marie798: Zoloft to Paxil. In desperate need to not feel so alone

[marie798]

I have been on Zoloft for about 7 years. 200mg daily. I had always tried to get myself off by dosing down. The withdrawals are so bad. Well i

got down to 100mg and I was switched to 12.5 Paxil. I was doing great. But I’m not good with doing it everyday. I started noticing that everything around me felt so in my face and I have become completely paranoid and anybody who walks up behind me scares me. Well I’ve only been taking half of the Paxil. I think it has to do with me going from not taking it to taking it to thinking it’s making me worse. But me doing this, I’m sure is making it worse. I just can’t live like this. Is super scary. Everything is so? Hypersensitive. Constant fight or flight. I can’t do much of anything anymore. I feel crazy and I’m so scared.  My brain is a constant running egg 

[Gridley]

Hello, marie798, and welcome to SA.  I sorry you're feeling so bad.  

 

You are in antidepressant withdrawal from cutting your dose in half (a 50% cut) and not taking it regularly. Skipping doses causes the amount of the medication in your bloodstream to go up

and down, battering your nervous system, and makes withdrawal worse.  Tapering too fast also destabilizes your nervous system.  Please read the following links:

 

The rule of 3KIS: Keep it simple. Keep it slow. Keep it stable. 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

What is Withdrawal Syndrome?

 

To give members the best information, we ask them to summarize their medication history in a signature -- drugs, doses, dates, and discontinuations & reinstatements, in the last 12-24 months particularly.

• Any drugs prior to 24 months ago can just be listed with start and stop years. 
• Please use actual dates or approximate dates (mid-June, Late October) rather than relative time frames (last week, 3 months ago) 
• Spell out months, e.g. "October" or "Oct."; 9/1/2016 can be interpreted as Jan. 9, 2016 or Sept. 1, 2016. 
• Please leave out symptoms and diagnoses. 
• A list is easier to understand than one or multiple paragraphs. 
• Link to Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.

Before we can help you, we need some more information.

 

Did the bad feelings start when you stopped taking it every day?

 

Are you still taking Paxil?  If so, what dosage?

 

Are you still skipping doses?  How often do you take it?

 

When did you cut your dose in half?

 

Why did you cut your dose in half?

 

Are you writing because you want to taper off the Paxil?

 

What are your symptoms every day and do they change when you take the Paxil?

 

Please complete your signature and answer these questions, and we can see what is best course to take from here.

 

This is your introduction topic -- the place for you to ask questions, record symptoms, share your progress, and connect with other members of the SA community. I hope you'll find the information in the SA forums helpful for your situation. I'm sorry that you are in the position that you need the information, but I am glad that you found us.