Sara1976 Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 Struggling here ???? Sorry in advance for any mistakes, I'm from The Netherlands so english is not my first language. I don't want to go back to taking seroxat and I truely believe it is possible for me to get a grip on my anxiety and hypochondria without pills and with therapy. But I start doubting myself when my doctor says 'why stop in the first place?' And my friends are saying 'This is taking too long!' after three months! I understand it must be difficult for them to see me struggle but I'm not ready to give in. But it is getting harder and harder. But I'm glad I have found this site, it's always good to know you're not the only one. i was prescribed seroxat 15 years ago for anxiety. Mid september of this year I took my last pill. My doctor didn't think it was a very good idea but my psychologist convinced me to try. My tapering schedule was: 10mg citalopram and 10mg paroxetin every day for two weeks. Then increase citalopram to 20mg a day and no more paroxetin. Then after 2 weeks 10mg citalopram and then nothing. BUT me being blond, I misunderstood and instead of taking the citalopram and paroxetin together every day I took paroxetin one day and citalopram the other day. So I went from 20mg paroxetin every day to 10mg every other day. When I discovered my mistake I was already a couple of weeks into it and after consulting my doctor decided to keep going and not to increase the citalopram to 20mg because I was already accidentally taking 10mg a day. ???? Link to comment
AliG Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 Hi Sara. You will be fine. You have landed in the best place. So you C/T " d ? Thank you for doing your sig, but could you also add your tapering schedule. How long have you been off the drugs? Mid - September was your last pill ? Many SSRI's and SSNRI's over 20 years. Zoloft for 7 years followed by Effexor, Lexapro, Prozac, Cymbalta, Celexa, Pristiq, Valdoxan, Mianserin and more - on and off. No tapering. Cold turkey off Valdoxan - end of May 2014 Psych Drug - free since May 2014 . Link to comment
Sara1976 Posted December 13, 2015 Author Share Posted December 13, 2015 Hi Ali, Thanks for replying. What do you mean by C/T'd? I'll add my tapering schedule to my signature. And Yes I took my last pill on the 16th of september. i was prescribed seroxat 15 years ago for anxiety. Mid september of this year I took my last pill. My doctor didn't think it was a very good idea but my psychologist convinced me to try. My tapering schedule was: 10mg citalopram and 10mg paroxetin every day for two weeks. Then increase citalopram to 20mg a day and no more paroxetin. Then after 2 weeks 10mg citalopram and then nothing. BUT me being blond, I misunderstood and instead of taking the citalopram and paroxetin together every day I took paroxetin one day and citalopram the other day. So I went from 20mg paroxetin every day to 10mg every other day. When I discovered my mistake I was already a couple of weeks into it and after consulting my doctor decided to keep going and not to increase the citalopram to 20mg because I was already accidentally taking 10mg a day. ???? Link to comment
Sara1976 Posted December 13, 2015 Author Share Posted December 13, 2015 Adjusted my signature, hope it's understandable. i was prescribed seroxat 15 years ago for anxiety. Mid september of this year I took my last pill. My doctor didn't think it was a very good idea but my psychologist convinced me to try. My tapering schedule was: 10mg citalopram and 10mg paroxetin every day for two weeks. Then increase citalopram to 20mg a day and no more paroxetin. Then after 2 weeks 10mg citalopram and then nothing. BUT me being blond, I misunderstood and instead of taking the citalopram and paroxetin together every day I took paroxetin one day and citalopram the other day. So I went from 20mg paroxetin every day to 10mg every other day. When I discovered my mistake I was already a couple of weeks into it and after consulting my doctor decided to keep going and not to increase the citalopram to 20mg because I was already accidentally taking 10mg a day. ???? Link to comment
nz11 Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 Sara good question...a few years ago it also confused me too... Slowly i got it down to 8 possibilites... a. Connecticut-ed as in i have no option but to live in Connecticut b. Computed Tomography as in i have been CT scanned c.Canadian Time-ed as in i been sent to Canada back in 5 on good behaviour d. Crazy Town -ed as in i have to listen to this crazy music band. e Cold Turkey-ed as in i quit my drugs abruptly. f. Cognitive Therapy-ed as in someone dragged me to coucelling against my will g. Ive been Charlize Theron-ed..? h. Chemical Test-ed as in i been used by pharma as a guinea pig! Welcome. Thought for the day: Lets stand up, and let’s speak out , together. G Olsen We have until the 14th. Feb 2018. URGENT REQUEST Please consider submitting for the petition on Prescribed Drug Dependence and Withdrawal currently awaiting its third consideration at the Scottish Parliament. You don't even have to be from Scotland. By clicking on the link below you can read some of the previous submissions but be warned many of them are quite