A doctor listened!!! Sorry long but Id appreciate thoughts

Hi everyone
Went to see a different consultant today. He said hes never liked paxil because of side effects hes seen plus problems of withdrawal.
So when I said that another doctor had suggested increasing from 30 to 40 he said he didn’t think it would be beneficial (obviously had to be careful - cant be seen to criticise another doctor.)
Anyway - he said that as far as he can see I’m trapped in a cycle of taking paxil and withdrawal so its impossible for anyone to tell what is depression/ anxiety and what is side effects / withdrawal from the medication.
I couldn’t believe my ears - finally a professional who had listened to what I’d said.
His suggestions were:

* Stay on paxil and withdraw slowly
* Reduce paxil while introducing a low dose of another anti-depressant. Slowly reduce the paxil and increase the other. When paxil out of system completely stay on alternative for 6 months then start to reduce this as well.
* Immediately stop paxil and swap for alternative.

Although he said hed really like to get me off paxil straight away he thought the 3rd idea might be too traumatic because of the high chance of severe withdrawal.
So we have decided on plan B. I am staying on 30mgs for another 2 week then reducing to 25mg at this point I will introduce 25mg of sertraline (lustral/zoloft). This is apparently a very very low dose of this drug. Will then review but aim to reduce paxil by 5mgs every 3/4weeks at the same time as increasing sertraline. He says that in his experience all SSRI’s have withdrawal problems but that the others (including sertraline) are nowhere near as bad.
He wasnt sure whether to try cipramil or sertraline but decided on the latter - and said we can just review and if necessary (although ideal) we could always change later.

He also said that if when I finally come off all medication (paxil and sertraline) he will then look at my anxiety / depression and if its still there (and not just withdrawal) then he’ll help me to deal with it separately.

So a few questions - if youve managed to stay awake this long!!

* What does anyone think of these suggestions?
* Has anyone else swapped in this way from paxil to another drug?
* Any experiences of lustral/sertraline/zoloft (I think they are all names for the same thing.)

Thanks everyone for listening. It really helps to write everything down.

[scared*diana]

Hi,
I´ve been on prozac, zoloft and paxil, and I think zoloft was the one I disliked the least. And I didn´t get any withdrawal from it. I don´t know why I didn´t take zoloft instead of paxil this time around.

Diana

Hi - thanks for replying. Did you find the zoloft helped with the depression and anxiety?

Ive just read your message in withdrawal - so glad youre getting better sleep. Im sure youve done the right thing.

Lots of luck getting pregnant. (Ive got twins so let me know of youve got any pregnancy questions!)
Kizziexxxxx

[scared*diana]

Kizzie,

How lucky you to finally find a doctor who listens. I have found good phsychologists but never a good psychiatrist.
I was confused because a doctor gave me paxil and when I had side effects she immediately changed me to zoloft. When years later I was given SSRI´s I didn´t remember which one I had liked, so I was given paxil. Afterwards I realized it had been zoloft. Zoloft did help me with anxiety, especially with social anxiety and phobias. I was, as Ipve been on every SSRI, on a low dose.

Good luck with the withdrawal process
Diana

Kizzie, it sounds like your physician has a sensible approach for you. Personally, I have been on Celexa (our Cipramil?) and Paxil. When I made the change over to Paxil, it was because the Celexa had "stopped being effective." I think that is a common complaint with many SSRIs--they stop working and make it necessary to switch to another one.

I was on 40 mg Celexa and dropped it for 40 mg Paxil. There were no withdrawal symptoms of any type. In retrospect, Celexa was a much easier drug for me than Paxil (your lovely Seroxat)--especially considering I didn't gain weight on Celexa but put on a good 20 lbs. or more with Paxil. (By the way, I haven't dropped any even after being off all meds for 3.5 months. )

There are quite a few people on this site and others that have switched to Prozac, which has a longer half-life, to make withdrawal easier. Because it stays in the system longer, the withdrawal is much more gradual. My psychiatrist had suggested that plan to me. I, however, opted to just stick with the very slow (over a 17 month period) withdrawal off Paxil because I didn't want to mess with more drugs. Just a personal choice.

