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Tris: Struggling at current dose

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In November I began having body numbness on my left side. I decided to hold at my current dose of .54 to see if it would help. It did, but I am having strange head heaviness and burning on top of my head with dizziness. Should I increase my dose a little to see if this helps? Has anyone else had these symptoms?

Started taking Paxil Feb 2002 20mg?
Tried many times over the years to taper.
Switched from tablet to liquid many years ago to make tapering easier. 
Stayed at 7.2ml for a few years before I 
began tapering in Aug 2021 
Stuck at 2.5mls since Aug 2022

began tapering Jan 24 using brass monkey method 

currently at .54 and having issues.

Hi Tris

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

Thank for posting this. I have moved it into the Introduction section for you. This can be your new personal topic.

 

I assume from your post you are an existing member at SA? Could you let us know your user name and we can link your thread from over there here for you?

 

When you held in November your symptoms settled down. This is good, you didn't need to up dose to an achieve this. It's normal to get the windows and waves pattern during a hold period.

 

If it were me I would stay where you are and let the wave die down rather than updose to treat it.

 

Great to have you here

 

Chippy

I’m not a medical professional and cannot offer medical advice. I only offer my thoughts as support. Please speak to your health practitioner about your care. This is a peer site where we support each other on our taper/recovery journeys. 

 

If you are from the UK please make sure you fill in a 'Yellow Card' report for the MHRA. It is you doing your bit to help make a difference.

Please take the time to do it today 🙂 https://yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk

For US members details here.

  • Chippy changed the title to Tris: Struggling at current dose

Thank  you for joining.

 

Did the numbness start immediately following a drop?

 

It's difficult to say what should be done, everybody is different. If a drop clearly caused it, then you may wish to reverse it soon afterward. If it didn't, it's been a while since the drop, or it's generally tolerable even if you don't like it, you may instead wish to hold for a while and hope that it stabilises.

Nothing I say is medical advice, it is simply my opinion. I am an anonymous person on an internet forum with no relevant qualifications other than being badly harmed by a drug. For all you know, I could be an idiot. You are making your own decisions and part of that is deciding how much to listen to my opinion, if at all.

 

Perhaps you should consider this post an artistic work of fiction written for entertainment purposes.


Story from SA: LukeUK: Remeron/Mirtazapine Severe Withdrawal - Introductions and updates - Surviving Antidepressants

 

15mg Remeron/Mirtazapine November starting 2022 (severe physical side effects)

Attempted to taper off January 2023, ended up having a major breakdown and going up to 30mg, took weeks to stabilise

1 month taper  to 0mg

Last dose April 2023

Severe withdrawal syndrome with many physical symptoms

Summary: 5 months using Mirtazapine, including 1 month taper ending late April 2023.

When did you drop to .54mg and what was your dose before that?  Perhaps you could update your signature to include more details of your recent dose history?

 

I found I had to hold longer at some doses than others, to let things settle down.  I had a hard time at 0.7mg and held there for about 4 months.  I never had burning on top of the head but I did have some bouts of dizziness.

2001–2002 paroxetine

2003  citalopram 

2004-2008  paroxetine (various failed tapers) 
2008  paroxetine slow taper down to 

2016  Aug off paroxetine
2016-2017  citalopram May 20mg  Oct 15mg … slow taper down to 4.8mg
2018-2023 Feb 4.6mg slow taper down to 1.0mg

2024  Jan 0.9mg  Mar 0.8mg May 0.7mg Aug 0.6mg Oct 0.5mg Dec 0.4mg

2025 Jan 0.3mg Apr 0.2mg Jun 0.1mg Aug 0mg

10 hours ago, Tris said:

In November I began having body numbness on my left side. I decided to hold at my current dose of .54 to see if it would help. It did, but I am having strange head heaviness and burning on top of my head with dizziness. Should I increase my dose a little to see if this helps? Has anyone else had these symptoms?

Hi, first, well done on reaching such a low dose, that's a huge achievement, I'm on a higher dose than you struggling.

Dizziness is not one of my symptoms but burning sensation very much so especially after a cuts, it usually lasts intensely for a while until it calms, however I still experience it from time to time when I'm between a wave and Akathisia.

I tried to upping my dose before in hope it will help but it made everything worse, but that's just me.

