DOSE:

40 mg

oral

Pharms - Paroxetine

(daily)

BODY WEIGHT:

48 kg

I started taking Seroxat about a year ago and currently I'm taking 40mg daily. I'm taking the drug for anxiety and depression and I must admit that it has helped me. However, if I forget to take the pills for one day or if I take one and a half pill instead of two I will get serious withdrawals. The day after not taking the pills I will become dizzy, confused, I become really tense, have difficulty forming sentences, I start sweating, twitching and loose my appetite. In short, I become worse than if I weren't taking any medicine in the first place and just dealt with my problems drug free.

I was traveling abroad once and ran out of medication for almost a week. The symptoms got worse and worse every passing day and I craved the medicine deeply. What happened to my body and mind was unbearable. I didn't want to do anything but sleep, but if I did I had horrible nightmares and woke up cold from sweat. I felt immense grief for no reason at all. I couldn't stop crying. I could barely talk because of my difficulty forming sentences. I got 'brain zaps'. My whole body was shaking. I felt constantly cold. I was nauseous. I didn't really care for life... the list goes on. Please keep in mind that I didn't have these symptoms before Seroxat.

When my doctor prebscribed this to me, she said that the medication was not addictive and she seemed rather positive. But when I told her about my withdrawals she said that it was a common problem. Apparently many people experience this.

Whilst on the drug I definitely feel better than I did before, but I feel that the withdrawals are not worth it. Everybody who has to take medication on a daily basis is practically bound to forget it every now and then and I feel sick of missing one or two days of my life because I forgot the meds for one day.

I'm thinking of quitting, but I'm scared because people whom I've talked to have told me that they experienced horrible withdrawals for months after. I think this is something I will have to do after school is over, even though I dread wasting my summer vacation.

Exp Year: 2009	ExpID: 77784
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jul 25, 2019	Views: 1,391
[ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]
Pharms - Paroxetine (148) : Retrospective / Summary (11), Difficult Experiences (5), Depression (15), Medical Use (47), Not Applicable (38)