I have been on paxil(paroxetine) three separate times. Each was between six months and one year in duration. The first time, I was on a 10mg daily dose. I had quite a few issues when starting the medication the first time; however after a few weeks, I felt great. When I initially discontinued, I had the worst side effects I have ever experienced. Electric shocks in my neck and back of head, depression, mood swings, and terrible panic attacks lasting almost two weeks. The doctor told me it wasn't 'addictive' and there is no issue stopping the medication, afterwards I changed my physician. The new doctor also insisted there were no known withdrawal symptoms. If you google the issue there are thousands of reports and dozens of websites about this exactly. I have no idea why doctors tell people there is nothing to worry about but there are certainly many negative side effects experienced while starting and discontinuing SSRI's. For subsequent treatments of paxil and other SSRI's, I have made sure to slowly titrate my dose when starting and discontinuing treatment. 1/4 doses for a week, half for a week, 3/4 for a week, and then full dosage. I have done the same for discontinuing, sometimes even more gradual then that, and have avoided the terrible experience since.
Withdrawal from Antidepressants
21–30 of 131 posts
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#22As someone who had to abruptly come off venlafaxine due to side effects, I can tell you that it was complete hell. I experienced vomiting, the weirdest, most horrible nightmares every night, sleep paralysis with hallucinations and a recurring feeling of "electic shocks" inside my head. This lasted about a month. I think it borders on inhumane not to mention possible withdrawal symptoms before prescribing this awful "…
Do you mind me asking what your dosage was and if you went cold turkey or tapered off at all?
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#23The article seems sound, but the source does look a bit biased.
The source isn't just a bit biased, it's hugely biased. Mad in America has an open editorial viewpoint, which is opposition to "the current drug-based paradigm of care" in psychiatry [1]. It's headed by Robert Whitaker, probably best known for his book Anatomy of an Epidemic that questions the routine use of psychiatric drugs [2]. Of course, that doesn't mean the article is useless or not addressing real phenomena. A…
Oh yeah, I've used SSRIs and suffered the withdrawal. I know they're not making things up or whatever.
But I also think that taking such a universal anti-psychiatric drug stance is probably too hardline of a position. I think they are the lesser of two (or more) evils for a lot of patients.
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#24Oh boy oh boy oh boy. The problems pointed out in this article -- which are in some degree real even if heavily editorialized -- must be understood in light of a wider context which includes: 0) The very poor standards of validity and replicability in most fields of experimental psych-whatever. The Popperian method ain't what it used to be. 1) The Viennese Waltz of bad incentives throughout the psychiatry research pi…
> "Mad in America" is obviously not willing to make a fuss of things like bipolar where people will take their lithium for decades and bear the side-effects [...]
The creation and promotion of "Bipolar" as a DSM disorder is covered in Anatomy of an Epidemic, Robert Whitaker's followup to Mad in America.
> [...] because the alternative is to go actually mad-crazy.
The whole point of Whitaker's Mad in America foundation is to change the paradigm of our approach to mental health. nstead of trying to find the right drug to make a symptom go away, it would be much more effective to figure out non-psychotropic-drug ways to help people function better.
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you had cancer, everyone would be there to support you. If you have a mental illness, there's not much chance of getting support from peers Because most people have no clue what to do about psychological illness, are afraid of doing more harm than good (not wrongly) and have pathology of their own that they're having trouble dealing with. And if mental illness as tied to family dysfunction as I think, then the p…
Having formally studied mental illness and also suffering from mild clinical depression myself, I'm of the opinion that unless you have studied it, have it, or have a close friend or relative with it, the average person just won't understand mental illness at all. It's so counter-intuitive in so many ways.
Then how do the masses get educated on something that has a hipster mentality of, "you won't understand" ?
Generally curious. The only solution I see is some empathy machine that allows you empirically experience someone else's experiences (VR perhaps?) along with understanding their feelings while going through those experiences.
I guess I'm asking for the ability to read minds...
