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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by peaceofmind on November 1, 2005, at 17:07:25
I just wanted to give people a heads up about Paxil if they have recently began taking it for sever social phobia.
It absolutely makes you gain weight, a lot of weight, and you don't even know it is happening. Maybe women more than men. It is an amazing anti-depressant and anti-anxiety agent. Trust me, I loved it. I had lived a miserable existence with cripling social phobia that caused be to abuse alcohol and I already had alcolholism which was beganning to ruin my life.
I read about Paxil about 4 years ago in a magazine saying how it was a cure for Social Phobia. I could'nt beleive it, finally something that might promise me the abiltity to leave my house, go to parties, have friends, have a normal life. I could'nt get to the Dr. fast enough.
And you know what, it worked. I had never laughed so much, had so many friends, been so happy and not dibilitated by anxiety and self-conciousness, I used to always wear cardigan sweaters over my shirts so nobody could see the horrendous sweat stains under my arms..It was devasting and Paxil took it all away.
But then something happened about two years later. My dad told me that I had gotten fat and it freaked him out and he thought it might be the medication... When I looked in the mirror I saw a pretty girl with a good figure. I did not SEE that I was fat until I saw some photos of me and almost started crying..How could I have not have noticed a 45 pound weight gain on my 5 ft frame.
Because I was too busy not caring about anything and enjoying life to step on a scale.
So three years later after a nightmarish withdrawl from Paxil I am thin again. 104 pounds from 145 and when I look in the mirror I see fat thighs and am vain to a fault. So it there an easy solution? I would love to know...
Posted by med_empowered on November 1, 2005, at 17:13:15
In reply to The Truth About Paxil, posted by peaceofmind on November 1, 2005, at 17:07:25
sorry :-( paxil was great for me, too, initially; I didn't gain weight (maybe b/c I'm a guy?), but it did make my mood "shifty", and I actually got MORE depressed--but less anxious--after a while. Then it stopped working. Have you tried Klonopin? Its a benzo, so some docs are reluctant to prescribe it but..if you can get the dose up to 1-3mgs, usually that's enough to take care of most social phobias. BuSpar helps some people but...I wasn't impressed. Good luck!
Posted by theo on November 1, 2005, at 22:56:39
In reply to The Truth About Paxil, posted by peaceofmind on November 1, 2005, at 17:07:25
Paxil was the best for me to until I made the mistake of letting my doctor talk me into trying the newest at the time, Lexapro. Needless to say, Lexapro was horrible for me and wish I had never stopped the Paxil. I could walk up to a podium in front of a crowd and talk very smooth. Today, NO WAY!
Looking back, there was so much awakening with Paxil but now that I'm in a relationship, I don't think trying it again would be worth it do to the sexual side effects.
Posted by katekite1 on November 2, 2005, at 17:14:01
In reply to The Truth About Paxil, posted by peaceofmind on November 1, 2005, at 17:07:25
You could try a lower dose of Paxil.
Supposedly the response to ssris is basically flat, (a flat line on a graph rather than a curve), meaning (for most people) if it doesn't work and you double the dose it probably still won't work.
The converse of that which I haven't seen discussed at all ever, is that if it works, it may also work at half the dose. Or 1/4 the dose. Or 1/8 the dose, you never know. Of course if you are taking 20 mg and you suddenly drop to 10 mg, you will not be able to know whether it could work at 10 because you'll be in withdrawal from the 20. So the only way to do it is to taper up from a extremely low dose and take one's time, find the lowest effective dose.
The side effects of ssris are supposedly dose dependent. Meaning maybe if one is very lucky, one could take a very low dose that is effective without getting the side effects. I would try something around 1 mg for a month or so and see if it helped, then as long as no weight gain if its not working yet, bump it up to 2 etc... You would have to ask for the liquid Paxil, and for a little syringe so you could dose it out accurately.
Right now, you'll think I'm nuts but hey I'm posting in the right place if I am, I am trying 0.5 mg of Prozac for a similar reason. I had always had bad side effects with the ssris and I'm not horribly depressed right now, just trying to avoid feeling stressed out in a stressful time in my life. So this time I thought, hey I will take a joke dose of it to convince myself its okay. Well it turned out I could feel my few drops of a dose easily, so I thought, why increase it if I can feel it, I even got the sexual side effects from that dose. I've been on it a month and it seems to be doing quite a lot, sleeping better etc. So I'm taking 1/100th the dose some people take. People are all different, in clinical trials they want to find one dose that is effective for everyone? I've always been really sensitive to meds so maybe I just have to find out through experimentation what my own personal effective dose is.
Kate
Posted by peaceofmind on November 4, 2005, at 12:23:21
In reply to The Truth About Paxil, posted by peaceofmind on November 1, 2005, at 17:07:25
Thanks for the feedback everyone! I guess everyone has different side effects... Some worse than others..
This is the end of the thread.
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