the doctors I called on, was that Paxil was a very mediocre antidepressant. After a year on Paxil, you can expect significant weight gain.

I don't know how long you were on Paxil, but the best way to get off of an antidepressant is to slowly titrate off the drug. Every five days, reduce your dose by half, by cutting the pill by half. Two weeks of titrating off the drug should prevent withdrawal symptoms. Never stop any antidepressant without titrating off of the drug, a rapid withdrawal can create severe depression and even suicidal thoughts.

After working for the drug companies, I will never recommend pharmaceutical intervention before other more holistic life changes are changed first. My advice? Chuck the doc, seriously look at your diet, force yourself to exercise (or do some activity outside) for an hour a day, find something you love to do, and rid yourself of people who bring negativity to your life.

If that isn't successful, find a therapist who can work to resolve these issues that prevent you from fully experiencing life. If life changes are ineffective, find a physician who will run some tests to try to determine if there is any organic reason you feel so bad. And if all fails, find a psychiatrist who is progressive and incorporates therapy, medication, and life changes.....for a comprehensive treatment plan. Too many doctors say 'take this pill, and call me in two months'- that is bad medicine.

reply to post by Whine Flu


Medication works, but it does make you reliant on it.....So you have a choice to make, to slowly cut back on it and deal with the "gravity" of your mind.....Or to go on, and deal with the "gravity" of being depended on a drug and the physical symptoms of the drug when off it, now that your brain and body have gotten used to it, it will be hard to not take it and be as before...At the end none of these choices are either, right or wrong. and do not ultimately matter to anyone but you.....And with or without drugs life will always throw curveballs when you least expect it....And remember all advice is just a personal path that in a lot of cases, is derived from personal experience...so what works for one might not work for another. So if jesus helped one and buddha another etc etc. its just there personal path. There is no secret way, or set path, it is an illusion...All path's that you walk are the path, so chose one that agrees with you. And depression is normal, and anybody that tells you it's not is full of it, and will try to sell you some magic beans that makes it go away as well. But it's a normal part of life and if it getts to be to much then do what everybody else does "find constructive non destructive ways to distract your mind, physical exercise or just jogging to hobbies to whatever" or do what lots do when depressed, become a critic of those who are depressed.

reply to post by Whine Flu



Some tips from a professional friend of mine. Paroxetine is known to cause physical addiction. It has to be reduced very, very gradually. The easiest way is to request the drug in liquid form with a dosage syringe. Ascertain what amount of liquid paroxetine corresponds to your dosage, then, reduce the dosage very gradually, in minimal amounts. Get used to one minimally reduced amount for at least a week before reducing again.

Apparently it takes more time doing it this way, but withdrawal effects are either minimal or non-existant.

If you can't get it prescribed in liquid form, use an emery board and shave off a small amount of the pill. As above, get used to the very slightly lower dose over at least a week before reducing further.

In 1995 I was diagnosed with severe depression. Prozac was prescribed in 10MG dose daily.

After a couple of year Prozac didn't work for me so I tried the other depression drugs and did not find them as satisfactory as I had wanted.

Two years ago I started taking 40MG of Prozac and it is doing a good job for me. When I mention to family or friends that I'm thinking of stopping Prozac they all look scared to death and beg me to stay on Prozac. It's funny to me. They don't want to deal with the real me.

Prozac has saved many lives and kept me out of prison and I will take it as long as it is available.

What is so bad about becoming addicted to Prozac? I will have to take insulin, high blood pressure drugs and various other drugs all the rest of my life. No big deal to me.

So what if I have to swallow a pill that keeps me sane and fairly happy. Yes I get depressed but it is nothing compared to what it was like without meds.

Prozac is one of the favorite drugs the medical professionals use themselves and the easiest to come off of in a controlled manner.

I've tried many antidepressants and Prozac is by far the best for me.

First and foremost, I would like to thank each and every one of you who has contributed to this thread. Normally I would respond to every post that has been poster, but it's probably better I didn't at this point, as most of it would be filled with a lot of blabbering that makes no sense. Plus it's probably best to keep it short and sweet. I find that I can't really concentrate on things for long periods otherwise I start going off on a tangent... much like right now.

I guess the only solution is probably to just keep using the meds. I haven't had therapy. I guess that would probably help. I think the biggest problem so far is just having to throw myself into the world where I can't associate with anyone. It sucks when I can pick up and sense a whole ton of "energy" from any person and it just overwhelms me. I don't know how to deal with it at all. I also don't like their ignorance. This is why I'd much rather just curl up into a ball and die or something, because now it's just a massive burden that has no real meaning and if the closest meaning is suffering, then what good is that?

Maybe I just need to find someone I can relate to in person. Either way, it warms me to hear your stories and thoughts. Love and light guide you, and may peace and prosperity follow.

I was told by my doctor that if I want to stop taking Paxil that I should speak to him about it first, because due to brain chemistry, it can be bad to quit it 'cold turkey', and he would prescribe smaller dosages over time. You need to gradually wean yourself off it or it will mess with your head.

The other thing about paxil, at least for me, was that the first 2 weeks or so, I actually got worse, before I began to get better, so if you didn't take it for very long, maybe the same thing happened to you? I don't know if that's normal or not, though. I've been on it for about 8-9 years now, and other than that, and a brief period during the first year, I haven't gotten depressed since.

