Oh my god girl that is the worst possible drug I have ever been given by a "doctor". I only took it for a couple of weeks but ran out on the weekend and everyone was closed so the withdrawl was horrid! It's not like heroin or adderall or any of that ..It's more like electrical currents jolting throughout my body and having homicidal thoughts..I never have been the same since. I have been going to a psychiatrist which helped me get addicted to other drugs but she told me that I would never be the same again because of my mental defects prior to my taking paxil. I am bi-polar and adhd. My life is trashed now and it's amazing how many nurses and other professionals that I have spoken to that are terrified to get off of it after several years...There are lawsuits going on and I suggest you jump on that band wagon and for gods sake..Get off this drug very slowly so the damage will not happen to you as it has done to me.. God speed girl and my prayers are with you...

Thank you so much for a reply. I had read on the net about the lawsuits and others getting addicted and bad withdrawal but I have never found someone to talk to about it.

I agree, it's the worse drug I have ever been given in my life. I began to have panic attacks again about 2 years into taking 60mg a day, so they raised it to 90mg.

Then within the next year I started having more panic attacks and strange thoughts, and to block these thoughts out I took more and more pills. I would carry them in my bad and pop them so I could get through the day at work. (i usually ended up taking between 200-300mg a day.) I started vomiting daily a few months later, and tried to taper off it with a doc, but that made it worse because the withdrawl just went on and on.


One night I just flushed all the pills down the toilet and suffered the worst withdrawl ever. Friends who saw me though I was coming off herione or something. I was convulsing, puking, couldn't walk or breathe properly, was seeing things, hearing things, and had the horrible zapping. My neck twitched a lot and still twitches now and then.


Now it has been almost two years and I have been dianosed with schizoprehnia (i now hallucinate and have strange thoughts) by one hospital, then several other disorders by another. The last psych (who I found out wasn't certified *evilglare*) said I don't have schizophrenia and it's just the damage from paxil which they can heal with natropathy.


I am so bloody confused. Could my hallucinations and all this be from paxil two years ago!? Sounds like a far stretch to me...And if so, how the hell can it be healed quickly with natropathy?


I was also diagnosed with bipolar...I know I need meds, but this last psych I saw said to take nothing and my brain will heal itself....It angers me off..It's kind of hard to sit here and wait, being suicidal and hearing things...


Sorry, ranting to much...I'd just like your opinion on whats going on here. :-p thanks.

So sorry you are having such a hard time :( I have been diagnosed as bi-polar and adhd since paxil...I believe that if you even have the slightest I mean slightest possibility of these genetics dispositions paxil will greatly enhance it into full blown whatever... I curse the day my doctor gave me that crap..I didn't tell ya though that I went in there on the next day they were open and cursed him and told him to shove the paxil where the sun don't shine :lol: they have this great habit of shaming you because of your mentally defective genes...Which he tried to do..Then I went to the pharmacist that is the only one in our small town and told him the same....Too late for me though...Maybe we can stay in touch and try to keep each other grounded...Take care

Thanks for your reply. Wow, what you said-'if you even have the slightest I mean slightest possibility of these genetics dispositions paxil will greatly enhance it into full blown whatever'-that last psych didn't say anything about that at all. She just said I caused it all on myself by taking too much paxil. :x it really annoyed me because I have never tried any other drugs or had any interest in them, I went along with the doctors and took their medicine that was supposedly 'not addictive, and completely safe.' grrr.
Good for you complaining about this drug, it makes me so angry that it's still on the market.
But somewhat good news, I am actually going into hospital for two months for an assessment, so hopefully they can fix what has gone wrong with me. :oops:
thanks for your posts, good luck with everything.

I have been on paxil for 6 years. I cannot stop taking it. I go through severe withdrawal. I get electrical zaps when I move my head or walk. I get the runs and my stomache feels terrible. About twice a year since I started taking this caca I get paralyzing stomache cramps. Often this occurs out of the blue while i'm on the toilet. Sweat pours off my body and there is literally a puddle of sweat around me. All of my energy is sucked out of me and I feel like I will faint. It is the most painfull thing I have ever encountered. I curse the day that I ever went on this doing it drug. Doctors will prescribe this caca because it is pushed by the drug companies.

