14 yrs on seroxat

[mellyb]

hi my name is melissa and i have suffered from GAD from a teenager. i have been on seroxat for 14yrs and on max dose 60mg daily. i have decided to try and beat the demon of anxiety and so for the last two days have been taking 50mg i dont knowif i am more worried about the horror stories u hear about withdrawal or anxiety itself.its almost like i am waiting for the nastys to start. if all goes well will be dropped to 40mg daily in two weeks, is there ever a right time to try and come off med's ? i have gained like 80lbs through taking this med and am still at times feeling anxious so thats why i thought now or never any advice would be great thanks x

[nomorepanic]

Hi mellyb

A huge warm welcome to nmp.

You'll get loads of advice and support here and make some lovely friends along the way.

Best wishes

[pia]

Hi Mellyb.

Im in a similar situation- have been taking seroxat for 15 years (though a much lower dose than you right now, i have been on 60mg in the past)
For me it wasnt too difficult to drop down from 60mg to 20mg- i did do it over the space of a few months though. A drop of 10mg as you say you have been on for past 2 days is a BIG drop and (at least in my experience) will cause anxiety etc.
Im currentley on just under 5mg per day and am reducing by 0.5mg every month.
xxx

[Vanilla Sky]

Hi and welcome to NMP
Paige x

[angelica1414]

hi and welcome mel
i also have been on seroxat for over 17 years now, im currently withdrawing and at the moment i am down to 3mgs <yah>! over the years my highest dose was 30mg this last attempt of coming off it was from 20mg, i have done it at this attempt by going onto another AD but i had to stop the new AD last week as it was conflicting with my blood pressure tablets, so im now going through bad withdrawels of both meds at the moment. a few years ago i felt well enough to try withdrawel off seroxat but when i got down to 12mgs i started feeling poorly so was advised to go back up to 20mgs i stayed on that for about 3years but started feeling ill last september and when i spoke to my doctor he said the seroxat wasn't no longer working hence while im doing this now.
in my experince if your not feeling to bad at the moment thats good it sounds like your doing it right by waiting to do the big drops, some doctors really dont seem to understand and say taper much quicker.
you have asked for some advice off people who have experienced the withdrawel from seroxat, well although its helpful to read about others experince, as you have already proved it can hinder too, like you say your waiting for the nasties to start please dont sit there worring i think thats what i did the 1st time round and made it worse, you will know if it gets too bad and then you can deal with it, it wont mean you have failed if you dont do it the first time round, but reading back over your post it looks like you have made this decsion without the help of the doctor? if you have please go talk to them first, as you will need thier help when you get to a lower dose as you will find it easier to taper with seroxat liquid as im on that now as its easier to measure.
i wish you lots of luck mel and know exactly how frightend you feel about this drug, if you think i could be of help to you any time please dont hesitate to msg me, linda x