brand new/just started taking/need advice

[jim31577]

I know this appears to be a sight mainly for people who are trying to stop using paxil, but I just started the drug yesterday. Took my 2nd pill this morning. I have extreme anxiety about any and everything and have waited 10 years before I went this route. I get to the point I make myself physically ill I worry so often. And my life is good, that's what I don't understand. I'm married, 3 kids (6,3, 6 months), married to high school sweetheart who is the best wife anyone could ask for. My main anxiety right now is at work. I have a very stressful job. 100 employees directly under me, I'm only 29 years old and the pressure is getting to be too much. Need some advice.

[scotty]

Jim, as you can tell there's no love lost for paxil here. While it can help in the short term for anxiety, the long term adverse effects and withdrawal most here have found not worth that short term help. You seem to know where the anxiety stems from. Have you ever tried counseling to help deal with that specific area of your life?

Based on my son's experience with paxil I woud not recommend it to anyone. It's just not worth it. He was on paxil for 14 months and it took a year of hell for him to get free of paxil's effects.

[jim31577]

Thanks for the reply. Is this just a small percentage of the people who get off the drug that have this "hell" you are describing or is it on a larger scale?? I've never taken any kind of medication before other than tylenol. My doctor who prescribed the drug has been a family friend for many years.

[scotty]

The estimates for withdrawal taken from the clinical studies is that 60% of those who take paxil will go through withdrawal. Some mild, others protracted long term withdrawal.

[I-H8-Paxil]

Jim, save yourself now! Two days is nothing. I am nine months off and I am still suffering withdrawal. It alters your brain chemistry in a way that is unnatural. We all have problems - altering our brains so that the problems don't bother us anymore is not the answer. Try something like B-Complex if you are stressed or some natural supplement for anxiety. Sometimes anxiety can be treated with an increase in water, just water. Go figure. See what's out there. Drugs are just not worth it. It will change who you are. Sure, your worries might stop, but so will everything you cared out. You will be numb to anything and everything.

[jim31577]

Why do medical professionals continue to prescribe this drug if it is so bad?? I don't understand that. Like i previously said, I have never taken any kind of a drug. But, I'm not myself lately. I'm not happy and I should be.

[Katesmom]

Jim-

I just PMed you to say my piece. I want to add to that in college I had very similar anxiety issues. I made myself very sick and destroyed my immune system. Luckily, that was before SSRIs were doled out like candy. My doc did give me a Rx for ten benzos (sorry, don't remember which ones). When I was overwhelmed with nausea, I would take one. They made me very sleepy, so I didn't want to take them very often. They do help if they are only taken when you are in dire need. They are highly addictive, though, so should not be used on a regular basis. They can also create rebound anxiety, so should only be taken when absolutely necessary. I found that just having them knowing that I could take them if I needed them was so comforting that I didn't need them as much. I took nine of them over the course of a year and kept that 'just in case' pill for a long, long time until I had to throw it out. This might be a solution for you in the short term while you get started in counseling.

[scotty]

They are still prescribed because it's only in the past two years that the adverse reactions and withdrawal are becoming very public. We've found that this reactions were kept very quiet, even though they showed up very early on after these drugs were approved. Just one example, Prozac when approved for use in the US had the highest number of Adverse Drug Reaction reports to the FDA than any other drug in history.

In 2004 the FDA placed a "black box" warning for suicide and violence on these drugs for children, and are now planning on hearings for the same reaction in adults. Withdrawal class action lawsuits are recently settled, but more are being done right now.

Jim, this category of drugs alter your brain chemistry. The big problem there is so little known about the brain, that these drugs are guesswork at best for their actions. The "chemical imbalance" theory is just that.. a theory. So while they claim that those that are depressed are low in serotonin, no one really knows. There is no way to confirm a serotonin deficiency.

So you end up with altered brain chemisty, which can make your behavior unpredictable at best, dangerous at worst.

[Greenslade]

Hi I took the drug without reading up or worrying about the consequences.I was niave.If I had the chance again I would not have taken it.

I am not saying everyone has difficulties on paxil but as you can see you are posting on a website where most people have or are having terrible side effects whilst being on the drug and when coming off it.

If I had found this website before I took my first pill then NO I would not have taken my second.

The choice is yours!

[I-H8-Paxil]

There are a few Paxil afficianados around here. They are usually young and naive. I was the same way and now I am just young. (Unlike them I never liked Paxil, I always hated being on it, even when it supposedly helped).

