Paxil and paxil

I am a 44 year old woman and recently went to the ER for depression. I have lost both parents recently recently and have a very ill biological mother and Gramma. I thought I would be admitted for psych. Instead a Physicians Assistant prescribed me Paxil and sent me home. I have very little memory of the following week, but I did get arrested for drinking and driving with my son in my car. I don't remember doing either. I have had episodes of memory loss, sweating so badly I was akin to a human fountain, shivering uncontrollably, dropping things, total confusion and sleepwalking. My doctor says none of these are side effects. I have since quit taking it, and other than my legal problems life has returned to normal. I think the depression was better than what I went through for those 8 - 9 days.

Please stay away from this drug if you are not already addicted to it. I have tried unsuccessfully to get off of it many times by "Weaning" into another drug, but the side effects are unbearable. I have memory loss too, but what really gets me is how physically sick I feel if I haven't taken it for 2-3 days. I get nauseous and VERY dizzy, to the point where it makes me sick to even turn my head too quickly. I've had to miss work/school until I had a prescription refill.

I didn't realize the memory loss I have been experiencing may be due to Paxil, but it makes sense. I have forgotten the year on numerous occasions, and cannot recall names of people I used to have no problem recalling. It seems to be getting worse. I am only 27 years old, and my friends don't seem to have these issues...

im a twenty four year old student on paxil since i was fourteen.
coming off this medication is nearly impossible, i have tried at least ten times. The reason i have decided to come off it for good is because of memory loss. I can spend up to one hundred hours studying for a test and still only get about seventy percent.
Another reason i have decided to come off paxil is tooth decay. I now have a cavity in every single tooth and have lost three teeth due to paxil.
A common side effect of paxil is dry mouth. With out salivia in your mouth, it becomes difficult for your mouth to wash away bacteria, leaving you with tooth decay.
Im coming off slow, cutting up pieces of paxil to take each night, about two milligrams less per night. Ive been all the way up to sixty milligrams and im now down to twenty and hopefully will be free and clear within a few months. This is not a medication you can come off by cold turkey. you must cut it down very slowly

I have only been on Paxil (20mg) for a week and all I do is sleep. I am also dizzy, and I yawn, an awful lot. Just wondering if the tiredness and yawning will go away.

I have been taking Paroxetine (Paxil) for about 3 years for anxiety I decided to cut down gradually until I was taking about 5mg daily then gradually tapered off from there but I get a pulse like feeling in the side if my head when I move my eyes mainly to the left which makes me feel off balance this happens every time I move my eyes worse when i look to the left has anyone else got this i would be grateful to hear from you thank you x

