PaxilWithdrawl: Paxil 25 years 30mg. Tapering help.

[PaxilWithdrawl]

37 year old male

 

I have been on paxil since 1999 for anxiety and OCD. it has been so long I forgot the original dosage guessing around 20mg or 30mg. I do know I cut it in half about 8 years in with no issues and it wasn't until I tried cutting it to zero that I had issues worse then the symptoms I took them for. Fast forward multiple years and multiple attempts to discontinue my medication which only lead to misery. Ended up raising the medication to 30mg about 13 years ago.

 

Present day I have studied as much as I can, read Claire weeks book multiple times and watched anything and everything I could on mark horowitz. Learned everything I could about exposure and response prevention as well as mindfulness. I feel that I have gained the skills needed to come off of my medication or at least start reducing. Here in lies the problem. I read the sliding scale of 10% of your last dose a week. I did 5% and completely failed and reinstated waited for baseline to come back and then started a 2.5% reduction. It was just as high of a dose reduction as I could handle, 5 days in I did not realize all the pills weighed differently (some .8 mg heavier the ones used the first 5 days) and I was just shaving off 1mg from the pills on day 6-8 created an unexpected drop and had to reinstate.

 

Now after all those experience of realizing something had happened where I cannot make my initial reduction even close to where I was able to in the past. 

 

Before my next attempt I plan on setting the foundation for brain healing to help negate some of the withdrawal effects and improve/support the receptor restructuring that will be going on during the brain remodeling of coming off this medicine. 

 

I plan on doing this by taking dha fish oil, magnesium, creatine to boost glutathione and getting my gut microbiome in optimum shape with probiotics. All this to support  changes in my brain that will be happening.

 

My question is, what can possibly be done to negate withdrawal symptoms. If at 2.5% I'm still feeling waves on panic that encompass me.

 

My plan as ridiculous as it sounds is to taper my dose by .5% four time a week with one week to hold it steady. Coming in at a 2% reduction of the last dose a week.

 

Does anyone have any answers why I was able to taper in the past in half from 30mg to 15mg but now it is not even remotely possible? 

 

Just to add mindfulness and exposure therapy have done hundreds if not thousands more for me than this drug ever.

 

Hopefully I can help anyone with what they are going thru and hope that I can gain insight as well.

 

Thank you.

Edited September 8 by Emonda
Name to title

[LotusRising]

@PaxilWithdrawl

 

Welcome to SA,

 

On 9/6/2024 at 8:10 PM, PaxilWithdrawl said:

Does anyone have any answers why I was able to taper in the past in half from 30mg to 15mg but now it is not even remotely possible? 

This has to do with the effect of the drug on the receptors. Many people have no issues making large reductions in the beginning, but as you get lower, the drug has a stronger effect on the receptors. You might find some useful info below to help you understand this.

 

 

On 9/6/2024 at 8:10 PM, PaxilWithdrawl said:

My plan as ridiculous as it sounds is to taper my dose by .5% four time a week with one week to hold it steady. Coming in at a 2% reduction of the last dose a week.

Not ridiculous at all. Many need to taper by very small amounts. 

 

On 9/6/2024 at 8:10 PM, PaxilWithdrawl said:

ust to add mindfulness and exposure therapy have done hundreds if not thousands more for me than this drug ever.

Yes, agreed. It's too bad there's less emphasis on this, and diet as stand alone treatment options. 

[PaxilWithdrawl]

Thank you for responding, I  have read everything I can get my hands on about the parabolic effects of ssris and paxil, I also purchased the deprescribing guidelines by mark Horwitz and studied it. I should have worded it differently. my question is what is different in the brains of people who can rapid taper, those who can slow taper and those who have to micro taper. Is it a difference in their bodies ability to have enough neurogenesis to regenerate receptors which have been down regulated for years? I will search for studies on this, for now I know of none.

 

 

Thank you, I also I meant I will be reducing by 2% a month going down by .5% a week. 

 

 

[Sebas]

On 9/7/2024 at 4:10 AM, PaxilWithdrawl said:

I plan on doing this by taking dha fish oil, magnesium, creatine to boost glutathione and getting my gut microbiome in optimum shape with probiotics. All this to support  changes in my brain that will be happening.

 

Would not recommend creatine since amino acids interfere with neurotransmitter processes. Probiotics can be helpful depending from one person to another. You may risk interactions in intestine area. Like lot of things during wd it's trial and error.

 

On 9/7/2024 at 4:10 AM, PaxilWithdrawl said:

Does anyone have any answers why I was able to taper in the past in half from 30mg to 15mg but now it is not even remotely possible? 

Tapering gets harder when a person has been on a drug for a longer time since drugs have taken over biochemical processes for an extended period of time. 2nd explanation is that sometimes wd catches up with you months later. Having no symptoms at first is no guarantee they will stay away. This is why TWO weeks holds are necessary after every 4 weeks of tapering. One may seem to feel okay when in fact wd is building up in the background. 

 

On 9/7/2024 at 4:10 AM, PaxilWithdrawl said:

Hopefully I can help anyone with what they are going thru

Thats a noble goal. First concentrate on your own wd management.

 

Recommend site search on how to make your own liquid using water and pills for accurate taper management.

 

Also look up brassmonkey slide method.

 

Bye Sebas

[PaxilWithdrawl]

6 minutes ago, Sebas said:

Would not recommend creatine since amino acids interfere with neurotransmitter processes. Probiotics can be helpful depending from one person to another. You may risk interactions in intestine area. Like lot of things during wd it's trial and error.

 

Tapering gets harder when a person has been on a drug for a longer time since drug jave taken over biochemical processes for an extended period of time. 2nd explanation is that sometimes wd catches up with you months later. Having no symptoms at first is no guarantee they will stay away. This is why TWO weeks holds are necessary after every 4 weeks of tapering. One may seem to feel okay when in fact wd is building up in the background. 

 

Thats a noble goal. First concentrate on your own wd management.

 

Recommend site search on how to make your own liquid using water and pills for accurate taper management.

 

Also see brassmonkey slide method.

 

Bye Sebas

Thank you very much I will take everything you have said into my plans. I initially didn't plan for a two week hold but I will add that into it. Thank you very much again.