Paroxetine withdrawal

[MsRosewater]

Hi

Has anyone had this please? Had been taking paroxetine 20mg OD for about 3 months. Ran out so not taken any since Wednesday AM.

Yesterday I started feeling awful- headache, a little sensitive to light, shivers, nausea and vomiting. Still feeling crap and can't drag self to pharmacy to collect script and probably shouldn't leave the house and infect others if it's a bug. No one to collect it for me...

So has anyone else had withdrawals from a rather normal dose, is this maybe that please?

Thanks ( not envy ...)

Get some more as a matter of urgency. Paroxetine is notorious for having horrendous withdrawal and should only be done very slowly.

One of the toughest things I ever did and i was cutting 10mg tabs into quarters by the end to ease out of it.

No wonder you feel like shit. If you want to come off it, discuss it with your doctor and do it in a planned way but now move heaven and earth to get another packet.

Thanks so much for your advice Anna! Managed to get my script and less than 2 hours later human again!! Will definitely do more research before starting any new medication in future (if I ever get off this vile stuff!!)

Thanks again x

I don't think they even prescribe it anymore in some areas for new patients?

@MsRosewater it is fairly rarely prescribed now exactly because of this problem.

I would be asking for an appointment with whoever prescribed it for you to ask why they picked this drug because you are stuck with it now and when you come off it, it will be tough. If it was sheer ignorance on their part, they need to know. If they did know then they did not warn you of the risks.

Options might be a tapered swap to something else which doesn't have such a severe withdrawal but with paroxetine, withdrawal kicks in after missing even 2 doses.

I'm on citalopram now and can pretty much forget as many as I like without noticing until I start to get anxiety again - it's completely different to the paroxetine nightmare.

Yes, I think they should be asking to switch over to something else. Assuming they haven't had some brilliant response to it, and it's already made a massive difference for them.