Help! I quit taking paxil w/out tapering off

[W2BMom]

In an attempt to get healthy so that my husband and I can have a baby, I decided to quit taking Paxil CR.  I had spoken with my Dr. about it and he suggested that I coordinate quitting with my OBGYN and him.  When my prescription ran out, I decided not to fill it and just quit.  DUMB!  It has been almost two weeks and I have this strange sensation of electric shocks in my face and head and strange sounds in my ears.  I am also very dizzy like I have vertigo.  I have been angry and irritable, which makes me nervous about being around people, or freaking out at work.    I also quit drinking diet coke last weekend.  Most of the symptoms I have described didn't start to bother me until one day without the caffiene.  Is it a cooincidence?  Are my symptoms from the caffiene withdrawal, Paxil CR withdrawal, or both?  I was taking 37 mg daily.  I have an appointment tomorrow with my OBGYN, I am affraid to tell my Dr. that I quit cold turkey against his advice, but I don't like how I feel.  What should I do?

[umya]

i wouldn't recommend quitting cold turkey, not because of the physical side effects but the possible emotional.  the electric head and vertigo will go away and are at best nuisances.  there is however, the risk of slipping into an acute depression.  

[Jems11]

Hi, I was on Lexapro and attempted cold turkey and had to go back on and taper off.  I'm not sure how long your withdrawals will last doing it that way but once I did the taper thing (20mg to 10mg for week, 5mg for week then 2.5 for week) I had the same symptoms for 2 weeks very bad.  I didn't go out other then work as I felt too bad to see anyone and wasn't confident driving too far because of dizziness etc.  To be honest though in my worst I did think could it have been any worse just going cold turkey, but had GP, therapist and naturopath all told me to taper.  Make sure you take vitamin c and a mulit v with vit B as your are essentially detoxing your body of a drug and once you've been off ssri for at least 3 days you should try taking a vitamin called SamE, which is totally natural and a mood lifter (it's not that cheap however but totally worth it).  I take 600mg a day and it really takes the edge off my anxiety depression.

Anyways hope you do well and hang in there!