harrowing. http://www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01651 Please tell them about your problems taking and withdrawing from antidepressants and/or benzos. Send by email to petitions@parliament.scot and quote PE01651 in the subject heading. Keep to a maximum of 3 sides of A4 and you can't name for legal reasons any doctor you have consulted. Tell them if you wish to remain anonymous. We need the numbers to help convince the committee members we are not isolated cases. You have until mid February. Thank you Recovering paxil addict None of the published articles shed light on what ssri's ... actually do or what their hazards might be. Healy 2013. This is so true, with anything you get on these drugs, dependance, tapering, withdrawal symptoms, side effects, just silent. And if there is something mentioned then their is a serious disconnect between what is said and reality! "Every time I read of a multi-person shooting, I always presume that person had just started a SSRI or had just stopped." Dr Mosher. Me too! Over two decades later, the number of antidepressant prescriptions a year is slightly more than the number of people in the Western world. Most (nine out of 10) prescriptions are for patients who faced difficulties on stopping, equating to about a tenth of the population. These patients are often advised to continue treatment because their difficulties indicate they need ongoing treatment, just as a person with diabetes needs insulin. Healy 2015 I believe the ssri era will soon stand as one of the most shameful in the history of medicine. Healy 2015 Let people help people ... in a natural, kind, non-addictive (and non-big pharma) way. J Broadley 2017 Link to comment
Moderator brassmonkey Posted December 13, 2015 Moderator Share Posted December 13, 2015 Hi Sara-- welcome to the group, I'm so glad you found us. I'm also sorry that things are getting harder and harder. Don't worry about your english it's fine. We frequently use a lot of jargon, acronyms and contractions that will take a little getting use to, C/T or CT stands for cold turkey or just stopping your drug with no taper. One thing isn't very clear from your description and signature. It says you stopped taking pills as of Sept 16th. Is that both the paroxetin and citalopram or just the paroxetin? Here are some threads that would be a good idea for you to read, then we can talk about and questions that come up. What is withdrawal syndrome? About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms Why taper by 10% of my dosage? Thank you for filling in a signature, it really does help us see what is going on. Ya did it again NZ11, while I was typing. LOL FYI it's 10am Sunday here. 20 years on Paxil starting at 20mg and working up to 40mg. Sept 2011 started 10% every 6 weeks taper (2.5% every week for 4 weeks then hold for 2 additional weeks), currently at 7.9mg. Oct 2011 CTed 15oz vodka a night, to only drinking 2 beers most nights, totally sober Feb 2013. Since I wrote this I have continued to decrease my dose by 10% every 6 weeks (2.5% every week for 4 weeks and then hold for an additional 2 weeks). I added in an extra 6 week hold when I hit 10mg to let things settle out even more. When I hit 3mgpw it became hard to split the drop into 4 parts so I switched to dropping 1mgpw (pill weight) every week for 3 weeks and then holding for another 3 weeks. The 3 + 3 schedule turned out to be too harsh so I cut back to dropping 1mgpw every 4 weeks which is working better. Final Dose 0.016mg. Current dose 0.000mg 04-15-2017 "It's also important not to become angry, no matter how difficult life is, because you can loose all hope if you can't laugh at yourself and at life in general." Stephen Hawking Link to comment
Sara1976 Posted December 13, 2015 Author Share Posted December 13, 2015 LOL NZ11 Have you been taking funnypills? They're working....you made me laugh Brassmonkey, thank you for the threads, I'll have a look. And to answer your question, I stopped taking everything on the 16th of september. No more paroxetin and no more citalopram. i was prescribed seroxat 15 years ago for anxiety. Mid september of this year I took my last pill. My doctor didn't think it was a very good idea but my psychologist convinced me to try. My tapering schedule was: 10mg citalopram and 10mg paroxetin every day for two weeks. Then increase citalopram to 20mg a day and no more paroxetin. Then after 2 weeks 10mg citalopram and then nothing. BUT me being blond, I misunderstood and instead of taking the citalopram and paroxetin together every day I took paroxetin one day and citalopram the other day. So I went from 20mg paroxetin every day to 10mg every other day. When I discovered my mistake I was already a couple of weeks into it and after consulting my doctor decided to keep going and not to increase the citalopram to 20mg because I was already accidentally taking 10mg a day. ???? Link to comment