Imo, whether you cut recently or not, it's a pretty common symptom and will subside.

1998 forced on cipramil *no anxiety/depression background*

Over the years all kinds of SSRI/SNRI/antipsychotics/stabilizers due to apparently side effects/withdrawal

Many attempts to quit over the years with failure (extremely rapid taper followed by doctors' guidens)

Current attempt-Paxil 20 mg:

6/24 20 mg to 5 mg-severe AKA

9/24 Increase to 20-AKA continues

10/24 stopped completely-AKA out of control 

11/24 Zoloft bridge attempt-25 mg to 75 mg+Seroquel-AKA continued-stopped them CT.

12/24 Back on Paxil 10mg (0.1789g)-some stabilization-from here tapered by about 30% each time (don't remember doses and dates).

2025 - 7.10 0.0558g (3.11mg)/7.11 3% 0.0541g (3.02mg)/4.12 1% 0.0535g (2.98mg)

2026 - 3.1 1.5% 0.0526g (2.93mg)/9.1 8.5% 0.0480g (2.68mg)/16.2 1.8% 0.0470g (2.62mg)/21.3 1% 0.466 (2.60mg)/23.4 2.2% 0.455g (2.54mg)/8.7 21.7% 0.0356.5g (2mg)/15.8 updose by 11.7% 0.0400g (2.23mg)

Supplements:

Magnesium Glycinate - started 28.5.26 1 capsule 200mg in the morning - Increased brain fog and muscle stiffness - stopped after two weeks.

Iron - liquid, quarter of recommended dose - increased anxiety and burning sensation - stopped after two weeks.

Saffron - started 8.7.26 1 capsule 30mg in the morning - pretty immediate improvement in terms of terror, body pain and sleep.

  • Author

I'm not sure how to update my signature. I ended up in hospital the first week in November due to the numbness and chest pain, the numbness was in my left arm, long story short I had a heart cath that was clear. I was discharged, but went back to hospital because the numbness spread to my whole left side head to foot. They thought it was a TIA or MS, due to old lesions on the brain on my left side. While in hospital I realized that the numbness could have been my medicine, I had just reduced while in hospital to .51ml. So I went on to SA and saw that this was a symptom, so I went back up to .54ml on the 9th Nov and have been there ever since. The numbness did subside until now. I also had surgery on Dec 31st and ever since surgery I've been having panic attacks. I think with everything that happened the last few months has traumatized  my whole body. When I update my signature you will see that I was doing really well reducing, so around April I went a little faster than I should have and by June was paying for it. I also messed up my time for taking it when I was out of the country in Sept/Oct. I think all this messed up my brain. 

After I posted about my head, when I went to bed the numbness returned down my left side. I just thought because I haven't reduced anymore and I'm making sure I take it at the same time every night, that my system would have settled.

Started taking Paxil Feb 2002 20mg?
Tried many times over the years to taper.
Switched from tablet to liquid many years ago to make tapering easier. 
Stayed at 7.2ml for a few years before I 
began tapering in Aug 2021 
Stuck at 2.5mls since Aug 2022

began tapering Jan 24 using brass monkey method 

currently at .54 and having issues.

Hey Tris

 

I see you managed to update you signature. Thank you for that.

 

Thanks for the additional information.

 

Yes as I thought you dropped in Nov, felt you were experiencing WD and up dosed which settled this.

 

Im sorry you are in the wars at the moment especially as your taper had been going so well.

 

I suspect (and I am not a doctor!) that the surgery you have just had has added to your situation. Not sure what you were given in hospital for the procedure but as well as putting you under you probably had a nice little cocktail of pills form the anaesthetist? Even the anestetic could do this to you I suspect.

 

Obviously you have some medical issues here so you need to be sure you are checked out and there is nothing else causing these symptoms. But assuming you are all clear and you think this is WD/drug related I think holding where you are would be what I would do.

 

As a side note what was your username on SA?

 

Chippy

 

 

 

 

I’m not a medical professional and cannot offer medical advice. I only offer my thoughts as support. Please speak to your health practitioner about your care. This is a peer site where we support each other on our taper/recovery journeys. 

 

If you are from the UK please make sure you fill in a 'Yellow Card' report for the MHRA. It is you doing your bit to help make a difference.

Please take the time to do it today 🙂 https://yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk

For US members details here.

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