bewildered and trying to remain calm

Hi
I have been on paxil cr for the last 6 months and 7 years of paxil regular before that. I was cutting down to the point I was taking the paxil cr 12.5 mg every 3 days and nothing in between. My withdrawal symptoms were getting a little better. I went back to my doctor and he told me that he wanted me to try a small dosage of zoloft. I cut the 25 mg in half and have taken it for three days and stopped taking the paxil entirely.
Now I felt better the first two days but now it is 6 days without any paxil and i feel some of the same withdrawal feeling I had in the past going off the paxil but only this time I am wide awake.
I have intrusive thoughts, music gets stuck in my head to the point of it being painful. Also when I close my eyes to go to sleep and drift off to another phase of sleep I panic and get all upset about the thoughts I am having. These are all things I experienced with paxil withdrawal . I thougth the zoloft would cancel the paxil withdrawal. Is it possible to be experiencing paxil withdrawal while taking a new ssri like zoloft?
I am just going on because I can't sleep and am frightened once again by these monsters. Any input is appreciated.

Thanks
Dave

Dave,

Although I never took Paxil in combination with Zoloft, I have taken both of these anti-depressants.
When I was first diagnosed with depression my regular pysician prescribed Zoloft. He told me that in some cases Zoloft could actualy cause anxiety for some people. Well he wasn't kidding! I was on my second day of taking Zoloft. I had layed down to get some sleep and was sleeping fine when all of a sudden I woke up from my sound sleep in complete panic! It was worse than any panic attack I had ever experienced before. I went into a cold sweat that covered my entire body, the room was spinning and the thoughts were horrid! I immediately called my doctor the next day and told him to shove the Zoloft where the sun don't shine! That is when I went to a therapist, that was more familiar with anti-depressants and she in turn put me on Paxil.

I am now over 5 months paxil free and having better days!

Since my experience with Zoloft I have heard similar stories from people when they had taken Zoloft.
I do not know for sure if Zoloft would mask the withdrawal effects of Paxil. However it is my "opinion" that it would not, if anything I believe it would make it worse.

If you want to get off of paxil, please follow the guidelines at this site, by doing it very slowly. If I were you, I would discontinue the use of Zoloft and talk to your doctor about getting back on the paxil, leveling yourself out (so you can get some rest and feel better), and then after you feel "even", begin the process of weaning away from the paxil slowly. Possibly get something for sleep or anti-anxiety, like Klonipan, to help you through.

In the meantime please take extra good care of yourself, write down the symptoms you have been experiencing and remind yourslef that this is a reaction to getting off an anti-depressant and then introducing another one into your system.

My Best and My Prayers,
Dianna

Dave - my doctor has just suggested going onto zoloft as a way to get off paxil (see separate note on Q and A.)
I dont have any experience of it - although your note is obvously very concerning - but I do know that what you describe is vv similar to my own experience of withdrawal.

Because your dose of zoloft is so small I would think that it is withdrawal rather than zoloft that is causing the problem. there is no way that such a small dose of zoloft could 'make up' for stopping paxil so quickly.

For your ref. the doctor who has suggested that I go on to zoloft has suggested that I reduce my 30mg to 25mg (paxil) then introduce 25mgs of zoloft. i will then slowly reduce the paxil at the same time as increasing the zoloft. (So basically I still need to withdraw v slowly even though I will be taking the zoloft.)

Id be really interested to hear how you get on.
Kizzie