Paxil Withdrawal

[twstr988]

Ok here is my problem. My old doctor took me off Zoloft and put me on Paxil 3 years ago. He kept boosting it up to a top of 60mg a day a year ago. I left the doctor and got a new one and he has been working so hard to help me off this. For the last 8 months I am now down to cutting the 20mg in half and taking them as 10mg. Some days I can go 3 days between them. This has been what I have been doing the last 3 months. By now what I have realized in the last few days is besides the occasional headaches or anxiety I would get, I have realized today actually my worrying level is off the charts. What is happening is something that is never happened before. I am like on edge of worrying about the election, people attacking people and things that are happening in the country. This is not about politics BUT I am realizing I have never in my life worried about any of this and I am realizing when I do not take the Paxil, those worries get very bad and I get scared and cant eat or sleep and cant stop worrying. This has never happened until I started trying to get off this stuff. Its not like worrying where I would hurt myself or anything close to that. It is just the worry of whats going on and I cannot stop worrying about it. Than I end up taking 10mg again. I have not taken anymore than that in many months and I wont because I realize 10mg is just enough to kind of take the edge off the worries. I havent seen many people talk about worrying as a withdrawal symptom unless thats included in the mood swings. One minute I am fine and all a sudden my mind gets stuck on the worries again for hours sometimes. My question is, does this make sense that these worries of constant fear of whats going on in the world be because of trying to come off this stuff? Like I said, I have never in my life worried about things to do with whats going on in politics and the world. Its scary because I ask myself why am I so worried when theres nothing that has really proven my worries. But I ask why am I so worried. Today I started wondering if this is actually whats going on. Thank you and I hope I can get some peace of mind from people about this :) Thank you.

[Paxiled]

In your case it just sounds like you never solved your problem.  In my case, I got stuff I never had, and I was in my fifties so I pretty much knew what my problems were.  If you just get the same problem you had before you went on meds then you just haven't solved the problem through therapy or some other way and the problem is still there, so the need for the meds is still there.

[Zoloft_Happy]

I've been treated with anxiety and antidepressant since 2001.  I've tried o get off of them several times.  Unfortunately, my live would go to crap again, and I had to go back on it.  The one thing my doctor did with my Zoloft was to give it a side kick with Wellbutrin.  It's helped my focus skills emensely.  

As for what you worry about...well, it's a crazy world and I honestly think you and I are OK, but most of the people out there have lost their bloody minds.

Hang in there

[Paxiled]

Yep.  This is a common withdrawal symptom.  The reason you don't hear about it as much as you would expect is because psychiatrists and doctors will tell you it's a new problem, not one caused by withdrawal.  To find the truth, and I know this because I went through a much worse fate than yours with this drug. you have to look at the work of addiction researchers.  Antidepressants aren't classified as addictive drugs, but if you google protracted withdrawals you will find more information.  You will also notice that most people who go on these meds seldom are able to stay off of them for the rest of their lives if they take them for an extended period of time.  That's because, for many people, their brains are not able to adapt back to working naturally.  It's even worse with benzos.  Now, this is still better than suffering forever with intractable anxiety or depression that therapy is not able to help, but it's a problem docs don't warn us about because it would interfere with their income.  I know that's crass, but it's unfortunately true.  Look at how many people just on this site go to their docs and are not sent to therapy first to at least see if they can get better without meds but are instead put on these drugs, often for problems that aren't chronic or even mental in nature.  I was an extreme case, and I don't expect you to become one -- my withdrawal has never ended and never will.  But I didn't know about the possibility of withdrawal because nobody ever told me, but you do know.  What I would do is slow down the taper -- I know, it's been a long time, but go even slower.  If no length of taper works then you just might have to spend the rest of your life on Paxil -- many people have done just that.  But if you take it really slowly and calmly, knowing what you're facing (I didn't), and make your lifestyle as healthy and optimistic as you possibly can knowing your situation (as I didn't), I believe your brain can get past this with a little nudge by you.  Good luck.