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extreme withdrawl symtoms with paxil

I have been taking paxil since october 2012 , starting at 12 mg / once a day, by mid December my dose was at 37.5 mg/ twice a day. I was feeling very angry and feeling emotions from extreme highs to lows and my social anxity was coming back worse than it was before i started paxil. This week my dr. has  put me on Citalopram 20 mg/ once a day it has been 4 days on this new med. And  my dr. Didnt taper me off of the paxil. I am now feeling very anxious,  im having problems swallowing and feel very short of breath, im having vivid nightmares of past traumatic events. I also take .5 mg of clonazepam and its now not helping my panic attacks or anxiety, it is not working at all. All of the added symptoms are making my anxiety and depresson out of control. Its the weekend so my doctors ofc is closed. Can you guide me in the right direction,  bc the withdrawl is overbearing and quite scary.
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Avatar universal
This is one of the problems of doctors, especially general practitioners.  They just don't understand these meds.  Not even most psychiatrists understand them, but you have a better chance than with a general doc.  I would never again go off a med without first questioning thoroughly my psychiatrist about his or her knowledge of how to manage putting people on and taking people off these very difficult meds, and Paxil is the worst of them all for this.  First, you really can't switch from one med to another even within the same category of med and expect that to eliminate withdrawal.  You can only do this if the first med didn't get absorbed very well.  If you metabolized it well, and you obviously metabolized the Paxil, then you need to do a taper that is as slow as you need to do it until you're successfully off the medication.  Sometimes at the very end of the taper some will use Prozac to ease the transition because Prozac stays in the body much longer than other ssris and is therefore thought to be easier to discontinue than the others, but it's only at the very end of the taper.  Knowing what I know now, if this were me, and it isn't, it's you, I'd call the doctor's emergency number, explain what was going on, ask to go back on the Paxil and stop the citalopram until a slow taper off Paxil is successfully completed so you're not dealing with the side effects of a new drug and the discontinuation effects of Paxil at the same time.  In the meantime, I'd seek out a good psychiatrist who you feel knows how to do this properly and do it through the psychiatrist, not a general doc.  You can also Google Paxil discontinuation protocols and learn how it's best done so you know for yourself; a psychiatrist named Joseph Glenmullen has a couple of helpful books for this, and a psychiatrist name Healey in England as some articles on it.  Good luck.
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Avatar universal
Paxil, in my experience, was one of the harder meds to taper off of. Does your Dr have an emergency number you can call on weekends?
I'm not a Dr, just someone who cares. But, you may have to go back on Paxil and taper. Some Drs just do not realize or inform their patients that a taper needs to be done with some of these meds.
I really wish I could give you a right answer to all of this. I have taken Paxil and I did have to taper off it. And, it went so much better with the help of my Dr.
We're here to help, listen and support you through this.  
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