paxil since 2020? not sure

went from 20mg to 60mg in like a little over a year lol

a week ago i had 5 days where i went cold turkey from 60mg. had obvious withdrawal symptons but not that bad, deciding now to taper doing 30mg for a month or longer and then 5mg lower every month if it goes well. does this plan sound well? i know that right now is one of the best ima feel and ima feel worse later right? its been 2-3 days of me taking 30mg a day and the brain zaps from cold turkey went away, but everything else not really its like 10% better. symptoms are nausea thats getting better, absolute 0 will to eat. vibration feeling in arms/legs, cant sleep, waking up randomly. probably more but dont feel like writing all of it down / cant notice atm.. your average withdrawals but i can handle it. been reading a lot and just making this to get a view on my upcoming plans. thank u

Welcome to the forum!

 

This is a volunteer-run, community forum aimed at helping those who are tapering and/or experiencing difficulties with psychiatric medications and withdrawl syndrome. We are not medical professionals and cannot offer medical advice. We simply offer support and opinions which you could use as talking points with a medical provider knowledgeable in withdrawing off psychiatric medications.

 

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I'm so sorry to read about the tough time you've had recently you will find plenty of support here for sure.

 

In the mean time this is what I would do if I were you:

 

-Stay Hydrated 

 

-Eat a good clean whole food diet, avoiding processed foods and sugars.

 

-Stay away from caffeine, alcohol and antihistamines and any other psychoactive substances.

 

Supplements are to be avoided initially, as they often irritate our nervous systems. Try to get your nutrition through food.

 

Down the line, you may wish to introduce Fish Oil and Magnesium. Those who can tolerate them have found them calming to the nervous system. Be careful try one at a time and start low and see how you get on should you choose to try them.

 

A daily walk is very important as much as you can manage, if you can manage it. Gets you your fresh air and Vitamin D does wonders for your mind!

Cutting from 60 to 30mg is a huge drop in dose, you might find that you're one of the lucky ones who can tolerate such a drop, but you may also suffer significant harm. It can take more than a few days for this to really take effect.

Why did you go from 20mg to 60mg over the course of a year, and when was this?

This is our main thread on tapering these drugs:

Tapering Information - Tapering - The Antidepressant Harm and Recovery Forum

There are also a number of others in this section:

Tapering - The Antidepressant Harm and Recovery Forum

Your plan to drop 5mg a month is too fast and is potentially quite unsafe. It is difficult to say as some people tolerate fast tapers but clearly many do not and this forum is full of people who wished that they had not gone too quickly and suffered years of serious harm.

I really cannot emphasise enough how much harm it is possible to sustain- I took one drug for 4 months, did a 1 month taper after that and I'm still in it almost 3.5 years later, having spent a significant proportion of that time suffering immensely, being unable to work and care for myself and being really quite profoundly disabled. An extreme outcome, yes, but it shows that going too quickly can be very dangerous for some.

I would very much recommend not tapering further for some time, as you have just made a huge dose drop and IF you are going to stay there I would recommend staying there for quite some time to see if you begin to suffer more serious withdrawal effects from this. If you do, you may need to increase the dose again to counteract this.

 

You are very welcome here and I hope you find the site supportive.

Welcome to the forum @0li glad you found us. Please answer Lukes questions so we can help some more. Don't make any more changes until you have a solid plan. Chippy

Hi @0li welcome to the forum.

I too am on paxil/paroxetine.

Please read about this drug to fully understand what changes have taken place in your body while taking it. The body/CNS needs a lot of time to undo these changes and time is necessary to minimize the damage from withdrawal.

9 hours ago, 0li said:

deciding now to taper doing 30mg for a month or longer and then 5mg lower every month if it goes well. does this plan sound well?

This is really too fast considering the withdrawal you have already experienced. The reductions you have made to this point barely touch the SERT occupancy. As you get lower, the drops are more significant on how they affect us. A careful taper reduces suffering. Listening to your body and respecting the limits it can handle is essential.

Read this link carefully...it is based on years of cumulative experience.

It is easier to prevent a problem than repair it.

I suggest you hold your dose till your symptoms lessen significantly or even disappear before you proceed with a cautious taper. ❤️🙏

hey @Luke tysm for the great reply, i believe i got diagnosed with MDD after a panic attack in 2020 or 2021 stemming from family loss, school , relationship, tragedy occuring right in front of me. just lots of stuff going wrong and im sorry but i cant remember like the timeline of me going from 20mg to 60mg.. (not sure if im suppressing those bad years or if my memory is just horrible..) I most likely have it on paper somewhere but as of right now idk where it is. all i know is that starting out the paxil meds i never really noticed any difference and i stayed the same so i just kept saying that to my psychatrist and he kept upping it over the pace of like 1.5 years or 2 years? still never really even noticed much but kept taking it for years. i dont even think i have anxiety either its just mainly depression i believe 🤷 i wasnt planning to taper if i still had decently bad withdrawal symptoms cause i know that would be dumb. I will listen to all of these replies thank u so much this website has been a blessing

10 hours ago, LostinCanada said:

10 hours ago, LostinCanada said:

I suggest you hold your dose till your symptoms lessen significantly or even disappear before you proceed with a cautious taper. ❤️🙏

yes, i will do that thank u and ill read the info <3

@0li Okay, thank you for the additional information.

It's good that you plan to have a read through of all the information here. Let us know if you have any questions once you've had a chance to look it over.