Wojtek: Hello everyone, my introduction to paroxetine withdrawal

[wojtek]

Hello everyone. I have been taking paroxetine 20 mg for 20 years. This year I stopped taking it, I am on 10 mg, it was in July and since then I have been on the tenth, I am not stopping it for now, the panic attacks have returned and I have a low mood, such depressive states but it is such a rollercoaster, one day I am quite okay, the next one is worse, from other physical symptoms I did not feel anything like that, I stopped taking it very slowly. My withdrawal looked like I took a file and filed the pill down bit by bit, I did not do it quickly like I used to because then I feel very bad.

 

Generally I feel a bit different, more my interests have decreased, everything amuses me less but I have become more friendly to people. I also started going to church. Last year I developed hives with angioedema. It really got me down because I couldn't find the cause. I'm currently also on biological treatment. My symptoms of hives and angioedema disappeared, but when I stop taking the biological medication, the symptoms come back. I also tried to link it to stopping taking paroxetine, but it wasn't that because the swelling appeared before I started stopping. Last year I also went down to the middle, then I started feeling bad again. I went to a psychiatrist and told her about my hives, she said that I should go back to taking the medication, that it would help me, unfortunately that didn't happen. The hives continued to last and last, so paroxetine wasn't the cause. In addition, since 2016 I have been bothered by tinnitus, but over the last 3 years I have gotten so used to it that it has not caused me any problems, period. This year, when I went down to half a pill, my tinnitus got really bad, but I don't know if I should link it to discontinuing the medication or just my tension. What I created for myself and the anxiety didn't like. It didn't cause this increase in these tinnitus, it's hard for me to say whether it's from Paroxetine or my emotional tension. I think it's the latter. I don't think it's bad. When I stop taking paroxetine, I know that I sometimes feel bad. The worst are these depressive states, i.e. sadness, emptiness and depression. I can handle panic attacks because I also use therapy with a psychologist and it helped me a lot. For example, yesterday I had a burn attack on a scale of 9 out of 10, but I managed. I know that it is sometimes very unpleasant, but I managed.

 

It seems to me that very slow withdrawal from paroxetine is possible but you have to do it Really very long and like in my case I took a nail file and polished the tablet and measured it with a centimeter to do it very slowly. I wish everyone much success with withdrawal from paroxetine I hope you can do it I have been taking it since 2005 with weekly breaks but it always ended in failure because I did it very very quickly now I want not to go back to it for now I will be on 10 mg but I am not saying that if I feel terrible I always leave the door open to return. Many many people write that it changes our psyche our personality It seems to me that it takes time to return to what it was like before taking paroxetine And it is possible period unfortunately tinnitus does not help me to withdraw from it because I am constantly analyzing whether this is the reason for withdrawal or simply it is just my emotional tension I hope that the tinnitus will subside a bit and I will get back on track if it were not for the tinnitus hives it would be very much easier for me. And discontinuing paroxetine If you have any physical ailments, i.e. real diseases, is much more difficult. Greetings to all and I wish you a lot of perseverance and health.

 

First of all, we need to understand that anxiety disorders cannot harm us, these are just our thoughts and not actions, we often think that they are really very real, but see for yourself, when a very strong panic attack occurs, it never harms us in the body, it always passes after some time, whether it is 5 minutes, 10 or 15, our thoughts create this illusion of fear. And we wade through, but in reality, fear cannot do us any harm. Fear is our defender, its task is to provide shelter for the fight or escape. Unfortunately, it does not see a real threat, only a paper tiger. Therefore, in my opinion, the basis is psychotherapy and understanding this problem, then we can think about stopping the medication. Unfortunately, I never had this knowledge and first I started with medication because there was no access to the Internet and I did not know what I was dealing with. Therefore, the most important thing is to understand that fear and anxiety disorders are not able to harm us. We will never go crazy we will never die we will never faint we will never have a stroke we will never have a heart attack it is simply an anxiety illusion that is really very scary but see for yourselves that nothing has ever happened. Medication will not cure this problem if we do not understand ourselves what anxiety and anxiety disorders really are. I know that depressive disorders are some of the worst experiences but it also seems to me that we do not have depression because if we had real depression we would lie and look at the ceiling all day and yet we do something that is why it is more of a depressive disorder in an anxiety disorder that will actually pass. 

 

It seems to me that many people stop taking medication without any therapeutic knowledge and psychotherapy and still believe that anxiety will do incredible harm and kill them but it is not, the medication cannot do anything. In my opinion, the basis is psychotherapy and understanding the mechanism of anxiety then we can think about stopping taking the medication. If we do not have this knowledge and we only think that the medication will cure us Well, it is difficult but it will be difficult to stop taking it. If we stop taking the medication and do not have this knowledge that anxiety and anxiety disorder cannot do anything to us Well, unfortunately we will return to the starting point and return to the medication. That is why it is important to understand anxiety disorders that anxiety is our defender and it is only an illusion in our head and that anxiety cannot do anything to us. A thought has no causative power, a thought is an inaction, a thought cannot harm us And this is only catastrophizing with thoughts, I try to leave us in a situation all the time.

 

Yesterday, by accident, while browsing internet forums, I came across a post about discontinuing paroxetine, how people there were begging for help, how people were struggling with all this. Then suddenly I felt a panic attack, very strong symptoms of depression and anxiety. I was scared that I would be stuck in this too. See how the thought itself can scare us, reading a stupid post immediately triggers catastrophic thoughts in us that we will feel this way too. It's not true. It's just our fearful way of thinking and we get worked up about it, period. I believe that you can do it. I also believe that I can do it and if we get out of this group and Lucy of fear and depression, our life will return to normal. There are many success stories. We will also write our success story one day and get out of this, at least in good spirits. May God be with you 

 

I apologize in advance for my language, but I wrote it from a translator .

[Jane318]

@wojtek - Greetings and welcome to SA!  We are a community of volunteers providing peer support in the tapering of psychiatric medications and their associated withdrawal syndromes. 

 

So the moderators can best help you, please complete your drug signature by following these instructions. Adding a signature ensures your drug history appears at the bottom of every post, making it more efficient for those trying to assist. This link should go directly to your own signature: Account Settings – Create or Edit a signature.

 

Thank you for sharing your story - I am sorry for all you have suffered, but grateful for all you have learned about how to get off these drugs and the importance of taking control of our thoughts.  I applaud your progress so far and yes, know that you will write your own success story one day!

 

On 11/4/2024 at 12:30 AM, wojtek said:

It seems to me that very slow withdrawal from paroxetine is possible but you have to do it Really very long

Yes, it is possible but very important to do it slowly.  In fact, the lower the dose, the more slowly you need to go so as to keep withdrawal symptoms manageable.  Here at SA, we recommend the hyperbolic taper method, which you can read about here:  Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

You will find a lot of information on this site - I encourage you to check out the forums linked on the home page. 

 

Again, please complete your drug signature let us know if you have specific questions so we can help you as you continue your journey to get off paroxetine.

 

This is your introduction topic.  Each member gets one intro topic- please post updates and questions here, in this thread.

 

Best wishes.

Edited November 7, 2024 by Jane318
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