nz11 Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 Thanks BM you CT-ed me for sure ...California Timed. ahhh im 3 hrs behind but one day ahead. Got it! My doctor didn't think it was a very good idea [CT] but my psychologist convinced me to try. I find this disturbing that a doctor can take this 'whatever ' attitude, and a psychologist is giving uninformed drug advice Have you been taking parox and citalopram together for 15 years?? Like BM i am so glad you found sa nz11 Drug free Thought for the day: Lets stand up, and let’s speak out , together. G Olsen We have until the 14th. Feb 2018. URGENT REQUEST Please consider submitting for the petition on Prescribed Drug Dependence and Withdrawal currently awaiting its third consideration at the Scottish Parliament. You don't even have to be from Scotland. By clicking on the link below you can read some of the previous submissions but be warned many of them are quite harrowing. http://www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01651 Please tell them about your problems taking and withdrawing from antidepressants and/or benzos. Send by email to petitions@parliament.scot and quote PE01651 in the subject heading. Keep to a maximum of 3 sides of A4 and you can't name for legal reasons any doctor you have consulted. Tell them if you wish to remain anonymous. We need the numbers to help convince the committee members we are not isolated cases. You have until mid February. Thank you Recovering paxil addict None of the published articles shed light on what ssri's ... actually do or what their hazards might be. Healy 2013. This is so true, with anything you get on these drugs, dependance, tapering, withdrawal symptoms, side effects, just silent. And if there is something mentioned then their is a serious disconnect between what is said and reality! "Every time I read of a multi-person shooting, I always presume that person had just started a SSRI or had just stopped." Dr Mosher. Me too! Over two decades later, the number of antidepressant prescriptions a year is slightly more than the number of people in the Western world. Most (nine out of 10) prescriptions are for patients who faced difficulties on stopping, equating to about a tenth of the population. These patients are often advised to continue treatment because their difficulties indicate they need ongoing treatment, just as a person with diabetes needs insulin. Healy 2015 I believe the ssri era will soon stand as one of the most shameful in the history of medicine. Healy 2015 Let people help people ... in a natural, kind, non-addictive (and non-big pharma) way. J Broadley 2017 Link to comment
Sara1976 Posted December 13, 2015 Author Share Posted December 13, 2015 Thank you thank you thank you. NZ11 thank you for making me laugh! Brassmonkey thank you for the links, I've been reading bits here and there. i still have a lot to learn. i was prescribed seroxat 15 years ago for anxiety. Mid september of this year I took my last pill. My doctor didn't think it was a very good idea but my psychologist convinced me to try. My tapering schedule was: 10mg citalopram and 10mg paroxetin every day for two weeks. Then increase citalopram to 20mg a day and no more paroxetin. Then after 2 weeks 10mg citalopram and then nothing. BUT me being blond, I misunderstood and instead of taking the citalopram and paroxetin together every day I took paroxetin one day and citalopram the other day. So I went from 20mg paroxetin every day to 10mg every other day. When I discovered my mistake I was already a couple of weeks into it and after consulting my doctor decided to keep going and not to increase the citalopram to 20mg because I was already accidentally taking 10mg a day. ???? Link to comment
Sara1976 Posted December 13, 2015 Author Share Posted December 13, 2015 No NZ11 I just took paroxetin for 15 yrs. The citalopram was to help me quit the paroxetin. i was prescribed seroxat 15 years ago for anxiety. Mid september of this year I took my last pill. My doctor didn't think it was a very good idea but my psychologist convinced me to try. My tapering schedule was: 10mg citalopram and 10mg paroxetin every day for two weeks. Then increase citalopram to 20mg a day and no more paroxetin. Then after 2 weeks 10mg citalopram and then nothing. BUT me being blond, I misunderstood and instead of taking the citalopram and paroxetin together every day I took paroxetin one day and citalopram the other day. So I went from 20mg paroxetin every day to 10mg every other day. When I discovered my mistake I was already a couple of weeks into it and after consulting my doctor decided to keep going and not to increase the citalopram to 20mg because I was already accidentally taking 10mg a day. ???? Link to comment
nz11 Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 Sara what dosage of paroxetine were you taking before this taper attempt 20mg ? or 10 mg? Sorry to ask just wanted to clarify that. i am sorry you are in this difficult place your doctor has been very disappointing imo. It would be well worth your while to spend time reading the links BM gave you. Thought for the day: Lets stand up, and let’s speak out , together. G Olsen We have until the 14th. Feb 2018. URGENT REQUEST Please consider submitting for the petition on Prescribed Drug Dependence and Withdrawal currently awaiting its third consideration at the Scottish Parliament. You don't even have to be from Scotland. By clicking on the link below you can read some of the previous submissions but be warned many of them are quite harrowing. http://www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01651 