Paxil to Prozac to NOTHING

It's been about 6 weeks since I switched to Prozac after slowly and painfully reducing my dosage of Paxil from 20 milligrams to 10.

I am down to 4 milligrams of Prozac and am feeling great!

I wish I had switched to 20 milligrams of Prozac before starting to wean off.

When I reached 10 milligrams of Paxil, I simply stopped taking it altogether and started 10 milligrams of Prozac. There was a minor adjustment period but nothing like even the smallest Paxil reductions.

I stayed on the Prozac for a couple of weeks to make sure I was totally adjusted to it. I then dropped down to 5 milligrams in two 2.5 milligram reductions. If I had done the same reductions on Paxil I am sure I would have felt really horrible but it was hardly noticeable on Prozac.

I am still 'gunshy' in dropping too quickly after the Paxil nightmare.

I just started breaking the 10 milligram Prozac tablets in half and taking the 'smaller' half...I figure it is about 4 milligrams...By the weekend, I plan on breaking the half in half to 2.5 milligrams and take it from there.

I recommend to anyone who is having difficulty stopping Paxil to seriously consider this approach. I really did not want to go this way because I did not want to introduce any new drugs into my system, but the switch was the best thing I could have done!

Mark

This is EXACTLY what i did by taking 5-HTP during withdrawal. I'm glad to hear that something similar could work just as well. I'd even consider what you did just as unsafe as what I did, based on every warning against using 5-HTP with SSRIs. This is basically more evidence that your body is simply low on serotonin while withdrawing from paxil.

The reason prozac is better on withdrawal is that it's half-life is longer. Paxil is out of your system within 48 hours (AFAIK), and your body is nowhere near the point of being adjusted to that.

I've heard of 5 HTP/ What is it exactly? Is it a prescribed? I went to a psychiatrist to discuss options to help with Paxil reduction. He was clueless about Paxil withdrawal and really no help at all. It doens;t look too good to be screaming at a psychiatrist, so I controlled myself and suggested switching to Prozac.

He agreed.

I am dropping to 2.5 by Monday....The weird thing is I am feeling better with the reductions rather than feeling jumpy and nauseous..

Did you completely stop Paxil?

Mark

5-HTP is an herbal supplement, any drug store will sell it.

As of today i stopped taking paxil it completely. I'm sure i wouldn't have tapered as fast as i have if it weren't for the HTP. I dropped from 10 to 5, then just over a week later (last monday) dropped to 2.5, and today i haven't taken any.

I'll pick some up this week. I wish Prozac came in liquid as it would be easier to accurately take the proper dose. I am breaking a 10 milligram tablet in half, taking the 'smaller' half and then shaving a bit off of that. I guess the dose ranges from 3-4 milligrams. I am going to stay somewhere around this dosage for a couple of weeks and wind up at 2.5 milligrams. I'd go even faster, but I am going through a very rough time in my marriage and between that and the stress factor at work, I don;t want to 'push' it right now. I am thrilled I am not freaking out at this low dosage.

I am interested in trying the 5 HTC. I'll let you know how it works for me.

Good Luck and keep posting how you are doing.

Mark

Thought I'd post an update..

I hadn't really noticed the effects of reducing the Prozac but when I dropped recently to 3-4 milligrams I was more sensitive and jumpy. But it was nothing compared to similar reductions of Paxil.

I finally dropped down to 2.5 milligrams today! This is a very small piece of a 10 milligram tablet. I am going to stay at this dose for a week and then drop it to 1.25 (or something like it).

It is really hard to cut a pill down this small. I think it will probably get so ridiculous next week that I just finally stop altogether.

I urge anyone who is having trouble stopping Paxil to switch to Prozac first!

Mark

Just so you know, 5-HTP is a precursor to serotonin, which is probably why y'all were warned about it, since taking too much with an SSRI could cause Serotonin Syndrome, which can be fatal.

So just be real careful with it. It's the same for taking St. John's Wort with an SSRI.

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Thanks Princess. I am aware that it is not a good idea to take serotonin drugs such as St. John's Wort while on SSRI's.

I am holding off on taking 5 HTP or anything else until I am completely off Prozac. I am down to 2.5 or less and am excited about getting down to ZERO!

I am planning on dropping down to a small chip of Prozac by next week and by the week after that.......Yeah Baby!

Mark

COOOL!

Good luck! I don't think you need it though. Sounds like you're pretty much there already :)

Thanks Princess!

It is frustrating reading about all the problems people have stoppng Paxil when we know that if they just slowed it down to a crawl they would do so much better. It is just human nature I guess to hurry up the process particularily when you realize that you want to stop taking this poison.

I wish anyone who is suffering from withdrawal would at least consider switching to Prozac. If I could do it over again, I would have made the switch at my original dose of 20 milligrams waited a couple of weeks and then started reducing from there.

