leadinglady Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 I've been on and off Paxil for over 15 years- on it more than off of it. My latest dose was 40 mg and am now on 20 mg -- weaned down in 2 weeks. I'm DYING of agitation, irritability, climbing the walls, biting my kids heads off, sleepy, grumpy, dopey-- well, you get the picture. How can I make this easier? The goal is to get me off of it completely because with the bipolar, the pdoc thinks the Paxil is making me worse and started me on lithium, keeping my Zyprexa on board. But this weaning off of Paxil is driving me nuts!!! Ha ha no pun intended. Any suggestions on making this misery easier? I have Klonopin and take that 3 x a day but it's barely touching anything....just sedating me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heatherta7 Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 I feel your pain! I've been there and done that! Unfortunately I had to just go through the withdrawals. I have no idea how to stop or alleviate them. But when the withdrawals stopped, so did my bitchiness. And I WAS a bitch believe me! There is light at the end of the tunnel. I wish you luck and hope that someone else can give you suggestions on how to deal with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artemisia Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 My main complaint about SSRI withdrawal has always been so-called "brain zaps," and what helped me was getting some Prozac. I don't know if Prozac would work equally well on your withdrawal effects... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirMarshall Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 The main factor in tapering any med is to do so slowly enough to minimize unbearable side effects. Using smaller dosage decreases and waiting for side effects to diminish before commencing the next step down. If you step down and the effects are unbearable, then go back up the previous dosage, let the SE settle, then use half the previous decrease. Alternatively/additionally, you can skip dose, taking the lower dose every other day, or two days on, skip a day, two days on, skip one day until any SE fade, then take one days, skip two. Paxil I found to be a toughy. I was still having head shifts/brain zaps two weeks after my last dose. I cannot guarantee that you will have NO side effects with any particular no matter how slow the taper. I do recall that my pdoc gave me two weeks worth of Zoloft as a "bridge" off the Paxil. It helped a lot. In any case, if you are having really difficulties, call your pdoc. That is what he is there for. Best, a.m. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Elvis Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 if you switch to an SSRI with a longer half-life, such as prozac, around the time you're coming off paxil it can really help. you then come off the prozac a month or so later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam_I_Am Posted November 20, 2009 Share Posted November 20, 2009 I've been on and off Paxil for over 15 years- on it more than off of it. My latest dose was 40 mg and am now on 20 mg -- weaned down in 2 weeks. I'm DYING of agitation, irritability, climbing the walls, biting my kids heads off, sleepy, grumpy, dopey-- well, you get the picture. How can I make this easier? The goal is to get me off of it completely because with the bipolar, the pdoc thinks the Paxil is making me worse and started me on lithium, keeping my Zyprexa on board. But this weaning off of Paxil is driving me nuts!!! Ha ha no pun intended. Any suggestions on making this misery easier? I have Klonopin and take that 3 x a day but it's barely touching anything....just sedating me! I've also heard about switching to Prozac, due to the longer half-life, and tapering off of that. (In fact, pdoc and I are contemplating doing that for me, as I am tapering off Zoloft). Also, some medications come in liquid forms, which makes it easier to tailor the dose. I don't know exactly where I heard this, but I've "heard" that one should only decrease the dose by 10 percent with each dose reduction. So if someone is on 20 mg, going down to 18mg for however long (2 weeks to a month), then 16.2 mg, etc...which is incredibly difficult with tablets. I don't know if they make a liquid Paxil, but maybe you could switch to an equivalent Prozac dose, AND use the liquid Prozac to taper down (I do know they have that.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beetle Posted November 20, 2009 Share Posted November 20, 2009 There's anecdotal accounts that I believe have floated around this board and others, that Benadryl can help with some of the withdrawal symptoms. I don't know how or why. I've never tried it. I quit effexor and just kind of sucked it up and dealt with the withdrawal and it all eventually went away. But it does suck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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