Paxil = Bad News, MY Story

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I'm tired so this may not be the best post ever written. But I do want to go on record as saying this: don't let a doctor push an SSRI like Paxil on you because you are feeling down or stressed. I made the mistake of telling my regular medical doctor that I was feeling stressed, anxious and depressed. I don't even think this requires going into the hows and whys; life's a b***h for all of us at some point. When the doctor suggested Paxil I was really taken aback. Not only at the mere suggestion of it, but the fact that he really pushed it on me. He told me "You'll feel tired and may experience some side effects, but just give it a chance, you're body will adjust". Well, I don't feel I ever did "adjust". I decided to give it a chance because I thought it might really help me to be calmer, happier, etc...all that things we feel we have the right to be as human beings! Well, it was a big mistake. I won't even go into the long sordid detail as to the many side effects it had for me. The main reason I wanted off it is not only was I very tired all the time, I also started feeling more depressed! How can this be? I don't know, but it does say on the description that during the first month you may have suicidal tendencies! Nice huh? Well I took it longer than that because of supposedly "adjusting" and all I did was get worse.

So ok I decide to stop. Simple right? You don't like a drug you stop taking it. Wrong. The withdrawals have been something out of hell. And I only took it short of 2 months, probably a month and a half, at a low dose no less!. Now all of the sudden I have these severe electrical shocks going through my body...apparently this is because it affects the central nervous system. My skin started to break out in hives and itch. I have the most terrible nightmares imaginable, to the point I dread going to bed because I know since I'm still experiencing the electrical shocks, the nightmares will also continue. I have severe headaches. I can't eat without experiencing terrible nausea. I can't hear anything on tv or on the radio without tearing up, because my emotional state is now trying to "adjust" all over again. It's all shocking to me because I thought with SSRI's, you could take them for a while to get through a tough time and then when you feel better you can simply stop and go on with life. This shows how little I know, and sadly, from reading the many many other accounts on the internet, tv, etc., it shows how little doctors themselves know, and their patients who are now addicted to something that they may never get off of. And I'm not exaggerating.

Now, that said, I hate to come on a website and start preaching to people that may already be on it to stop because I don't know everyone's situation (if anyone reading this does take it). It may actually help some people, as hard as that is for me to believe I'm sure it is the truth. But after experiencing this, and doing some internet research and reading the horrible stories of people who battle withdrawals for literally months...I am not for this drug. Period. It is bad news.

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I agree - it has the worst withdrawal of anything I could possibly imagine, and I was not able to kick it until the third try. It was like losing my mind every single day, and the body pain was indescribable. I never want to go through anything like that again.

If you have to go on SSRIs, there are better options - I believe Paxil is the absolute worst. After that I took Lexapro for a while, and I was able to taper off that fairly easily. Also, it didn't make me sleepy - with Paxil I could hardly stay awake.

i hear ya going off paxil is a b***h i went off about 2 years ago (when I was 16 going on 17) after being on it for about 4 or 5 years . It was a bitchhhhhhhhhhhhh especially having to go to school during withdrawel ugggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg hjgdsjzhgxg gffffhgjhukgvkyh

THere was a Panorama episode (i think?) that did a damning investigation into the corruption behind its licensing. I remember the manufacturers wanted to extend their patent by licensing it for children. So they effectively hid all the experimental data that showed extremely worrying effects in the child test subjects.

I actually took quite large amounts over a long time without the shocks & nothing much worse than hypomania (that i noticed) .Theres no way in hell id ever take a fluorine containing drug again.

In my opinion, Paxil only really works WHILE you're taking it regularly. If you miss a couple days or week's doses then some very serious side effects can start to set in. Such as acute depression and such. Much more than before.

I'm sorry to hear that you all had a hard time as well, but yet I'm not surprised either. I think aspergers can be so hard to live with. I envy those that view it as a positive thing to have because for me it's like every day I'm living in a foreign world with a different set of rules. And I'm way too sensitive but I'm not sure what to do about it. Unfortunately I put my trust in paxil (on a doctors advice like I said before!) and this is what happened. It's discouraging, yet I'm feeling a little better today so I'm hopeful. I didn't have the horrible nightmares. They weren't the best dreams but not so bad. I don't think I mentioned the dizziness I had either, when I laid down I felt drunk. I felt like I was falling backwards throught space. And the sleep paralysis episodes I have from time to time were magnified by 100 times.

Sadly all doctors know how to do anymore is write prescriptions for drugs. The doc I got well she is not a doc she is a nurse practitioner knows all kinds of ways of healing the body without drugs that work most of the time better than the drugs ever could.

Nettiespaghetti I am so sorry you went through all that if you ever need to talk let me know we can exchange medication horror stories.

Remember guys if your not sure about something get a second option or a third or fourth if you need it, remember its your body and your in control, doctors are human to they make mistakes and all that stuff.

I have to second everything that's been said about Paxil so far. It was awful on it, and even more awful getting off of it. I think that Zoloft was worse, though. Effexor was almost as bad as Paxil,and the withdraws were just as bad. I will not take SSRI's ever, ever again. None of them helped, even a little.

I had a strange experience with Paxil. The weirdest thing about me and Paxil is that I was on this really gigantic dose and had no withdrawal effects when the Rx ran out and I had to stop taking it cold turkey.
What it did was make me manic and I had to do things like landscaping. It did help me in some ways but in other ways, no. I noticed I looked at people more. Did it help me be more trusting? Definitely not! I wonder if anything would?

I hate Paxil. It's the only antidepressant I ever tried. After two days on it, I was such a colossal wreck, it was like I was on speed, and suicidal. Really suicidal. Intensely, urgently suicidal.
The doctor said "It'll get better, it's an adjustment phase to the drug. Once you adjust, it'll be fine." What an idiot.

What kind of bull is that? I stopped taking it and I started taking natural stuff, which helped me tremendously.

Paxil is evil.

I was on Paxil for 2 weeks. It was a horrifying experience. Thankfully, I didn't experience withdrawal (or if I did, it was nowhere near as bad as the medicine itself).

If you're going through withdrawal (or need more convincing to stop/never start), http://www.paxilprogress.org/ might help.

I hadn't heard of withdrawal problems before.

I took Paxil for a few weeks back in the mid-90s, started feeling suicidal, and promptly quit. No withdrawal issues, though my doctor was not impressed with me when I told her chocolate was safer. That was before it was common knowledge that Paxil can lead to suicidal feelings. I think she should have been grateful I told her how it affected me.

Now people are talking about withdrawal. Good. Get the word out.

Oh, and in women, chocolate can really help with depression. There are side effects, but I'm sure you already know them if you're a girl . Even a small daily dose can help. Some doctors even recommend it!

Paxil didn't make me feel any more suicidal than usual. It did make me feel more loving and that was sorta scary.

omgosh paxil the worst drug EVER, it made me psycho, after i got off of it, they announced that it wasnt a good drug to give to children because they found it caused children to be sucicdal, even more depressed, and that they didnt check into that until after they started distrubuting the drug. My mother said if anybody ever got a lawsuit against paxil, she would join in a heartbeat because paxil destroyed a lot of my family and me!

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