PAXIL WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS MIMIC HEROIN WITHDRAWAL!

[Jaime]

I am suffering from Paxil withdrawals.  Below is more information that the doctors won't tell you!!!

Tell your Doctors, and perhaps they will make the connection! How hard has it been for you to wean yourself from Paxil? It's as agonizing as coming off of heroin..and shares most of the same symptoms and long term effects! While researching an answer to all of the awful symptoms I experienced during my Paxil withdrawal, I was unable to find any medical resources listing Paxil as a source of these particular symptoms we all experience. Guess where I kept finding my search results directing me to? Heroin withdrawal. The symptoms associated with heroin withdrawal that are similar to Paxil withdrawal are: nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, restlessness, and leg movements, or jerking. While heroin produces muscle and bone pain, insomnia, and cold flashes with goose bumps ("cold turkey"), which are not identical to Paxil withdrawal, the Paxil symptoms of headache, "electric shocks", dizziness and hot flashes as well as psychotic mental state (violent anger/hopeless depression, unwanted suicidal/homicidal thinking) are similarly debilitating and certainly result in the return to the use of the drug (paxil) in the same way that heroin produces that result! Most experts agree that the major withdrawal symptoms peak between 24 and 48 hours after the last dose of heroin and subside after about a week. However, some people have shown persistent withdrawal signs for many months. I think that most of us (the "experts" on paxil withdrawal!) would agree that, even with careful and lengthy periods of weaning off the drug, at least some of these frightening effects occur and are problematic in our lives for longer than the average heroin withdrawal duration of about a week! Most of us have found that, by the time a week has passed,off Paxil, the terrible sickness we feel has become so great, we are desperate to return to taking the drug again to alleviate the symptoms. And many often do return this way, again and again...simply because we can't afford to lose three weeks or more of work, withdrawing from a medication that Doctors routinely dismiss as not being a cause of such sickness (we all have a really bad case of the flu), or because we are so frightened by the strange, indescribeable physical and mental feelings of disassociation and nervous system "zaps" that we go back to the drug to restore clear thinking, fearing that we are "crazy"...especially since our doctors seem to have no understanding of any of these symptoms as relating to anything they have seen before.   I hope everyone who is serious about finding the truth about the drug Paxil and it's horrible withdrawal symptoms will be sure to notify their health care providers of all of the symptoms experienced with this drug and insist that the details be documented and reported to the manufacturer, distributors, pharmacists and anyone in the medical field who can process this information officially and end the notion that these symptoms are "hearsay", simply because the drug company has not chosen to make them "fact"! And the next time you feel, or someone tells you that withdrawing from Paxil is "not that bad", remember that you are in the throes of a withdrawal so severe. that few others, except heroin addicts, have experienced, and YES, IT IS BAD! But it can be survived!

: Shawn Allen

[sassycass]

I'm being tapered off paxil right now.  And thought I would look up if their were symptoms from going off it.  And now I can say now I'm afraid to be tapered off it now after being on it for 3 years.  Any advice?

sassycass

[HockeyShark]

www.quitpaxil.org is all i have to say.

[kurtislee]

You are completely wrong.  In every way.  Jaime is absolutely correct.  All of the symptoms Jaime described have been experienced by me and other I know who tried the quit Paxil.  As my father told me, "If you know nothing about a subject it's best to not join in on the conversation."  If you are so sure of your words, why not take Paxil for a couple months doctor, then quit..see who's right here? Hmm..?

Kurtislee

[Jason]

I will never forget to take my Paxil again. I have been on Paxil for about half a year, and once before that. I am also on Adderall (amphetimine) for ADHD/ADD. I thought because the lack of sleep from working late into the night on projects, and the fact that Adderall rids you of craving food, and me skipping a lunch and dinner accidently was the cause of SEVERE dizziness, confusion, headaches, "sudden elevator drop" when standing up. I relized that I forgot to take my Paxil before bed (because staying late at work) for the last 4 days. My God. This is a horrible feeling. I am writing this as I am feeling this right now. I feel like people are being treated by throw pills at them and not seeking other means of a remedy. I just hope to God that the rest of you will take heed to this and shy away from this medicine or talk to you doctor and confront them with this medication's withdrawl symptoms before starting. It is scarry to think that a doctor recommends medicine to you not based on YOUR need, but based on the marketing the drug companies do with your doctor's office. Next time you are there, check out all the pens, calendars, etc. branded with ads for these drugs. You think that they give these out for no reason? Think about it. Care of people have become a business... :(

Jason

[BLTC]

Interesting reading here.  I've been feeling a sort of "electronic head zap" for quite some time!  I take Paxil; have taken it for 6 years.  I guess that's what causes it.  Believe me, Paxil has been good to me.  I started it after the sudden death of my husband right in front of me.  Severe shock and depression.  Paxil was a miracle to me.  I've heard PTSS sometimes can last a lifetime, and so should one's use of Paxil.  I'll take an occasional head zap if necessary; all this indicates is maybe I need to up my dosage a bit.  (I've been on 20 mg for 6 years, one a day.)

Better Living Through Chemistry :-)

[KerryK]

I have been off Paxil for about a month and felt no side effects. I think it's all in the head, when we read up on side effects we start thinking we feel them. It's better to just take the med and concentrate on wellness, not the effect of the med.

We have to stop thinking the med is controlling us; we are in control of ourselves and our bodies. The med just gives us a litle help but positive thinking and cognitive therapy is the way to a better life.