I am on 10 mg. of paxil and have been on it for about 4-5 years. ...

You should definately ween yourself off. I was on it for about a year and a half, and decided to stop taking it because it caused me to gain weight, and I just wanted to see if I could handle my anxiety issues by myself. I am 23 years old and I gained over 20 lbs while on it, which didn't make sense because I run and work out 3 times a week. So about 6 months ago I quit taking it cold turkey, and my doctor had warned me about the common withdrawal effects. I felt fine for the first few days, but about the 3rd or 4th day, I was so incredibly sick. I got the shocks, headaches, upset stomach, and insomnia which lasted for about 2 straight days. My doctor wanted me to take fluoxitine and clonazepam to help with the symptoms but I just wanted to see if it would pass without me taking more medications. After being ill for about 2 days, I just felt overall funny for another couple of days, then I felt completely normal. I would definately advise tapering off, because you will be in alot of pain and want to go back on the meds.

I have been on Paxil for 7 years and did try and go off of it about 4 years ago and it did not go well. I was off of it for about 5 days and could not take it any more I very sick and panicky! However my friend went off of it with little problems. So I guess it is up to the individuals body. It seems you are heading in the right direction by doing it slow. Good Luck to you!!!!

Are you planning on going on something else or being free of Meds?

Hi. I too was on 10 mg and I quick cold turkey. I do not recommend the cold turkey approach. Going off of it was terrible but after a week I felt normal again. I was fine the first 2 days, but by the third day, I was sweating constantly, confused, felt jolts everywhere, had weird dreams when I could sleep. But to tell you the truth- I really felt like by body was just working hard to get the poison out of it. I drank a TON of water, which helped, and tried to get exercise and just be in the sun to help naturally raise my serotonin levels. I will never go on it again.

I had been on paxil 10mg for exactly a year this month. But because of my job closing it's doors, leaving me with no insurance. I am unable to get a renewal of my prescription. I've never intentionally tried to come off of it, but I had missed a couple of days while taking it and I had the jolt of electricity feeling, which scared me to the point that I would rush to take it asap. Now I've been without it for about 4 days (cold turkey), and the withdrawal symptoms are devastating. I am having night sweats, insomnia, jolt every now and then and severe depression, I can think of anything and just start crying, which causes me to feel extremely foolish, although I think of something that I 'could be' upset about only to make myself feel a 'little' better. I never thought that I would ever have a problem with medications, not only because of the fact that I don't like taking meds even if it's necessary that I do so, but because I've always believed that the 'addiction' thing is overrated and that people can't become addicted to drugs, they do it because they want to?...well I've had a rude awakening, this stuff is 'real'.....who would have thought that 10mg would have such an affect.on 'me'! Now that I'm reading everyones stories I don't feel like I'm about to lose it, this will help me to deal with it better. (I pray). Another thing is, while taking paxil, I would sweat off and on, which was sometimes extremely embarrassing especially at work, I mean, my forehead would be dripping with water and I would only be sitting at my desk working, in a/c. I passed it off as pre menopause although I knew, as everyone else probably did, that I am too young to be going through that so early. Hopefully, these feelings will past soon.
Yes I think that you should wean yourself off slowly, a choice that I didn't have. Good Luck!