I was prescribed Paxil and started out at 10mg. then they gradually increased it up to 60 mg a day. Later on they added I think it was 200 mg of Wellbutrin. I was on Paxil for I think 2.5 to 3 yrs. What happened was I was so out of it I didn't know what day it was. The HMO would have to call me to remind me to come in that day for my doctor visits. I slept most of the time and was just worthless. I didn't care about anything much and didn't have the energy to do much of any thing. This was a drastic change in me and my family hung in there with all this. I actually drove which is not a good idea at all. But when they put you on this you don't realize how bad you are on this stuff and once you are on it for so long then you are either a captive at home not able to do anything or you try to take back some part of your life. You also can't just go off of it cold turkey at 60 mg. I tried and it got bad and went back on it. After I got really bad all I did really is drive to therapist appts or to nurse practitioner who managed the Paxil and Wellbutrin. After being on 60 mg of Paxil and Welbutrin for awhile/months and I was so out of it, that is when they said we need to back me off of it. I think it accumulates in your body and I think you can kind of have an overdose in a sense. They didn't really monitor it that well and took their sweet time recognizing it. But they didn't say anything about it. I think that is what happened to me but no one at the HMO said that. Instead they got me scared that I was going to run out of therapy sessions allowed while on Paxil and that is why they were going to back me off of Paxil. I guess another patient had that happen to her and they didn't want that to happen to me. I then say my therapist very rarely while I was backing off of the Paxil. She acted like I was ready to handle everything on my own. I had no idea that suicidal thoughts were in my future when backing off of this drug. But they sure knew it, a lawsuit in California had been filed the month after I started taking the drug and it was all about the lack of disclosure about the withdrawal issues. First I got off of Wellbutrin and then they slowly backed me off of Paxil. It was physically wrenching. Throwing up and diarrhea all at the same time. Painful is not the word. I have given birth to two kids and pneumonia and this was much worse! Chills, tremors, I felt sick all the time. This went on for months. When I talked to nurse practitioner they pretended that it was no big deal. I wasn't sure what was happening. I finally got pissed off about the whole thing and never called them back and they didn't follow up either. Not even therapist. They hoped I would go away quietly which I did. When you are in the throws of this and you know who did this to you, you really don't want any more of their harmful help. It took at least a year to feel better. There is this uneasy weird feeling and zinging noise that lingers for a long time. But my memory is a fraction of what it was. My short term memory is very difficult. I know that Paxil was responsible for this. How do I know? Well when you are on Paxil and if you have a recall on a bad incident and you start to emotionally react to it, Paxil will offset it by making you sleepy. It literally targets your emotional reactions and those thoughts connected to it. It tries to disconnect the feelings from the thoughts. These disconnects also disconnect your ability to remember other things. Even after I got off of Paxil I noticed that I would get sleepy when I thought of stressful things. It has taken me about three years and I am talking better and can remember many more words. I talked very simply for so long since I couldn't recall basic conversation. It targets emotional responses and I got to a point where I was really numb about a lot of stuff due to the constant tapping down by Paxil. I feel like it disconnected those connectors to your brain that talk to each other. My family made jokes about me and how simple I got and how I couldn't remember anything. They are worried that I have alzheimers disease or will get at this rate. I could not work on Paxil at those high doses I was on and while I was withdrawing. I found that afterwards my memory was so bad that I missed so many simple things that I would have never missed before. I am concerned that my memory lapse will cause a big mistake that may hurt someone. I was out of work for so long. I volunteered to keep myself busy until I got too bad. It would keep me busy. I also noticed that while on Paxil I was uninhibited and said things that hurt folks and I was unable to monitor myself like normal and couldn't determine what was not appropriate to say all the time. I had an emotional disconnect to myself but also to others. This hurt some folks and cost me a job. My memory is so bad that I have to write down important things if I really want to refer to it again. I also have given up on going back to school. I couldn't test well at all. I can not remember what I did 5 minutes ago let alone a chapter I have read. I am only 52 now and I feel so much older due to this. I suffer from Fibromyalgia and IBS. I was so upset with my doctors at HMO since they didn't warn me of the withdrawals. When they put me on Paxil I was adamant about not taking an addictive drug. My family has had a history of addiction and I was not going there. I know how bad it can get. Paxil's withdrawals is very much like the withdrawals that addicts go through. I was devastated by not only how doped up I was on Paxil but also all time I wasted on it and with the year just trying to withdraw from it. Then the time just trying to get some of my memory back to function. I am mad that there is no way I could go back to school to better myself. I am mad that no one warned me of any of this and if they would have I wouldn't have taken it. How many of you would take a drug knowing that you memory would be messed up? Not many. Certainly not me. My daughters know what a tyrant I am about drugs and alcohol. This is not something I would have opted for if the whole truth were known. They certainly don't warn you that your memory will be like swiss cheese afterwards. No one in my family has had such memory loss. No alzheimers disease. In fact quite the opposite is the case. My grandmothers were very clear at older age, so menopause can not be a big factor and beside this happened before menopause. Also grandfathers and father were very clear getting older. My family noticed a definite change while I was on and after Paxil. The irony was that when I started to go back to HMO for regular care which took me a long time to trust them enough for them to do even that, someone at HMO had put in my automated chart that I was allergic to Paxil. They won't say who put it in either. I was not allergic to it but they are now saying that I had a bad reaction. But what I say is after seeing so many "bad reactions" on websites like this I am convinced that this is more than isolated cases but rather the norm of what happens to patients who take it. HMO doesn't want to admit wrong doing. Paxil seems to have kept a lid on it. Besides how do you measure a bad memory and how do you prove it after the fact? You are getting older and who is to say it isn't genetic. But I was on it for maybe 2.5-3 years. I was so out of it I don't remember how long I was on it. I also was suicidal when coming off of it. I even called a crisis line since I couldn't trust the HMO. I was irrational. For those of you still on it I think you are doing more harm than good. I don't believe all the facts have come out about the side affects from these types drugs. Who would be doing the studies? Certainly not he drug companies, FDA is a joke and if you think the attorney generals are doing much think again. Yeah a couple states like CA an NY they did settle on suits about suicide for kids but they settled quietly. The doctors who prescribe these drugs also are in a catch 22 like my HMO. They don't want to be linked in this and will avoid it too. What attorneys can afford to go up against all those high powered attorneys for those loaded drug companies? Not many. No one is actually dying from this and that is another reason there won't be much done on this either. Fortunately today we can hook up online and share our stories and this is the first step in documenting what is really happening to patients.

