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409474 tn?1202472085

Paxil.

It's been 2 days and i feel like complete ****. I can't concentrate either.  Does it get better with time?

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Avatar universal
I would like to say to all Paxil takers. I have been taking it for years. and am having a difficult time getting back on it because I thought I would do fine without it.  Not.      So the side effects do get better, but what I tell everyone with this is to start out taking crumbs if you have to and work your way up slowly so the side effects are not as bad.  It has worked for me in the past and  have been a normal functioning Human being for the last 20 yrs .  So dont give up.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I would like to say to all Paxil takers. I have been taking it for years. and am having a difficult time getting back on it because I thought I would do fine without it.  Not.      So the side effects do get better, but what I tell everyone with this is to start out taking crumbs if you have to and work your way up slowly so the side effects are not as bad.  It has worked for me in the past and  have been a normal functioning Human being for the last 20 yrs .  So dont give up.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Btw, the prozac didnt 'help' my depression,, but I never had any sort of crazy reaction to it.. so whatever they put in paxil is an all together different beast than prozac.

And Brittany,, Im sorry we had this convo on your thread,, i was initially purposely avoiding the psychosis issue initially,, but it is soooooo very important that we make each other aware of what to watch for side effects wise, because NO ONE TOLD ME... I hated myself for years after that happened and while my depression lifted slowly over the next year or so (mabey in part due to the 'paxil shock' who knows) it was not something I would wish on the worst human being. BUT my reaction was EXTREEM and not typical by any means.

*bows with apprication*
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
WAIT,,,, the problem then is probably the same for you as it was for me.... whatever the 'imablance' is, its NOT seritoin apparently for people like us clearly. We, or rather science only knows how mabey 3 different brain chemicals work,,, so these are the ones they have focused on.

Additional seritonin in the non-seritonin deficent brain, causes and almost identical reaction to the drug LSD, it floods the brain causing wierd dillusional thinking, obessing behavior, Iv even read it can cause hallucinations... my understanding though is that staying on, or going back on SSRI's will just keep the imabalance (too much seritonin) going which is probably why your still feeling weird.

How long has it been going on? I mean , when was the last time you took an SSRI of any kind?

Probably the worst thing you could do is go back on them,,, my suggestion would be, if you feel like your still struggling with depression and other issues , ask whoever your currently seeing to reffer you to a pharmacudical psychologist.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Well everything makes a lot more sense now.  Since my Paxil experience I have also been strongly anti-SSRIs, unfortunately the damage to me has been done and I even tried three other SSRIs just to reverse what Paxil did to me, with no luck.  It's been so long that I am even considering trying SSRIs AGAIN just to "get back to normal".  This is so frustrating!!!!
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
   yes, it went away,, this was back in my 20s so I dont remeber everything exactly, but I think it took about 3 months to really 'go away',, however I was only on it for about 2-3 months and a year on prozac before that. Im not sure what you mean by how,,, I quit taking it entirely after coming back out of the mental ward wtihout a doctors guidance,, totally cold turkey (NOT RECOMMENDED)

I had a severe psychotic break while on the paxil ,,,,, I wound up committing myself following an incident where I went into the basement of our apt. building where I did odd jobs, and was flipping everyones lights off and on at the box's,,, they found me in the crawl space completely dillusional.

Now you know 'part' of why I have a hang up with SSRI's.... I am a VERY healthy happy normal person now on nothing at all... the only explaination for how stange I was acting was the medicine,,, and I had to live with the guilt of my actions at that time for years with never a word from the doctors as to what caused it. Instead they tried to convince me that I had one mental issue or anouther... thankgod I didnt believe them and trusted myself.

*Bows with respect and apprication for all those struggling to find peace*

Jenn
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Oh, that was about 2 1/2 years ago BTW
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Jennifer375,

The "unreal" feeling that Paxil caused you, did it ever go away?  When?  How?  I had been on Paxil for 3 days when I had my first "panic attack" and have had a constant "unreal" feeling ever since, almost like the attack never fully ended.  I stopped taking paxil that day but this feeling just will not go away.  
Helpful - 0
242912 tn?1660619837
Hi Brittany......sorry to hear you're not feeling well, but give this medicine some time like everyone says.......what's so weird to me is when I started taking it I didn't feel ANYTHING like what is described on this forum!  I would run out sometimes, stop and start, then finally just stopped all together about 4yrs ago and never suffered any severe side effects or w/d whatsoever.   Then again, I always feel weird and spacey and my body feels like there's a low buzz in it constantly, so maybe I just couldn't tell the difference.

What helped me the most was not the drugs, but counseling, since your age actually.  Getting to the root of why you're feeling anxious is key.

Take care honey.....

Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
that was pretty much my experince with Paxil as well,, everything became very 'unreal'. I was in my 20s, married to a military man who was often gone for guard duty leaving me alone, and we did the typical 'weekend' thing with our friends, bar hopping. Let me tell you,, there should be a REALLY strong label warning on paxil about not mixing it with any kind of alchohol. (even though it seems like the vast majority of those prescribed paxil the first time seem to be under 20)  

I only thankgod I didnt hurt myself or somonelse,, the unreal feeling started before and didnt just show up when drinking,,, but it made the feeling and conditon MUCh worse.

*Bows with apprciation and respect*
Helpful - 0
299912 tn?1341623100
Paxil and other SSRI's will definately make you feel like **** initially because it changes quite a bit of how your body is using and dealing with seratonin and norepinepherine, which are a huge factor in mood (which is why it eventually helps some people). I used to take Effexor, which is another SSRI and I hated it. After a while and feeling like ****, I decided to try something else, and my doc prescribed Paxil. He advised me to start by taking half each day. Let's just say I didn't make it past the first half. Once I took it, I felt SO unbelieveably weird and felt really out of it. To be quite honest, I felt as though I was in a dream and going to die - although, I must say due to the effects of the medicine, I didn't really care though.

Jennifer375 has it right though, any SSRI should not be taken by itself, without therapy as well, for these medicines are not magical, and do not make the actual problem go away, just many of the symptoms (if you are lucky).

Mike
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi Brittany,, I looked at your profile and noticed you were 17. Im sure you know the standard warnings about SSRI's in younger people, but you've only as you said been taking the Paxil for 2 days so far. So its really hard to guess if paxil will help you or not. Out of curiousity, did your family doctor prescribe this medication or did a psychologist so there is talk therapy involved as well as careful monitoring of how your reacting to the medicine?

If your having a hard time concentrating and such thats not unsual,, and hopefully it will get better... but if you start to feel worse on the med, notice intrusive thoughts that you question, or begin to feel disconnected from everything... do report it to your doctor/psychatrist immediately. I would guess you would need to take the med for atleast 2 weeks to know if its going to start getting better or not...

*Bows with respect*             Jennifer
Helpful - 0
190673 tn?1259203266
first few days r bad. give it 1 week. if u dont feel better, quit it.
Helpful - 0
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