Hannahf1515: Tapering help, Coming off of Paxil

[Hannahf1515]

Hi everyone!

 

I’m looking for advice on how to come off of Paxil. Unfortunately I live in Canada & my current doctor is not educated on how to do a slow taper. It’s also impossible to see a psychiatrist as the wait times are so long.

 

I’m 23 & have been on 20mg of Paxil for 5-6 years. I’ve tried coming off of it 4 times (following my doctor’s instructions) and every time have gone back on because I felt so bad and thought it must be “relapse”. For reference, I took about 2-3 months to come down to 10mg, then after being on 10 for a couple months the really bad anxiety & depression happened.

 

I know I need to come off of this and I’m ready. Would you recommend first switching to Prozac? How would I do that? I have a doctors appointment this week and need to know what to ask for. 
 

Thank you in advance!!

Edited October 1, 2023 by manymoretodays
name to title, added to title

[Emonda]

Welcome to S.A, @Hannahf1515,

You've come to the right place for support and advice on how to taper from ADs.

 

As a starting point, can you please add your drug signature by following these instructions. 

 

Trying to taper following your doctor's advice and not succeeding is quite a common experience of members here. People and doctors seem to mistake 'relapse' for 'withdrawal' symptoms. Have a read of the WD symptom checklist to see some of the things you can experience if you taper too fast. Can you relate to any of those in your previous attempts?

 

Have a read of this: Why taper by 10% of my dosage as a starting point. The way to taper successfully is to do it slowly. Looking at your reductions above of 10mg over 2-3 months, that would be too fast in my experience, and lead WD symptoms...such as the "really bad anxiety and depression" you mention above.

 

I can't comment on switching to another drug to taper. Someone else may comment, but ultimately tapering takes time and patience. There is no shortcut.

 

We don't suggest many supplements, but two that many of us find helpful are magnesium and omega-3 fish oil. Here are the links for info about those. Add one at a time, and start with a low dose to see how it affects you. 

Magnesium

Omega 3 Fish Oil

 

Please post any updates here in your thread. It is helpful to keep everything related to your journey in one spot. You are very welcome to jump onto someone else's page and interact with them. The encouragement members give each other on this site is wonderful to see.

 

Once again, welcome to S.A.

 

Emonda.

 

 

[LostInCanada]

@Hannahf1515 I am in Victoria BC and on paxil as well. My GP says psychiatry is a sh*t show in Canada. Don't we know it. You probably are best not seeing a psychiatrist. The one I saw had me stop cold turkey and threw me in this protracted withdrawal.

My advice is don't switch drugs. That is a step to be done as a last resort. No drug responds equally and you can end up with withdrawal as well as new side effects from the new drug. I have not read success stories of bridging quite the opposite. Two moderators on here did bridges only to have regrets. One is go2zero and another is erell if you want to search their journey.

You have dropped your dose way too quick and probably a small updose could help. If you decide to cut pills you need to find a good scale. The other option is making your own liquid. This info is available on here. @Emonda can provide links depending which way you want to go and could maybe suggest a possible updose. Hope that helps.

[redkite]

Hi,

Another paroxetine victim here!!! I wanted to do a swap but was to anxious that I would end up with WD from the paxil and also side effects from the new one. Drs are out of their depth with this lot, they have made a mess and cant clean it up!!!!! Go steady and slow, it took me a good year to get from 20 to 10 and that was, and is a struggle and I started reducing from 30 to 20 way back in 2021!!! May be a mod can offer you guidance on an updose of a little bit, i dont know but be careful with this drug cause its truly powerful and doesn't like change!!!! Hold on to the sides and contact me anytime. Take care Redkite

[Hannahf1515]

Update- since my last post I had gone back to 20mg of Paxil, then in December I restarted my detox. I’ve been going down 10% per month via liquid (so expensive but I deemed it worth it). It was going well despite occasional low mood/darker thoughts until a couple weeks ago, I’d been on 16mg for a month and all of a sudden the withdrawals hit. I feel intense anxiety in my solar plexus area for most of the day and it’s caused me to not be able to get any work done. Sometimes the anxiety is more like irritability, sometimes it’s depression. It’s made me feel almost like nothing in my life is positive and it’s all meaningless. My acne (which I’ve dealt with for years) is way worse, and I’ve had really strange & long dreams every night. 
 

