Paxil discontinuation

[Paxiled]

Four years ago I tapered off Paxil, and within a short time the physiological stuff turned into a profound depression, constant anxiety, anticipatory anxiety, memory problems, lack of ability to enjoy anything much or think of anything but how anxious and depressed I am.  My psychiatrist at that time never told me about withdrawal, nor did he tell me while I was going through it, and by the time I found out about it on the internet months had passed.  After a year of it, i figured it wasn't going away, and a new psychiatrist tried me on Lexapro and then Celexa, but they haven't helped much.  All I went on Paxil for was anxiety attacks leading to specific phobias, and now I don't function at all.  I haven't been able to find anyone who can put me back together again.  Any ideas?

[Peter Forster]

This is a pretty controversial area where I think it is easy to get misinformation from the internet. Without knowing more about your situation I would suggest that it is possible that you had both a withdrawal syndrome and a recurrence syndrome. The withdrawal syndrome (which I think is what you meant by the physiological stuff) was followed by a recurrence of your original symptoms (worse perhaps because of the withdrawal and the lack of good communication from your psychiatrist). I would say that your best strategy is tackle this as if it is a pretty severe depression... which may mean that you will need more than just one medication. In my experience, with a good psychiatrist helping you, withdrawal can almost always be managed if the person is NOT also depressed, so getting well is the first step even if your ultimate goal is to be off of medications.

[Paxiled]

And yes, I'm in therapy.