Re: Worse before better on paroxetine?
Hi pulisa,
Talking things out with the doctor helped.
The lack of routine I have experienced lately really has not helped my mental health.
After the covid scare at work management has decided to split the place up into “bubbles” with minimal contact between the different bubbles. While this will keep work safer in terms of virus transmission it also unfortunately means less social interaction and more isolation. :-(
Everyone will just have to live with this situation until there are enough people vaccinated and then some normality can return.
Regarding medication she has switched me over to lexapro. I will start a new thread in the lexapro forum to track my progress.
I was on paroxetine for about 3 months. The first month was horrid. Eventually the insomnia side effect went away. Other side effects persisted. Headaches, teeth grinding, not feeling myself and lastly agitation which was the last straw.
It did help with anxiety and depression somewhat and might have done more if I was able to tolerate a higher dose but that was not to be.
I told her about the dizziness and difficulty peeing on 10mg of amitriptyline and she said that should occur when taking much higher doses so this reinforced her belief that I am a slow metabolizer of anti depressant medication.
I cannot thank everyone enough who contributed to this thread PDU, Catkins and yourself.
I will see you on the lexapro thread shortly.
Regards
John
Re: Worse before better on paroxetine?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jonjon
I told her about the dizziness and difficulty peeing on 10mg of amitriptyline and she said that should occur when taking much higher doses so this reinforced her belief that I am a slow metabolizer of anti depressant medication.
Amitriptyline is a fairly potent muscarinic acetylcholine antagonist which produces the peeing difficulty, John. But unless your liver, and to a lesser extend kidneys, are completely shot I doubt you're such a slow metaboliser that you can't tolerate less than one seventh of the normal amitriptyline starting dose. There are readily available blood tests to determine TCA plasma levels which would settle the matter.
Re: Worse before better on paroxetine?
I honestly do not know how people can tolerate such high doses of some medications.
When I was younger I could drink most people under the table. I didnt know how they couldnt tolerate alcohol.
We are all different.
Re: Worse before better on paroxetine?
Yes we are..
I'm glad you're going to try lexapro. I'm on 5mg daily and don't want to up it regardless of what may be considered the therapeutic dose. Fortunately my history with these drugs is enough to convince the doctors not to try to persuade me!
Good luck and hope you feel more reassured now after speaking to your psychiatrist.
Re: Worse before better on paroxetine?
Yep I am happy to be trying something more mainstream. Whether or not it works time will tell. When I was at my worst I was willing to put any crap into my body and pray for the best. Those bottom of the barrel medications as my psychiatrist called them may have worked for some people but for me they were pure poison. Lithium and respirodone spring to mind. Yuck.
Re: Worse before better on paroxetine?
Hope all goes well with the lexapro, I've never had it but will be interested to see how you get on. Paroxetine was the second one I tried, so I feel quite lucky that I found something that helped me relatively quickly - even though it didn't feel quick at the time.
I would have quite happily toddled on at my old dose if circumstances hadn't became too much to cope with and I had to up the dose.
Re: Worse before better on paroxetine?
Thanks Catkins.
Have started new thread in relevant section to track my progress.
John