Pixelchixel: Inability to feel joy post-Paxil

[Pixelchixel]

Hello everyone!

I'm a 20 year old woman and I took Paroxetine (40 MG) for five months. I tapered very quickly due to my lack of knowledge at the time. I stopped completely on January 1st 2020. It's now been four weeks since complete cessation of it. 

 

Three days ago I started experiencing a lack of joy, happiness, love, or feeling of attraction to anyone/sex. This caused me to have a mental breakdown which unfortunately may have made things worse as now I feel nothing at all. I also have not eaten due to feeling nauseated by the idea of food and the lack of pleasure associated with eating it.

 

I'm not looking for negativity here. I am not interested in hearing I will be this way forever. I've already been told this and I will not accept it, so please do not try. 

 

Has anyone else gone through this? Is this common? What's the normal timeline? When can I start to expect seeing improvements? 

 

Is there a secret treatment for Anhedonia that I'm unaware of? Google says that there's no treatment except the exact poison I got off of. 

 

Thank you so much for your time and I hope to hear from you soon! 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by manymoretodays
moved to introductions from S and S care

[Gridley]

Welcome to SA, Pixelchixel.

 

Whoever told you you will be this way forever was wrong.  You will heal.  

 

Lack of pleasure in anything is known as anhedonia and is a very common symptom of withdrawal from psychiatric medications.  Loss of interest in sex is also a very common withdrawal symptom. 

 

 Unfortunately, there is no way to predict how long these symptoms will last, only that they will in time fade away.

 

The symptoms are due to your very fast taper.  We recommend tapering by no more than 10% of current dose every four months.

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

What is withdrawal syndrome.

 

Apathy, anhedonia, emotional numbness, emotional anesthesia

 

When we take medications, the CNS (central nervous system) responds by making changes over the months and years we take the drug(s). When the medication is discontinued, the CNS has to undo all the changes it made. Rebuilding the neurotransmitter production and reactivating the receptor and transporter cells takes time -- during that rebuilding process symptoms occur.

 

Reinstatement of a very small dose of the original drug is the only known way to help alleviate withdrawal syndrome.  The only other alternative is to try and wait out the symptoms and manage as best you can until your central nervous system returns to homeostasis.  Unfortunately no one can give you an exact timeline as to when you will start feeling better and while some do recover relatively easily, for others it can take many months or longer.  

 

Reinstatement isn't a guarantee of diminished symptoms for everyone but it's the best tactic available.  You're still in the time period where reinstatement predictably works, up to 3 months after last dose.  It is best to reinstate as soon as possible after withdrawal symptoms occur. We usually suggest a much smaller reinstatement dose than your last dose.  These drugs are strong, and when reinstating it is better to start with a small amount. Your system has become sensitized and If you take too much it may be too much for your brain and can cause you become unstable.  Later, once you've stabilized on the reinstated dosage, which can take several months,  you can begin a 10% per month taper down to zero.   Please read:

 

About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms. -- at least the first page of the topic

 

If you decide you want to reinstate, I recommend 1mg Paxil--no more.  It takes about 4 days for a dose change to get to get to full state in the blood and a bit longer for it to register in the brain.

 

Do you still have some Paxil?  This link tell you how to get the 1mg you'll need for your reinstatement.

 

Tips for tapering off Paxil (paroxetine)

 

We don't recommend a lot of supplements on SA, as many members report being sensitive to them due to our over-reactive nervous systems, but two supplements that we do recommend are magnesium and omega 3 (fish oil). Many people find these to be calming to the nervous system. 

 

Magnesium, nature's calcium channel blocker 

 

Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) 

 

Add in one at a time and at a low dose in case you do experience problems.

 

This is your Introduction topic, where you can ask questions and connect with other members.  We're glad you found your way here.

 

 

[Pixelchixel]

Hi Gridley! Thank you for the warm welcome and such enlightening information.

 

I do have a few questions and concerns regarding reinstating to 1mg of Paxil.

 

First of all, I've read that people with anhedonia & lack of interest in sex can get worse after taking the drugs again. I'm terrified to risk causing even more damage. Is this even enough to do more damage? Is this dose so low that it will simply aid my brain in recovery? 

 

Secondly, I'm incredibly fearful that my recovery will be fast & smooth, and that interfering will only further complicate things. If I do start again after the 3 month mark, is that bad? If so, why is that bad? Is the brain mostly healed by month 3? 

 

I can already see these changes affecting my relationships. I'm terrified beyond belief but I really don't want to make things even worse. 

 

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon! 

[Gridley]

5 hours ago, Pixelchixel said:

 

First of all, I've read that people with anhedonia & lack of interest in sex can get worse after taking the drugs again. I'm terrified to risk causing even more damage. Is this even enough to do more damage? Is this dose so low that it will simply aid my brain in recovery? 

Unfortunately, there are no guarantees in reinstatement.  It can make things worse.  However, you are well within the time frame when reinstatement predictably works (because your brain hasn't had a lot of time to adapt somewhat  to being totally off the drug and as a result is more likely not to react badly to its reintroduction).  1mg is a very low dosage, which also makes it more likely your brain will have a positive rather than negative reaction to it.  1mg is often enough to reduce withdrawal symptoms to a more tolerable level.  It's a matter of your weighing the potential risk versus the potential benefits.  As I said in my first post:

 

"The only other alternative [to reinstatement] is to try and wait out the symptoms and manage as best you can until your central nervous system returns to homeostasis.  Unfortunately no one can give you an exact timeline as to when you will start feeling better and while some do recover relatively easily, for others it can take many months or longer."  We just don't know how long these symptoms will last, and reinstatement is the only known way to alleviate them.

 

5 hours ago, Pixelchixel said:

If I do start again after the 3 month mark, is that bad? If so, why is that bad? Is the brain mostly healed by month 3? 

 

If you're going to reinstate, it's best to do so as soon after you've stopped the drug as possible.  The reason for this is, as I said above, the brain is more receptive to the reintroduction when not a lot of time has passed and the brain is more-or-less in the same condition as it was when you were on the drug.  The farther out in time from when you stopped the drug, the more the brain changes as it adapts to being without the drug, meaning the more chance the result of reinstatement will be negative.  That's the reason for the 3-month mark.  It's not that the brain is mostly healed by that point. We just don't know how much time  in individual cases it will take to heal.  The purpose of the reinstatement is to make that time more tolerable and to allow you to stabilize then taper off that 1mg very, very slowly. 

 

5 hours ago, Pixelchixel said:

I'm terrified beyond belief but I really don't want to make things even worse. 

 

That's the thing about these drugs and the terrible decisions they force us to make.  You don't want to make things worse, but the reinstatement could make things better.  It has helped many people.   I don't want to try to persuade you either way.