One week cold turkey

Hello -
I am a 32 year old female and I have been off paxil and paxil CR for one week now (cold turkey) from 40 mg tablets. I have tried the moderation program for over one year prior to this week and I always end up back on paxil due to the serious withdrawals. I feel I am in a no win situation. That is why I decided to go cold turkey. I took a month off from work to rid this out of my body. Can you believe that? This drug has affected me emotionally and now it is hindering my finances and job security. If anyone has time can you answer a few question for me.....
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get through this easier? My head is so exhausted from the electrical zaps and migraines.
Does anyone have information on lawsuits regarding this matter? I am so upset that I have to go through such torture! How can this company put a drug out on the market knowing what it could do to people who are trying to get off of it?
Thank you - Your comments are extremely appreciated : )

Noelle,

I hope you are under doctor's care and advice! a 40 mgs. cold turkey drop is HUGE. Wow, sounds as if it has been a tough-go for you. Please heed the advice on these pages (and see posts from mercury aka. sandra) about the perils of quick, sudden withdrawals.

Your mind, body and spirit deserves to be treated with care. Don't subject yourself to more pain than necessary (by going too fast).

I sound preachy, but given what I have experienced and encouraged others through, cold-turkey of 40 mgs. scares the dickens out of me!

Blessings, Bill

Noelle -

I got Terrible migraines....you are lucky to have a month off. I found that all natural stuff helped me the most, as I truely was looking for cleansing....

I ate small snacks, fruits, veggies, whole wheat bread
Drink lots of water
Take vitamin B
EXERCISE....I felt like there was no way I could run, but I did and it really helped.
Sleep.....
Cold compresses on the head
Massage - great relaxant......

Cold turkey is scary, but I can understand why you would want to do this. Please be careful. I hope you have atleast a close friend or partner who can be there for you. The emotional stuff is bad when it hits and if you have pain on top of it (migraines and such) it can really feel like dooms day. I am not a suicidal person at all, and boy, the thought crossed my mind, and I tapered very slowly.

Good luck to you....and god bless!

I had to leave my job in April in order to go through paxil withdrawal. You sound exactly like me when I first set out to do this. I was just going to stay home and do it and that's it. Cold turkey was impossible for me so I had been doing a gradual tapering plan layed out by my doctor. She warned me as did so many people on this board not to deviate from it and not to get too confident. I began at 10 mgs. and started reducing from there. For the first couple of months, I followed her very slow very rigid reduction plan. I still experienced pretty much all of the side effects even though I was tapering slowly, but they were tolerable. Although, I still couldn't work or function very well through the reductions. Then last month, I became eager and overconfident. I just wanted to be done with it. I had been at 2.5 mgs. for two weeks and then I just quit 12 days ago. At first I felt so liberated and thought, that's it!! I'm done!! Paxil withdrawal is over....SURE, SURE SURE IT IS....During the last 5 days, I had entered the gates of hell. I cannot even exaggerate what I have gone through, even if I wanted to. I truly believed I was going insane and I became a rageful, angry, maniacal madwoman. I put my boyfriend through hell. Nobody could talk to me and I couldn't tolerate anything. No sounds, no lights, no talking. I thought I would go through the roof everytime the phone rang. Then I'd fluctuate from the angry rages to the outbursts of crying. This just went on and on. Today I finallly couldn't take it anymore and decided that it was just not worth this tortute. I could not go on like this anymore. I gave in today and took a small dose. I have gotten a little relief, although I now look forward to more days, thus more doses to stabilize myself again. This truly is the worst drug to come off of. I still don't know now that I'm going to be able to do it. You remind me of myself when I decided to stay home from work and get off paxil, after previous attempts had failed because I couldn't keep working and functioning. I'm here to tell you that just because I stayed home, it didn't make it any more tolerable. I mean if I had showed up at work in this state, surely I'd have been fired or they would have called the men in the white coats to lock me up, but that still doesn't mean that I tolerated or succeeded with the withdrawal. Now I'm back to square one because I went way way too fast and didn't listen to everyone's advice. I'm not saying that it will be the same for you. I hope you are one of the lucky ones that can do it and succeed. Joelle here on our board did it and she's okay after one month of cold turkey. I still don't know how the heck she did that. I have come to realize that our own individual chemistries have a lot to do with how the withdrawal affects us. I think that some of us are much more sensitive to the withdrawal effects of this drug than others. I wish you lots of luck, but I wanted to prepare you for what could be. My advice would be not to cold turkey it. I truly believe that I may not have survived another day of the symptoms, and for me it had been 12 days off today, after stopping at 2.5 mgs. I am involved with a lawfirm handling paxil litigation. They are Suggs, Kelly and Middleton in Atlanta Georgia. You can contact them at 1-800-222-8678.

