Paroxetine

[jo61]

Good luck Jimbo. I came off it years ago with no problem. I know when I try to wean off meds, I'm thinking about it all the time and listening to my body for every single suggestion that it's hard. I'm coming off Effexor at the moment and last week while on holiday in Ireland, forgot to take it for a couple of days without any problem so maybe I'm just being over-sensitive. (Oh, and Ireland winning the rugby lifted my mood too!!!!!!!!!)

[mooks]

HI jIM

Hope its going well...Ive been on off seroxat for years...been ok...withdraw is bad..and yes your in danger of a 'Seroxat made my life hell' thread ha ha...goes with the territory stories of seroxat...I just go with whats best for me...its an old drug hence the publicity...but if you look at others threads the 'newer' SSRi's are now coming in with withdrawel problems...

Hopefully Panorama will shift its focus and stop scaring us all half to death.xxx

[Jimbo]

Well, its not going well. Had a complete mare over the last 2 days when I stopped taking it totally. I think I reduced down way to quickly. (See my other posts in the depression forum).

All the classic stuff like crying, weird electric shock type spasms in my nerves, palps, etc, etc.

Appart from the depression which was there before, it's not unbearable and I kinda feel reducing over a longer period of time would have just drawn it out even longer.

I start my new meds tomorrow, so hopefully I should start feeling better soon.

[jo61]

Well done, it all sounds really positive.

[Jimbo]

I'm pretty much over it now, was the most unpleasant time in my life and had a pretty disasterous time cause I came off it so quickly.

I would seriously recomend not doing what I did and stopping within a week. As much as you think the meds aren't helping and however much you think you'll be fine. Don't just stop taking them suddenly, I imagine if I'd done it over a long period of time allthough it would have drragged it out longer I wouldn't have had such a bad time.

I've started on the lowest dose of my new tablets now (Venlafaxine / Effexor) which seem to have stopped a lot of the withdrawal I was having, it's still early days and nothing dramatic is happening, but I reckon they are going to help. I've finaly managed to accept the idea that I do need to be on meds to help me after this experience.

GL to all those ppl coming off Paroxetine, it was very unpleasant for me, but might not be for everyone... My advice, take your time and come off them very slowly.

Jim

[Imzadi_chester]

Hi

I'm new to this, so may have missed somewhere where the answer's already posted.

I'm a primary teacher and basically about a year ago my life went to hell. I found out I'm exceedingly unlikely to be able to have children in February. My partner at the time was fine about it, very much "it's you I want, I'll stick by you, we'll do whatever it takes" - that was very much a way into the future option anyway. Six months later when everything was just fine with us he suddenly ended it, completely out of the blue. Eight and a half years thrown away with REALLY no warning! He wanted to find who he was without being in a relationship. Two weeks later he tells me he's starting a relationship with someone else. Who happens to be the exact opposite of me and has proof that she can have kids.

There's a whole heap of mess in with that, but basically it wound up with me very close to suicide, and cutting myself.

On top of that, stress from work was unbearable and I ended up with months off work. Went back, lasted about three weeks and then got told by the head that I wasn't coping and she was going to put me on disciplinary action. (So much for being part of the Well-being programme!) Funnily enough, this led to more time off work and a suicide attempt which fortunately a friend interrupted.

Anyway, that's the background. Been to counselling, which has helped with some aspects of my depression but not others, and have been on paroxetene for about 7 or 8 months. Just changed dr surgery and have had meds changed to citalopram. Since then have reverted to not sleeping and lying awake with thoughts I can't shift running through my head, uncontrollable shaking and crying at these times, dreams (when I do eventually doze off) filled with things that contributed to stress and depression in the first place, and seem to be plagued with headaches bordering on migraines.

Don't really understand why meds were changed other than a couple of different doctors I've seen have commented that they don't like paroxetene. Does anyone have any idea why they might not like it? Is citalopram any better, is it effective? Read the side effects leaflet, but that's just scary and as they always give worst case scenarios I tend to ignore those anyway! And do you reckon these problems I've been having are caused by changing meds and will go away with time, or are a sign that Citalopram isn't working for me?

Probably sounding a complete idiot here, but seems like this is my best chance of finding out from people who actually know. Internet research is all very well, but don't want to know the chemical composition of these damn tablets, which seems to be all I can track down!

Thanks for reading. Please help!

[Jimbo]

Hi,

Welcome to the site. I would have replied earlier but things have been a bit busy for me recently.

Sorry you're having a difficult time in your life at the moment. The important thing tto remember, that can be difficult to see when you're down is that life will get better for you.

There's a lot of posts about Citalopram and Paroxetine if you have a search through the forum.

It's a difficult question to answer as to how they will affect you as it varies dramatically between different people. Doctors do tend to have experiences of finding that particular AD's work better than others, but it is really trial and error to find one tthat works for you and the side effects are tolerable. In the polls on this site Citalopram comes out as one of the most effective drugs, which matches up with some of the research studies.

Perhaps if you found you were doing better on the Paroxetine you could ask to change back to it?

From my experience, changing meds is always a difficult time as your body and mind have to deal with both withdrawing from one and getting used to the new one. So I expect you will feel some unpleasant side effects until things settle down.

Try to keep up with the therapy / counselling as the events in your life sound like they need some resolution in your thoughts before you will start to get better. Hopefully the meds will help you to get through this difficult time.

Good luck,

Jim

[msrose]

I love paroxetene. It has saved me from worst feelings of anxiety. I only take 10mg and have been taking it for about 4 years now. I take it when i feel the most stressed, i don't have depression just very stressfull days and that's when it helps me to take it. I take it maybe 1 to 3 times a week.

I was worried when i first started taking it, i didn't want to rely on this little pill, but just having it in my purse is my safety net and somehow manages to leave the anxiety behind

I deeply suggest you stop thinking about it so much, that makes it worst...