patscga

Completed withdrawal (with doctor's assistance) about a week ago and now am
starting to feel really down. Any remarks or suggestions would be appreciated.
Pat

jake

yu will get lots of advice and support and chat here from people both
in the same position as you and those going through withdrawal .

http://www.quitpaxil.info/Main%20Pages/chat.htm

__

"In its recent infatuation with symptomatic, push-button remedies,
psychiatry has lost its way not only intellectually but spiritually
and morally. Even when it is not actually doing damage to the people
it is supposed to help,…it is encouraging among doctors and patients
alike the fraudulent and dangerous fantasy that life's every passing
'symptom' can be clinically diagnosed and, once diagnosed, alleviated
if not eliminated by pharmacological intervention."

Paul R. McHugh
Professor of Psychiatry,
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

f troop

appreciated.

I had to hang tough through the rebound depression I started to feel envelop
me bout 8-10 weeks after I stopped Paxil for the very last time

For a week or so, I felt like I was right at the brink of plunging into the
black pit.

I had to fight real hard to keep from plunging into that pit that time.

I kept it at bay that time, but when it got to be the thick of winter, 6
mo's later, I had to use AD's for 3-6 weeks that first year.

The next couple of times I felt the black dog creeping up on me I used
supplements like 5htp and Same to keep it at bay, and the 5Htp worked
well..the SAME was too strong for me. .

Then, I discovered Vitamin B Complex and Cal-mag and a bunch of other
vitamins and minerals made me less vulnernable to PMS, and depression.

Eventually, my doctors discovered somebody had been misreading my thyroid
tests and i had been hypoT the whole time so I was valiently fighting off
two different types of depression, as anergiac depression accompanies
Hypot.

I think I have been doing pretty well on the depression front since stopping
the SSRI's 3 years ago, with my having only anergiac and mild reactive
depression.

My best advice is to post a lot to vent when it starts creeping up on you,
make sure to get out and exercise some, get some lamps for light therapy,
have a supply of 5-htp or something similiar on hand to take during rough
patches, and experiment with supplementing with vit/min especially,
vitamin B-100 complex, magnesium, fish oil, evening primrose, vitamin C,
zinc, betacarotene see which ones help you maintain your mood best.

patscga

What is 5htp?
Pat

ghost

Hey, Pat

Try some Benadryl... can't hurt (unless you're allergic to it or on meds
like MAOIs that interact badly with it).

Jim M.

dave weller

1 week fir a withdrawal is short , you should extend it over a month at
least. 20mg, 15mg, 10mg, 5mg


"Patscga" <patscga@aol.com> a écrit dans le message de
news:20030918120831.19334.00000765@mb-m20.aol.com...

am

appreciated.

f troop

5-HTP (5-Hydroxytryptophan)

http://www.nubrain.com/5htp.html

Mostly I use it to help me with a sleep problem.

I have severely blocked airways during fall and spring allergy seasons.

Some nose drops of warm salt water and 5HTP helps unblock my airways and
nasal passages and sinuses so I can get more than 1 1/2 hous sleep at a time
during fall and spring allergy season.

Selective augmentation of genioglossus electromyographic activity by
L-5-hydroxytryptophan in the rat.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12667902&dopt=Abstract

patscga

I didn't make myself clear. I have been withdrawing for a year. Have been off
totally for about two weeks now.
Pat

laramie

On 18 Sep 2003 16:08:31 GMT, patscga@aol.com (Patscga)


This might not be if much help, but you asked for "any"
remarks or suggestions so here a few. just in case the
remarks might help.

Among the many things that relate to withdrawal situations
is the problem of whether the withdrawal symptoms are
withdrawal from the drugs or something where the drugs were
actually helping something out and that is what is coming
back.

There have been a few people posting here who have indicated
how after a number of times of being on and off the drugs
they were definitely better with them. So it does happen.
And for them the drugs are a good thing.

The drug companies and many doctors who either do not know
there is such as thing as withdrawal will slant towards the
signs of withdrawal as some sort of proof that drugs somehow
need to be taken for life. At least before the Paixil
lawsuit about that, or before Glenmullen's book came out.
The other day I actually heard a SSRI ad say something about
withdrawal instead of the usual "drugs are not habit
forming " mantra used in the ads the last few years.

