Posted by amynicole on November 22, 2002, at 11:31:09
In reply to Paxil and Withdrawal Symptoms-Unbelievable, posted by LISABECK on October 26, 2000, at 21:17:55
> Okay, here's my second medication post. I'm also weaning off Paxil. Each time I go down 5mgs, I go through 4-5 days of nightmares, depression, and despair. It's really scary. I've managed to get myself down from 30 to 10mgs since the beginning of August, but what a job this has been. The worst part is that depression is not even my primary problem. I'm taking Paxil for anxiety attacks. I probably shouldn't say this, but I would never recommened this medication. I've read so many testimonials about paxil withdrawal lately.
>
> Anyway, has anyone here gone thru this experience??I begain taking Paxil in December of 1999 for severe insomnia due to work related stress. Within a year of starting Paxil, so by December of 2000, I had changed jobs and felt ready to get off Paxil. My doctor gave me varying doses in order to wean myself off of it slowly. Shortly after lowering my dose, I experienced terrible anxiety and depression. (I didn't have a serious problem with depression before starting Paxil.) Being convinced that my withdrawal symptoms were a remanifestation of the illness that made me go on the medication, I always went back on it.
Here it is nearly December of 2002 and I am still not completely off Paxil. Now that I know about withdrawal, I have made it further than I ever had before with my weaning off the drug. This time I haven't had the emotional/psychological symptoms as much, but the physical ones have been bad, a day or two of "The Paxil flu" several days after each lowering of my dose, the piercing headache, the puking, muscle soreness, nausea, and dizziness. Now I'm down to 2.5/5mgs. every other day. I haven't lowered my dose for about five weeks because I am currently a graduate student and was getting too far behind due to being sick too many times earlier in the semester due to Paxil withdrawal. I'm planning to finally get off of it entirely during the semester break in January. I hope I am successful.
Another side effect of being on the drug I have experienced is weight gain. Though I measure everything I eat, count calories and exercise, I can't lose a single pound of the 35 pounds I've gained since I started taking Paxil.
Because of the withdrawal issue and the fact that my doctors didn't know that I was in withdrawal, I was forced to be on this drug at least two years longer than I needed to be.
I really wish Paxil withdrawal was a phenomenon that was more widely acknowledged. If I'd have understood sooner what I was going through, it would have saved me a lot of pain and turmoil.
poster:amynicole
thread:47473
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021122/msgs/128771.html