If you want to view their information on the web regarding their paxil litigation and symptoms review, you may do so by going to:

http://paxil-side-effects-lawsuits.c...thdrawals.html. When you look there, the number listed is a Boston Affiliate. The number I have provided is their affiliate office in Georgia who is handling the paxil litigation.

Sandra
We'll be here for you. Good luck
Sandra

Hi Mercury-
Thank you for sharing your story with me. I am "beside myself", because I just can not believe how many people are going through all this mental anguish. This drug has to be taken off the market. It is simple as that. There is another section under this site called, "good experiences". I am sure you have seen it. It states in there that this is an area for people who have enjoyed paxil and are not out to viscously sue the company and how we (the bad experience people) have forgotten how it has helped us in the beginning. That just astounds me that people will do anything to make themselves feel better whatever the consequences. If my doctor informed me of the withdrawals, I most certainly would not have taken paxil. There are plenty of other drugs to choose from. I would not be surprised if 7 out of 10 of those people whom decide one day to stop taking paxil will go through the terrible withdrawal symptoms and will be over on this side (bad experiences) relating their stories with us. I agree 100% that it helps get you out of depression and anxiety for a while but it is about "the withdrawing" off the drug that is raising issues here. As you can see I am very angry with what I am going through. Thank you for the legal information. Have you heard of any class action suits against the company?
How long did you go cold turkey before you decided you could not take it any longer? Did you mean by day 12 you had enough and decide to go back to moderation? I probably am about at day 5 because you have to give yourself two or three days before it starts to hit you. I want you to know that I am in the perfect circumstances to withdrawal. I have no children and my fiance goes to work during the day so I am at home all by myself. I have learned quickly that "absolute silence" is required so that your mind is free of the noises. I have to walk very slowly (as if a book was placed on my head and I have to try and not let it fall). Also alot of sleep and when you are up drink as much water as possible. However, drinking the water gives me accelerated headaches but I have to drink the water because I feel dehydrated. So when I get the headaches from drinking the water I go back to bed and when I wake up it is gone for a while. It is day 5 and the electrical shocks have subsided but I think it is because I am controlling my environment. I noticed when my fiance comes home I start getting the electrical shocks again. So any of you who have fiance's please get rid of them immediately. Ha- Ha Just Joking ...but when he is at home he watches TV and because I want to be with him I watch it with him and I start to feel the shocks when I watch television due to the noise. Anyway, please write back, I would like to hear your comments. I want to again thank you for sharing your story with me. It is very comforting to know I am not alone. - Noelle : )

Noelle:

The idea is to get off Paxil successfully. If you are sensitive to withdrawal effects you are making a dangerous mistake.

I do not think this is a good idea,,,,

I've been through all the withdrawal nightmares and this weekend marks 3 months Paxil Free!

If I could do it over, I would have gone even slower..like my hero, NM.

Hey NM, you out there?

Take some sense into your namesake!

Mark

[safarigal]

Noelle:

For me it took more than 5 days before the real nasty side effects of quitting Paxil cold turkey took effect. The zaps, dizziness, halucinations and headaches were minor compared to what was to come. After around a full week off Paxil I started really losing my mind. I remember standing in the kitchen doing dishes, I was cleaning a really sharp knife and had a most terrible urge to slit my wrists!!! I could even see the blood everywhere!! I wasn't even suicidal!! I also had these weird thoughts that I'd be better off dead or my son would be better off dead!! I mean I was terrified!! I really truly thought I'd need to get checked into the nut house!!
I also started having nasty anxiety and panic attacks. To top it off I started having terrible dreams!! I ended up back on Paxil and within a few days felt much better.

Please be careful Noelle, quitting Paxil cold turkey is extremely difficult. And I really don't think a week is enough time to take off work to go through it.

I'm tapering off slowly this time and its going fine as along as I watch the symptoms. It'll take a few months to be Paxil free but I'll hopefully be totally sane by the time I'm done with it.

