zapping and dizziness

okay so i was not doing too bad at first when i switched from 50mgs of paxilcr to 25mgs, wasn't having any problems really except for a little nausea. my dr had me take the 25mgs for a week and then stop it completely. today will be the 3rd day i haven't taken any paxil or wellbutrin and i'm getting extremely dizzy and having brain zaps (my favorite). i was just wondering if going from 50 to 25 to none is a really fast switch? and how long does the withdrawal usually last? i'm pretty sure all these physical symptoms are from the paxil because i've gone off wellbutrin before (thought i was "fine" and didn't need it anymore) and i didn't have many problems. i got really depressed but had no physical symptoms. i have also been really teary and feel very emotional, has anyone had that from stopping paxil? i feel like i'm going to cry like all the time and i've been having big crying spells randomly. my brain just feels weird in general like i'm confused almost. could be from the wellbutrin withdrawal or starting one of the new ones. this is just so confusing changing so many at the same time...hard to tell whats coming from what. i feel like i'm going insane.

this isn't fair, i just want a normal brain that doesn't take 8 thousand meds to function!

Oh, sweetie. I was on 20mg for two months and the withdrawl was hell. I went cold turkey. I now know after finding this site that wasn't the smartest thing to do. It sounds like to me that you've take a big drop and might want to wean off slower... everything you have mentioned is what we all go through with withdraw. I'll keep checking back to see how you're doing.

[Scott]

i think its safe to say your feelings now prove your doctor wrong... it tooke me 3 solid months to drop 25mg... cutting 25mg each time is a hell i cannot imagine.. would be like if i had just up and quit. You need to taper, find a doctor that will help you do so, or convince your current doc that tapering is the best way to go.. its you who has to do it so take charge of it. Never let someone tell you how much time is sufficient, they dont have to go through it. and havent. Try and get back on 25mg, wait till you balance, then go slow. If your doctor wont help you, find another. Most symptoms can take a few weeks to surface, i got a month into my taper before having trouble. Also it can be noted that its quite possible, if this doctor was against your taper to begin with, they can be setting you up to fail so you will come to "their" conclusion that you need a drug. You shouldnt need one but it is critical to take this process slowly. If your doctor gives you ego about it, take with you the book "your drug may be your problem" by DOCTOR peter breggin. I suggest that book anyhow but it can speak for you.

hmm so i dunno if i should start taking some paxil again or if its better to just get it all over with in one week like i was planning on...? how long does this withdrawal usually last for everyone? i don't really know what to do, its like impossible to get ahold of my dr and my next appt isn't til the 13th of Feb. it just seems like it may be better to stay off it instead of going back on and bringing it down slowly. but of course i don't really know cuz i've never done this before. i guess i just want to get it over with and it seems like tapering would drag it on even longer or something. and i don't even know if this is all from the paxil in the first place. ahhh. has anyone been on effexor before? cuz my list of symptoms is getting longer and i dunno if this can all be from the paxil. now i've got the diziness, brain zapping, headache, nausea and all the emotional stuff too.

scott-
you seem very against all meds and i was just wondering if you've had bad experiences with them all or something? at this point i feel like they are kind of necessary for me but i'm interested in your experience with them and what makes you say they aren't so good? i feel like i'm missing something that i should know. i dunno i really don't like the idea of meds myself but i need like all the help i can get...without them i can't even function. they don't get rid of my depression but they help in smaller ways i think. so yeah just wondering what your experience has been?

[hope]

Hi Ashley.