Please tell them about your problems taking and withdrawing from antidepressants and/or benzos. Send by email to petitions@parliament.scot and quote PE01651 in the subject heading. Keep to a maximum of 3 sides of A4 and you can't name for legal reasons any doctor you have consulted. Tell them if you wish to remain anonymous. We need the numbers to help convince the committee members we are not isolated cases. You have until mid February. Thank you Recovering paxil addict None of the published articles shed light on what ssri's ... actually do or what their hazards might be. Healy 2013. This is so true, with anything you get on these drugs, dependance, tapering, withdrawal symptoms, side effects, just silent. And if there is something mentioned then their is a serious disconnect between what is said and reality! "Every time I read of a multi-person shooting, I always presume that person had just started a SSRI or had just stopped." Dr Mosher. Me too! Over two decades later, the number of antidepressant prescriptions a year is slightly more than the number of people in the Western world. Most (nine out of 10) prescriptions are for patients who faced difficulties on stopping, equating to about a tenth of the population. These patients are often advised to continue treatment because their difficulties indicate they need ongoing treatment, just as a person with diabetes needs insulin. Healy 2015 I believe the ssri era will soon stand as one of the most shameful in the history of medicine. Healy 2015 Let people help people ... in a natural, kind, non-addictive (and non-big pharma) way. J Broadley 2017 Link to comment
Sara1976 Posted December 13, 2015 Author Share Posted December 13, 2015 You can ask me anything you want. I took 20mg of paroxetine. I am also very disappointed in my doctor. He's a real sweetheart and I honestly think he means well but I expected a little more support from the man. Do you want to tell me a little bit about how you are doing now? I read your signature ofcourse and if anybody should be disappointed in doctors it is you. But how are you now? i was prescribed seroxat 15 years ago for anxiety. Mid september of this year I took my last pill. My doctor didn't think it was a very good idea but my psychologist convinced me to try. My tapering schedule was: 10mg citalopram and 10mg paroxetin every day for two weeks. Then increase citalopram to 20mg a day and no more paroxetin. Then after 2 weeks 10mg citalopram and then nothing. BUT me being blond, I misunderstood and instead of taking the citalopram and paroxetin together every day I took paroxetin one day and citalopram the other day. So I went from 20mg paroxetin every day to 10mg every other day. When I discovered my mistake I was already a couple of weeks into it and after consulting my doctor decided to keep going and not to increase the citalopram to 20mg because I was already accidentally taking 10mg a day. ???? Link to comment
nz11 Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 Thanks for clarifying that. At this stage you may be ticking all the boxes in Glenmullens withdrawal checklist Dr. Joseph Glenmullen's withdrawal symptom checklist Note crying spells coming in at the top of the list. The manifestation of akathisia is also a concern. Thanks for the kind words. If things are getting 'harder and harder', I'd read the above link on reinstating and see what you think. Thought for the day: Lets stand up, and let’s speak out , together. G Olsen We have until the 14th. Feb 2018. URGENT REQUEST Please consider submitting for the petition on Prescribed Drug Dependence and Withdrawal currently awaiting its third consideration at the Scottish Parliament. You don't even have to be from Scotland. By clicking on the link below you can read some of the previous submissions but be warned many of them are quite harrowing. http://www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01651 Please tell them about your problems taking and withdrawing from antidepressants and/or benzos. Send by email to petitions@parliament.scot and quote PE01651 in the subject heading. Keep to a maximum of 3 sides of A4 and you can't name for legal reasons any doctor you have consulted. Tell them if you wish to remain anonymous. We need the numbers to help convince the committee members we are not isolated cases. You have until mid February. Thank you Recovering paxil addict None of the published articles shed light on what ssri's ... actually do or what their hazards might be. Healy 2013. This is so true, with anything you get on these drugs, dependance, tapering, withdrawal symptoms, side effects, just silent. And if there is something mentioned then their is a serious disconnect between what is said and reality! "Every time I read of a multi-person shooting, I always presume that person had just started a SSRI or had just stopped." Dr Mosher. Me too! Over two decades later, the number of antidepressant prescriptions a year is slightly more than the number of people in the Western world. Most (nine out of 10) prescriptions are for patients who faced difficulties on stopping, equating to about a tenth of the population. These patients are often advised to continue treatment because their difficulties indicate they need ongoing treatment, just as a person with diabetes needs insulin. Healy 2015 I believe the ssri era will soon stand as one of the most shameful in the history of medicine. Healy 2015 Let people help people ... in a natural, kind, non-addictive (and non-big pharma) way. J Broadley 2017 Link to comment