Julie D.

Hey Noelle,

Just thought I'd touch a bit more on some of the things you mentioned. I completely agree with about the anger and betrayal that has been done to us by this drug. Sure, it helped most of us, but had we known or been told about what coming off this drug would be like, most of us would have chosen against it, I'm sure. Like you said, we didn't choose this knowing what was ahead. Nobody warned us. I've now realized that NOBODY KNEW!!! I don't believe any doctor who knew would do this to us deliberately and break their hippocratic oath maliciously. When I first discovered what trying to stop this drug was doing to me several years ago, I kept thinking it was me!! I kept thinking I must just need paxil. My doctor at that time was telling me it was a "relapse". I was asking "relapse from what"? I was given paxil for fatigue 8 years ago, so why would I develop severe vertigo, nausea, anger, moodswings, trouble walking and flu symptoms when I stopped...Is that the relapse he's talking about?

Anyway, we've all been there. I finally had to do my own research to figure out what the heck was going on. It wasn't me...It was paxil withdrawal. Thank God you have no children and can stay home from work. I've said from the beginning that I just don't know how anyone with young children to take care of can do this. My son is almost 20 and in college. I've often sat in my state of paxil withdrawal and wondered what it would have been like had this happened when my son was little. It was a pretty frightening thought. I clearly would have been unable to care for him and this makes me wonder about all the people out there who are in this situation. We've got to get this drug off the market PERIOD!!. We've got to be the ones to stop this is all I can say. Thank God we have eachother here. I would have not survived this without this board. Hang in there

Sandra

I read you response and I am so mentally exhausted fromk fighting the withdrawals that I might want to go back to moderation. So, I am sitting here staring at the prescription of paxil I have undecided on what to do. I feel I have made it one week and 1/2 now maybe I should just stick it out. I am so sick of sleeping but it is all I can do because these migraines are very painful plus I am getting hot flashes. I could either wing this or fstart all over again which would mean that all this time I have spent in pain was for nothing. If Il do go on moderation should I take half a tablet of 37.5? When do I take it? How many days in between? I went off this before only to fond myself back up to the same dosage because of teh withdrawl symptoms. The problem now is that the withdrawing is over a prolonged period of time and it is started to catch up to me. Please let me know your opinion. Thank you - Noelle

[safarigal]

Noelle,

It would probably be a good idea to go back to your original dose until your withdrawal symptoms stabalize. At least then you would be feeling much better and will be able to plan your decreases.

Remember what most people on this site recommend, taper slowly and be sure to stabalize at each dosage.

Julie D.

Hey, Noelle, it doesn't sound like you are doing too terribly great with the cold turkey method. You may not want to go back on the Paxil, but doing so could mean that you can successfully get off it all together. Going back on a lower dose does not mean that you are forfeiting what you've done so far. In fact, it may mean cutting your losses so that you don't go down the tubes entirely.

You were on a fairly hefty dose. 40 mg, right? Why not try going back on half your dose at this point? Try taking 20 mg. If you still feel crappy, try 30 mg. That would still be a cut of 25%! Then... start your taper. Just cut by 2.5 mg every couple of weeks. If you are experiencing withdrawal symptoms, stay at each new level long enough to let your brain adjust to going it alone. If it takes a month, fine, then a month it is.

Do you own a pill cutter? They're cheap and available at most pharmacies for about US$4. Always cut with a coated side of the pil or pill chunk towards the blade to avoid crumbling. If you can, you could ask for a prescription for the liquid, Paxil suspension. Then you can drop by as little as 1 mg, if necessary, by measuring with a syringe: 1mL = 2 mg.

Here's the main message to understand: How fast you get off the Paxil is not nearly as important as being able to get off and stay off with your mind still intact. I've been working my way off 60 mg for a year now. I'm going to 3 mg this coming week. I've stayed at a new dose for as long as 2 months to let my brain figure out what it needs to do without the Paxil. I had all the nasty withdrawal symptoms but could manage them.

There are vitamins, supplements, OTC remedies and changes to your daily routine that can all positively impact how you feel while tapering off Paxil. They lessen the withdrawal symptoms.

Noelle, you can do this. Don't try to get off all at once. It is not worth it in the long run. You need to be able to function. Make a plan. Give yourself permission to be flexible with it. Stick with this group for moral support. Just remember, YOU CAN DO IT!! From another Noelle