ravijaua: Paxil withdrawal hell

[scallywag]

Sometimes the best action is no action, i.e. waiting to stabilize. Sorry this stretch has been difficult for you.

[ravijaua]

Really depressed and down today. Anxiety is severe. Sleep is thankfully good. But anxiety is out of control , most severe it has ever been since my Poopout last summer of 2015. I am lost in thought of how I will ever get off this medication if a 1.5 % drop is causing me so much anxiety.

[ravijaua]

So I did a hasty thing. Starting last Friday 12/16 , I started tapering faster with the hope that would decrease my anxiety. I tapered  down about 2% in the last week. I think my anxiety has worsened actually. Now I am not sure what to do, should I updose back to what I was on before last week or stay on this dose and wait to stabilize.

[ravijaua]

If you see my signature you can see I was on 15.95 mg until 12/16 when I dropped to 15.83 and then dropped 1 mg pill weight every other day until 12/23/2016 to reach 15.67. I wonder if I should updose to 15.83, updose to 15.95 or stay at 15.67 and wait to stabilize. I am leaning more towards updosing to 15.83 since I felt better with than initial drop but felt anxious after a day or two. But maybe if I stabilize on that dose I will be ok. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[scallywag]

The safest option is to do nothing, that is to stay at your current dose, and wait for your symptoms to return to a tolerable level.

 

Returning to your previous dose poses the risk of destabilization.

 

You need to decide which risk you want to take:  waiting for an unknown period of time for symptoms to settle or possibly making symptoms worse with an increase.

 

Me, I'd side with staying at current dose and riding it out. You may decide differently. 

 

If in the future you find yourself having thoughts about speeding up your taper, you may want to review the posts in this topic:

3KIS: Keep it slow. Keep it simple. Keep it stable.

[ravijaua]

Thanks will do that then. Stabilize on this dose.

[ravijaua]

thanks for advice.

[ravijaua]

It has been only 1 week since my drop, do you think I could still destabilize by updosing?

[ravijaua]

It has been about two weeks on the same dosage of 15.67 mg. I am not sure if I should stay on this or drop a little. It seems like my anxiety is getting worse day to day. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[scallywag]

If your symptoms are getting worse, now is NOT the time to decrease the dose. 

 

What non-drug techniques are you using to deal with the anxiety?

Non-drug techniques to cope with emotional symptoms

[ravijaua]

scallywag the only thing is when I had bad symptoms of headaches tapering helped get rid of them. Also when I had bad anxiety while taking Zoloft and paxil dc'ing Zoloft helped.

[ravijaua]

Tapering seems to help with anxiety sometimes and cause anxiety sometimes. It make no sense.

[ravijaua]

So friday will be 3 weeks at 15.67 mg (286 mg pill weight) . Anxiety is pretty bad and starting to have weird eye twitching. I had similar issues when I tried reinstated 20 mg after dcing in 2010.

[scallywag]

Sorry to read that your symptoms haven't settled yet after the last decrease. It's worth considering a longer hold at your current dose, even though you haven't decreased much since the middle of November. (16.2 mg to 15.67 currently)

 

Your signature (emphasis mine):

 

Sep 2016 paxil 16.2 mg alone(295 mg pill weight). Started tapering 11/14/2016.

Took off 1 mg pill weight(total pill weight of 20 mg = 365 mg and 16 mg is 295 mg).

Went down 1 mg per week of pill weight so down to 291 mg by end of November. Starting getting anxiety issues starting since 12/10/2016. Hoping that a faster taper will help.

12/14/2016 - 15.95 mg (291 mg pill weight)

12/16/2016 -  15.83 mg (289 mg pill weight)

12/23/2016 -  15.67 (286 mg pill weight)

 

It's possible that decreasing weekly, even small amounts, may be too much for your CNS to handle right now.

 

It's also possible that the anxiety you've been experiencing is a multi-week wave of symptoms that happen as your CNS is dealing with and healing from the medications changes last year.

 

I wish I could be more helpful.

[ravijaua]

So it's been 6 weeks on the same dose. I have cycled back now to low anxiety and headaches and dizziness. This was similar to back in Late October  and Early November before I tapered. Not sure if I should taper soon again but I am scared how fast I should taper based on what happened before with such a slow taper. Some advice would be appreciated thanks.

[scallywag]

Your symptoms may be near-constant companions for a while.

 

What is your symptom pattern? Please keep notes on paper of your symptoms and the times of your dose(s). This post has a useful format for a daily log:

Take notes of doses and symptoms.

 

Post a few days of your log here in your intro thread. That will give us more information on which to suggest a next step.

[ravijaua]

2/3/2017 Friday

Woke up with massive anxiety. This is the normal pattern since a while. No headaches though. Slept well.

8 am anxiety high

Took paxil at 8 am

anxiety better by noon

anxiety worse again in evening.

Slept at midnight

Did about 6 miles of walking in the evening, helps with anxiety.

2/4/2017 Saturday

Woke up with massive anxiety again like normal.

