Help, shaking can't sleep

[CMG69]

My last dose of Paxil was on Tuesday and I have had a slight increase in anxiety, but tonight it has gotten so much worse. I am really shaky and my heart feels like it is burning and no amount of relaxation techniques are working. I can't sleep and these symptoms are terrifying the crap out of me. It feels so different than any other anxiety/panic symptoms I have had in the past. I just took a half a klonopin to see if that helps. I decreased the paxil from 5mgs to 0 in about 10 days, I am also on prozac 10mg, so maybe it is severe withdrawal. Any ideas, thoughts? should I go back to the 5 of paxil and decrease slower?

[anjopom]

You are decreasing far too quickly, thats why you have these awful symptoms, go back to the last dose you were stable at and taper down much more slowly!!!! There is an easier way to do this, so be kind to yourself and your brain, by decreasing rapidly you just throw your brain in to chaos, and it is objecting badly.

You will be ok, back up in dose, wait to get stable again, then do it a lot, lot slower, no medals here for being first to win the race.

[CMG69]

Thanks that what I was thinking I should do. I feel kind of stupid weaning so fast, but I was following dr.'s orders and was hopeful that it would work for me. This whole thing sucks, are these symptoms normal they seem so severe? I do CBT and I am practicing all the relaxation stuff, but it is not working at all. I just want to sleep and recover from this....I hope the kloopin will help in the short term. What kind of weaning schedule should I do once back stable at 5mg and how long to stay there?

[anjopom]

How true, we have all listened to doctors ideas on w/d and we have all ended up in the same sorry mess, its high time they educated themselves on w/d and how these drugs work, and the main thing, how there stupid tapering regimes throw innocent people like us into the lions den. We pay the price for their ignorence unfortunately, and by tapering too quickly this is exactly the sort of story we hear here all the time.

Yes these symptoms are "NORMAL" in w/d, especially when tapering in the wrong way, and yes your right again, this is not the normal anxiety experienced before a driving test or med exam, this is the chemical ramped up stuff that makes our lives intolerable. Right again, nothing seems to help with this sort of mad anxiety!!! thats the problem.

Its normal to feel like you want to sleep through w/d, ive heard that so many times, and often wished i could too, but once you stabilise and taper more slowly, you will get some quality of life back and the anxiety will quieten down a little, although, slow tapering does NOT mean symptom free, it means any symptoms will be tolerable for the most part, you can still expect to have bad hours or days along the way, but it will bve tolerable, and thats what makes this DOABLE!!!!!!

Go back to 5mg, you may find the anxiety will be more tolerable in a matter of hours, for some this has happened, but dont be disappointed if it takes a little longer, we are all so different, but suffer the same symptoms!!!!

Stay at that 5mg dose until you are really stable, 3-6 weeks i would imagine.

5mg and under is the hardest part of w/d, and lots of us here, myself included have to do a lot lower drops, maybe try going from 5 to 4.5, but bear in mind even a .5 drop may be too much, you will know from how you feel. If you feel ok at .5 drops then you can carry on. If symptoms ramp up then you may have to do smaller drops than that, some do .1mg drops and have been successful, so dont be thinking if this happens to you, that your never going to get off, because you will.

It makes it easier the kinder we can be to our minds and bodies, so slowly does it, thats how lots here succeed.

But dont even think about dropping until you are over this, take a holiday from tapering for now, and build up the strength you need to get you through the last hurdle to be drug free. The most important thing is to bet stable and get yourself feeling a lot better before you attempt to drop any more.

Remember also;- only taper ONE drug at a time, as i notice your on prozac and klonopin, you can deal with these further on down the road.

I hope this helps to put your mind at rest, i, myself have been where you are now, due to doctors ignorence, your so not alone buddy!!!!

This is NOT YOU, this is what the drug does when it leaves your body too quickly, slow down and calm down, do this once only, and do it slowly, so much gentler and kinder in the long run, no matter how long it takes.

The aim here is to get off and stay off these drugs, making it as comfortable as you can for yourself along the way, as it is a LONG PROCESS.

[CMG69]

THANK YOU for all you kind words and thoughts. I really needed someone last night who understands and you were there for me. I so appreciate it. I was able to get a couple of hours of sleep and I am still very shaky, crying and upset about feeling this way and today I have to go clean out my grandmother's bedroom (she died 6 months ago) and I am upset about that as well. I put in a call to my pdoc to get her impression and advice, she is very supportive and openminded so that is good. I guess I'll just take it one hour at a time today..

[texgirl]

If I'm reading your signature right, you also recently (a month ago?) increased your Prozac dosage. It's possible that this in addition to weaning the Paxil too quickly is causing you to have the problems you described. Prozac is known to be stimulating and can cause anxiety and sleep disturbances. Just something to keep in mind when you plan your next move.

You don't mention Klonopin in your signature, are you taking this regularly or just occasionally?

[scotty]

Originally Posted by texgirl

If I'm reading your signature right, you also recently (a month ago?) increased your Prozac dosage. It's possible that this in addition to weaning the Paxil too quickly is causing you to have the problems you described. Prozac is known to be stimulating and can cause anxiety and sleep disturbances. Just something to keep in mind when you plan your next move.

This is exactly what's creating the chaos that you are in. Prozac is known for increasing anxiety(they gave benzos in the clinical trial to cover it). Switching just doesn't work.

[CMG69]

I only take Klonopin as needed and I definately needed it last night. I talked to my doc and she thought that I decreased too quickly (per her instructions) but said to increase the paxil dose to where I was comfortable and then decrease slower. She also talked about increasing the prozac too which I am not too crazy about right now. So, I am so exhausted from last night and today just feeling so down. I felt like the prozac was working for me, just decreasing the paxil too quickly caused such uncomfortable symptoms.

[Songbird]

You need to reinstate the Paxil and then wait to stabilise. It looks like the Prozac is not going to cover Paxil withdrawal for you, so I'm kind of wondering what is the point of continuing with the switch, as you're going to have to taper the Paxil slowly anyway.