[scleme1]

hello all.
i am needing some help in getting through my latest anxiety episode. i have been on Paxil for about 5 years now. Life has been good and I've really had no side effects from what i can tell. When I began taking the Paxil 5 years ago, i started off at 40 mg/day. After a few years of feeling good, I decided to go down to 30 mg/day. Life was still good...an occasional anxiety breakthrough here and there - but manageable.

Then, 3 months ago, mt doctor put me on Paxil CR 25 mg/day. Everything was fine, then two weeks ago I had a horrible anxiety attack, and have had horrible days since. It feels like the same intensity of anxiety i felt before taking the paxil.

5 days ago my doctor increased the dosage to 40 mg/day of the regular Paxil. I still feel awful - like the Paxil isn't going to work again.

Has anyone out there been through anything like this? Will the Paxil begin to make me feel like myself again? How long will it take before the increased dosage takes effect?

Thanks so much for any insight you guys can give me. This anxiety is a horrible feeling - not sure how much more i can take without some relief. AC.

[longshotz9]

Well, I know how you feel. I was put on 20mg of paxil in 1995 for depression and had been on it for 10 years every day with the 40 mg dose started 5 years ago. My docs have tried discontinuing the paxil by titrating the dose, but every time they did this I would suffer unbearable "rebound side effects" and they have told me to prepare to be on it for the rest of my life! ouch. The reason they wanted to discontinue the drug is the new found reasearch of serious side effects. I wasnt sure how this was going to happen as discontinuation effects were untolerable. But it did happen..I sought out a well known mental health doc who demanded that I stop the paxil. How? by a one week titration from 40 to 20 mg supplemented by 30mg of Cymbalta for one week, then quit paxil, and ratchet up the Cymbalta to 60mg once a day. I lost alot weight, have normal sexual fuctioning, and seem like I can feel again....again this my experience...hope the best for you

jl