Seroxat/Paxil and other SSRI's

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Hi! I know we've discussed meds quite frequently on this forum and how SSRI's in particular did not agree with those on the autistic spectrum. I was just wondering what kind of side effects people experienced and how these compare with others.
I have not been formally diagnosed with asperger's. I was treated with seroxat(paxil) for several years to help social anxiety, it did a good job on the panic attacks, I felt more sociable but rather numb. I was very un-motivated, gained a substantial amount of weight with the increased appetite, also dizziness, apathy and dehydration were cumbersome side effects. I take citalopram now which is okay for anxiety.

I was prescribed Escitalopram following my anxiety diagnosis. I know that the drug doesnt really take hold until a few weeks of taking it, but I lasted just 6 days before the side effects drove me to stop taking it.

The leaflet in the box listed the 'common', 'uncommon' and 'extremely uncommon' side effects, and I was just ticking them off the list one by one.

Nausea, loss of appetite, insomnia, sweating, shaking, you name it. It was a nightmare.

Luckily over time I was able to get my anxiety more under control and avoid the triggers that cause my panicing without medication. However it still remains a problem for me, but my experience has put me off going back to my doctor, as the chances are I'll be prescribed something similar with the same effects as before.

I defintely think that often these drugs are handed out a bit too liberally before assessing peoples reactions to them. But then, I'm not a doctor.

Ha, I would need a novel to describe all the side effects that I've experienced from different psych meds. I'll try to keep it brief.

Desipramine (not an SSRI): Made me very tired all day long. It felt like every minute I was just fighting to stay awake. I couldn't participate in almost any activities because I was fighting so hard just to keep my eyes open. That went on for a couple of months before I stopped taking it.

Zoloft: Increased anxiety, severe panic attacks. Half an hour or so after taking a pill, my heart would start racing, I'd get very hyper and shaky, like when you have too much caffeine and it would last most of the day. I couldn't sleep at night. Restless leg syndrome, constant dry mouth, I started breaking out in a rash whenever I was in the sun for more than a few minutes. Took this for about a year? Maybe more. Still considered suicide frequently while on it.

Trazodone: This got added to the Zoloft, to help me sleep at night. It helped me sleep, but it helped a little too well. It knocked me out and made me groggy for the first half of the next day.

Paxil: Lost my appetite. Tried to kill myself (serious attempt which ended in a stomach pumping). Other than that, I don't remember much, but it's been more than 10 years.

Cymbalta (not an SSRI, but an SNRI, so a little similar): Only took it once, and half of a normal dose at that. Within an hour or less of taking the pill, I got terrible diarreha, which continued for 8? 10? 12? hours. I spent that entire night in the bathroom. I was also insanely nauseous, but since I have a phobia of vomiting, I fought it very hard. I think any other person would have been throwing up all night. It made me very tired and very stimulated at the same time, which is a terrible combo. It was like drinking tons of caffeine and then taking sleeping pills. I was shaky and miserable.

Prozac: Took a tiny dose. A quarter of the normal starting dosage. I felt very "spacey." I was pretty tired every day and felt very disconnected. My attention was poor and my memory was abysmal. I came very close to getting into car accidents every day while I was on this, and I've never had an accident in 10 years of driving. I stayed on it for over a month to see if it might get better, but it didn't, so I stopped. I pretty much don't remember anything about that month at this point.

I've taken others (non SSRIs), but this post is plenty long as it is, so I will stop here.

Often, people on the autistic spectrum do better with very low doses of SSRI medications. If you're getting a lot of side effects, it might be worth asking your doctor if you can try a lower dose.

A lower dose usually only diminishes the severity of the side effects.

People on the ASD spectrum rarely react well to prescription medication often with side effects specific to ASD people (they would be listed in the "rare" category) some of which are incredibly dangerous but so rare (due to the rarity of ASD people) they were approved by the FDA (ever notice the "heart failure" "heart attack" "stroke" "seizures", etc part of the list of possible side effects? Yeah.).

So my advice is unless you absolutely cannot live without taking something you should avoid them and if you do have to take something be very very careful (try a 1/4 or smaller dosage than prescribed at first and dont be alone for the first few days).

This is what happens when you give drugs designed for NT brain chemistry and wiring to people who are different.. its like giving dog medicine to a cat.. no telling what will happen.

I have not had a recent official diagnosis, but here are my experiences. In the end, I self-medicated sporatically, only recently stopping. This had its pros and cons, although I experienced fewer side-effects, and appeared less "flattened, emotionally" amoung other things. And no one was any the wiser, since I was careful. I cannot responsibly recommend this path, but I ask that you please not judge nor make any assumptions. Anyway, without further fanfare, here is a list of the psychoactive medications that I have taken:


Zoloft: Lady that percribed this to me was rather odd. She said these pills had no side-effects. The internet and drug information leaflette told another story. I hate liars. And what was her motivation for lying? Caring for me? I doubt it. It all comes down to money, I believe. I took this because my mom made me or else she would have kicked me out. Being 17 at the time, I had little other choice due to lack of options.
Side-effects: Anorgasmia, sweating, nervousness, dry mouth, excessive thirst, insomnia, weight-loss.