Be so careful coming off of these drugs. Give yourself plenty of time to get normal. Make sure you are seeing a therapist you can trust and is trustworthy. It takes an alcoholic about a year to rid their bodies of the toxins that have built up in their tissues. I do believe that is also true of Paxil. Be kind to yourself and get good support while doing so. It can be a very lonely physcially and mentally anguishing time. Think of yourself like someone who has had a brain injury or stroke. You need to practice to get things to reconnected as best as possible considering. You will never be like before you took Paxil but with time and patience and hard work it can get better or you can develop ways to compensate or work around or cope with such memory loss. Financially this can be devastating and it was for us. The loss of income and finally a bankruptcy. We paid dearly for taking this drug. It can be very frustrating and you have to look long term. I think it is very easy and cheap for HMO's to pass out pills rather than schedule needed appointments for therapist and other alternatives. Before they started to take me off of Paxil I was warned by my HMO that I had exceeded my number of appts allotted for a 2 or 3 yr period. So I may end up without any therapy while on Paxil. That is the reason why they decided to back me off. I had apparently used something like 32 appts in two or three years and I was getting close to not being able to have any for a long while. This was interesting approach since by then they knew that suicide was linked with Paxil. They will put you on Paxil and they will leave you high and dry without at therapist if you actually use one regularly and use up a normal amount of visits. I have very little compassion for HMOs. What was amazing was listening to the nurse practitioner tell me if these drugs don't work there are lots of other ones we can use. These are the easy going drug pushers of today and they prescribe these drugs without much thought. They make it cheap and easy and they will swear to your face they aren't addictive but are basing it on very little research. They regurgitate what ever the drug companies tell them. The cost cutting with HMO's is almost frightening. I also have problems sleeping too. I wonder if the drug messes up your serotonin levels since it does make you sleepy so much of the time and when you are off of it the brain is fried from all that artificial serotonin that it no longer knows how to manufacturer it well. I think that is what maybe causing my Fibromyalgia since this is a condition where you muscles never repair themselves at night due to lack of sleep is one theory. I was always a deep sleeper before all of this. I think there maybe a connection.
Finally depression. When you can't remember what you did 5 minutes ago or simple things it gets more than frustrating, you get depressed at how limited you are now. The pain from the fibromyalgia is constant and that too is depressing. I wish someone could put together the data on this to prove the link to memory loss and how it has affected our serotonin levels.
The only way you can stop companies is to sue them. Government won't do it really. A class action suit might work.

I'm a 22 year old student that has been on paxil for three and a half years. Paxil changed my life--my anxiety was absolutely debilitating. But like a lot of you, I'm now facing a new problem: memory loss. I constantly 'misplace' words, forget appointments, and periodically even forget things like my age. My studies have suffered because of it, but again like a lot of you, the withdrawal symptoms and the potential of my anxiety returning is terrifying.

I'm not sure what I can do. I am physically addicted and emotionally dependent on this drug, yet I'm also a young man with a worsening memory and grad school ahead of me.

Holy crap this website is depressing! Paxil is not all bad people! I've been on it for 1.5 years. I'm a 24 yr old female. I take it for social anxiety and panic attacks. It takes about 3-4 months for your body to adjust to taking it. You are likely to experience MINOR side effects. I had a lot of sweating, tiredness and HAPPINESS. Yes, I was really happy...its an anti-depressant after all. After that you might be a little more tired than you use to, but other than that it is fine. You can't quit cold turkey, you have to be weaned off of it...just like you will be gradually put on it. I take 30 mg a day, but started at 10 the first couple weeks. Don't get freaked out because of all the bad reviews on here. Everyone just wants a place to whine about their bad experiences and how horrible their life is. Paxil cured my panic attacks and my anxiety. I feel so much better. I think so much more clearly and I don't constantly worry about what everyone thinks of me. Would recommend paxil to a friend.

I have been on Paxil for just over a year. I am on it strictly for PMDD, and I can not use regular hormones so Paxil was the next best thing. I LOVE how much better I feel as far as the PMS symptoms are concerned, but my memory is TERRIBLE! I thought it was just me, I thought maybe I had some sudden memory disorder at 35! I couldn't find anything listed in the side effects having to do with memory loss. Movies are thr worst for me, I can not remember a movie to save my life. I have started a new job that requires recall from a dvd as well as a manual. YIKES! It is hard. I have also experienced a harder time paying attention. Almost like I know someone is talking but I end up tuning them out, like there is a blocker or something. It is really hard to explain. Anyway I am a very healthy, no other medications person. I am POSITIVE Paxil is causing this especially with the time line of it. Now I am scared to death to get off of it as I don't want to experience the withdrawals and I feel so much better than I did before, but the memory loss is awful, so what is the balance?

I've been on Paxil for almost 9 years. I suppose it's a success for me because it has kept the depression away most of these past years. I'm on the maximum dose - 40 mg a day.

I've always been an over-achiever, a type A personality, friendly...with the Paxil I am lazy, no longer care about details, VERY friendly.
My home used to be pristine and comfortable....now I rarely put things away, there are stacks of books, magazines, and 'stuff' everywhere. Because of the mess, we haven't had visitors in our home for YEARS! I used to host parties on a regular basis in our home but these days I would die of embarrassment if anyone saw my home!

