I have been on Paroxetine for a couple of years now due to some family-counseling issues. I was reluctant to go on them at first. But for my family, I thought I'd try it.
It did reduce my anxiety. I slept better, deeper, and longer. A life-long stutterer, it cut my stuttering by 50-75%, and improved how I was viewed at work (I believe), by my calmness, better speech, and ability to focus. I had suffered from significant anxiety my whole life up to that point.
But it changed who I was. I was a person I didn't know. I lost my identity. I 'felt' less. I've had no sex-drive, and when having sex, the feeling was dull.
Once an early riser, with a lot of energy, personality, feelings, and 'life', I became a deep and long sleeper, had NO energy, put on weight, and just went through life with dull feeling.
Recently, I could barely get out of bed, had no energy, was very uncomfortable and self-concious about weight-gain, and could barely get anything done. When my prescription was recently filled with a generic by the 4th different manufacturer (white oblong, white round, red round, and now green oblong), I vowed to get off the stuff. How can they all be the same?(My health professional recently wanted me to go on even stronger medicine).
I went down from 40 mg to 20 mg/day over the course of a week and a half with no side effects. But this week has been completely different. After I received these new green pills(Zydus Pharm(?)), I decided I would not take them and enough was enough. But it appears it was a big mistake, even after I performed a web-search to see how best to do it (on my own).
I am extremely dizzy and nauseous; to the point of incompacitation. I have not been able to sleep for the past 3 nights. I have had vivid dreams, including one of the greatest sexual epics imagineable. But this is bad; so I just took a 20mg pill. I'll continue to try it on my own, but slower. But no more of these pills unless it is life or death.
I would urge others to consult their Dr (firmly) about weaning-off these (if they want to), and not taking "I would not recommend that" for an answer. I'm a 51 year-old male, and this is the worst I've ever felt in my life.