After six years I feel desperate. I want to stop but I can't. Each month I have to treck to the drug store and spend my money on something that does more harm than good. Paxil is more addictive than any street drug. Heroin withdrawal lasts a few days. Paxil withdrawal lasts much longer and I don't know if it will ever go away. Everytime I try to quit the withdrawal sets in and I have to go on it again. Does anybody have any advice for getting off paxil?

I want my mind back. I want to be free of this caca. I want the man before the paxil. I'm desperate. I just don't want to do this anymore but I have no way to stop. I don't know how much longer I can take this.

You should talk to your doctor about coming off it and do it very slowly. Don't try cold turkey, its really rough. Good luck. *hugs*

For very addiction, there is always hekp. You just have to keep looking

Paxil is a pretty effective drug but it does have some nasty withdrawl effects. I stopped taking 40 mgs of paxil cold turkey after I felt as though paxil was no longer as effective because I was having frequent breakthough anxiety attacks. I took my last dose of 40mgs on a monday and I felt fine for the next two days. On wednesday evening I had a mild upset stomach and interrupted sleep, but I didn't think much of it. By the next day I wasn't feeling too hot and I assumed that I had a virus or perhaps eaten something that didn't agree with me. I felt nauseous and tired and determined that all I needed was some parecetamol and bed rest. Friday marked my passage into hell, so to so to speak. The nausea got progressively worse and I began vomiting profusely. I was very tired but I was restless and was experiencing electric jolts and very vivid, horrifying nightmares when I was able to sleep. Saturday and sunday were the same. I was very scared because I was unable to keep anything down and was very dehydrated. I was constantly drenched in sweat and my headached constantly. I lay on the floor of the bathroom thinking I was going to die.

I assumed that my birth control patch may have been the cause but I never thought that paxil might be the culprit. I lay in agony for what seemed like an eternity before my friend suggested it might be due to paxil withdrawal and asked me when I took my last dose. I immediately took 20 mgs and began to feel better so I took another 20mgs in intervals over 6 hours. By tuesday I almost felt back to normal. What a week! I should have known that paxil would cause me to have a complete and utter breakdown like that! My doctor should have told me not to stop abruptly! If I hads known I doubt I would have agreed to began paxil in the first place! I was so upset that I decided to switch doctors!

What upsets me even more is that glaxo and kline and medical professionals make excuses and deny that this medication is has serious withdrawl effects that mimic opiates. They use words such as "mildly habit forming" in a meager attempt to market this potent psychotropic medication as benign. Ssri class antidepressants do have the potential to cause alarming withdrawal symptoms, it is the nature of the drugs and their composition. Paxil however (as well as effexor) have extremely short half lives and the medication leaves the system rapidly if you discontinue use abruptly. The shock of discontinuation is what wreaks havoc on the brain. It all sounds perfectly understandable to me now, but I still think my doctors and pharmaceutical companies neglect to adequately warn people of the symptoms. Simply stating that you may feel some slight discomfort upon tapering the medication is vague and misleading. It is common knowledge that one should not stop medications such as diazepam or alprozolam abruptly due to serious withdrawal symptoms occuring. I believe that paxil and other short acting ssris should be included in this category if only to make the consumers aware of the potential symptoms!

Hmmm, that being said, I am still on paxil although I have been slowly tapering off the drug in very, very small increments over a period of months. I still experience some withdrawal effects but they are relatively minor in comparison to the misery I went through months before. My suggestion is to use gravol for the nausea and upt to 7.5 mgs of zopiclone for the sleep disturbances.

Regards,
miss digby

It's the worst drug ever and the FDA needs to pull it ASAP. I've had several heart arrhythmias while TAKING the paxil. I tried to go off it once before and it caused an arrhythmia so bad I was told I should have sought medical attention because it could have killed me. Doctors need to warn patients how addictive paxil is. Anyone who says it isn't addictive is wrong. Today was my last day of taking it(I've been weaning off for a month). I'm scared to death about what could happen to me tomorrow when I don't take it. My body does NOT like me going off of it at all. I've been having severe hot flashes, fatigue, dizziness, irregular heart beats, and those pain zaps several other people on here talked about.

Well that's weird the website changed moro* to person