My memory is shot...I can't remember names, faces, details...seriously, I can watch a movie over and over again because I NEVER remember the ending!

My sleep cycle is shot as well. In years past, I only required about 5 hours of sleep. On Paxil, I don't fall asleep so I take lots of over-the-counter sleep aids to fall asleep and they knock me out...I can't wake up until almost noon!

I MUST take the Paxil at the same time each day otherwise the "zapping" starts. It isn't painful...just very annoying.

On the positive side, I have achieved many great things because I'm no longer apprehensive about public speaking. I've chaired several successful fundraisers for charities. But because the memory loss has become so profound, I'm no longer capable of chairing these types of events.

I've gained weight but it may be due to having thyroid cancer & having the entire gland removed...metabolism is shot.

I've only tried to go off the Paxil once but the depression resurfaced immediately and I cried for days on end...it was frightening! Of course I went back on it.

Speaking of crying, when on Paxil, it's almost impossible to cry! The tears just won't come.

Now for the really scary part...the effect of the Paxil on my depression is not what it used to be....but I'm on the maximum dose! I've tried several other meds but they just don't work as well. So what in the world will happen when it doesn't work for me anymore? That black hole called depression is the last place I want to be.

I have been on Paxil for about 9 months now (20mg) and it has been a wonderful aid to my severe health anxiety and depression. Though the side effect have been around since the early months I have noticed an increase in them lately such as my vivid dreams have gotten very strong, ability to climax has decreased, but the insane sweating has improved.

All in all there a lot of side effects related to this medicine but in my opinion they do not come close to out weighing the benefits of the medication.

Before you begin this medication make sure you ask you doctor lots of questions and understand that this medicine can be a bit life changing since it comes with withdrawal when you decide to tapper off. But in my opinion it is a great tool when battling anxiety, another great tool is therapy too! Therapy has been a huge help for me and I totally recommend going to see someone if you are able!

Hope this helps.

I have been on Paxil off and on now for about 5 years.... the current length of treatment for the past 1 1/2 years. I need to be on it ( or something for that matter ) for my panic disorder. I am a 36 year old nurse/ manager and some days was almost debilitated by panic attacks. Depression was part of it, but not nearly as much as panic. I must say, that I have been experiencing memory loss now for about a year.... I thought maybe it was due to overwork/ stress...which I do understand it COULD be. However, I find it interesting that I am seeing so many more people with memory loss than I imagined. Is it due to stress in this type of people's lives, or is it in fact, the drug Paxil?
Keep in mind this is an SSRI ( Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor ) ~~ even though there is no solid evidence (YET!) this is a side effect of the drug, I would bet my license on the fact that that it is!
I have tried time and time again to wean myself off of Paxil.. ( with and without my Dr's advice )--- I did succeed for a few years to be without the medicine, however being on a slew of other meds in the interim did not help as much for the panic as does the Paxil. Paxil, honestly, scares the hell out of me!
Besides the "numb emotions", memory loss, sexual appetite decrease, yawning, lack of sleep, etc... the side effects of coming off of it are worse! As I read earlier, it IS addictive, indeed! The brain gets used to the drug being there ( as with any addiction ), and the "surges" of dizziness, sweats, and out-of-body-like experiences I experience coming off of the drug are excruciatingly harder to bare than the depression itself. Those above symptoms of withdrawal are just that....withdrawal!
Once your body is "allowed" to reuptake serotonin (as it is supposed to), this is when those symptoms raise their head...sometimes for weeks or months until they subside.
I would welcome anyone with help on this matter---is there another Drug out there that can help with anxiety/depression symptoms, and not cause the plethora of side effects we have all discussed here?
Diane

wow, I'm officially terrified. I've been taking Paxil for 8 months now for chronic anxiety and panic attacks. Prior to paxil, my muscles became so tense, my entire body would seize up. Paxil has helped with that but left the rest of my life in shambles. Effexor used to work for me, but I tried to go off them then go back on and eventually effexor became ineffective. With the paxil I have night sweats (just learned that is a side effect from this website), dizziness, takes a couple hours to fall asleep and a couple hours to wake up, dreams that feel real, light sensitive, some days I shake so bad that I have broken glassware! What bothers me the most is my inability to read. Are there others who have this problem? I can't see the page properly, or I can't concentrate long enough to get through a page, and sometimes both. Is this a side effect of the drug?