I was given Paxil 7 years ago for post-partum depression. I was diagnosed somewhere in the past with dysthymia, a chronic low grade depression. I think I've had it off and on most of my life but was fine without medication. I exercised, ate right, all that stuff. It was after I started having kids that it really got to be a problem. It was all hormonal of course. I took the paxil after my 4th kid and after two weeks of lots of side-effects the depression lifted and I felt better. Of course my sexual feeling was gone, but I would deal with that by not taking the Paxil for a day or two. After a few years on Paxil I didn't feel like it was helping much but I couldn't stop taking it. I was only on 10 mg. and if I tried to stop it I went nuts, all the symptoms you have now. I couldn't even do a drug switch without going through withdrawal. HOwever I didn't know that at the time. By the 6th year on the Paxil I was getting all these wierd symptoms. Having wierd muscle twitches, was getting anxiety which I never had before. When I found out the Paxil was addicting I started tapering. I went off of 10 mg. in 2.5 months. According to every doctor I've been to this was the right thing to do. HOwever, even so, I had horrible withdrawal off the drug. I couldn't function for weeks. I was dizzy, nauseated to where I didn't eat for 3 weeks. Couldn't sleep. Was shaking, having migraines. If I were to do it over again, I'd taper off 1 mg. a month. I'm not kidding.

My point is that Paxil is a very very difficult drug to stop cold turkey like you are. Most doctors don't know this or won't acknowledge it. Go back and read the posts about people's experiences with doctors.

I would suggest you go back on the Paxil and drop in slower increments. If you go too fast you can get really really sick. I'm talking the flu and psychosis from hell. I sincerely believe that getting off faster doesn't make the recovery time shorter, it just the whole ordeal much harder.

[Scott]

Originally Posted by ashleyboo

scott-
you seem very against all meds and i was just wondering if you've had bad experiences with them all or something? at this point i feel like they are kind of necessary for me but i'm interested in your experience with them and what makes you say they aren't so good? i feel like i'm missing something that i should know. i dunno i really don't like the idea of meds myself but i need like all the help i can get...without them i can't even function. they don't get rid of my depression but they help in smaller ways i think. so yeah just wondering what your experience has been?

im not against all meds but if you research as much as i have concerning just how much we are actually told about them, its quite shocking and disturbing.

Originally Posted by hope

Hi Ashley.

I was given Paxil 7 years ago for post-partum depression. I was diagnosed somewhere in the past with dysthymia, a chronic low grade depression. I think I've had it off and on most of my life but was fine without medication. I exercised, ate right, all that stuff. It was after I started having kids that it really got to be a problem. It was all hormonal of course. I took the paxil after my 4th kid and after two weeks of lots of side-effects the depression lifted and I felt better. Of course my sexual feeling was gone, but I would deal with that by not taking the Paxil for a day or two. After a few years on Paxil I didn't feel like it was helping much but I couldn't stop taking it. I was only on 10 mg. and if I tried to stop it I went nuts, all the symptoms you have now. I couldn't even do a drug switch without going through withdrawal. HOwever I didn't know that at the time. By the 6th year on the Paxil I was getting all these wierd symptoms. Having wierd muscle twitches, was getting anxiety which I never had before. When I found out the Paxil was addicting I started tapering. I went off of 10 mg. in 2.5 months. According to every doctor I've been to this was the right thing to do. HOwever, even so, I had horrible withdrawal off the drug. I couldn't function for weeks. I was dizzy, nauseated to where I didn't eat for 3 weeks. Couldn't sleep. Was shaking, having migraines. If I were to do it over again, I'd taper off 1 mg. a month. I'm not kidding.

My point is that Paxil is a very very difficult drug to stop cold turkey like you are. Most doctors don't know this or won't acknowledge it. Go back and read the posts about people's experiences with doctors.

I would suggest you go back on the Paxil and drop in slower increments. If you go too fast you can get really really sick. I'm talking the flu and psychosis from hell. I sincerely believe that getting off faster doesn't make the recovery time shorter, it just the whole ordeal much harder.

if i were to go back on the paxil, how much do you think i should take? (my original dose was 50mgs) ahh this is so confusing i don't know what to do anymore. i just want to be stable for once.

the excercise and eating helps me a lot too, more than i ever really realized. another big one for me is sleep. most kids my age can pull an all-nighter and skip breakfast and be fine but when i do that it throws me off for weeks. the only problem with it is as soon as i get depressed its so hard to care about those things and then it makes it even worse. the whole thing perpetuates itself.

i don't even feel like trying anymore....its too much work to stay on top of the meds and the schedule when it doesn't change THAT much in the end. no matter what i do i always have my thoughts, nothing will ever change that. nobody understands how hard it is to live with a brain like this.