Posted by AVR on August 1, 2001, at 23:50:51
Hi, I am a 17(almost 18) year old male from Canada and I have been on Paxil for almost 2 years now for my dysthymia (depression and being down most of the time) and for my anxiety and panic attacks. I have been coming off this AD now for around a month. I went from 20 mg/day to 5mg/day in 3 weeks and then quit completely and now I am off Paxil for 1 week and notice my mental illnesses are returning. I am feeling anxiety and the shyness that the anxiety made me have before. When I was on Paxil it made me feel less bad but The problem was that I felt less bad when I was angry at someone as well. And if I dwelled on negative thoughts such as revenge I did not get the guilty feelings associated with these thoughts that would normally be there, and should be there. I was able to "go-off" on someone that angered me and do it with little guilt. And I made comebacks when people made fun of me which I normally didn't have the strenth to doo when not on an AD. I had dreams about killing friends and people that angered me and after the dream I felt absolutely no remorse whatsoever. I was only slightly angry. This scared me because I was not in the right state of mind and reality was far away from me. I'm off this awful AD now and have the strength to write about my experience with Paxil. My point is that the drug seemed to suppress bad feelings whether they were warrented or not , such as when they should be present when doing or thinking cruel thoughts, such as shame, or horror for one's indecent thoughts or actions. My experience is similar to a news story I saw someone write about. This was around the time Prozac first came out. This woman was on Prozac and killed her mother with a steak knife. She blamed it on Prozac. There is a connection. Before going on Paxil People knew that I had weird problems and didn't know what was wrong with me and just thought I was a screwed up person (ex. I had a panic attack after spilling water on this guy I hardly knew. I couldn't say I was sorry instead my face got bright red and my heart started beating fast.) I couldn't even tell my friends what was wrong with me cause I knew they wouldnt understand that I was having a "panic attack". This is a major problem with people now. Has this "cold-blooded" side effect ever been noticed about antidepressants??
IS THERE ANY WAY OUT OF THIS??? I AM THINKING OF TRYING A NEW SSRI (celexa) BUT I KNOW THERE IS A GOOD POSSIBLITY OF THIS AWFUL SIDE AFFECT COMING BACK.
Also, Marijuana gives me panic attacks so I usualy just smoke with a friend that knows I get like that and them I'm usualy fine and enjoying the high.
What should I do now? I could Stay off the AD's and deal with my dysthymia which I don't want to do.
Does anyone have any advice or replys on this thread because I would like to hear anything! Thanks!
poster:AVR
thread:73018
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010731/msgs/73018.html