What is the side effect for Seroxat?

There are no side-effects.’

It seemed too good to be true. But at this point I had become desperate.

I was sinking further and further into a depressive episode. I was tired, emotional, picking fights with the one person I loved deeply. It had reached the point where those closest to me had become worried that I might harm myself, and I knew that this was something that I wasn’t going to be able to resolve alone.

I’m not sure exactly when I became depressed. I had been a loner as a child, and this loneliness was compounded by my parents’ bitter divorce and the subsequent neglect I suffered at the hands of my carer. By the time I left home to go to university at 18, I was deeply melancholic. I am a thinker, and the depression just seemed to grab this and take hold. Four years later, sitting in the consulting room with my husband and my GP, I had reached crisis point. I began to take Seroxat [Seroxat is the brand name for the SSRI, paroxetine] as the final straw. At this point I honestly felt that without help I would end up in an institution. I was crying out for help.

I took home my prescription with some trepidation. I was still not entirely happy relying on this medication, but I was beginning to realise that I desperately needed a solution. What happened next was amazing and not at all what I expected. The doctor told me that I would not feel the effects of the drug for around three weeks, but within days of taking my first 20mg tablet, I could feel the depression beginning to lift.

Life was worth living again. Colours were more vivid; sounds were sharper; everything just seemed ‘right’ again. As a treat my husband took me to Edinburgh for the weekend. It was amazing; the black cloud and confusion had disappeared – I was actually enjoying myself!

I cannot put into words how much better Seroxat made me feel. I thought I had found my miracle cure, and I hadn’t experienced any side-effects. I felt that I had waved goodbye to depression. At that point I would have been happy to stay on Seroxat forever if it meant continuing to feel this way.

Life went on in this vein until around six months later. After the initial euphoria, I began to look at myself closely again. The depression was under control. I did not feel constantly happy, but the darkness was restrained. However, other symptoms were now emerging. I had begun to put on weight. Don’t get me wrong; I had never been thin, but the increase seemed to be out of control. My sexual sensitivity decreased. More worryingly, I felt a kind of ‘dumbing down’. It was as if the drug was smoothing down the sharp edges so that I wouldn’t feel strong emotions. Let me give you an example. During this time, my grandfather sadly passed away. I was very close to him and I grieved for him deeply, but outwardly I showed little emotion. No tears, no tantrums. As an emotional person, this ‘de-sensitisation’ worried me.

Similarly, during happy moments, I was also unable to express myself in the way I would normally. Although I could be happy, I would never become elated. Although I could laugh, I would never become hysterical.

Despite noticing these symptoms, I continued taking the Seroxat. After all, surely this was a small price to pay for the stability I now felt. I began using therapy to work on the root causes of the depression. This was extremely helpful. In fact, in hindsight it was probably what I learned here that controlled the depression more effectively than the medication.

In the autumn of 2002 I felt that I had become strong enough to end my therapy. The issues that had surrounded and compounded my depression were largely resolved. I decided that the depression had dominated my life for too long. It was now time for me to take control. Around this time I also began to consider living my life without Seroxat. I had been warned that it would be dangerous simply to stop taking the medication, so I consulted my doctor.

She suggested taking one 20mg dose every other day. This effectively meant halving my current dosage. I decided to go ahead. After three days of following my GP’s recommendations I felt more unwell than I can ever remember feeling before. My head ached and I felt increasingly nauseous. I was very tired, yet at night I couldn’t sleep. When I did sleep I would get extraordinarily vivid dreams that would disturb me. When I moved my head I felt as if I had the mother of all hangovers. This was accompanied by dizziness on standing up and weakness in my legs. My body seemed to lurch from sweating to shivering. I was tired, emotional and cried continuously.

I couldn’t believe what was happening to me. At first I thought I must have picked up some sort of virus, but all of these symptoms had only occurred since I had reduced my dose of Seroxat. I put two and two together and suddenly became very scared. What I was going through was ‘cold turkey’ – on medication that was apparently non-addictive and which caused no withdrawal symptoms!

I decided to search the internet looking for more information on this drug. I was bombarded with websites of people who were experiencing similar symptoms. It was amazing. I wasn’t imagining the ‘hangover’, the insomnia or the nausea. Other people were losing their libido and putting on weight too. Incredible.

I continued with the doctor’s instructions for two weeks until I could take no more. I was spending all day in bed, unable to sleep but also unable even to read or watch television. I decided I had to go back on to the drug. I feel weak for having ‘given in’ to the symptoms, but I cannot describe their severity. The activities of everyday life cannot be carried out while withdrawing from Seroxat. I decided to return to my GP for advice.

This time she confessed that she was no longer prescribing Seroxat to new depression sufferers. In fact, it had now become practice policy to try to reduce the amount of Seroxat used by all patients. She told me that new research was coming to light that suggested that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) as a whole (but paroxetine in particular) are not as symptom-free and non-addictive as was first thought. I appreciated her honesty, but at the same time wondered where all of this left me.

I feel very angry that I had been allowed to go on to a drug that is so dangerous. I was very sceptical about antidepressants and now I feel that this doubt was justified. Although my depression is now under control, I am still taking antidepressants because I am unable to deal with the symptoms of withdrawing from them.

Don’t get me wrong, Seroxat, for me, was wonderful at alleviating my depression, and while taking the drug, the side-effects were minimal. I always felt that the benefits outweighed the disadvantages. However, the withdrawal from this drug is

indescribable, and physically feels much worse than the depression ever did. Seroxat may have helped me through the worst of my depression, but it has also left me three stones heavier and addicted. What was meant to be a short-term crutch to get me through my crisis has affected more than I ever could have imagined.

I even have additionally tried paxil among numerous distinctive rigidity drugs and that i be conscious of it disagreed with me simply by fact I switched to zoloft, which has worked out super. I additionally tried lexapro and it grew to become into the two lexapro or paxil that made me drowsy as hell/yawning each and every of the time, and the different one did supply me the symptons you suggested. in keeping with danger you're able to desire to do what I did, and ask the rfile to alter the medicine to something else till you hit upon something that's of a similar opinion with you.