With regards to the lower empathy, I think I have noticed a bit of this myself, as well. I will see or read about some situation in which I should feel something, and while intellectually I comprehend it and respond appropriately, inside I'm not always as empathetic as I (think I) remember being. It might be the drugs causing changes in the brain. It might also simply be that after the period of untreated depression, I expect to be very empathetic, and that it is memory playing tricks, in that I'm really as empathetic as I was before.

One of the best things you can do for depression is to buy a bottle of Magnesium Citrate and take about 600 mg throughout the day. Add some spinach and peanuts and other magnesium rich foods to your diet.Most of us have a deficiency in Magnesium. Take a Multivitamin and a mixed Vitamin B supplement as well. Make sure you get 10 glasses of water and at least 20 minutes of sunshine for optimum vitamin D building.Get at least 1,000 mg of Calcium in your diet too. 5-HTP is another good supplement that can help too. Stay away from St.John's wart as that can have bad side effects. there are Bach's Flower Remedies which work great and I also suggest Niacin to help with energy.Homeopathic remedies or accupuncture may work well for you. Then you can add some fitness or yoga to the routine which will really help you feel better. Remember that diet can play a role in your mood as well so try to eat some more healthy foods and get at least 7 hours of sleep. Meditation can do wonders with depression. The Law of Attraction teachings may add some brightness into your life as well. Best of luck to you with getting off the drugs. You can get off of them and be happy and healthy and allow yourself to free those happy feelings waiting to come out.

The way of action on antidepressant drugs is not understood well. The newest hypothesis is that they trigger plasticity in the hippocampus and other parts of the brain, and allows to remodel our responses to certain situations. This means that if you are actively taking part in psychotherapy and it is helping you, antidepressants might poison you, but at the same time contribute to wanted effects. However, if you still feel lost, depressed and have no active psychotherapy, then they will just reinforce your negative patterns.

In 2008 in a big study they found out that the antidepressant properties of cannabis are linked to the ability of the herb to activate neurogenesis in the hippocampus and other parts of the brain. This is also a method of returning plasticity to your brain, but not by poisoning it and causing formed links to die off and re-form, but by creating new nerve cells that create new links.

reply to post by Whine Flu

There are any number of things going on here.

Before you do anything, I suggest you find a doctor with experience in natural healing modalities.

Thyroid is typically not looked upon by orthodox medicine has having any relevance to such things as depression.

Also, Google "Wilson's Thyroid Syndrome" to find a doctor in your area with experience in that protocol.

Don't give up.

Look at your nutrition.

Your experience with Paxil is classic. I have known people who required several weeks of decreasing dosages to be finally free of the dependency.

Don't give up.

Michael Cecil

If you get a bottle of Mag Citrate, you'd better hang around the house for awhile. It is a potent laxative!

Very interesting.

Reading the OP and the other post above, one thing keeps coming to mind. As for myself, I'm an ex-addict of alcohol and 'Recreational' drugs.(addict, ex-addict? please no comments on my terminology). If you substitute your perscription medication with any illicit substance, ( i.e.- coc aine, meth, heroein, etc.) and your doctor with 'Drug dealer', what does this senario sound like now? I see no difference whatsoever.

Granted, there are medical issues involved. As explained to me by my sister, who has a PhD in Clinical Phsycology and a BA in Veterinary Science ( I know, try and figure that out ), our thought processes, reactions, emotions, etc, are nothing but chemical reactions produced from our brain.

Now, when these specific chemical 'valves' get stuck open, shut or just not enough either way, the chemical reaction changes thus producing an undesireable effect. Okay, that's how the brain works in a nutshell. ( no pun intended )

Phsycology relies on the belief that there are multiple ways that your brain can produce these certain chemicals and the trick is to find an alternative route for a said chemical reaction to produce a desired effect. Let me try to give an example, let'say as in the OP's case that your always depressed but you really enjoy apples. Your brain is producing the correct amount of certain chemicals for for the feeling of enjoyment for an apple. A Phsycologist is going to try and train your brain to think apples when the urge of depression arises.

Now Phsychitry(?) on the other hand, figures that if your brain isn't producing enough or producing too much of a certain chemical for a desired reaction, you can juct induce the chemical thru the body to react or counter-react with the oither chemicals involved.

Now the MD doctor, I feel should not even get involved when it comes to phsycological events since he's trained mainly in the body and not the mind. Why go to a mechanic if your computer needs fixed.

Hopefully with all this you can grasp at what is going on with our brains. Now to get back on track with my train of thought-

If you take any external source of 'additives' to produce a desired effect, your brain will eventually find that it does not need to even try to produce certain chemicals, which is an effort, because they are already there.( Universal Law: path of least resistance ). When you deplete this external source, guess what? You're an Addict! Such a nasty word. Your brain hasn't even tried to produce this certain chemicals for so long that it has pretty much forgot how. Since its had not needed a supply for demand, that recipe was sent to the archives.

In response to this, your desired effect is lacking something. Do you know what this is? Withdrawal. All is not lost, our brain is a remarkable phenonomon of a biological piece of equipment! It knows how it should function and will never lose it's original programming. It's just hasn't had to do much lately and gotten lazy.

Now the hard part. Tuning up the brain to run smoothly again. This is done by a multitude of ways as mentioned above and I'm sure to follow (nobody's brought up the 'Have Faith' method yet ) and I don't perscribe that one way is better than another for the simple reason that your brain is producing its own chemical reaction that are different from mine.

I know the journey all too well. I hope that this can help all that are confused (Is that a chemical reaction?) on the 'What the heck is going on with me' syndrome. Good luck and 'HAVE FAITH!' in yourself.