They are still prescribed because the doctors don't know jack squat. They believe what the drug company reps tell them. The drug companies care only about profits - not in the least what their products do to us. Withdrawal is commonly mislabeled as relapse and so us sheeple go on thinking we are sick on our own. You know the old "maybe you just neeeed to be taking it."

[ICanDoThis]

Hey Jim, I'm with everyone else here! Don't start. You're one of the lucky ones to have found this site so early on in your treatment. It's a horrible drug that's still being forced down our throats eventhough it's been proven to be worse than the cure. Have you looked into St. John's Wort? I know that a lot of people here want to be totally drug free but that's not an option for everyone. If you can't funtion in your daily life despite years of fighting the sickness then I'm all for a safe alternative. If you look on the site www.quitpaxil.org there's a ton of info on St. John's Wort. Or maybe Valerian or Kava kava - although they both have their downsides as well. I just want everyone reading this to know that I am absolutely NOT cracking on this site. I think it's a wonderful place the difference is that on stoppaxil.org it's mainly focused on trading in Paxil for something safer. Good luck!!!!

[scotty]

Jim, here are some more link to other reports on paxil.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=311956&page=1

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWER.../ANS01362.html

http://www.citypages.com/databank/23...ticle10788.asp

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/h...ts/seroxat.txt

I'm not trying to scare you, I just want you to have the information to make an informed decision... something that most here weren't given the opportunity to make.

[babs]

Jim, I was on Paxil 11 years and did well on it but it stopped working and it has been a year of hell for me since I quit. Withdrawal is a nightmare for many, and most doctors are woefully uneducated about it. My advice to you would be NOT to take it, and if you feel you must take something, choose a different drug than Paxil. Effexor withdrawal is extremely hard too.

[Katesmom]

ICan-

I believe that while St. John's Wort helps some people with depression, it makes anxiety worse. Someone correct me it I am wrong.

[jim31577]

i appreciate all the input from everyone. Kate's mom, thanks for the pmessage as well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the general consensus is that paxil will more than likely temporarily make me feel better or make me think I'm feeling better. But eventually, that effect will wear off and I will need more and more of the drug to get that same effect. Then, when I decide I can't or don't want to take the drug anymore, it will be like going through rehab for any other form of illegal drug addiction??? Sound pretty close??

[Samalabear]

Dear Jim,

I am brand new to this site, having signed up yesterday and I have to try to go back to work right now, even though I'm going to intense withdrawal from Paxil, so I'll make this short.

From my childhood through 1996 I had bouts of depression and lots of anxiety. I never took any kind of medication for it. In my first very worst time I reached out and found a therapist -- a good therapist -- through Family Service League. She helped me save my life then. Fast forward to '97, I was going to a horrible time, lots of loss, etc. (i.e. moments that we, if we're human, go through) I and a visit to a doctor -- male doctor -- gave me a script for Zoloft for what he termed "the blues" I was having. He kept upping the dose every four weeks and I was becoming more and more zombie-like. I felt nothing and cared about nothing, couldn't stay awake, couldn't sleep due to sudden intense muscle spasms. The doctor said it will go away and proceeded to up the dose. My job went to hell, the bills went to hell. I didn't care, I was high all the time -- and the tears that were coming down in buckets? Dried up completely, never to be shed again. In September of '97 I had had enough and went cold turkey off zoloft. That was my first experience with what I learned yesterday online are brain shivers , zaps, electric shocks, whatever the term. Two weeks of absolute hell, but unlike Paxil, after two weeks the major stuff was gone. It still took another six months to actually feel like a person again, but I was functional and working hard, and now close to bankruptcy.

I went into therapy again, overcame my anxiety and fear of people enough to go to college for graphic design -- had never been to college before. This was 1998. I earned 45 credits and a 4.00 GPA in nine months and then exhaustion hit. I will tell you quickly that I could not have done this if I was still on Zoloft. Anyway, I had to leave. Looking back the stress if that many credits in a short time, a full-time job and a son with Asperger's Syndome and fighting a vicious site with my school district, plus the exhaustion led to the subsequent depression. I held off until 2000. My dad was on Paxil. He felt it was the best thing since sliced bread. After my withdrawal experience with Zoloft I was terrified of using an antidepressant. But my family pressure won and I went on Paxil. Because I could barely afford the Paxil I cut out all nutritional supplments and reflexology sessions that I could no longer afford and went on the "fast track" to feeling better, the proverbial "silver bullet". I was going to be a "nice" person.

