Quiting paxil cold turkey

Supacalabala

Member

• May 30, 2007

• #1

So I quit paxil about 10 days ago. I was on 12.5 mg for about 1 1/12 yrs. Thank god I didn't listen to the doctor when he told me that was a low dosage and that I should double, I think the withdrawals would have been far worse. So far I have experienced abdominal cramps, insomnia, anxiety a bit of depression , anger, nausea etc. etc. . The reason I quit is because my perscription ran out. for 7 days I didn't have any paxil. My doc perscribed me 20 mg and I picked it up about 3 days ago but I haven't taken any yet. Last night I hardly sleep and today has been a dark day for me. Question is for you ex-paxil users should I take a 5mg piece of the pill or should I just stick it out? This is what I got from quitpaxil.org "Severe withdrawal can last anywhere between two to six weeks." I can't deal with this for six weeks but I don't think a six week withdrawal will happen to me I took a same dosage.

I also thought thist was kinda funny I got it fromt he same site "semi-orgasmic state (in women) to the point of irritation"

 

D

daisy jane

• May 30, 2007

• #2

Good luck Supa! My roommate from college was prescribed to Paxil for a year or so. I wish she would have quit because all it did was make her anxiety symptoms worse. And when she would forget to take it in the morning she would become very depressed and antisocial. It just doesn't sound like a good medicine to me. I wish you the very best of luck!!

 

greenhit

Member

• May 30, 2007

• #3

effexor is the worst going cold turkey
Supac, what i did to quit was take them
like every 2 days then 3 days slowly ween off.

-green

 

genkisan

Cannabrex Formulator

Veteran

• May 31, 2007

• #4

SSRI drugs are EVIL......


Anything that has suicide and murderous rages as listed side effects is NOT medicine, IMHO.

 

inflorescence

Active member

Veteran

• May 31, 2007

• #5

genkisan said:

SSRI drugs are EVIL......


Anything that has suicide and murderous rages as listed side effects is NOT medicine, IMHO.

Click to expand...

Word. Some drugs are not meant to be quit cold turkey. Remember paxil is NOT a natural drug so it's a bit foreign to the body. Quitiing anything foreign is never a good idea. It takes the body just as long to acclimate to a new )foreign) drug as it does to ween itself from it.
DO NOT QUIT PAXIL COLD TURKEY!

 

SCF

Bong Smoking News Hound

Veteran

• May 31, 2007

• #6

if you have gone this long just stick it out. but if your symptoms are bad you need to get to your doctor and discuss more options. If not just tell him whats up and if its ok you do this. As none of us are your treating physician. I say get off um for good if possible.

Remember why taking these drugs you need other therapy to help you and your mental condition. otherwise you will never get better!!!

 

G

Guest

• Jun 1, 2007

• #7

Good luck bro we are all with you here...we are rootin for you...YOU ARE STRONGER THEN THOSE DRUGS YOU WILL OVER COME THEM...One More thing......You got the best medication..THE GREEN!

Take care and good luck hope you feel better soon!!!

 

Harry Gypsna

Dirty hippy Bastard

Veteran

• Jun 1, 2007

• #8

best of luck with this...... be carefu quitting this shit coldturkey....withdrawal from this stuff you can have sizeures die, unlike opiates so please becareful

 

B

bagseed77

• Jun 1, 2007

• #9

i quit taking paxil because i couldnt have an orgasm.talk about
depressing,it gave me mad cottonmouth too.exercise should help make you feel and sleep better,your almost there hold on.

 

G

Guest

• Jun 1, 2007

• #10

PAXIL!!!

I have been on it before. Times when I would reduce dosage or quit, I would get electrical shocks permeating through my head and body... this is a well known side effect of coming off paxil! Yippeee!

If you want to try something, try this. Increase your percentages of animal fats in your diet. Like saturated fats. I'm talking, don't feel guilty about eating them. As long as your not eating a lot of carbs you won't get fat, you probably will even lose weight IF your overweight.

I think increasing your amount of animal fats, and protein too (like having a steak and eating the fat) will help you stay mentally more stable without paxil.

Trust me man. I came off Paxil too. And I just wasn't stable. It took me a few months to realize that my mental life was messed up. Yeah, like breaking up with my gf at the time, who I wanted to marry.

So be careful...thats all I can say. Hope the best.

 

G

Guest 18340

• Jun 1, 2007

• #11

Congradulations my man! I went through the Lexapro and it was pure hell, made me wanna jump of a bridge.
Hang in there bro, we'll all help you see it thru.

 

scruffy

Member

• Jun 1, 2007

• #12

I'm currently weaning myself off Zoloft, I get the same "zings" as Indicad2006 when I quit suddenly. I'll be fine for a couple weeks, then the zings start and I can't figure it out. Taking half a pill stops them in an hour or so. I'm now down to 25mg every 2 days, from 100mg/day before. I'm 100% certain that my doctor never mentioned dependence, and also 100% certain he's gettin' a lecture when I see him next.

SSRI's suck ass, I wouldn't recommend them for anyone, for any reason. Didn't really relieve the symptoms, and I've had terrible heartburn every time I forgot and took them on anything but a belly-busting full stomach.

My anger issues were never this bad, the zoloft has aggravated that aspect of it all. Cannabis helps, fortunately.

