About six weeks ago, my wife (whom I just married in July) went to the Middle East (Iraq) in support of her company. Within a couple of weeks I started to experience severe separation anxiety and depression, which is something I've never really dealt with before.
Everyone thought it would be in my best interest to go to the doctor and get some medication to help control my symptoms - so I did..
I was prescribed Paxil (start with a 12.5mg dose per day for a week increasing to a 25mg pill per day), and Xanax (1mg twice daily) for immediate relief. The doctor thought taking just .5mg twice daily would be enough, but wanted to go ahead and give me the option to take up to 1mg twice daily.
The Xanax did seem to work, and the doctor said that he would only like me to take it until my wife returned from the middle east, which was supposed to be no later than Oct 1st.
My wife has since returned just a few days ago (she got home early), mainly due to my condition and I would like to get off Xanax. I've only been taking it for 9 days (yesterday I only took a single .5mg dose), but this morning I believe I was experiencing withdrawl symptoms; increased heartrate, dry mouth, disoriented, neusea, sweating, shaking, etc. The symptoms did pass after about three hours, and I'd like to stop taking Xanax asap because it really scared me and my wife.
I've also been taking Paxil for 9 days while I've been taking Xanax, but I now have a long term prescription for 12.5mg daily. I took a single 25mg dosage a couple of nights ago, and I literally couldn't do anything the next day but lay on the couch in a daze. I called my doctor and told him about my symptoms, and he agreed that 12.5mg should be fine, especially since my wife has returned home.
Has the Paxil had enough time to get built up in my system?
Will I be okay to stop taking Xanax since I've only been taking it for 9 days? I really don't want to take it now because I'm honestly scared of it.