One of the problems in drug withdrawal is to try to figure
out whether it is withdrawal problems or might actually be
one of those things where the drugs really was helping. That
is not easy .

Wish I had more ideas or that but at least here a few.

o Get a hold of a copy of Dr. Glenmullen' s Prozac
Backlash. The many stories he relates to people he helped
get off the drugs and the various symptoms they had when
withdrawing provide at least some sort of insight into what
happens at least to the examples he shows.

o If you could find a doctor at least partially as skilled
as Dr Glenmullen at that sort of thing, then that doctor's
help would be extraordinarily valuable. Too bad there are
not large numbers of doctors like him around. But maybe
you could find one. Maybe you even have one.

o Think about whether or not the new symptom is something
different than what was going on before starting the drugs.
If different, then more likely withdrawal . If the same
still can't tell for sure because that is the way some of
the drugs work. Bringing on withdrawal symptoms which are
the same sort of thing as the thing they are supposed to
help.

o Think about the original symptoms and how likely they
were from something that should have been temporary such as
grief , traumatic experience , etc. The more reason the
original symptoms were something that maybe should not have
been drugged in the first place, or at least only for a
while, the more chance it could be better to try to tough it
out etc.

o Try to do as many non drug things as reasonable to help
replace the drug. That could include some of the many
things discussed here that have helped some people stay off
the drugs. And in some cases might have helped them not
start the drugs if anyone had told them about it before
hitting them with the drugs.
(
That can include things like some sort of therapy including
possibly even self therapy from self help books tapes etc
or from real people etc., exercise, new interests,
nutrition, lifestyle changes, relationship changes etc. All
sorts of things. None of which can be guaranteed to help,
But which can be used increase the chance of being able to
stay off the drugs, or to try to reduce the chances of
relapse etc. I have some really good tapes that helped me
help someone else a lot. And am willing to provide
additional help when/if wanted .But no one thing seems to
be able to take care of everything . .

o If there are a number of concurrent problems (mental
illness type of problems or "less than fully well:" type of
problems as some might prefer to call them, it can help to
go after them. Sometimes helping one thing such as anxiety
can help depression too for example. Sometimes the one can
be a partial cause of the other . And sometimes the
techniques such as some of the CBTs etc will work for more
than one thing.


o Try not to pooh pooh some of the ideas that might seem
ridiculous, to those who know they can not get better that
way. Even some of what would seem like being ridiculous can
have some gems somewhere in them. For example one of the
ideas of one of the people being attacked here included an
emphasis on" happiness" . Might sound useless to someone
who is not happy to try to be happy. Yet it is not that
far out.

Feeling low and being depressed is in effect a form of
unhappiness. And if something can be found to try to
increase the happiness in one's life nothing is lost in
trying something like that.. I have a whole book about that,
and maybe some day the group will rise to the level of being
able to discuss what is now the "un discusable".

Nobody seems to what to talk about something like happiness.
Maybe because of a fear that might get interpreted as
something along the lines of supposedly snapping out of
something. Which is just not possible most if not almost
all of the time for depression (or anxiety too)..

o Getting ideas from others such as you are doing here on
the net already In addition to this group which is one of
the best some more ideas even if just one article out of
hundred could have some value.

------

The hope would be that you do not get fooled into going back
on drugs if not needed, or that should for some reason you
could be one of those who really need the drugs then of
course somewhere along the line that could be the thing to
recognize. It would be a shame after weaning off for over
a year, the last little bit gets you back. Although many
including even some of those who are now off the dugs were
helped by the drugs at one time.

It is a shame so many are being put on the drugs for such
relatively minor things as being shy etc. One of the real
shockers was finding last week the Paxil dose mentioned in
one of the drug books as being used by some clinicians of 5
to 10 mg of Paxil.. (For panic disorder). For infants ---
holy cow what a tragedy that is.)


The one good thing about all of this is that you have the
help from your own doctor in the withdrawal. Some people
who have the "arrogant" or "pushy" ones have to do this on
their own. And that can be even more difficult..

Wish you the lots of luck (and hope too) in this thing.

lj

Great post. Thanks Laramie.