ravijaua: Paxil withdrawal hell

[ravijaua]

It is possible that drugs can trigger poopout or withdrawal and I would avoid them with Paxil tapering. Let me explain as I have some background and education in this area.

 

I took Acyclovir in Dec 2014 because I convinced myself I had herpes zoster even though I don't think I did  and it cause a really weird reaction to me. I ended up having poopout like symptoms for 3 months but then it went away and I was stable for another 3 months.

 

I took ketoconazole for a mild fungal skin infection and full on poopout came about. I don't know if I was going into poopout anyways and maybe I was but to be safe I would avoid those two drugs.

 

Acyclovir is known to have no drug interaction with paxil but ketoconazole is a known cytochrome p450 inhibition , esp of cyp3a4. Even though paxil is mostly metabolized by cyp2d6, I am sure there is some inhibition of ketoconazole on cyp2d6. I noticed it felt like my dose was increased to 30 mg for a month or so even though I didn't increase it. I have intense anxiety and insomnia that month and the anxiety went down but still remained higher than when I was stable and the insomnia continued.

 

This is all based on my personal ancedoctal experience and maybe all bs but still, better to be safe than sorry and avoid those two drugs while on paxil or tapering. I would especially avoid them before you start tapering as they seemed to induce poopout in me.

Edited September 30, 2016 by scallywag
moved from another member's intro topic, added paragraph breaks

[scallywag]

ravi I've moved two posts you made to your intro topic. The posts were in

1. Relationships forum about sexual function
2. DLB's intro about ketoconazole

There is a topic about sexual function symptoms here: Post SSRI sexual dysfunction.

 

I need to find a topic that covers antibiotic and/or antifungal medications.

 

Just a reminder: It's a good idea to check for existing topics on the site by using google, just include "site:survivingantidepressants.org" as a search term with the other words you're looking for.

[ravijaua]

Anxiety less like manageable now with some flare ups. Lots of heat and light sensitivity still. Terribly annoying. Also, exercise intolerance and now anhedonia developing. But No SI, HI, Irritability. Neuroemotions better.

[ravijaua]

Anhedonia terrible today i can do things but enjoying them is off. I took magnesium 2.5 mg and anhedoni worsened. Guess i will stay away from magnesium for now.

[ravijaua]

Been on pexeva 16 mg for about 6 weeks now. No more neuro emotions si hi but now having the withdrawal symptoms i had when i ct in 2010 headaches muscle spasm in my neck and burning in my hands will this go away??

[ravijaua]

my headaches are getting severe, especially after I take pexeva in the morning. Does this mean I need to start tapering?

[ravijaua]

these are exactly the symptoms I had when I tried to ct in 2010. So do I need to updose, it's been 6 weeks and while it was tolerable before with the anxiety, etc, these headaches are intolerable. What do I do ? please help. I don't know if I should updose, taper, stay on this for a while longer.

[ravijaua]

I'm having these symptoms now. I'm about 16 months into my WD. I noticed they started around the time I started cherry juice for sleep, which really worked. I don't know if the juice is causing my headaches or if it's just withdrawal but I am hesitant to give up the cherry juice since it helps me sleep so much.

[ravijaua]

I have a few options:

Hold at 16 mg without any supplements, stop cherry juice, because maybe causing headaches and muscle tension(sounds a bit far fetched but who knows?)

Add inositol ?

This might be from magnesium, I did Epsom salt baths and oral magnesium and sprays last week, seem to worsen withdrawal but it's already been a few days since I took any magnesium. While on magnesium, I got really sensitive to sounds and light, but that has decreased now, I just have headaches and muscle stiffness.

Updose to 17 mg?

Start tapering?

[ravijaua]

My symtpoms of headaches and muscle tension are worse after i take the paxil so weird driving me crazy tart cherry juice helps get rid of symptoms and they dont reappear until i take paxil wth?

[scallywag]

It's hard to know what's going on without a more detailed log of
- when you take your medications, the tart cherry juice

   -- and --
- your symptoms, which ones arise and when they occur.
 
Please take notes on paper for several days. Post them here either daily or all at once. This post describes what kind of notes are the most help in this kind of troubleshooting:
Take notes of doses and symptoms

[ravijaua]

Sure

Let's start with Monday, Woke up after taking cherry juice 8 oz of cheribundi juice, slept well. Woke up and was ok with mild anxiety until 1 pm. Took paxeva 16 mg at 1 pm. Started having headaches around 2 pm and continued off and on until 8 pm. Took cherribundi juice and no more headaches until I slept. Tuesday , was exactly the same as Monday. Sunday was exactly the same as well. So Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Headaches started 1-2 hours after taking pexeva and stopped after taking cherribundi juice. Before Starting cherribundi juice a few days ago, I didn't have any headaches. That's pretty much it. I'm considering stopping the juice but since the headaches occur after taking pexeva I'm not sure.

[scallywag]

ravi, please look at the post I linked "Take notes ...".  Your update on this doesn't provide enough detail, and a paragraph narrative can hide important information.

[ravijaua]

Ok i will work on it and post later tonight. Also i used to have exercise intolerance then that went away and now i get weird effects when i work out not intolerance but effects like when i was stable from 2010 to 2015

[ravijaua]

Should i taper? Its been 7 weeks on 16 mg and i have been thinking of tapering down 2.5 percent??? Any suggestions ? Hold for 5 more weeks?

[Altostrata]

ravi, do you take paroxetine at 1 p.m. every day? It's very important to keep to a schedule.

 

I doubt the cherry juice is causing the problems.