Are these effects normal? Should I be sticking with it? How long should I hold at this dose?
 

Everyone is telling me to start accutane because my skin has gotten so bad. Would this be a bad idea because of its risk for depression? Has anyone ever gotten worse acne as a side effect from withdrawal?

 

grateful for this group❤️

[Emonda]

14 minutes ago, Hannahf1515 said:

Are these effects normal? Should I be sticking with it? 

 

You should listen to your body. Hold the taper until you stabilise. That could take weeks or longer.

 

Then, once you feel settled for a month or two, perhaps make reductions smaller than 10%...maybe 5% per month, and do it less frequently. You need to find what your body can manage.

 

If you push on when you feel fragile, it'll likely make you feel worse.

 

 

 

 

[Erimus]

You should consider switching to the Brass Monkey slide method of micro tapering. It sounds like 10% cuts are too much for your system. Read about it here:

 

 

[LostInCanada]

9 hours ago, Hannahf1515 said:

 

Everyone is telling me to start accutane because my skin has gotten so bad. Would this be a bad idea because of its risk for depression? Has anyone ever gotten worse acne as a side effect from withdrawal?

@Hannahf1515 thanks for the update. It will get better if you hold for a bit. Accutane has a black box warning as you probably know. My opinion is it is not worth the risk since you are already sensitized and even adding a vitamin/supplement can cause upset. 

There are members that had increased acne or acne develop during this process. Everyone I have stumbled across has been female. Hormonal fluctuations seem to affect WD as well. One member named Chompoo did report that as she was improving/stabilizing her skin was getting better. 

If you search Accutane on the site you may find more information that helps.

[LostInCanada]

21 hours ago, Hannahf1515 said:

going down 10% per month

Just checking to make sure you are going down no more than 10% per month from the current dose. 
20mg-18mg-16.2mg-14.6mg and so on. (not 10% from the original dose) These would be the maximum drops.

[Hannahf1515]

Good question! I guess I wasn’t- I was just decreasing 2mg per month. I’m not sure how I’d be able to measure those tiny increments because the notches on the tube that I take the liquid in are so small 

[KaiLee]

I am also suffering from severe anxiety and depression as well.

I hope you can get better.

 

[Erimus]

2 hours ago, Hannahf1515 said:

Good question! I guess I wasn’t- I was just decreasing 2mg per month. I’m not sure how I’d be able to measure those tiny increments because the notches on the tube that I take the liquid in are so small 

Yeah, that’s far too quick for someone who has been on Paxil for a number of years.

 

You need to dilute the liquid you’ve got and buy a couple of different syringes. Or, switch to making your own suspensions, or crushing and weighing the tablets.

[LostInCanada]

9 hours ago, Hannahf1515 said:

’m not sure how I’d be able to measure those tiny increments because the notches on the tube

As mentioned, diluting the liquid and using a syringe (no needle). If you are having your liquid made in an oraplus suspension, you would want to draw out only your daily dose before dilution because water affects the expiry. So if your dose was 14.6 mg, you could take 14 mg undiluted and then remove 2 mg to dilute and use the syringe to get 0.6 mg. Throw out what you don't need from the dilution. Hopefully that makes sense. We can help you further with dilution ratios if you need. Is the solution 1mg to 1 ml or what is the ratio? Syringes are easy to order in Amazon. Because they are usually one time use, putting tape over the measurement or using clear tape helps extend the life. It is best to stick with the same brand to ensure consistency. The same with your paxil. Make sure the pharmacy always uses the same manufacturer.