Well, it's been six years. I've been through many losses in-between, the most notable being my dad on January 16, 2004, a year after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's and three weeks after a fall down a flight of stairs, on Paxil until the end, because the one time he tried to get off he said it was hell and would never try again.

My dose of Paxil all this time has been 20mg. My doctor once tried to raise it to 40mg to ease bad PMS once. Bad time that was -- it took four days and then that experiment came to an end Back to the 20mg.

The last year these are the problems that have been getting worse and worse -- the brain zaps, the most amazingly horrendous, heart-thumping nightmares now occurring all the time, where they used to only occur during PMS, incredible fatigue all the time, anger, 20-minute naps out of necessity to keep working, but no longer refreshing because of the nightmares. In the last couple of months finally my vital creativity is just about gone. I don't have the patience to work on my website so I've moved everything over to my favorite online auction store (definitely not eBay) where I know that I don't have to be creative and my items will get into Google and Froogle without my help.

I ran out of my last refill of Paxil last week and called up my doc to have it renewed. She wouldn't renew because I needed a checkup. I made an appointment for the earliest date, May 1st (hey, with no insurance you take what you can get). I panicked. I knew I would be going through massive zaps within four days. Well, it's now been a week. I finally got the brilliant idea to search for "antidepressant withdrawal," and then specifically "Paxil withdrawal," which led me to this fine site.

I had a very, very bad day yesterday off and on with the withdrawal. By afternoon I was running a fever and left an emergency message for my doc to call me. I should tell you know that in the clinic system on Long Island this is the only to try to reach your doc now. I have yet to receive a call. So I'm trying to hang in there. I am hoping that this present nightmare and my subsequent search for information that led me here will be the silver lining. I want off this drug. I want all the good things about me back.

Jim, to you, the best thing that happened is that you stumbled on all of this info. If you decide to go forward with the Paxil at least you won't be in the dark with any effects you might feel that you might not find in the official warnings. And it may be a good idea for the short term. What I have read for many years is that you should have therapy. Unfortunately, the trend seems to be pills only. If you don't have insurance and you need help from a non-profit the waiting list for help is very long.

Well, anyway, my anger is starting to show and I'm sorry. I just feel that I was intermittantly broken before antidepressants and now I may be really broken for a long, long time. For a person that never smoked pot, never took any kind of mind-altering drugs, legal or illegal, except alcohol, where I learned early in life that being drunk and out-of-control or "fuzzy" was not something I liked and my stomach didn't either, so alcohol was never a problem. And here I am experiencing withdrawal. Never thought that would happen

Cathy

[scotty]

You've got the picture. Add on that the drug counselors that I've talked to admit that they rather get someone off Heroin than paxil. Jim, I had NO clue what paxil could do until I saw in in my son and in others in my town. I'm a nurse and believed right along with the rest of the medical professionals that these drugs were the "miracle drug". It was only after I saw my son turned into a completely different person that I did the research.

[Suze]

Ya, I think you're close Jim.

Here is the part of your initial post that stands out for me:

Originally Posted by jim31577

My main anxiety right now is at work. I have a very stressful job. 100 employees directly under me, I'm only 29 years old and the pressure is getting to be too much. Need some advice.

Please consider this: Your main anxiety is work. It is something outside of yourself. Why would you want to change your brain chemistry in response to an externally stressful situation? You don't need a chemical lobotomy....you need some changes in your environment. Sorry that sounds so blunt (and I DO understand what you are going through....). Sometimes when people specifically request advice, I feel compelled to offer some.

[Samalabear]

Originally Posted by jim31577

i appreciate all the input from everyone. Kate's mom, thanks for the pmessage as well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the general consensus is that paxil will more than likely temporarily make me feel better or make me think I'm feeling better. But eventually, that effect will wear off and I will need more and more of the drug to get that same effect. Then, when I decide I can't or don't want to take the drug anymore, it will be like going through rehab for any other form of illegal drug addiction??? Sound pretty close??

I think you just expressed very succinctly what I was trying to say in my post and the way I feel about the situation

[Homerbcool]

Jim...you mention that the doctor that perscribed this to you is a close family friend...have yuo asked him about all of this.....I asked a family friend once and she is a Nurse emplyed with Health Canada....she told me that the drug is an "old" drug and defective.....and unless I absolutely needed to come off it, I should stay on it...that made my resolve to get off it even stronger...