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#26As someone who had to abruptly come off venlafaxine due to side effects, I can tell you that it was complete hell. I experienced vomiting, the weirdest, most horrible nightmares every night, sleep paralysis with hallucinations and a recurring feeling of "electic shocks" inside my head. This lasted about a month. I think it borders on inhumane not to mention possible withdrawal symptoms before prescribing this awful "…
I had to withdraw from Effexor myself. The electric shock symptom is real. It is brutal. Combined with withdrawal from benzodiazepines, those were some of the worst days of my life
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#27As someone who had to abruptly come off venlafaxine due to side effects, I can tell you that it was complete hell. I experienced vomiting, the weirdest, most horrible nightmares every night, sleep paralysis with hallucinations and a recurring feeling of "electic shocks" inside my head. This lasted about a month. I think it borders on inhumane not to mention possible withdrawal symptoms before prescribing this awful "…
Venlafaxine seems to be one of the worst SNRIs/SSRIs wrt discontinuation syndrome. Except for the nausea, I had the same experiences when quitting cold turkey. The most problematic symptom for me were the "electric shocks" when moving my eyes or head to fast.
For me, getting off venlafaxine was way harder than quitting tilidine, tramadol or the z-drugs.
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#28I have been on paxil(paroxetine) three separate times. Each was between six months and one year in duration. The first time, I was on a 10mg daily dose. I had quite a few issues when starting the medication the first time; however after a few weeks, I felt great. When I initially discontinued, I had the worst side effects I have ever experienced. Electric shocks in my neck and back of head, depression, mood swings, a…
Doctors can be notoriously ignorant and contradictory when it comes to mental illness-treating drugs. There's a lot of literature out there and a lot of them don't keep up. I don't know why it is.
Not that you shouldn't trust doctors, but I always do some Googling to get a second opinion about all psychoactive drugs I'm prescribed.
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#29As someone who had to abruptly come off venlafaxine due to side effects, I can tell you that it was complete hell. I experienced vomiting, the weirdest, most horrible nightmares every night, sleep paralysis with hallucinations and a recurring feeling of "electic shocks" inside my head. This lasted about a month. I think it borders on inhumane not to mention possible withdrawal symptoms before prescribing this awful "…
Venlafaxine seems to be one of the worst SNRIs/SSRIs wrt discontinuation syndrome. Except for the nausea, I had the same experiences when quitting cold turkey. The most problematic symptom for me were the "electric shocks" when moving my eyes or head to fast. For me, getting off venlafaxine was way harder than quitting tilidine, tramadol or the z-drugs.
I was on zopiclone for over a year. I stopped cold turkey, it wasn't a problem, although I do still miss it sometimes. I see that it's one of the top ten meds obtained using stolen prescription pads in France; or that Dublin drug rehab clinics see more people addicted to it and I understand that there's obviously potential for addiction there.
I was on Venlafaxine (regular release, not extended release) and missing a dose was as unfun as everyone says it is. Tapering down (from 350 mg) was, for me, easy enough and I stopped after 6 weeks.
My current med has different side effects, but also isn't as effective. I'm not sure tapering down and then back up on a different med is worth the risk.
Re: Withdrawal from Antidepressants
#30As someone who had to abruptly come off venlafaxine due to side effects, I can tell you that it was complete hell. I experienced vomiting, the weirdest, most horrible nightmares every night, sleep paralysis with hallucinations and a recurring feeling of "electic shocks" inside my head. This lasted about a month. I think it borders on inhumane not to mention possible withdrawal symptoms before prescribing this awful "…
Do you mind me asking what your dosage was and if you went cold turkey or tapered off at all?
I'm not the person you replied to, but I was on 350 mg (which is a reasonably high dose). I was on venlafaxine regular release, not the extended release. If I missed a dose I got full on discontinuation effects. When I tapered off it wasn't great, but it wasn't awful.
Some people do report problems even with a very gentle long taper down.