Withdrawl

[goalie34]

I'm on Paxil to help with my anxious and depressed tendencies. Recently, I felt as though I didn't need it anymore, and stopped taking it. This led to horrible symptoms including severe mood swings, nausea, headaches, and tingling. This led to a huge blowout with my girlfriend (whom I love very much), in which we almost broke up. We decided it was better to stay together, but I want to make sure nothing like this happens again. I'm back on the meds, but has anyone had a similar experience? Any advice/insight would be appreciated.

 

[ZenTickling]

I'm on Paxil to help with my anxious and depressed tendencies. Recently, I felt as though I didn't need it anymore, and stopped taking it. This led to horrible symptoms including severe mood swings, nausea, headaches, and tingling. This led to a huge blowout with my girlfriend (whom I love very much), in which we almost broke up. We decided it was better to stay together, but I want to make sure nothing like this happens again. I'm back on the meds, but has anyone had a similar experience? Any advice/insight would be appreciated.

You absolutely need to taper off. I take Effexor for panic attacks and if I miss a dose by a few hours withdrawal starts kicking in. It sucks, but it does a good job getting rid of the anxiety. Effexor and Paxil are very similar, both effect the serotonin levels in the brain. In order to get off of it without major issues you need to gradually reduce the dosage over time.. depending on the dosage we could be talking a month or two. I've heard that benadryl is good at covering up some of the withdrawal symptoms (headache, tingling/numbness, brain zaps).

 

[kopfhorer]

Going off any meds cold-turkey is definitely not recommended. If you're having genuine problems with a medication, say, bad side effects, get on the horn to your doctor and have him or her get you off of it the right way, and onto something else if you need something like it.

Also, it's very easy to believe that you don't need an antidepressant after you start feeling better when in fact its the regular use of the med that's the reason you feel better.

 

[jhop220]

I'm on Paxil to help with my anxious and depressed tendencies. Recently, I felt as though I didn't need it anymore, and stopped taking it. This led to horrible symptoms including severe mood swings, nausea, headaches, and tingling. This led to a huge blowout with my girlfriend (whom I love very much), in which we almost broke up. We decided it was better to stay together, but I want to make sure nothing like this happens again. I'm back on the meds, but has anyone had a similar experience? Any advice/insight would be appreciated.

Cold turkey on meds can lead to severe withdrawal symptoms....take it one step at a time to ween yourself off of them...

I don't know how many you take per day/week/month but you can try to taper it off a bit...if its one pill a day then try cutting the pill in half and taking a 1/2 pill a day, or one every other day.

Just get yourself on a slow process to get over it to avoid the withdrawal as much as possible. Not saying you won't have some symptoms but they should be quite a bit less severe.

Good luck.

 

[Gothika]

like others have said with those meds it can be dangerous to just stop u need to have ya doctor wing ya self off im on many meds and if i dont take them for a few days i will feel it be careful with that stuff

 

[goalie34]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate it.

 

[storm7400]

If you're on meds in the first place, I will take the leap and say its under a doctor's care. Be that as it may, you should seek council with said doctor about tapering off the medication. You can risk serious damage to your person both long and short term if you do not and with these medications effecting your state of mind it is imperative that you do not do this on a whim. Make sure you have a support system to help you with any decision and that you are capable of handling yourself if in fact you do stop taking the pills.