Sara1976 Posted December 13, 2015 Author Share Posted December 13, 2015 Ah yes the crying.......the crying is bad but it relieves a lot of tension so it's not all bad. And when you cry when other people are around they suddenly want to make you tea and give you hugs! Luckily I didn't have to tick a lot of boxes on the questionnaire. I read the piece about reinstatement and I will definitely consider it. But it would feel like failure so I'd rather not go there. i was prescribed seroxat 15 years ago for anxiety. Mid september of this year I took my last pill. My doctor didn't think it was a very good idea but my psychologist convinced me to try. My tapering schedule was: 10mg citalopram and 10mg paroxetin every day for two weeks. Then increase citalopram to 20mg a day and no more paroxetin. Then after 2 weeks 10mg citalopram and then nothing. BUT me being blond, I misunderstood and instead of taking the citalopram and paroxetin together every day I took paroxetin one day and citalopram the other day. So I went from 20mg paroxetin every day to 10mg every other day. When I discovered my mistake I was already a couple of weeks into it and after consulting my doctor decided to keep going and not to increase the citalopram to 20mg because I was already accidentally taking 10mg a day. ???? Link to comment
Administrator Altostrata Posted December 13, 2015 Administrator Share Posted December 13, 2015 Welcome, Sara. Very few doctors know anything about tapering or withdrawal. Please don't think of reinstatement as failure, think of it as a way to take care of yourself. This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner. "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein All postings © copyrighted. Link to comment
Sara1976 Posted December 13, 2015 Author Share Posted December 13, 2015 But if I can't trust my doctor, who can I trust? I mean, if I would want to do this reinstatement, I would have to discuss it with my doctor wouldn't I. And there is another problem with reinstatement: the smallest available dose of paroxetin is 5mg. Do I grind the pill and then weigh it if I would want to reinstate with 2mg for example? I'm sorry for nagging, guess that's due to the state of mind I'm in at the moment hahaha i was prescribed seroxat 15 years ago for anxiety. Mid september of this year I took my last pill. My doctor didn't think it was a very good idea but my psychologist convinced me to try. My tapering schedule was: 10mg citalopram and 10mg paroxetin every day for two weeks. Then increase citalopram to 20mg a day and no more paroxetin. Then after 2 weeks 10mg citalopram and then nothing. BUT me being blond, I misunderstood and instead of taking the citalopram and paroxetin together every day I took paroxetin one day and citalopram the other day. So I went from 20mg paroxetin every day to 10mg every other day. When I discovered my mistake I was already a couple of weeks into it and after consulting my doctor decided to keep going and not to increase the citalopram to 20mg because I was already accidentally taking 10mg a day. ???? Link to comment
Moderator brassmonkey Posted December 13, 2015 Moderator Share Posted December 13, 2015 It's a very confusing subject that is made worse by the fact that you feel so rotten while trying to make sense of it all, so asking a lot of questions isn't nagging. There are several ways to take doses that are smaller than the smallest available pill. Grinding them up and weighing the new dose works well, I've been using that method for years with great success. Another other popular one is to make your own liquid solution. We have a lot of good information on a variety of techniques. It's not necessary to have your doctors permission to do a taper, in the end all you need him for is to supply the drugs while you take control of the process. As for trust, we are hoping that you'll trust us, as we have a huge amount of experience of helping people successfully get off of these drugs where as most doctors end up being pretty clueless on the subject. Many people here have had trouble with adjusting to the fact that maybe we can't trust the ones we have been trained to trust all our lives. With having been on paroxetine for so long your body is very use to having it around and very soon it is going to really start complaining that it doesn't have it. When a person stops abruptly there is frequently a "honeymoon" period for several months where they feel wonderful, then it all catches up with them and the symptoms kick into high gear. By taking a small amount of the drug the body will be placated and the symptoms will calm quite a bit. It's not backsliding or giving up, it is a necessary move to make yourself feel better. 