Good luck to you. I'm so glad you have a plan in place. It makes things so much better when you feel like you have control over the situation, doesn't it? You'll make it--hang in there.

Hi everyone - thanks for your replies!
I have thought more about it today and I think my view is probably very similar to you NM - ie. reduce the seroxat very slowly. I think Im going to try that again and maybe only introduce the lustral at a later stage (rather than when I'm still on 25mgs.)
I know this sounds like Im back tracking but I still feel so relieved that a doctor has taken me seriously!!

So basically - I AM planning to use Lustral/ zoloft if possible to help me get off paxil - but Im going to try and stabilize a bit more first and then introduce the lustral/zoloft when i maybe get down to 15mg.

So its kind of a plan!!

Of course if I suddenly feel worse I may decide to do it sooner.

Anyway - sorry to ramble. I am so grateful for all your support.
Kizziexxxxx

paxil been good too me,,,,,,,no side effects,,,but now i had a pantic attack ..and im now stressing for no reason......

[MicheleT]

It's nice to know that one doctor is part of the 'Mutual Admiration Society!'

[rdjanis]

Other than MicheleT and nowheremane the other posts are from 2003. What the heck is going on??

[Homerbcool]

Holly Twilight Zone Batman.....what's up with that......and just for fun, I looked back into the original posts on page 172,000 of this site and it states that it started back in 1969....I might be wrong but I do not think that threads were anything but something used for sewing or a slang for cool clothes bakc then

[nicole55]

well, my doctor had me do the same thing, taper paxil and start zoloft at the same time. As I tapered paxil , I increased the zoloft. Once I was on the zoloft I waited and waited and had to keep increasing, but I wasn't doing any good. Please note my doctor had me taper pretty fast on the paxil so I don't think this helped, slower sounds better.

Anyway zoloft didn't seem to work for me, even after increasing the dose many times, I started to get some weird side effects from the zoloft that I never had with paxil or on paxil withdrawel. They were very bothersome and it didn't seem to help my anxiety very much anyway.

Then I eventually went back to paxil, did the taper and increase in reverse. Much easier this was by the way, zoloft taper was fine. Started very low on paxil 10mg and raised up to 20 and am still there today.

Very interesting though because when I switched to zoloft I was on 50 mg of paxil and doing well and when I went back to paxil I did very well at 20 mg.

So that whole experience with zoloft helped me lower my paxil from 50 to 20.

Sorry so long , just thought this was such an odd thing that happened to me. Now if I could only get off of that 20 mg !!!!!

[paxilgirl]

I'm so glad there is a doctor who is willing to make suggestions on withdrawal..and to give you options. Sounds like he's much more informed than a lot of other docs out there who don't give a flip.

[hope]

I tapered off of Paxil way too fast and then had to restart paxil at almost triple the dose - with bad side effects plus still having withdrawal symptoms. ughh!!! Another doctor told me the best way to get off paxil is to do it quickly while starting another med which in my case was Lexapro. She had me take xanax and ativan for the discomfort. I have known people who did the medication switch with no Problem but in my case, it was hell. She took me off pretty fast, within a week or two and it was just more hell. I never really stabilized on the Lexapro, still had withdrawal from the paxil, plus was now habituated to the low dose of xanax and ativan. I think I'm just one of the people who was to have a difficult time with this no matter what, but the fast switch was definitely not fun at all. Kizzie did the switch to Prozac and had a difficult time of it as well. A friend at work did a fast switch to Lexapro as well and for about a week she was in a hell hole and then was fine, but did have to add Wellbutrin to the Lexapro later on. So I don't know. The lexapro had me feeling like I couldn't sleep, but then I still had the anxiety from the Paxil withdrawal. Mind you, never had a "anxiety disorder" before.

Sounds like you have a good doctor. I was trying to do this over a year ago and finding a doctor who was knowledgable and empathic seemed unheard of even then. I'm hearing more and more stories of doctors who "get it."

[kizzie]

Oh - this thread being reignited makews me realise just how long this has all been going on When I wrote that note I had already been a member of PP for over a year....
Kizziex