Paxil...grr.....

I’m putting this in the Pit (my first Pit thread, btw, as is customary to point out) because of my urge to use colourful language.

Paxil can lick Karp2381’s balls.

I didn’t mean it, Paxil. No, Paxil, I still love you. Please don’t leave me! Paxil worked very well for my anxiety, but there were a few side effects that I’d rather not live with. It’s the fucking ‘discontinuation effects’…otherwise known as withdrawals that are driving me nuts. I would seriously worry about anyone who is taking this drug for a serious imbalance and decides to go off of it too quickly. No wonder some people have gone off the deep end after quitting this. Fortunately, I’m, in my esteemed opinion, not that bad off. I’m just REALLY FUCKING IRRITABLE. Especially when I’m around loud noises and/or humans.

Don’t feel bad for me yet, though. I knew when I started this regime for anxiety that Paxil had several pending lawsuits for it’s tendency to be ‘habit forming’ (YES! I know that’s the second time i’ve used the ’ '…oh…her comes ‘another one’). I thought ‘well, it won’t happen to me; those people are just WEAK.’ WRONG…I guess I’m weak too. I figured I’d just taper off the dosage and then start the Wellbutrin and be just fine…WRONG again. Or let me rephrase that. I’M just fine. It’s just that everybody else is a fucktard! For example, I was just reading this thread and realized what all of you couldn’t figure out in 4 pages of replies:

EVERYONE SHOULD BE ASLEEP WHEN I AM ASLEEP AND AWAKE WHEN I AM AWAKE.

That’s it. I’m wishing hateful things on everyone who’s asleep right now, in fact. And I will likely wish similar hateful things on those who are awake and making noise when I’m trying to go to sleep tonight. It’s just that easy.
I can only liken this experience to what I’m familiar with. It feels like severe PMS coupled with severe nicotene fits, while a woodpecker constantly pecks at your shoulder until such time as your head spins 360 degrees and yells “FUCK OFF!” at it. (Ok, I’ve never had a woodpecker on my shoulder, but you get the point.) Maybe that’s where the phrase ‘monkey on my back’ started. I can change that to a monkey poking my shoulder if you want.

Axis of Paxil?
Paxil of Evil?

I think I should change my profile location to one of those…at least for the next week or so. Maybe I should open a MPSIMS thread on wishing happy thoughts to my friends and family for having to put up with me and my psuedo-Turett’s for the next few days. They’ll need them. And for Christ’s sake, will someone shoot that woodpecker! (Don’t give the gun to me though…grrr.)

I feel your pain. Paxil didn’t work too well for me, but I was on a fairly high dose of Zoloft for Depression/Anxiety, and then I ran out one day, and (and I KNOW I shouldn’t have done this) I just decided it was ok to wait another week or so to get a refill. WRONG!

Oh my GOD it was horrible. I felt like my organs were going to leap through my skin and beat me to death. To say nothing of the fact that I was quite insane during the whole ordeal.

I have mixed feelings about SSRIs, they fix some things, but they can be pretty nasty at times too. Ugh. I have yet to find my ‘wonder drug’ that will actually fix more problems than it causes. But I guess as long as my symptoms keep changing it keeps things interesting.

The upside is you’ll soon get your orgasms back.

Yergoddamn right I will. That was part of the Paxil Problem in the first place.
I feel better already.

Wow! This explains a whole lot to me. My doctor put me on Paxil a couple of months ago to combat depression and irritability caused by my diabetes. It slowed down the irrationality, but there are some side effects I find it hard to live with- the blurred vision, apathy, and the sexual side effects. There are lawsuits pending? I’d like to politely ask for a cite.

Paxil is the subject of a lawsuit in California. You might have heard about this case, as the judge for a time told the manufacturer to stop advertising it as non-habit forming. Scroll down a bit to read the story.

Here are a few. (If you google ‘Paxil’ you get quite a few hits re: legal action.):

http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/08/25/paxil.suit/index.html
http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/05/06/Consumers/Paxilsuit_020506
There are even lawyers that specialize in this type of suit. It’s actually kinda funny to me, but I guess that’s because I’m not as bad off as some of these people seem to be.

http://www.a-paxil-lawyer-source.com/html/contact.html
http://www.paxilinjurylawyer.com/html/contact.html

During withdrawl, the “brain zaps” were the worst part for me. What are “brain zaps?” I hear you ask? Exactly what they sound like. Several times a minute I would get this weird convulsing feeling all over my body. I would blink my eyes really hard and sort of tense up my face, hands and feet. Like a mild shock that runs from the top of your heard all the way through your fingers and toes. It was horrible! Happened both times I quit Paxil (once stepping down and once cold turkey) and lasted about two weeks. I would rather live in abject misery than subject myself to that again.

I just have one question. Are you tapering off under the supervision of your doctor?

If so, and you are still suffering undue effects I feel for you. A few years ago, I went through this too, but, except for a short 4 day period of time when I foolishly just quit taking it, and didn’t taper as directed by my doctor, I did just fine on the tapering off end of things. Didn’t even have to do the wellbutrin route.

Best wishes for things improving for you!!!

Been there.

Paxil does help me. Alot. But, my HMO took it off the formulary. My psychiatrist(the marvellous Amy Brodky) was making angry calls and writing angry letters to get the HMO to give me back my Paxil. But the HMO being the bureaucracy it is, took over a week to process her letters. During that time, I ran out.

Shakes, all the time and in every part of my body.
Chills.
Anxiety.

All this was made worse by the knowledge that the drug I needed in order to function was being washed out of my body.