I was aware of this as an option after reading about it in Prozac Backlash (I think that is the name), but I guess a lot of people like me, don;t want to make a bad thing worse by adding in new drugs. I was very hesitant about making the switch but when I dropped from 12 milligrams to 10 milligrams, I was getting so sick of feeling like crap, I made the decision.

Compared to the withdrawl effects of Paxil, coming down from Prozac is like a vacation but I still recommend going as slowly as possible with the decreases.

I have a big family even this weekend (my daughter's Bat Mitzvah) and didn't want to totally stop before then, so on Sunday, I cut the half of the half in HALF which will bring me down to the crumb of 1 milligram! I'll stay on that for about a week or two before reaching Ground Zero.

If I was still on Paxil, this might be the most critical time and with that in mind I am practically paranoid about dropping too fast.

Anyone reading this who is having uncomfortable withdrawal effects I urge you to go as slow as possible and think of making the switch to Prozac.

Good luck to everybody, I will be updating soon.

Mark

A good plan there. I took my last dose of Paxil on Dec. 24th, since I was going to see family on Christmas and I knew if I stopped as scheduled a few days earlier I would have been miserable.

You might not experience it, but Prozac does have a withdrawal...it's just a lot slower because of the half-life. You might get a surprise about 3 weeks down the line after you stop, but since you've been going so slow anyway, it probably won't be too bad at all.

I'd considered "cross-tapering", but when I did get some Prozac, it made me feel extra sleepy, so I decided not to, since I didn't need start-ups AND withdrawal at the same time :)

But whatever works :)

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Hi Princess,

You are right, Prozac stays in your body much longer than Paxil and you can feel the effects up to three weeks later. That scares me even though I am going so slowly. I don;t want to ruin the good momentum I have.

I am going to take my own advice and slow down the last reduction for a couple of weeks. I am tempted to just stop now but when I reduced the Prozac from 5 to 3 milligrams I definetely felt it. Not nearly as bad as a similar drop of Paxil but I was irritable and sensitive. COnsidering the high stress level that unfortunately is present in my life, I have to be careful not to 'test' too much.

Since the horrible experience I have had reducing the Paxil dosage, I am totally paranoid about going through anything like it again.

One of the problems at this point is regulating the dosage. I can only get 10 milligram tablets which are oval shaped. It is very hard to guage what a 2.5, let alone a 1.25 milligram dosage 'looks' like.

I really can't take the same dosage every day and at this level it is almost impossible to be accurate.

I wish Prozac were available in liquid...

Mark

Update Time (Thursday may 23rd...

As I planned on Sunday I made perhaps the last decrease in dosage of Prozac. It is impossible for me to know the exact doage considering how difficult it is to cut oval shaped pills in hald and half and half, etc. but I am definetely now at 1 milligram at the most!!

If you have been following my 'adventure' you know that the decreases in Prozac compared to Paxil is nowhere nearly as bad.

But unfortunately, even these small drops can effect me.

I have actually had a headache every day since going to 1 milligram. I felt very jumpy and irritible on Monday through Wednesday. Today I am lesws jumpy but have a headache.

This is typical of all the reductions for me. I had expected the drops from 5 to zero to be the most intense and am sure on paxil it would be much much worse!

But I am almost there and feeling very proud that I am going to make it!

I will stay on this crumb of a dose till I feel better and maybe a few days longer. I may even take a smaller crumb the following week. I don't care! As long as it keeps getting smaller and smaller, I am happier and happier!

Although this whole experience has been an emotional rollercoaster, for some unexplained reason I actually feel much better in every way!

I am working out almost everyday! (dont be too impressed it is a pretty light workout). I have never had this much motivation and feel more in touch with my body and myself the lower the dosage goes.

God, it will have taken me SIX months to go from 20 milligrams of Paxil to zero milligrams of Proazc (switching at 10).

I should celebrate when I finish the last crumb!

mark

That's so cool.

You know, I say...just go for the gusto and stop at 1 mg. I mean, how small can you cut those things into anyway?

Interesting tidbit: total lack of motivation is a side-effect of SSRIs for some people. Like a friend, she took Paxil for a few weeks, felt really good, worked like a charm...in fact, she felt so good she didn't want to do anything! So she quit (no withdrawal either :P ). So, it sounds perfectly normal for you to get more motivation back the less you're on.

For me motivation returned when I was totally off, because the withdrawal and the TD were both together a lot to deal with at once--maybe I woulda got more motivation and my creativity back earlier if I wasn't frazzled about the movement disorder :)

And yeah, celebrate when you're done :)

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Hi Princess,

Thanks for the feedback. I did exactly what you suggested. On Sunday, Memorial Day weekend, I took my last sliver of a dose.

I felt fine on Monday but Tuesday, I felt surprisingly bad. Not nearly as bad as the Paxil drops but jumpy, shaky and overall not feeling well.

On Wednesday, yesterday, I actually felt even worse! I had a low grade fever, my stomach hurt and I was exhausted. I can't believe my body reacts to a reduction from 1 milligram to nothing.

