Burning Upper Lip

[sheacarney]

Hey All,

WELL, here's a weird one...........my upper lip feels like it's been chemically burned. It's not terribly painful; just annoying. It's been like this for about a week or so and no amount of ointment makes it better. I've not changed my diet or anything else, so I figured I'd go online and see if there was anything to this burning lip thing and, sure enough, I found this:

"Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a complex, vexing condition in which a burning pain occurs on your tongue or lips, or over widespread areas involving your whole mouth, without any obvious reason.........more recently, some researchers have suggested dysfunctional or damaged nerves as a possible cause."

My skin burned for a year, but that was utter torment. This is just a blip on the radar of recovery, but I have to say I am absolutely astonished by the bizarre array of physical ailments I have encountered since quitting Paxil cold turkey. NEVER, EVER COLD TURKEY FROM PAXIL. That's for anyone new who might be reading this post. From the burning skin, the psuedoarthritis I have dealt with, off and on, since quitting that damn drug, to the burning lips........they all can be attributed to nerve damage (according to Dr. Robert Shipko, neuropsychiatrist, this is exactly what I've got).

Mercifully, I feel decent enough to say that this is more a nuissance than anything else.

Still healing,
Shea

[angels]

Originally Posted by sheacarney

I am absolutely astonished by the bizarre array of physical ailments I have encountered since quitting Paxil cold turkey. NEVER, EVER COLD TURKEY FROM PAXIL. That's for anyone new who might be reading this post.

Yes, it is truly incredible. It's not just your brain that's altered (as if that weren't an important enough organ), but your stomach, liver, endocrine systems, nerve system, adrenal system... if I knew biology, I could name all the sytems....
how about mental, phsycial, and emotional systems.

[Buxy`s Back]

shea the buring used to drive me to distraction,luckily its only my arms that get hit now fingers crossed ,never had the lips that sounds awful,hope it improves soon hun

[sheacarney]

Actually, it's not that bad. It just feels like a nasty sun burn on and just above my upper lip. No redness or inflammation visible; it's mostly just bizarre. It is nothing, all things considered. Now, the sleeping crap.......that's a different issue.

[paxilgirl]

Shea,

First off nice to see you!

Second...I have had a burning skin sensation of the side of my head around my ear and right temple down my cheek today and it is bugging the heck out of me. I've had patches of burning skin all throughout my recovery and am too still amazed at how these symptoms manifest themselves.

Sleep is also an issue here as well.

Hugs.

[sheacarney]

Hey Paxilgirl,

Ugh. I tell you, I'm scared that this will never be over. I'm coming up on two years and I KNOW I'm not healed, as I've still got these bizarre physical symptoms still niggling me. They are not the horrendous variety I used to experience, but they are still with me, as is apparent, via the burning lip crap. The random sleep deprivation is down right scary. I can't tell you from one night to the next if I'll sleep well. One week, I'll sleep very soundly, then the next I'll get four hours each night for a two day stretch and then one where I get absolutely no sleep. "Patchy sleep" is what altostrata called it and I've got just that. There seems to be no trigger or any indicator I can follow to know whether or not I'll sleep alright. For instance, I did two dinner theatre shows, last week. Both nights prior, I slept very well. Then, out of nowhere, with nothing to do the next day, I'm up at 7 am, for no reason other than I have that ****ty wired feeling. It's not what it used to be, mind you, but it's there. Now, if that wired feeling randomly occurs when I've got something important going on the next day, paritcularly if it's early, FORGET IT; no sleep at all. If there's stimulus on a "bad day/night" then I'll flush and feel nauseated while trying to sleep...maddening AND exhausting. This is my sleep pattern and it's disheartening. As I've noted throughout my withdrawal experience, there really isn't anything I can do about it. I just deal with it, but my patience for this crap has worn so very thin. Even if it happens just once a month it's just too much for me. I'm so sick of it.

More good news though; I went to see another neurologist, Dr. Timothy Fong, an instructor at UCLA. He deals mostly with addiction medicine and while he won't go so far to say that Paxil should be removed from the market, he did say he knew of it's addictive properties and associated withdrawal syndrome. The word is out. Of course, he feels I'm in a very small percentage of people who will ever have to deal with protracted withdrawal; perhaps true, but isn't it a ***** that I had to deal with it at all considering I was not warned about the drug's addictive properties and I should never have been prescribed it in the first place (which he concedes). He said in his dealing with Xanax, Ativan (benzos in general), there are people who have "lingering symptoms of withdrawal from the drug (by lingering he meant years lingering)" and that those who recover, generally, have five things in common:

1. They avoid alcohol and additional drugs
2. They have secure finances
3. They have a loving, supportive environment
4. They exercise (oxygenation of the brain is of primo importance)
5. They engage in activities that are meaningful to them.

WELL, I've got/do all of those things....NOW. My husband and I struggled tremendously, in early withdrawal, I'm sorry to say. Finances were bad, my husband was disabled, I was too sick to exercise or do anything meaningful, etc. Was my withdrawal worsened? Honestly, I don't really know. I saw vast improvement, PRIOR to my personal and financial station improving substantially, via my husband returning to work. In fact, if I hadn't started to feel better the exercise and engaging in anything meaningful wouldn't have happened....period. Also, what saddens me most is that there are so many people who don't have any of those five healing prerequisites. What do those poor people do? I know the answer and it's deplorable. When I think of someone ending their life because they used to bite their nails or blush in public I get sick to my stomach. The risk is far greater than the reward, with regard to Paxil. If there is a chance that someone can go through what I did, then NO ONE should be given these drugs for anything other than the most extreme of circumstances. Dr. Fong means well and doesn't dismiss protracted withdrawal. That's a step in the right direction. Also, I always have to remind myself that I went from one drug to another, from Paxil to Xanax, so I've been drug free for only a little over a year. All things considered, I think I will fully recover at some point, perhaps at 18-24 months psychotropic free.

-Shea