20 years on Paxil starting at 20mg and working up to 40mg. Sept 2011 started 10% every 6 weeks taper (2.5% every week for 4 weeks then hold for 2 additional weeks), currently at 7.9mg. Oct 2011 CTed 15oz vodka a night, to only drinking 2 beers most nights, totally sober Feb 2013. Since I wrote this I have continued to decrease my dose by 10% every 6 weeks (2.5% every week for 4 weeks and then hold for an additional 2 weeks). I added in an extra 6 week hold when I hit 10mg to let things settle out even more. When I hit 3mgpw it became hard to split the drop into 4 parts so I switched to dropping 1mgpw (pill weight) every week for 3 weeks and then holding for another 3 weeks. The 3 + 3 schedule turned out to be too harsh so I cut back to dropping 1mgpw every 4 weeks which is working better. Final Dose 0.016mg. Current dose 0.000mg 04-15-2017 "It's also important not to become angry, no matter how difficult life is, because you can loose all hope if you can't laugh at yourself and at life in general." Stephen Hawking Link to comment
Sara1976 Posted December 14, 2015 Author Share Posted December 14, 2015 Thanks Brassmonkey for this answer. I need to think about it. Fact is something has to be done soon, I have to go to work tomorrow but the way I am now that is not happen. I'm just crying and feeling miserable. Have been for a few days now. Still hoping it will pass...... I'm just wondering about the reinstatement, how will I know what dose to start with? i was prescribed seroxat 15 years ago for anxiety. Mid september of this year I took my last pill. My doctor didn't think it was a very good idea but my psychologist convinced me to try. My tapering schedule was: 10mg citalopram and 10mg paroxetin every day for two weeks. Then increase citalopram to 20mg a day and no more paroxetin. Then after 2 weeks 10mg citalopram and then nothing. BUT me being blond, I misunderstood and instead of taking the citalopram and paroxetin together every day I took paroxetin one day and citalopram the other day. So I went from 20mg paroxetin every day to 10mg every other day. When I discovered my mistake I was already a couple of weeks into it and after consulting my doctor decided to keep going and not to increase the citalopram to 20mg because I was already accidentally taking 10mg a day. ???? Link to comment
Moderator brassmonkey Posted December 14, 2015 Moderator Share Posted December 14, 2015 Hi Sara-- first thing would be to go back and read the links I gave you in post #6. Those will explain a lot of the details. From your signature it looks like you were only on the citalopram for a few weeks before quitting, so I would concentrate on the paroxetine. We always recommend starting out very low to see how your body reacts, the changes in dosage will have sensitized your central nervous system so too big a dose could really shock it. I would probably start in the 5mg range and see what happens before adjusting. Best of luck with going back to work. I find the distraction invaluable. 20 years on Paxil starting at 20mg and working up to 40mg. Sept 2011 started 10% every 6 weeks taper (2.5% every week for 4 weeks then hold for 2 additional weeks), currently at 7.9mg. Oct 2011 CTed 15oz vodka a night, to only drinking 2 beers most nights, totally sober Feb 2013. Since I wrote this I have continued to decrease my dose by 10% every 6 weeks (2.5% every week for 4 weeks and then hold for an additional 2 weeks). I added in an extra 6 week hold when I hit 10mg to let things settle out even more. When I hit 3mgpw it became hard to split the drop into 4 parts so I switched to dropping 1mgpw (pill weight) every week for 3 weeks and then holding for another 3 weeks. The 3 + 3 schedule turned out to be too harsh so I cut back to dropping 1mgpw every 4 weeks which is working better. Final Dose 0.016mg. Current dose 0.000mg 04-15-2017 "It's also important not to become angry, no matter how difficult life is, because you can loose all hope if you can't laugh at yourself and at life in general." Stephen Hawking Link to comment
Mentor ang Posted December 18, 2015 Mentor Share Posted December 18, 2015 I just scanned through your thread Sara, sorry if I missed anything. So you were on paxil (UK and Aust name) for your drug. Paxil is the worst, if you are surviving, I think you are absolutely a tough cookie! Well done. Take it slow and steady.......... I have never been on paxil, but I have heard it is the worst.......... Those in authority here, have the knowledge, far surpassing your doctor, you make the choice, trust the doctor, who has no knowledge, just the drug pharma reps advice... or trust those who have struggled and survived. You might have a supportive doctor, I have found one, but only after I recovered.......... he is listening........ most doctors dont listen, they merely prescribe. Anyway, well done, I am in Awe of anyone survivng damn Paxil........... I tried citalopram, in panic, as a new drug in WD, didnt work for me. So I guess I am lucky in a way, no ADs work for me, and I am grateful I am glad to have regained my brain, despite the horrific withdrawals. Peace Ang 1992 Dothiepin 375mg 8 weeks, exhaustion/depression. Serotonin syndrome, oh yes! seizures . Fell pregnant, 3rd baby, Nitrous Oxide, 3 weeks mental hospital pp psychosis. zoloft tegretol. Feb 1996 ct tegretol, tapered Zoloft 8 weeks. as (unexpectedly) pregnant. Steven died after 3 days.(Zolft HLHS baby). 