If you want my Paxil, you’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands!

AH! That’s what happened to me, you just explained it better than I did.

I wish somebody had explained this sort of thing to me when I started taking it. The reason I had to be on such a high dose of Zoloft for my Anxiety symptoms was that nobody would prescribe me benzo’s for fear that I would ‘get addicted’.

So, it’s OK to be addicted to SSRI’s, but stuff that actually treats the acute symptoms and works is right out I suppose. Of course, had a doctor told me that benzodiazepenes are strong central nervous system depressants and are more or less like taking a big swig of liqour each time you take one, I probably would have said “Hmm… yeah, that probably wouldn’t be very good for me, but considering the alternative, I’ll take the risk”. But no… all I got was ‘You’ll get addicted’. Getting ‘brain zaps’ and losing my mind is SOO much better than taking xanax doc, thanks SO much.

Sorry, I had to rant, I am/was pretty upset about the whole situation.

Experiencing the same problem with Effexor.
The withdrawal is horrendous and I continue to take the pills because I can’t function during withdrawal episodes and can’t afford to take vacation just to withdraw. And frankly, it scares me when I feel that bad.

Mostly I’m angry because I’ve pretty much dealt with my demons and would like to try living without the Effexor. I’ve done the work with the shrink and with myself. And now I can’t get free from the fucking pill!

Yes, I am under the supervision of a doctor. I realize that it will get better. The strange thing is, though, that I seem to feel better for a while, then BAM - i’m totally irritable again. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. Physically, I’m not feeling that great either, but I know that it is just a matter of time too. When I’m not foaming at the mouth I can laugh about how absurd I’m being to get so agitated over nothing.

I want to reiterate how sorry I feel for people who are really ‘unstable’, take Paxil, then try to get off. It creeps me out how dangerous they could be to themselves or to others.

I think I must have gotten lucky. I was on Paxil several years ago for depression and I weaned myself off it when I moved back to Pittsburgh with no noticable side effects, although any irritability may have been blamed on facing up to the realization that I didn’t want to keep struggling away in Hawaii any longer. Also, at the risk of really getting flamed, I don’t recall any difficulty having orgasms. I think I’ll duck now.

On the other hand, last October I chronicled my difficulties with Zoloft in MPSIMS, and Wellbutrin wasn’t much better. I’m back to doing just therapy right now, and we both figure the best anti-depressant for me would be a new job. I do remember weaning myself of Anafranil(?). My health insurance had run out, so I had to do it on my own. One of the side effects of it was constipation. You can guess what one of the withdrawal symptoms was. Fortunately I was unemployed then, too, so I could at least spare the time to get it out of my system, so to speak.

I’ll throw in a link to Cecil’s Place, a Yahoo group I set up for depressed Dopers. We don’t get many posts, but it’s a safe place to rant. Also, please e-mail me if you need to, any of you. If nothing else, we can discuss the correct technique for disemboweling people who generally piss us off. :wink:

CJ

I, too, took Paxil. I spent a few months on it.

It made me never want to get out of bed, my sexual appetite was diminished, no orgasms, loss of appetite…

So I got off it and switched to Celexa.

The only side effect I had with Celexa was sleepiness, and that lasted a couple of weeks and then tapered off. I eat normally, sleep normally…and the best part…orgasms! Yay!

No, seriously, if Paxil is so bad for you, I would give something else a try. It’s rare for anyone to take well to their first SSRI.

Well, you may be irritable, but you sho’ funny!

I’ve done the abrupt withdrawal thing too. Zoinks! I think your description of the feeling is dead on.

Hang in there.

–Green Bean, Paxil Addict.

Since I was 12 i’ve been on:

Impramine-Great drug, just made me sleepy as hell.
Prozac-Also a great drug, but it made me sooooo hyperactive and it made me tremble
Ritalin-Also good sht, the drug changed my life, but the lack of appetite, rapid heart beat, chest pains, anxiety, OCD symptoms, and tics made me taper off after a few years
Zoloft-Was supposed to help my OCD, it didn’t do sh
t
Paxil-Was great for my anxiety, but I would pass out sleeping…I was like in a stupor for most of the time. However, I didn’t have any problems w/ addiction and withdrawals as many complained.
EFFEXOR-Lawd how does this stuff remain legal, even by prescription? That was the worst sh*t I ever had. Between the withdrawals, wild mood swing, and digestive problems, I decided it would be better off the drug.
Adderall-Not as good as Ritalin, but less side effects, it does give me tics, but otherwise it’s tolerable.
Welbutrin-It felt like a 24 dose of ritalin, not good.

Oh yeah, to clarify, I wasn’t on all of those drugs at the same time. :smiley:

How was it before you went on the drug? You don’t have to answer that if you don’t feel like it.

Paxil worked great for me…for about six weeks. Then all of a sudden, I found myself with no motivation. I would get up, go to work, come home, sit online all night, go to bed, repeat. I didn’t write. I lost all creativity, and when you’re trying to break into television as a script writer, that’s not good. After ten months, I went off of it with my doctor’s supervision. The withdrawals weren’t bad, but I did have to taper carefully. However, when I was at my full 20 mg dose, if I missed it by hours, I would shake and shiver and get those same ‘brain zaps’. I once went to the pharmacy across the street to try to get an early refill because I forgot my pill at work, and they saw me shaking so badly that they took pity on me and gave me one pill for the day.

The worst part is that I know I need to be on something else. I have too many bad days not to be on an A/D, and having been near-suicidal a couple of times, I know that I have a problem. I’m just afraid to try something else after my experience with Paxil.

Ava