[ravijaua]

Yea i do

[ravijaua]

No more headaches since a few days so cherry juice has nothing to do with anything. Still have miscle spasm in neck. Anxiety much higher and always when i have headaches inhave low anxiety and vice versa. Logically it seems like one is withdrawal while another is side effect. Seems like headaches are withdrawal and anxiety is side effect since i had headaches when i cted in 2010. Thats why i am leaning toward tapering.

[ravijaua]

8 weeks on 16 mg high anxiety poor sleep even with magnesium at bedtime but anxiety controlled with magnesium exercise intolerance worse headaches gone muscle spasm improving. Should i taper 2.5 percent or hold another 4 weeks and taper then???

[scallywag]

Holding is always a good choice when one has doubt about the next step or is still having withdrawal symptoms.

[ravijaua]

Ok will hold until thanksgiving then taper after thanksgiving.

[ravijaua]

I dont know what is a withdrawal symptom snd what is a side effect

[Altostrata]

Right, that's where keeping daily notes is so helpful. A side effect will occur on a schedule related to when you take a drug.

[ravijaua]

Yes I will do that daily.

[ravijaua]

I have noticed headaches back today one to two hours after taking paxil. Only thing i did different was take magnesium the last two days.

[ravijaua]

Also feeling dizzy lightheaded and nauseous seems like symptoms i had when i added zoloft 4 mg to full dose paxil and cut down to 1.2 mg of zoloft and these symptoms went away. Could be my serotonin receptors have upregulated ie sensitized with time and tapering and now they are overstimulated like before and i need to taper.

[ravijaua]

Having weird flu symptoms today, don't feel sick no fever chills but runny nose and stuffed up nose since 2 days. I thought I was sick but not sure if it is paxil flu.

[ravijaua]

So flu symptoms gone, it was an actual flu with bacterial sinusitis , took abx and got better. Back to the normal w/d symptoms of headaches , dizziness. Planning to drop 2.5% in about 1-2 weeks. at 16 mg for 8 weeks now since sep 1.

[ravijaua]

advice needed please respond. So I am at about 9 weeks on 16 mg paxil. I am sleeping well, haven't taken an Ativan or Lunesta for 6 weeks. Use cherry juice sometimes to sleep and sometimes sleep well with nothing. The only problem is I have headaches pretty often in the day, usually worse after I take the paxil pill. I also have muscle stiffness in my neck. I wonder if I should wait another 3 weeks to taper or taper this week at the end of the week? Please help. Thanks.

[scallywag]

Have you been taking notes of the times of your doses and your symptoms?

 

If yes, please post a few days worth here in your intro thread.

 

If no, please keep notes on paper. Here's a post detailing a useful format for such a log:

Take notes of doses and symptoms

 

ravi, it would be a huge help if you simplified your signature.  It  took me quite a while to sort out what has happened recently. I spent a few minutes and came up with this:

 

Previous: 2004 Zoloft 50 mg 1-2 months; 2004-2006 Effexor 75-150 mg.

Paxil 2006 - today
2006-2010: 20 mg; Sept 2010:  **COLD TURKEY** Reinstated 10 mg after 2-3 weeks, difficulty re-stabilizing many dose changes; stabilized around the end of 2011 after a few months at 20 mg; 

Jan 2012-mid 2013: **TAPER** - 20 mg down to 18.8;

mid-2013- Oct. 2015: 18.8 mg, summer 2015 anxiety started increasing
Nov. 2015: 1.2 mg Zoloft added + paxil 20 mg; symptoms returned,ad
March 2016: 25 mg Zoloft (increased) + paxil 15 mg (decreased) --  ok for 3-4 months
Aug. 2016- stopped taking Zoloft due to nausea & GERD, Paxil 15 mg, tried 10 mg Prozac stopped after 5 days because of stimulation and anxiety
Sept 2016: 16 mg Paxil

[ravijaua]

Have tapered for the last month. Started at 16.16 mg 4 weeks ago and went down 1 mg pill weight each week. I started at 295 pill weight and went down to 291 pill weight(15.9 mg). This is really really slow. I did great for 4 weeks , slept well, felt good. Suddenly now after 4 weeks starting to have intense anxiety like I did months ago. I think I might need to speed up my taper so I plan on doing 2 mg pill weight drop per week starting tomorrow and go down to 283 pill weight. The total pill weight of 20 mg is 365.

I did about 1.5% the last month total drop. I plan on doing 3% next month, 5% the month after that. I will see how I tolerate 5% and increase slowly up to 10% if I need to.

[ravijaua]

I updated my signature

[ravijaua]

Severe anxiety last two days. On edge.

[ravijaua]

I have been having really bad anxiety the last past couple of days. The first month of tapering was great, no anxiety, some minor issues but mostly ok, now at the beginning of week 5 I'm having intense anxiety. I started tapering at 16.2 mg and now down to 15.9 mg. Not sure if such a small drop over 1 month can have such effects.

[ravijaua]

I started at 295 mg pill weight out of 365 mg total pill weight for about 16.2 mg and went down 1 mg pill weight per week starting around November 14th. By December 14th I was down to 291 mg pill weight or 15.9 mg. I started to have anxiety around December 14th so I dropped 2 mg pill weight hoping this would help and now down to 289 mg pill weight and still having intense anxiety since 3 days that I dropped.

[ravijaua]

I think my post have been very confusing so I will clarify in simple terms

November 14th - Was on paxi for 8 weeks at 16.2 mg. This is equivalent to 295 mg pill weight out of 365 mg total weight for 20 mg pill. Dropped 1 mg pill weight per week

December 14th - at 291 mg pill weight or 15.9 mg. Starting having anxiety around this time. Went up slowly until it peaked a few days later. Decided to drop 2 mg pill weight on Friday December 16th(so 289 mg pill weight) Felt better for a day and then anxiety returned. Waiting to stabilize.