98 had run in with Paxil, 2 tablets, 3 weeks taper, survived.2005..menopause? exhausted again. Zyprexa, mad in three days, fallout.... Seroquel, Effexor, tegretol, and 8 years of self destruction. Failed taper.Damn 1/4 valium... nuts again! .fallout, zoloft 100mg seroquol 400mg mirtazapine 45 mg tegretol 400mg. Mid 14 3 month taper. Nov 14 CRASH.Mid 15 .... 75mg seroquel, 3 x 1800mg SJW 2 week window end of December followed by 6 week wave5/2 68mg seroquel, 2.5 x 1800mg SJW::::20/2 61mg seroquel, 2.5 x SJW::: 26/2 54mg seroquel, 2 x SJW::::21/3 43mg seroquel, 1 x 2700SJW :::: 23/4 36mg seroquel 1 x 1800 SJW15/5 33mg seroquel, 1 x SJW:::: 28/5 30mg seroquel, 1 x SJW::::; 18/6 25mg seroquel 1/2 SJW::::, 11/7 21mg seroquel 1/2 SJW::, 26/7 18mg seroquel 1/2 SJW:::, 9/8 12mg seroquel :::, 16/8 6mg seroquel ;;;;, 12/9 0 jump. 23/9 3mg....., 27/9 0mg. Reinstated, 6mg, then 12mg............. LIGHTBULB MOMENT, I have MTHFR 2x mutations. CFS and issues with MOULD in my home. So I left home, and working 150km away during week, loving it. Oh was hard, panic attacks first week, gone now, along with the mould issues. Link to comment
Moderator Emeritus JanCarol Posted December 20, 2015 Moderator Emeritus Share Posted December 20, 2015 Hey Sara - so did you reinstate 2-5 mg Paxil? How are your symptoms? I really believe that a tiny reinstatement like this will help you. Too small to make side effects, just enough to stop withdrawal symptoms. I would start at 2 mg, hold for a week, then if withdrawal is still unbearable, take it up to 3 mg. Repeat until you find you your symptoms are bearable. There will be a sweet spot - hold there for a month or three before considering a taper. You can get off the drugs, but patience and gentleness are required. Patience, willing to wait between tapers (hold), and gentleness to yourself - allowing yourself time and space to heal, regardless of what other people in your life may say. "Easy, easy - just go easy and you'll finish." - Hawaiian Kapuna Holding is hard work, holding is a blessing. Give your brain time to heal before you try again. My suggestions are not medical advice, you are in charge of your own medical choices. A lifetime of being prescribed antidepressants that caused problems (30 years in total). At age 35 flipped to "bipolar," but was not diagnosed for 5 years. Started my journey in Midwest United States. Crossed the Pacific for love and hope; currently living in Australia. CT Seroquel 25 mg some time in 2013. Tapered Reboxetine 4 mg Oct 2013 to Sept 2014 = GONE (3 years on Reboxetine). Tapered Lithium 900 to 475 MG (alternating with the SNRI) Jan 2014 - Nov 2014, tapered Lithium 475 mg Jan 2015 - Feb 2016 = GONE (10 years on Lithium). Many mistakes in dry cutting dosages were made. The tedious thread (my intro): JanCarol ☼ Reboxetine first, then Lithium The happy thread (my success story): JanCarol - Undiagnosed Off all bipolar drugs My own blog: https://shamanexplorations.com/shamans-blog/ I have been psych drug FREE since 1 Feb 2016! Link to comment
Sara1976 Posted December 20, 2015 Author Share Posted December 20, 2015 Hi Jan, I went to the doctors' last week because it was getting unbearable. I discussed the whole thing with him, told him about this forum and made him read the article about the withdrawal I read in the newspaper He took the time for me, actually gave up his lunch hour for me! So at least he took me seriously and really wanted to come up with the best solution for me. What we came up with was this: I am back on medication but not paxil. Since I have been off paxil for nearly 6 months he adviced against going back on it. When I was going off paxil I took Citalopram to help ease the process. So I have been off paxil for 6 months and off citalopram for 3 months. He thought it best to go back to citalopram to see if that would help with the withdrawal. I actually thought that made sense so I agreed. We did have a little argument about the dose but we made a compromise. He wanted me to take 6 mg, I wanted to begin with 2 mg. So I'm taking 4 mg now. I really hope you're not going to tell me I made a mistake because that will only make me doubt again. It's only been 3 days so I can't say it's working yet. In the meantime I'm taking oxazepam (don't know the English word for that) to help calm me down. I'm still very tense and shivering inside and I feel pressure on my chest and I think I'm dying half the time.......but the crying is getting less hahahaha. I kept going to work, the boss is very understanding and lets me come and go as I please so I'm very grateful for that. And I'm grateful for you guys! I'm sometimes anxious to read stuff because I'm afraid it will make me doubt my decisions but I do appreciate you helping me. X Sara i was prescribed seroxat 15 years ago for anxiety. Mid september of this year I took my last pill. My doctor didn't think it was a very good idea but my psychologist convinced me to try. My tapering schedule was: 10mg citalopram and 10mg paroxetin every day for two weeks. Then increase citalopram to 20mg a day and no more paroxetin. Then after 2 weeks 10mg citalopram and then nothing. BUT me being blond, I misunderstood and instead of taking the citalopram and paroxetin together every day I took paroxetin one day and citalopram the other day. So I went from 20mg paroxetin every day to 10mg every other day. When I discovered my mistake I was already a couple of weeks into it and after consulting my doctor decided to keep going and not to increase the citalopram to 20mg because I was already accidentally taking 10mg a day. ???? Link to comment