When i was 13 i was put on paxil for major depression. I stayed on it till i was about 17 after a downward spiral of depression that lead to a suicide attempt. After that the doctors decided that Paxil wasn't benefiting me anymore and decided to take me off of it, cold turkey. At that time i was on 40mg.
I started getting zapping headaches, muscle spasms, i was sensitive to light, my body ached, i had hot flashes, pretty much anything over stimulated me... i was irritated with just hearing anyone talk, i was completely out of touch with anything around me and i didn't feel like i was real.. I basically shut myself in my room for over a month getting over paxil. My family was afraid i was planning suicide.
After that, it's made me afraid to take any of my prescribed antidepressants, but i just cannot go through that again. At the time they put me on it, there was nothing that said that it was addictive, i was even told that there was no proof that it was addictive.
Also, I still experience the headache zaps to this day, and im 22 now, and i never had those type of headaches before paxil. I really think my mental illness is a lot worse from paxil. I have depersonalization disorder now, my short-term memory's crap, im more uncoordinated, im a lot more depressed and social phobic.. i know part of it could be from not taking any meds at all.. but i know that paxils really screwed me up, and i would have been a lot better not taking it at all. I just wish they would have warned me before putting me on it, or warning me before taking me off.

has anyone experienced hair loss while taking Paxil? I have been on 25 mg. for 4 years now and yes I am in menopause, but I swear my hair has really thinned since going on this drug. It has done wonders for panic attacks I was experiencing. I am now in the process of weaning off of Paxil. I will be curious to see if I lose weight easily and how my hair thinning does while off of it.

In 1998, my father died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage. I was only 33. This was devastating to me being a single daughter who still had aspirations of having him walk me down the aisle and all. I became extremely depressed and cried all the time. I was prescribed Paxil by my GP in this state of mind. No psychology or counseling offered first. And nothing was said to me about it being an addictive drug that would be next to impossible to stop taking. Nothing was mentioned about the long-lasting side effects. It was only a few weeks into it though that I realized if I missed a dose or didn't take it on a scheduled time each day, I would experience these "brain lapses" or "shock type feelings" in my head. I couldn't think a thought through without confusion. Having a conversation was like being a walking-talking robot that was short-circuiting. My other symptoms from this drug was the weight gain (about 30 lbs by the end) and the total absence of libido (not that I didn't want it but that I was totally numb in parts that I wasn't before), which was not normal for me. It was like many of you have stated... sort of a no-feeling zone ... and I decided this drug was NOT for me.

It took me at least 4 months to taper off 20 mg of Paxil. The side effects included severe trouble thinking or remembering things, anxiety attacks, more gain weight (which I attribute to low energy or enthusiasm for most things), angry outburst, easily tearful, then the feet swelling. At first it was just my left foot that would swell up and I attributed it to maybe a hereditary condition and dismissed it being any part a Paxil withdrawal symptom.

Another blessing I feel is a result of my Paxil is a very sensitive stomach. I have GERT (or acid reflux) most of the time. The GP put me on Protonix which helped the acid problems but then my hands and feet would go to sleep at night. I didn't think that was a good payoff so am not taking that either.

The edema increased to an almost daily occurrence for both feet. Sometimes they are so swollen I cannot bend my ankles and my hands and face are swollen too. Over the past 7 years, my GPs have prescribed varying kinds and doses of diuretics to help elevate the fluid in my system, which at first helped some, but now it doesn't even effect the edema in my feet. The only thing that helps really is to wear a closed shoe (like a tennis shoe) or -- which instead forces the fluid up into my ankles. Just yesterday I was told that compression hosiery is the only fix beyond maybe losing weight (I am not obese but am about 45 lbs overweight at 185) and that the diuretics were really not necessary.

When I exercise on an elliptical machine both feet go to sleep after only 15 minutes. I am much more active now and play tennis 3-4 times a week and when playing my hands and feet get numb.

Ten years later, I have chronic (almost daily) edema in both my feet and in my hands and face sometimes. I am way more active and exercise regularly by participating in sports (tennis and other running sports) but I do not lose weight. I still get the numbness in my hands and feet when I exercise for any length of time.

In the past 3 months I have had my blood tested for any and all problems - diabetes, low B12, high sodium, cholesterol, heart Doppler exam, CT of abdomen, and more. I am healthy as a horse from the results, but I am still having daily edema in my feet. I was told by a friend living in Italy that they prescribe a drug called Daflon for circulatory improvement. It seems this drug is not available in the U.S., probably because it is known for having no adverse side effects. I did find that a natural plant extract called Pycnogenol is supposed to help with circulation and other inflammation. It is also known as a Vitamin C "action-helper."

The reason I am sharing my side effects from Paxil, is that before I took this drug, I had no known problems with my circulation and I feel it is what caused it. I also have the ongoing trouble of remembering things. I feel this drug did a number on my body and I was only on it maybe 8 months. I can't imagine what someone on it for years will face. Thing is, I was sad about my father; I wasn't suicidal. They prescribe something that has long lasting results to someone that is in a weak state of mind and then don't warn you that there are so many serious repercussions -- no. 1 being that this drug is chemically addictive to your body's delicately balanced system. NOW because of deaths and Paxil-related murders the FDA has questioned this drug's safety.

