Long-term Paxil withdrawal

[Paxiled]

I was taken off Paxil nearly three years ago by a psychiatrist, who used about a six week taper.  At first I suffered a lot of disorientation and insomnia, then it evolved into intense depression, constant anxiety, and worse anxiety attacks.  I was put on the drug for anxiety attacks.  It's three years later and I'm still in constant anxiety, my phobias are way worse, and deeply depressed, so I ended up with three problems where I was only being originally treated for one.  My psychiatrist didn't or refused to recognize this as Paxil withdrawal, but eventually I was able to go on the Net and find out what it was, but I can't find anyone who can tell me what to do about such a persistent problem.  I'm now on Lexapro, but it hasn't helped much.  I know now that if my psychiatrist had put me right back on Paxil and tapered more slowly I might have done much better, but he didn't offer that alternative or ever explain Paxil withdrawal to me, so here I am.  Do you know of anyone I can talk to about this, who might have researched this problem; I haven't been able to find anyone, and several practitioners have refused to see me at all, probably because I lack income or they don't want to buck the pharmaceutical industry.  I really don't know.  I've lost three years of my life already.  How do I find someone who truly knows how to help?  The three psychiatrists I've seen are truly clueless about the drugs they prescribe.

[Paxiled]

One other thing -- my mind doesn't work very well since I went off Paxil, so forgive me for not being able to finish my thought.  What I'm suffering now is incredibly intense; I've never suffered anything remotely like this.  All the years I've had panic attacks I was fine as long as I wasn't doing something that triggered one; now I'm in intense anxiety all the time for no reason at all.  When there is a reason, I practically implode and explode.  The panic attacks are worse than they were before I went on Paxil, and I never had such a morbid depression, ever.  These are new things without any trigger other than following discontinuation from Paxil.  I know I'm probably an extreme case, or at least I hope so for others' sakes.  

[Paxiled]

No, there were no intervening events that would have increased my stress, I wasn't feeling depressed.  In fact, things were going pretty well other than the side effects of Paxil changing and increasing.  I have a talk therapist, thank you, but she's lost on how to help.  Sometimes you have to listen to the patient; I lived with the panic attacks for which I was put on Paxil a long time before I went on it, and I know myself well.  I'm fifty six years old now, I know who I am, or was.  It is the Paxil; I suffered what so many have described, only it hasn't gone away.  So I repeat, are there any doctors who have an expertise with this?  There has to be somebody who's studied Paxil withdrawal due to the extremely large number of people who have suffered from it.  I just can't find anyone.  

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

It's impossible to just draw a straight cause and effect line between the withdrawal and your symptoms...peoples lives change and their circumstances create more or less stress, which leads to both anxiety and depression, so how do you know it is the drug withdrawal, rather than your stress causing these symptoms...a good  talk therapist can help you sort this out so don't stay so fixed on the withdrawal explanation until you have thought this through carefully with a professional.