Paxil and zaps

I've been taking 20mg daily of Paxil for about three years now. I'm 35 now. I started after the death of my father and I was at a rough point in my life mentally due to that stress and my job. I've always had anxiety since I was a child but avoided medications. When I discussed my feelings with my doctor he instantly put me on Paxil. He described it as a "happy pill".
Well not a cure-all, I will say that it worked. I'm much more confident now. I don't get worked up over the small things. There have been side effects that I never really attributed to the drug such as weight gain, RLS, crazy dreams that I can remember in vivid detail, itching, muscle twitches and extreme tiredness. I don't ever remember not being so tired. I actually can't even sleep at night, but during the day I can sleep 12-16 hours straight. Still never occurred to me that it might be the Paxil. I don't even remember what I was like before.
Last summer I made an attempt to go off cold turkey. That was a big mistake. I was having panic attacks, I was confused, an emotional wreck, lashing out at people for no reason. After seven days I went to urgent care. My blood pressure was 158/106. My heart was beating out of my chest. They gave me Xanax to calm down and suggested I start taking the Paxil again, which I did. I thought I was going to die. Shortly after I started taking it again I felt I was back to "normal".
I am now making another attempt, slowly trying to wean myself off this evil drug. I would have never started if I knew I wouldn't be able to stop. The doctors and pharmacists don't disclose any of the side effects of withdrawal. Those of you who have gone through know what hell it is. I'm taking the 20mg every other day now and will do that for 2-3 weeks. I can already feel myself getting jittery and it's only been a week. It's not unbearable though and I need to get it out of my system. Luckily I have not had the zaps that some people have had, nor have I had any memory loss.
I just wanted to post this as another testimony of how addictive this drug is. I really wish they would put that on the label...but they wouldn't sell quite as much, would they?

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.