You have to wonder if the doctors are really thinking about the patient or if they are just promoting the latest new drug for some personal gain of their own. I feel like a live guinea pig and there's no solution to the side effects I'm left with.

I want to encourage those that are thinking of getting off this drug that the side effects will wane some over time -- you can't do it cold turkey or you will pay the price -- but don't take it any longer than you have to because the long-term effects are not worth it. Better to learn how to deal with your emotions and find something that will be a boost for you in a healthy, non-drug related way (or at least natural), than let this Paxil industry continue.

My mom, 72, has been sick for a year and a half now with drenching night sweats, chills, fatigue as well as some other symptoms. She has undergone every test imaginable and has been to tons of doctors. Every test is normal and the drs. don't know what is wrong. We recently came to the conclusion that she switched to a generic heart medicine at about the time she became ill as well as recently started to take generic paxil because she thought she was having a nervous breakdown. We have just switched her meds to all name brands to see if this will stop the sweats and her general ill feeling. Has anyone heard that taking generic drugs could do this? Specifically Verapamil and the generic paxil. Thanks.

I was on Paxil for 9yrs, but have been off it now for 8yrs. It was prescribed by my family Dr for extreme PMS. At the time, it was a new drug just on the market, and there were no boards like this to describe any side effects.
After I was on it for several years, I tried to come off it. But the side effects were so bad, every time I tried, I decided to stay on it. I realized I couldn't stay on it any longer when it was affecting everything in my life. Paxil was making me so exhausted I was sleeping up to 20 hours a day. It almost ruined my life. Because I couldn't get to work, I lost my job and was out of work for 2 years while I was trying to come off Paxil. Of course my Dr refused to believe I was going through withdrawl, because he said Paxil was not addictive. We all know now that is incorrect. I had to slowly wean myself off it 1/4 of a tablet at a time over several month, and I still had horrible, very scarry withdrawl symptoms. I suffered from vertigo, tremors, tingling throughout my body, numbness in my hands, feet and legs, brain shocks, vomiting, dizziness, slurred speach, memory loss, heart palpitations and the hallucinations were the worst. I became easily aggitated by everything, unable to stand up without losing my balance. I was seeing floating black waves across my vision when my eyes were open. I can say it was hell, and I wouldn't want anyone else to suffer through it. I'm writing this to warn others that if you are on it for a long time, and then come of it, some of the withdrawl effects never go away. So be very careful how long you stay on it. To this day, 8yrs later, I still get numbness and tingling in my legs and feet. I still get brain shocks every so often. I still get short-term memory loss. The worst part is Paxil ruined my digestive system. Before I was on it I had no problems, now there are only certain foods I can eat. Paxil effects the serotonin levels in your brain, but it also effects the serotonin levels in your stomach and intestines. I went through several thousand dollars worth of health tests only to discover it was caused by all my years on Paxil. So please be careful and only stay on this drug as long as need be. It may have a negative affect on the rest of your life.

I am on 10 mg. of paxil and have been on it for about 4-5 years. I would like to come off but am worried about all these crazy withdrawal symptoms everyone talks about. I have gone as many as 3 nights without takiing any and never experienced "jolts", maybe a little jittery and confused. I am thinking about doing 7.5 mg. for about a month, then go down to 5 for a month, then 2.5 for a month.

I hear all these stories and wonder if the people who have all these bad withdrawls were on high does and if they weaned themselves off.

PLEASE HELP.

Thanks.

I have taken Paxil for several years for Fibro and Neuropathy. Since I am in constant pain, I get very agitated easily so I was given Paxil to help take the edge off my days. Yes it has helped.

But I have a terrible sweating problem. It has been going on for several years also and no one has ever mentioned it could be caused from the Paxil. I am embarrassed to even go out anymore because I have sweat rolling down my face and my hair gets wet. I know people are starring at me.

After reading all the side effects, which I have many but always just associated them to my other problems, I think I may also try to get off this drug and just see if the sweating stops. If I could go a day, out in public, without this sweating, it would be the happiest day in my life. I am almost to the point of being a recluse now. So keep your fingers crossed for me and a prayer wouldn't hurt also!

Thanks

I have night sweats also, and from reading above, i can now say its from Paxil! thanks. and i have gained a lot of weight, 28lbs. my sister takes it also, and has lost a lot of weight. when she tried to come off it, she started gaining weight again. I'm switching to Effexor because I'm sick of being fat and lazy and tired all the time. i call out sick way to much.

good luck to all of you!

Hello, I have been on Paxil for 9yrs, has anyone been subject to elevated liver enzymes??? please let me know..thank you.

