Prolonged withdrawal Syndrome

[Denstar51]

I was on Paxil for 14 years, and had enough of it's problems...sweating way too much
anytime of the year, nastiness, unrelated anger to situations, rages, poor decision making, It made me a monster.
When I stopped no one told me DO NOT STOP COLD TURKEY......I did in April 08 and in Sept. I went into the most hellish experience I ever had. Head pressure, lights flashing in my eyes, burning in hands and feet, tingling all over my body, OCD way off the wall, and fear I have never known before. Now it Is Dec. 09, and I still have some symptoms
of light headiness, and some light burning. I have lost a year of my life to this poison, protracted withdrawal can be a biggie with this. I cannot tolerate any ssri's at all. No work, no driving... Paxil wrecked my life.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

You have already received good advice, including going back on Paxil and withdrawing slowly.  But you can also get relief by a course of klonopin, so ask your doctor about that and psychotherapy. If you are ready to do some personal development work on your anger and decision making, you can get help online from my new site..www.myvirtualshrink.com.

[Paxiled]

Me too.  I wasn't told either, and though I didn't stop cold turkey, I've lost three and a half years and counting.  But you say it's getting better, so it looks like you're doing way better than I am.  There are a lot of things I've learned about that I didn't know about then, but you might try a liver cleanse to get toxins out of your system.  If you google protracted withdrawal syndrome there's a site that offers a treatment, but I don't know if it works.  If you do find something that works, let me know.  Personally, I went on Lexapro after a year of it, but it didn't help enough.  Now I'm trying Celexa, but truly, my new psychiatrist hasn't a clue what to do.  Neither does my psychotherapist.  My heart's out to you.  The right remedy was to go back on the Paxil and taper more slowly, but my shrink never told me I was in withdrawal when I was or the possibility of it beforehand, so it was a long time before I found out -- on the blasted internet!

[Jaquta]

Have you tried psychotherapy?

I don't know what to say that won't invalidate how you feel.  I have never had any long-term effects from stopping a medication (and I never did a taper).  In hospital the doctor did say that stopping and starting medication was dangerous but he never said why it was dangerous.
Probably the longest I have ever taken a psych med for was for six weeks.  I expect that may account for our very different withdrawal experiences.

Re-read the doctors other post.  Make sure you're doing things that will be helpful.

It did seem like there may be another medication solution to your problem.  I don't know how well that would work.  It may be worth a try.

If you're having problems you should continue discussing them with your doctor.  You should both be working through this together.

One year is a lot to lose.  I have lost nearly ten of mine due to other interventions.  I can empathize with you on the real and perceived losses.  It .... it's not nice.