Celexa: Due to unbearable side-effects of Zoloft, I went to a new doctor and asked for a different anti-depressant. She was bent on perscribing a brand new drug at the time, Celexa. Like Mnemosyne on Desipramine, I also had to fight to stay awake every minute of the day. I ended up having to drop out of my favourite class, Band, because I was so tired all the time I needed to nap in the library to function for other classes. When I got home from school, I slept until it was dinner time, and then slept some more. After graduation, I woke up to eat and go to work. I took this medication for three months at the goading of my doctor, "Let's try it for another month to see if these side-effects will go away," despite my complaints. Well, the side-effects, surprise-surprise, did not go away. I was a normal weight when I started this medication, maybe somewhat underweight due to a little weight-loss from Zoloft, but after taking Celexa for 3 months I had gained 60 lbs total.
Side-effects: Anorgasmia, weight-gain, fatigue, low motivation, suicidal thoughts.

Paxil: Perscribed this due to complaints about side-effects of Celexa. First day I took this I experienced closed-eye halluncinations of daemons, a general sense of "being out of it", and was bed-ridden all day. I was forced to take the day off work. I took this medication for one day, then stopped.
Side-effects: halluncinations, fatigue, "brain fog".

Prozac: The drug I ended up taking for almost 4 years. I didn't experience anything remarkable while on this drug. I wasn't especially tired; more awake. I look back at the way I was when I took this drug, and I was much different. I was dull! I didn't have any of my interests, and I couldn't cry. I didn't cry once for 3 years straight. Weird, huh? I cry a lot now.
Side-effects: Anorgasmia, flattened emotional response, insomnia.

Wellbutrin: The final drug I took. I suppose this one was "the best one" from my experience. I don't really have much to say about this one except the first side-effect has thankfully stayed with me since I stopped taking . I could experience nervousness or anxiety due to this medication. This medication really didn't help me at all, but it was a welcome relief to not experience anorgasmia for once. My boyfriend liked me on this medication quite a lot, mostly because of the sexual side-effects.
Side-effects: Increased sexual desire/multi-orgasmic, weight-loss, anxiety.


If I could do it all over again, I would not take these drugs! I become someone different - someone boring! To say that I am a little jaded after these experiences is an understatement. I think they are dangerous and only breed more disease and problems. I am now pre-diabetic due to obesity caused by one of these medications. I am off all medications and I strongly believe I have self-medicated myself with far greater results. I work out everyday to burn about 700 calories and I try to eat right. The calorie-burned number has to end with "00" or "50" or else I won't stop, haha. I've come down from a size 22 to a size 16 so far. In 3 months on Celexa, my BMI went from 20 to 30! I still have a while to go, but soon I won't be considered obese, just overweight.

It's worth noting that while I felt less nervous approaching social situations (generally speaking), my initial problem with social contact did NOT go away and thus these drugs served no true purpose other than to further disease me so I could be a potential life anti-depressant user (and BigPharma rejoices). Am I paranoid? Maybe. But I was hurt by these drugs, and I don't think I really needed them in the first place. I now have irregularities in my liver and this may be linked to my anti-depressant use. I was 17 when put on the first drug, and my mother was tired of my behaviour and I was basically forced to take these drugs or "get out". Which angered me because I didn't do any harm or seem to bother anyone; I stayed in my room isolated just like I always had before My mother was just severely pissed-off because although I was physically attractive, I did not ever have a boyfriend, friends, or a modicum of popularity at my highschool. She was convinced I was gay and tormented me for it (and being obsessed with SailorMoon when I was 13-15 didn't exactly help to prove my heterosexuality, haha). Oh well, that's my experience.

i took prozac when i was a kid and it completely messed my sex drive up so as soon as i was 18 i quit taking it, i breifly took respirdal but had an allergic reaction to it, and was then put on seroquel but it made me too sleepy so i stopped taking that all together as soon as i went home.

I had one of those psychiatrists who was more of a drug dealer than a real doctor who actually cared about his paitents. I was diagnosed with depression and PTSD and I made the mistake of telling him about the family history of bipolar disorder, he gave me something for BPD even though the ONLY symptom I had was depression, as I've never had a manic episode in my life.

Paxil: Huge weight gain, became extremely suicidal to the point where I was hospitalized, insomnia, dizziness, skin rash.

Zyprexa-the drug for bipolar disorder when I only had depression: More weight gain, extreme drowsiness to where I even missed a few university classes because I was too sleepy. Fortunately, I was able to convince the quack drug dealer that the side effects were too much for me to handle.

After that fiasco, I eventually was able to go off the Paxil for good, and I haven't had an episode of major depression in 4 years. Because of that quack, I'm wary of psychiatric medication and would rather use yoga and excercize to treat any anxiety or very minor depression. I finally got the correct diagnosis of Asperger's, and there's no way I'm taking any drugs that'll make me an obese zombie. I'm still working on losing the weight that I gained from these drugs, I'm maybe 1/3 of the way there, having gone down 2 dress sizes.

I have tried a few ssri's which were fluoxetine, paroxetine and citalopram, I did not get on with any of them and citalopram gave me nightmares and I also started to self harm, maybe these drugs are more suitable for NTs and not aspies.
I have found a small amount (25mg at night) of amitriptyline very helpful, as I used to have lots of trouble sleeping at night and my brain would just keep thinking and and working things out.
I also suffer from social anxiety which have caused lots of problems, if I go into a supermarket I would feel very anxious and think that everyone is watching me, or if I am with a lot of people I will get stomach pains and need to go to the toilet, or get a tickle in my throat and start coughing, I have found both chlorpromazine and prochlorperazine are very helpful in preventing this.
Simon.