Now as fara as what is causing these anxiety issues...I agree with Sue...IF i were in your shoes and I knew of all of the paxil issues...i would look at altering the influences not put a GSK BAND AID on it...

[Katesmom]

Originally Posted by Suze

Ya, I think you're close Jim.

Here is the part of your initial post that stands out for me:

Please consider this: Your main anxiety is work. It is something outside of yourself. Why would you want to change your brain chemistry in response to an externally stressful situation? You don't need a chemical lobotomy....you need some changes in your environment. Sorry that sounds so blunt (and I DO understand what you are going through....). Sometimes when people specifically request advice, I feel compelled to offer some.

Jim,

I think Suze has hit the nail on the head here. Paxil is not exactly like other 'addictive' drugs. I don't want you to get the wrong impression on that. The FDA doesn't consider Paxil addictive at all because it doesn't drive people to knock over pharmacies to get their next fix. Paxil (and its cousins) is more subtle than that.

You can take Paxil for several weeks without feeling any difference at all. That's because it doesn't give you a 'high' or a 'mellow.' It is, like Suze says, acting on your brain and changing it. (Scary as heck, to me.) After a couple of months, you realize that everything seems to have evened out and that is welcome. You sleep better and you feel less anxiety. This is the 'honeymoon' period when Paxil is doing what it is supposed to do. How long this lasts is pretty individual, but is usually only a matter of months.

Then, so slowly you cannot even recognize it, that 'evening out' of everything becomes emotional numbness, and the 'sleeping better' becomes constant fatigue. And the things that you clearly recognize as side effects, like weight gain and loss of libido, you don't care that much about. You know you should, but you don't. I didn't work outside of the home for very long on Paxil. Most of my time on Paxil was spent as a stay-at-home mom. Even in that capacity, I could not get anything done. My house was never clean and even though I hated it, I could not get motivated to do anything about it. I cannot emphasize enough that that was not me, not who I ever was before Paxil.

So, Paxil is not exactly like other addictive drugs. It changes your brain, the very essentials of who you are. That is why it takes so long to get over discontinuing Paxil. It is more than a matter of getting the drug out of your body; it is letting your brain repair the rewiring that Paxil has done.

I hope that clears things up a bit for you.

[Katesmom]

Cathy-

It is unethical for your doctor to deny you a refill of Paxil. If you have a set appt with the doc, call the nurse back and tell her that you got the earliest available appt, but that in the meantime you need a refill of Paxil. Remind her that this drug should not be stopped abruptly and that you are already experiencing withdrawal symptoms. If that doesn't get you a refill threaten to report them to the state authorities!

Are you experiencing these withdrawal symptoms on your full dose of Paxil?

[punky]

Originally Posted by jim31577

i appreciate all the input from everyone. Kate's mom, thanks for the pmessage as well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the general consensus is that paxil will more than likely temporarily make me feel better or make me think I'm feeling better. But eventually, that effect will wear off and I will need more and more of the drug to get that same effect. Then, when I decide I can't or don't want to take the drug anymore, it will be like going through rehab for any other form of illegal drug addiction??? Sound pretty close??

Bingo!

[Homerbcool]

A couple of things...one, that baby is just too damm cute (Katesmom avator)...and what kind of sick doctors do you have Cathy...this is beyond mean, it should be criminal...I would drive immediately to the doctors office and demand some of the sample packetees the drug reps hand out...

[punky]

Originally Posted by Katesmom

. The FDA doesn't consider Paxil addictive at all because it doesn't drive people to knock over pharmacies to get their next fix. Paxil (and its cousins) is more subtle than that.

I found this funny because i was just about at that point once in my life. My doc said he wouldn't refill my paxil until i came in for my yearly pap. Sad thing was I didn't have insurance and was wondering how i'd even get it if i did talk him into a refill. Long story short, a friend of mine knew a guy that got paxil, but didn't take it because of the sexual side effects. He sold me his 90 day supply for fifty bucks. Imagine what the cop would think that walked up on that "drug deal." It is addictive to the point of buyin it off the streets, etc. Something that if ya don't have ya think you are going to die. I've had to be on oxycontin in the past for a tonsillectomy. Was on it for almost two months. The withdrawl was nothing compared to paxil.