SSRI's

I am a 41 year old male with what i now am sure is Anxiety and/or Social Anxiety disorder.  From an early age i always new something was wrong but didn't know what to do.  About 2 years ago i was reading something about anxiety when i realized this sounds like me.  I also had read that one of the drugs used to treat anxiety was Valium.  Afraid & ashamed to talk to anyone about this i went to the street & bought a bottle of Valium.  I am sure it was Valium because it was a sealed bottle of 100.  This seamed to work great except i felt tired sometimes but if that was all i had to deal with it was far better than not taking it.  A couple months later feeling much more confident   i went to a psychiatrist. He agreed with the diagnosis but said he would like to see me taking Paxil.  He prescribed Valium & Paxil and explained that it would take a couple weeks before i felt the full benefit of the Paxil.  As the Paxil began to build up in my system i thought this is a miracle drug.  I was taking only 10 mg. once per day of Paxil & 2.5 mg. twice per day of Valium.  I continued this for a couple months when i noticed stomach pains.  At first they were minor than within a month or so they became worse.  I noticed they were worse about an hour after i took the Paxil so i stopped taking it and the stomach pain went away.  I went back to my doctor and he said i must have a sensitive system.  I than tried Celexa than Effexor than Remeron all with the same results.  I decided than to just go with the Valium but within a month or two the stomach problems were back although they were not the exact same symptoms.  I thought maybe i was lactose intolerant or maybe i was having a reaction to something i was eating.  This went on for months before i learned that Valium could cause these symptoms.  I than stopped taking the Valium and experienced 4 weeks of withdraw.  Shortly after the withdraw was gone i began to wonder if the Valium was the problem all along.  I than began to take Paxil again, my system seemed to be more tolerant now and i took the Paxil for about a week or so and than the stomach problems started again.  This is where i am now, it seems i can't take Paxil and some other antianxiety drugs and i can't function without them.  I take Paxil till i can't stand the pain anymore than i quit till i can't function and than back to Paxil.  My questions are  #1 Does this happen to other people taking Paxil and if so what do they do?  #2 What other drugs might i try that are not known to cause digestion problems?  Please HELP!!!  

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

Ask your doctor about a combination of Buspar and Klonopin. Neither will give you stomach symptoms, and the combination is very effective for what you have.

[deb723]

I am currently doing research for an upcoming book which deals with the side effects and withdrawals people have experienced from Effexor XR and other (like) anti-depressants. I am interested in receiving any information current or former users would like to share concerning their experiences with these drugs. Please email me @:
beach-***@****
and thanks!
deb