r/paroxetine

Bonjour je viens témoigner de mon arrêt brutal de la paroxetine mon médecin traitant a voulut que je change d’AD car j’ai pris trop de poids, et sa me faisait beaucoup dormir..
elle m’a dit de passer de 20mg de paroxetine à 20mg de fluoxetine.. comme sa du jour au lendemain…
Je vous laisse imaginé les symptôme que j’ai eu
Anxiété
Crise de panique
Choc électrique au cerveau
Trouble musculaire
Vertige nausée
Vomissement
Diarrhée
Fièvre
Tremblement..
Je l’ai arrêter le 4 mars 2026 malgré le transfert avec l’autre AD la seule question que je me pose… est ce que j’ai toujours des symptômes de sevrage de la paroxetine ou est ce que la fluoxetine n’ai pas assez doser … surtout le soir a 18h j’ai les crises qui recommence.. on verra bien
Au bout de combien de temps les symptôme de sevrage s’arrête ? 2 mois d’arrêts de la paroxetine
Merci pour vos retours

Hey all!! Trying to crowdsource some advice since recent doctors have led me astray.

Long story medium: wanted to switch off of Paxil 30mg because of weight gain and exhaustion. I was on it 18 months and was doing great, minus the weight gain and exhaustion.

Cut to, the tapering plan. I went from 30mg, to 20mg, to 10mg, to 0mg in 4 weeks.

It has been nearly 4 weeks since then, and I haven't had a single good day.

My doctor put me on Wellbutrin as a replacement before the tapering, and to me it felt like it did nothing.

So here I sit, confused and wondering if:

A.) Should I just get back onto Paxil for now, and consider tapering again in the future with a more informed psychiatrist?

1.) If I do reinstate, should I start at a smaller dosage and work back up to a therapeutic dosage? My current doctor said 20mg would be safe considering it's only been a month, but hey, that track record has me questioning things.

B.) Stick it out and try something else, like Zoloft (and NOT an NDRI)?

Thank you all so much.

Longtime PE.. was married for a decade so it was easier to manage with dapoxetine, sometimes condoms etc , still had issues from time to time though.
Now being free again and dating it’s stressing the hell out of me so I went to the doc and asked him about paroxetine as I’d read some good things but after reading more deeply found a lot of negative stuff as well..

Are there people using it for a long time with success? I was thinking perhaps trying it during this period of performance stress

Hello everyone.

I'm taking Paroxetin for a week now and was nauseous everyday although I'm taking it with my breakfast. It gets better after 6 hours, but I can't really work because of it. I was taking 10mg and today I will go up to 20mg. I also can't show or tell anything at home because my parents don't know about these meds and my search for therapy. At the moment I'm saying I'm just ill, but I can't do this for weeks. I don't know how long I can keep everything a secret when I feel so nauseous on it that I can't work. Also, I don't want to take anymore time off work.

Please tell me the effects will wear off soon, I'm a little bit desperate.

Hi all ,
Been on Paxil 50mg for two years . 50 being my sweet spot doc broke it down into two prescriptions a 20mg pill and a 30mg pill . Anyhow it’s caused a bit more and doc is now concern . My A1C went from prediabetic to a 6.7 type 2 . I also went from 250 pounds to 300 pounds today at 5’8 / male 39 years old . We were both kind of worried about the weight and the A1C so he wants me to bump down to 40mg thinking or hoping some weight would come off . Also I’ve been having this seizure like feeling if I’m focus on something to long I’ll have this like 1 second seizure feeling like no control and I’m being electrocuted kind of feeling . Doc and I don’t know what to call it . But that scares me a little comes randomly and most times I can feel it coming or if it’s going to happen in my head . . Anyways I guess I’m just here checking if any of these had happen to you any of it and how the outcome went . I’m think I’m more scared of going back down from 50 to 40 no taper he said just start tomorrow at 40. Idk but oh well . Just sharing maybe anybody else might’ve had such an experience like mine and don’t mind sharing . Thank you all

I’m really considering quitting.

I’ve been prescribed 20mg for panic disorder/anxiety. Ive only been taking 10mg to start and the side effects are unbearable.

I’ve went from being an active person, with no depression to being stuck on the couch for a week and signed off of work. I feel depressed, my moods all over the place.

I can’t eat and feel sick and dizzy all of the time. I’m actually scared I’ll never be able to go back to work. My sleep was great and now it’s awful.

I recently decided to go back on meds after something at the end of March triggered panic attacks and made me slowly stop being able to do things that I was fine with before March.

My GP just says it’s up to me to either push through the first couple of weeks or to try something new but I don’t feel like I can make that decision I’m just so unsure. I don’t know how many more days I can take of being stuck on the couch feeling like this.

any advice :(?

Been on Paxil 30mg for about 6 years now.