But this is where it changes. Took paxil at 8 am.

Around 11 am anxiety declines to almost zero level and start having massive headaches. These last to about 5 pm when anxiety returns and headaches go away. Sleep around 1 am since I can't fall asleep

2/5/2017 Sunday

Woke up at 9 am with moderate anxiety, less than day before. Took paxil at 9 am. Start having headaches and no anxiety around 11 am but this goes away by 4 pm and anxiety very terrible from 4 pm to evening. Do some magnesium sprays and feel better in terms of anxiety. Also have weird burning in hands and massive dizziness in the evening. Sleep at midnight.

[ravijaua]

No more headaches but severe anxiety

[ravijaua]

9 weeks on same dose. Horrible anxiety still. Not sure what to do.

[scallywag]

What Non-drug techniques are you using to cope with the anxiety?

[Prestorb]

Hi ravijaua, I hope by now you are feeling less anxiety. I am currently going to biofeedback therapy to help me with this fight or flight mindset that WD seems to put us in much of the time. And I am learning that the deeper breathing from the belly really does calm our system down within a matter of minutes. They actually attach sensors to my fingers that measure my temperature and heart rate and the results are graphed on the screen while I do the proper breathing. It's fascinating to see the changes. I've heard this forever but this is the first time I've see hard data that tells me it really works. My therapist recommends that I close my eyes and focus on my breath (from the belly) for 20 minutes twice a day. It does seem to help with anxiety and insomnia. With that said, I had also started working with a holistic psychiatrist in December to treat my symptoms and taper off Paxil. Now she has me taking a busload of supplements that I do believe are helping with my WD symptoms. I don't feel good by any means but I also know my symptoms could be a lot worse. She is basically holding my hand and adjusting the supplements weekly based on symptoms and muscle testing. I don't know if you have tried any supplements to help with the anxiety. I wanted to recommend some drops called Tranquility by Vital Force, but I don't see that you can purchase them online. I know lots of folks find chelated Magnesium helps although I would try it at bedtime in case it makes you sleepy. Hang in there an good luck.

[ravijaua]

Update for August 2017 -

So I've kind of developed into a pattern, not sure if it is good or not but at least I'm a free of sleeping pills, anti-anxiety pills, I am only using magnesium sprays and that too fairly less than previously. I have been working out at lot, I mean a lot, running 3-5 miles a day, doing yoga, high intensity training, and more importantly working on the weekdays. Keeping my mind engaged seems to help me a lot. Generally I am in a weekly pattern where I taper down 1 mg pill weight each week, which is like nothing but I can't seem to handle more than that. By the end of the week I end up getting symptoms of headache, dizziness, etc and the symptoms go away when I taper down but I have a lot of anxiety in the beginning day or two of the taper but exercise seems to help a lot, especially the running.

[ravijaua]

Keeping my heart rate at 180-200 bpm for 30-40 minutes a day seems to have an anti-anxiety effect for at least 8-10 hours.

[ravijaua]

New symptoms no more anxiety just feeling excessively hot even 76 degree weather im sweating and hot dont know what to do is there a supplement to help with this maybe fish oil?

[ChessieCat]

Here's a discussion:  body-temperature-dysregulation-fever-chills-shivering-too-hot-too-cold

 

Sweats is No 31 on Dr Joseph Glenmullen's WD Symptoms Checklist

[ravijaua]

It's driving me crazy last night I had to sleep with the portable ac in my room even thought it was 75 degrees at night which I usually am fine with. it seems worse at night as during the day I seem to be fine.

[ChessieCat]

From What is Happening in Your Brain

 

"Basically- you have a building where the MAJOR steel structures are [...] to be rebuilt at different times - ALL while people are coming and going in the building and attempting to work.

It would be like if the World Trade Center Towers hadn't completely fallen - but had crumbled inside in different places.. Imagine if you were [...] to rebuild the tower - WHILE people were coming and going and [...] to work in the building!  You'd have to set up a temporary elevator - but when you needed to fix part of that area, you'd have to tear down that elevator and set up a temporary elevator somewhere else. And so on. You'd have to build, work around, then tear down, then build again, then work around, then build... ALL while people are coming and going, ALL while the furniture is being replaced, ALL while the walls are getting repainted... ALL while [...] is going on INSIDE the building. No doubt it would be chaotic. That is EXACTLY what is happening with windows and waves.  The windows are where the body has "got it right" for a day or so - but then the building shifts and the brain works on something else - and it's chaos again while another temporary pathway is set up to reroute function until repairs are made."

[ravijaua]

Been generally ok for the last 9 months. Lots of ups and down but managed ok with exercise, yoga, etc. The last two weeks have been brutal. I have severe neck spasm to the point where I can't turn my neck much and weirdly walking fast or running helps it only during that time frame. I don't know what to do and the spasm all day long for 2 weeks has been killing me. Any advice? 

[Carmie]

Hi ravijaua, 

 

How are you doing?💚

 

 

[Phoenixmama]

@ravijaua hi how are you now 🌞