Paxil withdraw help

[khugh777]

I am currently trying to get off Paxil. I know how to ween myself off it but it ,as many people know, has terrible withdraw side effects.  One of the side effects I am having is my anxiety attacks are coming back the same as they were before all of the medication. I am perscribed to xanex. If I take xanex ocationally in this period of Paxil withdraw will that harm me?? Are the anxiety attacks just a side effect that will go away after the withdraws are gone?? NOTE: I dont have anxiety issues any more I THINK. But they have come back. Will they continue after the withdraw of the paxil is complete????

[Paxiled]

Paxil is the most difficult med out there to stop taking in this category.  Tapering depends on the person -- for some it's easy, for some hard, for some impossible.  You have what's colloquially called the Paxil flu, so so far you're actually having a relatively easy time of it, but if it gets too intense for you then yes, the only solution is to go back on the last dosage at which you felt fine and taper more slowly.  The minimum taper I've ever seen recommended for Paxil is 6 weeks, but I think most people need more than that to be comfortable.  This might all end tomorrow, it might last a long time, and it could get worse and it could get better.  All options are possible.  As for getting the drug out of your system, since Paxil has a very short half life in the body, it's mostly gone within a few hours of stopping save the amount your liver has stored in fatty tissue.  That's not what you're suffering from.  What you're suffering from is the brain trying to readapt to not having the drug in the system.  How well the brain is able to do this determines how bad and how long the withdrawal is, and since your brain is yours alone, your experience will be yours alone as well.  Be careful and gentle with yourself, and try taking a healthy dose of fish oil, which some have reported helps to ease some of the withdrawal side effects.  

[tcoulson]

I've been weening off from Paxil for a month now.I had been on 20mg for quite a few years.After going every other day for 2 weeks I started splitting the pills in half.So I figured that was 10mgs.Did that every other day.Now I'm not taking anything.I'm wondering if I should keep taking half a pill for a while longer.I've felt horrible!!!Light headed, dizzy,nausea,very tired.Weird dreams.How long is it going to take for this medicine to get out of my system? I was it on for anxiety.I was going to start taking a hormone replacement.And my doctor suggested getting off the paxil first.Not liking how I'm feeling!PLEASE ANY SUGGESTIONS.Thank you.

[Julie359]

It is very possible that if you are in the early stages of Paxil tapering down then you could be experiencing withdrawl but it may also be the return of the anxiety... Paxil, like Paxiled stated only calms the symtoms down it doesn't cure the underlining reason for having them in the first place.  Maybe if, like me, you have been on it for many years and now that you have come off the panic is returning you need, like me, to go into therapy.  

I have come to realise that these med's do have their good uses but i think only in the short term, if we are to live anxiety free for the rest of our lives we need to LEARN how to control them and face the problems that are causing them.  In essence we need to have a good ols sort oyt of our closets and dig out those skeletons.   Horrible i know, but in the long term it's the only way.

[Paxiled]

You say you're weaning, but you sound like you're off already. So it's hard to tell what's going on from your post.  But if you haven't solved your anxiety problem through therapy or some other way, the Paxil doesn't cure anxiety, it just treats symptoms.  If the anxiety you're suffering now is exactly what you were suffering before, not different in any way, then it doesn't sound like withdrawal, it sounds like the Paxil was working and without it you still have the anxiety problem.  Withdrawal symptoms are many and different for all of us, but they aren't the exact same thing we had before we went on medication.  They're odd and they create different issues than we had before.  So again, most likely, you're not ready to come off medication yet since you're problem hasn't been solved.  Of course, none of us from our chairs can tell you what you're going through or whether you solved your anxiety problem, but that's what it sounds like from what you've said so far.