Today, I felt much better, although not 100 percent. Coffee makes me really shaky and I only drank 1/3 cup today.

BUT, I am finally THERE! NO MORE SSRI'S. FINALLY!!!

I think the worst is over, as my reactions to decreases have historically lasted 3 to 5 days before stabilzing. As my last decrease was only 1 milligram, I doubt it gets worse. I will update the progress. I guess I have another couple of weeks before all the Prozac is out of my system.

I am very proud that I stayed the course and beat this thing! I have never been so challenged in my life. I always thought I would be in trouble if I were addicted to cigarettes or food. I doubted my resolve. BUT, I stayed the course, never waivered, never increased (you should if you feel really bad) and toughed it out.

I do not know how some people stop so quickly. I really felt it would endanger my life. I had a serious premonition that I was going to have a stroke! I had this incredibly bad feeling that something very bad was going to happen to me if I stopped too soon. I even thought I could die.

I never feel this way but I took my feelings very seriously and made sure to go extremely slow.

And it worked!

I keep posting the same thoughts. Here they are again...

Taper as slowly as you have to. If you feel really bad slow it down!. Maybe the slower the better. COnsider switching to Prozac staying on it awhile and then tapering slowly from there.

Thank God I switched to Prozac. As bad as it was to taper from it, it was not in the same league as Paxil reductions.

Please consider these words carefully and take good care of yourselves.

I DID IT!

Mark

Hey Mark, congratulations on being totally free... hopefully someday we will all be there too. I hope you're going to keep posting us on how you're doing. Again, congrats!!

Thanks Buzz:

I will update this topic often, especially till I am completely over the hump.

Mark

Mark, you're the man! Hey, you did it. You're right--you had a plan and followed through--proving it can be done. Enjoy your new life--you deserve it.

Congrats :)

Hope your days keep getting better and better :)

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Thanks for the kind words!

NM, where you been? It is so good to hear from you.

If you havfe a chance drop me an email, I want to tell you a follow up to a story....

--------------------

Meanwhile, I woke up pretty sick today. I do not know if it is related to finally stopping Paxil/Prozac but I suspect it is.

I awoke with an extremely bad headache, stomach cramps and exhaustion. I was in bed 14 hours.

Somehow I managed to get out of the house and relaxed for a few hours at a friend's pool. I came home and slept 3 more hours. I slept like the dead. I woke up so disoriented, I didnt know what year it was...weird....

It could be food poisoning, a stomach virus or hopefully a final withdrawl side effect.

Well, it will be a week tomorrow! If it is a side effect it will pass...eventually!

Mark

[darcyb]

Please copy and paste this progress as anecodotes, it would make a perfect series of entries for visitors to read! Since the anecdotes system grabs the current date when you post, just include dates in the body of your text and I'll go in and modify the database to reflect them.

I wish I had the time to honor each and every one of everybody's efforts. But I continue to try:

Mark, I'd like to announce your success as an inspirational announcement on the main welcome page. (http://www.paxilprogress.org) May I copy and paste some excerpts of what you've written here?

A HUGE round of applause from this end! You did it! You explored your boundaries of tolerance and focus, found a plan of evolution and followed it. You found the faith in your own ability and affected great changes that before seemed like impossibilities. Way to go!

I've been chanting this since September 2000, "we are surrounded by heroes!"

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Hi Darcy:

Thank you for acknowledging my achievement but more importnatly, thank you for creating this forum. It has been an invaluable tool during the darkest days and actually made them easier and better.

I would be honored for you to include me on the front page!

I will write about my experiences stopping Paxil, particularily the switch to Prozac so that other's may benefit from what I have gone through.

If you have any ideas or suggestions in how you might use such a document, please let me know!

Thanks again!

Mark

[darcyb]

Thank you so much Mark!

I'm currently working on a huge withdrawal guide (the likes the world has never seen) and considering how much work this is (and my other 3 jobs), if you could write about how you used Prozac as a buffer to getting off of Paxil/SSRI medications, I'd like to lean on it when writing some parts of the guide. (With acknowledgements of course.)

I know the basic premise, but wouldn't mind having a fresh perspective from someone who just used that approach. I usually write out of experience first and then add what others have contributed to my knowledge. I lack first hand experience with Prozac however.

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Ok Darcey,

I will first focus on the switch I made to Prozac with all the gory details..

I'll knock it out in the next couple of days.

It is important to me to share this information. I never wanted to switch to Prozac and only did it on a hunch and the fact that I was getting tired of feeling bad for months on end..THe mysterious Paxil Flu with low grade fever for three months put me over the edge..

Mark

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Darcy,

Thank you for putting my story on the front page of the site!

It is great to see and somehow makes the accomplishment even more special.

Today was a great day! The first day I have not taken Paxil, Prozac or Adderol in a very long time.

I have not felt this good in a very long time!

Thank again,

Mark