I was on Paxil for about a year and have stopped taking Paxil about 5 months ago. I had to stop taking it because I do not have health coverage BUT my main reason is because i've been depressed and have fought anxiety my entire life and I do not want to be medicated my entire life. I did it for one year, it worked somewhat but coming off of was hell, but I feel that I want to fight my anxiety and depression with God and myself, not any drug, I excercise more now and EVERYDAYYYY! is a struggle! I feel droopy still from the after effects of paxil, im not doing well in college because I have a hard time concentrating, my eyes are always glossy, im nervous in large crowds (going to the groceery store is HUGE for me) and I feel like Ive done something to deserve this. But I know it is a battle that I need to overcome without a drug, I understand some people need to take it, but as for me, I may be struggling in school or feel tired all the time but if I have to struggle and fight through, I want to do it!

Another thing, I soemtimes feel alone when it comes to talking about anxiety and depression and being medicated on Paxil. It is sooooo NICE to write to other people and hear there stories. It makes me feel sooooo much better. THANK-YOU! God Bless!

I would like to stop taking paxil, I have been on it for 3 yrs. When I skip my medicine I get what feels like electrical shocks in my neck & head. I wasnt sure if I had a pinched nerve at 1st but began to associate this with the event that I had not taken my meds. I also have onset of panic attacks & rapid heart, & terrible terrible forgetfulness, as to even what cabinet I would like to open, I open the wrong one, go into the wrong doorway, wrong driveway. I am very concerned. I have told my Dr. that I would like to get off this Paxil but Ive been told that it would be best since I was suffering from anxiety attacks in past. I would like to be committed to be able to handle the withdrawls. If anyone has been successful in stopping Paxil and now feels pretty back to normal, please let me know. Thanks

I'm 40 and was on Paxil about a year and off now 3+ years. I gained 32 pounds- from a sz.2 all my life naturally because I'm just petite, to size 8!!!!! While on Paxil I did not care about anything, it was not like being depressed but I was totally mentally numb. I use to keep things tidy, and really care about how I looked, and be ambitious and creative. Yes, it took my stress away and that was good, but not for the trade offs! If I could go back I would never have taken it! I even started drinking a bottle of wine a night! It also made me vomit 6 + times in that year when I would drink too much, and I could drink plenty because I was SO numb! (I haven't puked from drinking since highschool) I briefly tapered off after a year of taking it with no side effects that I recall. I've just read several articles about lawsuits of those who commited suicide connected to Paxil and some killing others too - like the stories we hear all too often. The biggest advertisers in the TV & newspaper are PHARMA, so do you think we will hear any news on drugs like Paxil being linked to these stories, that are tradagies of real peoples lives!!!!! No.
I recently saw a billboard stating Paxil has caused LUNG & HEART DEFECTS! Which prompted me to start research and got me to this site. Turns out I have had several test on my lungs and heart over the last few years, cause I have an unexplained chest discomfort. I was diag. w/ mitro valve prolapse and have a spot on my lung?! So this is ALL now making me wonder if it's a side effect to that dam PAXIL. LIFE has stress, we all have to learn to cope by using psycho therapy or perhaps having our hormone and other levels checked in the body. Paxil is NOT a cure, it's HIGH RISK, and not worth it, drugs like this only MASK the real problem that still needs to be resolved, and there's not been enough long-term studies on all these drugs! I have wondered for a long time what side-effects I've had from it that I"m not even aware of. I've never felt the same as I did prior to taking it, my mind just doesn't seem as sharp. I never had SEVERE depression, HIGH anxiety, and suicidal thoughts until AFTER I quit taking Paxil. I got on it because my "family practice" Dr. like all of them was too quick to perscribe it when I told her I was having stress because of life changes having moved and just married and career changes.. normal life stress we all have to work THROUGH! I needed a therapist and maybe some valium, but NOT PAXIL!
I plead with you to do more exploration w/ natural approaches, excercise, and therapy don't just POP A PILL for your problems! The risk are too high.

Im a 20 year old male and about 6 months ago got injured and was forced to stop playing golf. This was very difficult and it gave me pretty bad anxiety, and i also had 2 panic attacks. All this occured all in about 2 weeks. I was put on 20mg paxil and about a day or two into it I started to see wonderful effects. I thought it was amazing. After about a month i was back to normal with minimal if any anxiety, had very minimal side-effects; drymouth,headaches. I just recently bumped it up to 40mg due to stress, worked good, but i did get a few new side-effects like trouble ejaculating, weakness, slight trembling, very vivid dreams(which is kinda neat just due to the fact that i would never remember my dreams and now i remember 2-4 a night) and a headache every once and a while. I think this drug is good and can be bad. Ive been reading a lot of troubling stories about other peoples experiences with getting off the drug, and quite frankly, its got me a little worried. But I plan to eventually got off this drug and get through the withdrawals and continue my life accordingly. I think if anyone is going through these problems and does get over it, it would be very helpful to all the people who are struggling, if you would write about your struggles and explain that this does happen and it does end. Show how everyone eventually gets over the hard times and gos on with the rest our their lives. Good luck to all, your not alone, and it will get better

Hello All - I have been on Paxil for about 3 years now. I'm a 31 year old male who suffered awful for years before Paxil with anger issues, constant depression, trouble sitting still & rushing through everything, not being able to feel "normal" - I had constant stomach aches, afraid of everything ect.