Vonnegutjunky Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Sara please update and let us know how you are doing ❤️ *Currently at 8.2-8.5 mg of my 10mg pill of Paxil (they actually weigh 12.5mg) january 2023 I began reducing my med again. I was a 9mg weight for years, I went to 8.9 in January, went to 8.6mg in February, and in March 2023 I went down to 8.5-8.2 mg ( my scale varies, so I stick within that .3 range because of that) *No other supplements or vitamins *Taper schedule in the pdf Blank.pdf https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-5vShtJtwAOGA30OxIP87steLmMdFzD29F0fzAPD564 Link to comment
Moderator Emeritus Songbird Posted January 4, 2016 Moderator Emeritus Share Posted January 4, 2016 What we came up with was this: I am back on medication but not paxil. Since I have been off paxil for nearly 6 months he adviced against going back on it. When I was going off paxil I took Citalopram to help ease the process. So I have been off paxil for 6 months and off citalopram for 3 months. He thought it best to go back to citalopram to see if that would help with the withdrawal. I actually thought that made sense so I agreed. We did have a little argument about the dose but we made a compromise. He wanted me to take 6 mg, I wanted to begin with 2 mg. So I'm taking 4 mg now. Your doc isn't making sense to me, Paxil is the one your body has been used to for years, it would make more sense to reinstate that. But as your system seemed to tolerate citalopram, it's possible it might provide some relief. I've seen some people switch successfully, others not, it's very individual, there are no easy answers to these situations. It's great that you have such an understanding boss, you are very fortunate there! I hope you get some good relief soon. 2001–2002 paroxetine 2003 citalopram 2004-2008 paroxetine (various failed tapers) 2008 paroxetine slow taper down to 2016 Aug off paroxetine2016 citalopram May 20mg Oct 15mg … slow taper down2018 citalopram 13 Feb 4.6mg 15 Mar 4.4mg 29 Apr 4.2mg 6 Jul 4.1mg 17 Aug 4.0mg 18 Nov 3.8mg 2019 15 Mar 3.6mg 21 May 3.4mg 26 Dec 3.2mg 2020 19 Feb 3.0mg 19 Jul 2.9mg 16 Sep 2.8mg 25 Oct 2.7mg 23 Oct 2.6mg 24 Dec 2.5mg 2021 29 Aug 2.4mg 15 Nov 2.3mg Link to comment
nz11 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 It appears that oxaxepam is the english word also known as serax. Never heard of that one before initially i thought you had mispelled 'lorazepam.' This is a benzo are you able to advise what dosage you are on with this. If you take this for just a week dependency may well be established and then you will have to taper off this as well. Yet withdrawal symptoms may go on for many months. Its always a wise idea to get a second opinion from sa before acting on doctors instructions. Wishing you strength Thought for the day: Lets stand up, and let’s speak out , together. G Olsen We have until the 14th. Feb 2018. URGENT REQUEST Please consider submitting for the petition on Prescribed Drug Dependence and Withdrawal currently awaiting its third consideration at the Scottish Parliament. You don't even have to be from Scotland. By clicking on the link below you can read some of the previous submissions but be warned many of them are quite harrowing. http://www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01651 Please tell them about your problems taking and withdrawing from antidepressants and/or benzos. Send by email to petitions@parliament.scot and quote PE01651 in the subject heading. Keep to a maximum of 3 sides of A4 and you can't name for legal reasons any doctor you have consulted. Tell them if you wish to remain anonymous. We need the numbers to help convince the committee members we are not isolated cases. You have until mid February. Thank you Recovering paxil addict None of the published articles shed light on what ssri's ... actually do or what their hazards might be. Healy 2013. This is so true, with anything you get on these drugs, dependance, tapering, withdrawal symptoms, side effects, just silent. And if there is something mentioned then their is a serious disconnect between what is said and reality! "Every time I read of a multi-person shooting, I always presume that person had just started a SSRI or had just stopped." Dr Mosher. Me too! Over two decades later, the number of antidepressant prescriptions a year is slightly more than the number of people in the Western world. Most (nine out of 10) prescriptions are for patients who faced difficulties on stopping, equating to about a tenth of the population. These patients are often advised to continue treatment because their difficulties indicate they need ongoing treatment, just as a person with diabetes needs insulin. Healy 2015 I believe the ssri era will soon stand as one of the most shameful in the history of medicine. Healy 2015 Let people help people ... in a natural, kind, non-addictive (and non-big pharma) way. J Broadley 2017 Link to comment
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