I would head to ER if you are in agony because of abrupt withdrawal. Neither of your objections to going there seem likely.
I doubt benedryl will do anything except maybe put you to sleep to kill time.,
Something about this sounds fishy to me -- when I lost my health insurance for five years my former psychiatrist kept calling in my refills without seeing me. My understanding is that the requirement to see you is only for controlled substances, such as benzodiazapenes, but paxil, though it probably should be, isn't classified as an addictive drug. Therefore, your fear about the ER thinking you're an addict doesn't apply to this drug. But Paxil withdrawal can be pretty devastating especially when you quit cold turkey as you have and can last a while, so I'm wondering why you didn't tell the practice where your new doc is that you're in withdrawal from Paxil and can he call in one refill before you see him. Personally, I'd also only take this drug while under the care of a really good psychiatrist, not a regular doc, as it's a tough one to take and stop taking. Something to think about for the future. If you have to go the ER they will ask who your regular doc is and should contact him. As I said, this is not a controlled substance, so he doesn't in fact have to see you by law to prescribe it as I understand the law. The same should be true for your old doc. Sometimes you have to be very aggressive in fighting the system to advocate for yourself, and this is one of those times. As for reducing the withdrawal symptoms, you can try taking a good dose of fish oil -- sometimes it helps with some of the physiological symptoms. Now, some people are lucky and the withdrawal is like the flu for a couple of weeks -- it's actually called the Paxil flu -- but in your case, I'd get back on it as quickly as possible since you want to stay on it. If you successfully complete your withdrawal, this drug is unusual and it sometimes doesn't work the same after you've quit it successfully. Get out there and raise some noise!