I have to say I have not one complcation from using Paxil - No issue with sex drive - no sweats, i sleep great, work at a normal pace, can hold friendships and foucus on everthing, small amount of weight gain but i"m very active and have a ton of energy so I stay in shape. I really cant find anything i dislike about taking Paxil, the other thing i find is that I'm in a constant state of ---------it's hard to explain, the line i typed is sorta how i feel, just even keeled, nothing gets me really excited much, and i dont get mad either - It's all just a feeling of ------ haha - anyone feel like that too? I tend to find myself being alone, and i have a big social life, but sometimes i rather be left alone.
Sometimes i feel like if i never talked to anyone, had a relationship, friends ect i would not even careless - It's normal to cry and get excited and mad and that's the only part that I dont enjoy, otherwise life is awsome but I guess it could be alot worse!!! and trust me it was!

I have been taking paxil cr 25mg for about a month now and it has really helped my anxiety. The first two weeks were hell but my body has gotten use to the drug and now I feel fine. My only side affects are yawning like crazy, no sex drive, and low appetite (this part I love I have lost 15 pounds) but will the yawning and no sex drive go away eventually? please if anyone has an answer please let me know

I have been reading a lot about some of the side-effects of coming off paxil. My girlfriend is attempting to do the same right now. Her withdrawal seems to be in line with some of the worse descriptions that I find on the net, and she is starting to question her ability to successfully come off the drug. I support her either way - on or off - but she really wants to come off for at least long enough to evaluate if she actually needs it any more (she has been on it for 7+ years).

She has had dizziness, nausea, and reported "shocks inside her brain" for the past 3 weeks while reducing her dose. Last weekend we went away, and she forgot her medication. In the past, we would have resolved the situation, but since she is in the process of reducing her dose (she went from 30->20->10) and was feeling OK, she decided to go from 10->0. At the end of 3 days, she is crashing hard!! Very distraught, emotional, slurred speach. Really having a rough time. She has gone back to 5 mg, which seems to have helped the physical symptoms a bit, but that is only 1 day after being off for 3. We will see... the emotional/self-questioning is the toughest part right now.

I think it would be good if I could pass along a "success" story... so many people have shared their problems online, which goes a long ways toward her feeling like she is not "going crazy". However, most people don't follow through when they get through it. I think she needs to hear that it is not all just trouble, and that there is an end to it (if, in fact, there is).

Just for the record... her doctor told her that she would be fine to reduce her dose to 0 over the course of 7 days... it was her own research that lead to her decision to try to do it over the course of 30 days instead. I can't imagine how she would have gotten through it if she had been so naive as to have followed his instructions!

Thanks for sharing...

I have been in and out of psychotherapy at least 7 times over the past 20 years for panic attacks and depression. The only thing that has ever worked is medication, and Paxil in particular. The benefits for me of taking medication considerably outweight the costs, bar none. Having tried everything under the sun, and having a Ph.D. in psychology myself, I know that I am not covering anything up, nor am I resistant or anything else. I have a chemical imbalance that is responsive only to medication.

Having said that, I had a drenching night sweat last night and would like to know if it is related to my taking Paxil. I take 20 mg of Paxil and 25 mg of Lamictal. Has anyone else had night sweats with Paxil? Thanks.

I had only taken this monster for three days when my head felt like it was going to burst, pressure in my head was so bad I couldnt think. I am a cardiac nurse with high blood pressure and an irregular heart rate. I took my blood pressure which is ususally 120/80 and what do you know it was 230/122 it was the paxil making me have high blood pressure. I have atrial fibrillation so a rapid heartbeat or higher blood pressure is definitely a bad bad thing..I called doc and told him how my pressure went up so high and he said go on and increase to the 25 mg from the 12.5mg i ws currently on. I told him I was not taking any more Paxil cause it was not goingg to help with depression, it was going to give me a stroke. He said Paxil doesnt have any affect on heart or blood pressure, I told him he better study up on his drugs because they do cause highblood pressure and irregular heart rate in some patients. He told me he could not be my doctor anylonger as i was not compliant with the treatment...lol who is he kidding I dont want a doctor so ignorant.....nita