Going to try the meat thing, thanks. Now I can tell my wife that the steak every night is for mental health!

 

bartender187

Bakin in da Sun

Veteran

• Jun 1, 2007

• #13

paxil zoloft and any of those anti-depressants can be pretty tough goin cold turkey,,, all the doctors ive heard speak about it recommend a gradual decrease in intake,,, alongside an re-working of your diet,,, ill see if i can dig up the audio link to the radio interview im thinkin about, neways gl brotha,,,,, those anti-depressants are nasty shit!

 

E

East Valley

Member

• Jun 1, 2007

• #14

I was up to 40 mg a day, doc said id be on it for the rest of my life. I'm not the best at remembering to take meds, and i would often miss a dose and this caused me to go up and down emotionally. I was sick of that happening. I ended up hurting people around me when i missed doses. I also acted weird, didnt feel like myself...whatever that is. I smoke a lot now. I did quit cold turkey, thats often been my method, cigarettes, heavier drugs, i left alone cold turkey. I think im doing pretty good now. Cannabis has helped a lot.


This is just my experience, I wish I could advise you, but meds are serious and different with each person.

 

H

HerbalFun

New member

• Jun 1, 2007

• #15

SSRI's can work wonders for you, ***IF*** you're on the right one. How do you know which one is right for you? You don't - and neither does your doctor. It's pure trial and error; it's not uncommon for a patient to try out 3-4 different anti-depressants before finding the one that works.

As youre trying these different meds out, it's important to slowly ramp up (or decrease, if weaning yourselff off) your dose gradually - as many people have indicated, the side effects can be pretty harsh and unpleasant.

It took me 4 different meds before I found the right one. It was well worth the effort.

 

Supacalabala

Member

• Jun 2, 2007

• #16

Thanks for the support and replies guys.

I'm on day 13 of cold turkey right now. I originally started taking paxil for my anxiety. I wasn't feeling any withdrawal anxiety till last night when I had a panic attack. I just hope all the anxiety I had a yr ago doesn't return. Two sites you should check out if your planning on "discontinuing" paxil. http://www.paxilprogress.org/forums/ and www.quitpaxil.org. As for the cannabis, I fairly new to growing. I currently only have hybrid bud , so I tend to get anxious when I smoke them . So I'm ganna take some time off from smoking. But I do have some female seeds NL which I will plant as soon as I can. Thanks agian

 

house

Member

• Jun 3, 2007

• #17

True it can take a few meds to find the drug or combo that works for you. I recommend you don't give up on meds yet, for some people it can take longer to find something that works. It took me over a year and about a dozen different combo's. Don't know if you tried counseling but couseling + meds has much better sucess rates then meds alone and helps especially during a rough time like med trial phase. Good luck man, I've been there myself and I know how hard it can be. It takes effort and persistance but is well worth it in the end. I'm now celebrating a year off meds and therapy and 2yrs without depression/anxiety! Not giving up on treatment was the best thing I ever did.

 

G

Guest

• Jun 4, 2007

• #18

Hey Supacalababa - try harvesting your grow 2-3 weeks later than normal. that will also help with anxiety. the reason is, your effect will not be so energetic, mind-jumping, emotional.... it will be more relaxed, stoney, etc.

Both types of highs are interesting. But for people who are more sensitive, and that have anxiety issues, the earlier harvested weed can just magnify it...thats been my experience. But, now that I'm doing some emotional type work, I realize how to handle some of these feelings and emotions that are coming up on a day to day basis. Its like, you have to ride the surfboard of awareness, on the wave of your emotions.

So now, even if I smoke a more cerebral strain, I just ride the wave... the wave can be more rough and bumpy then the wave when I'm sober, but luckily i have the emotional skills to ride it.

I think Paxil just blunts your feelings and emotions... and people who are neurotic, or that find they need SSRI's on a continually basis, are likely to have repressed stored emotions/feelings in their body mind. Our society tells us, especially men, that we are not to feel these emotions. We build up an armor so that we don't feel them, but emotions are a chemical energy and will come up in the body/mind as a physical disorder, or mental disorder, if they are not allowed to be fully felt....

This is a huge topic. But there are alot of books and websites about emotions and how they need to be allowed to express... google some of it on the net.

Otherwise, you may find you will always need to use some sort of drug consistently to give you peace and respite... because your using the drugs to push away the emotions that just want to come out.

 

G

Guest

• Jun 4, 2007

• #19

And yet Big Pharma says it is not addictive rather than say that they call it side effects of not taking the drug. Legal bullshit. I am down to 75 mg a day of Effexor and am ready to start taking it every other day just to get off of it. Yes be very careful quitting this stuff cold turkey it could cause a psychotic episode to occur.

I will be pharma free after that.

MO

 

G

Guest

• Jun 4, 2007

• #20

i took paxil for several years and it was some gnarly shit...i would recommend lowering the dose gradually over a period of a month, don't quit all at once...for me personally zoloft is much more effective without any of the adverse side effects so if i were u i would work with ur doctor and come up with a new game plan...

if ur doc is not ok with trying something else find one that is...find a shrink that is ok with pot, mine is...i am all for getting off meds that are causing u problems but it is more important to find a health professional (whether its a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist) you feel comfortable with and work from there..there is no shame in it and many of them are very good, you just may have to go through a few to find one...

peace and good luck,
nug