I recently started tapering down, basically as an experiment to see if I even needed it any more and out of curiosity to see what it would be like to be off it again.

Went from 20 down to 10 about two weeks ago, and I’ve been feeling pretty miserable. Anxiety, irritability, poor sleep, depression etc etc.

At this point I’m wondering if this is what it felt like off the drugs 6+ years ago, or if this is just withdrawal, or both.

Not sure if I should stick it out and keep tapering down, or if this is a sign that I should go back to a higher dose. If I keep tapering, how long should I expect it to take to stabilize at 10mg?

Anyone’s 2 cents appreciated. :)

I started taking paroxetine 2 weeks ago, first week 10mg and had bad side effects few days later that settled down and when I increased my dose to 20mg had 1 very bay day of no appetite and ate nothing but now I am better and don't get nausea when thinking about food but eating is still hard. I am taking it because of eating anxiety (sacred that food will make me throw up) that was caused by college stress. Anyways an important party is coming up and I really want to have a drink there since alcohol makes me way more approachable since I am normally shy and reserved. I just want to hear experience from people that drank while starting paroxetine since I read that others that have been taking it for a while tolerate alcohol pretty well and it makes them drunk faster.

I went to the Dr yesterday and my temperature was 100.7 and I was like oh crap and it was 95 degrees out here in New York .. then i left the office and I haven't had a fever since

Except using the thermometer you put on the side of the head

I started paroxetine 20 mg in 2019 after being on Cymbalta for 10 years. Two years ago I increased Paroxetine to 30 mg due to some increased anxiety. Paroxetine was a wonderful drug for me and I felt 100% until this January when I went through an intense episode of vertigo that took a month to resolve. After that my anxiety came back full force and after increasing Paroxetine to 40 mg for two weeks with terrible side effects, my psychiatric NP suggested I switch to Vilazodone. I am in the process of crosstapering. The first week - lowered Paroxetine to 20 mg, added 10 mg Vilazodone. Second week - Paroxetine 15 mg, 10 mg Vilazodone. Third week - 10 mg Paroxetine, 20 mg Vilazodone. This is where I am now. Fourth week will be 5 mg Paroxetine, 20 mg Vilazodone. Fifth week will be 2.5 mg Paroxetine, 20 mg Vilazodone. Sixth week will be no Paroxetine and NP and I will decide if we should raise Vilazodone to 30 mg, depending on how I feel. Unfortunately, I have read way too much here and other sites about the horrors of paroxetine withdrawal. Perhaps that information is having an impact on my symptoms (expecting the worst). Crosstapering really doesn’t allow for micro dosing which seems to be the safest way to discontinue paroxetine. I am having extreme body aches, like I have the flu only worse; internal shakiness; excessive sweating; feelings of hopelessness; bouts of crying and vivid dreams. I don’t know if it’s withdrawal from Paroxetine, side effects of Vilazodone or a combination of the two. Am I decreasing Paroxetine too quickly? Am I putting myself at risk for discontinuation syndrome or PAWS? I can take Xanax .50 mg/2x day, but I have a fear of becoming dependent on it so have limited myself to .25 mg per day which essentially does nothing. I am a 73 year old female. Getting off Paxil is a good thing because it seems it is contraindicated for seniors. I would appreciate any encouragement, similar stories or words of advice. I am really struggling. Thank you for reading.

hello, I was on paroxetine a few years ago for panic disorder/anxiety. I was only on 10mg and I remember not really having any side effects bar a sore jaw. I came off it after a year because I felt great, no side effects coming off either.

fast forward to this week, I’ve started 10mg again as my panic attacks and anxiety is worse again. I take it at 9.30am and every day I’ve had really bad anxiety, can’t eat (lost weight) and lots of other side effects. I looked back and found out last time I was on paroxetine i took it at 7pm.

so many days I’ve been crying and in panic and wanted to stop. is it worth changing to night time to take them or should I wait until 2 weeks to see if the side effects calm down?

thank you :)

It's recommended to ween off Paxil for 6 weeks, however I had a friend cold stop Paxil and 3 days later take shrooms that worked, I've had to go off Paxil before, not fun, but I've an opportunity to get psychedelic therapy.

Anyone have experience stopping Paxil and using MDMA?

Hallo gibt es hier Leute die Erfahrung mit der Kombination von Paroxetin und Trazodon haben?
Ich soll beides zusammen nehmen, bin aber immer etwas vorsichtig

Hello. I was prescribed 20 mg paroxetine for extreme ocd and just took my first dose about 12 hours ago (it’s about 2 am now). I have had this sort of gag feeling in my throat that worsens with yawning for the past couple hours, and just now as I was driving home I legit almost passed out and had a really bad hot flash. Not sure if any of this is related to the drug or if it’s just my anxiety and a bad coincidence?? Does anyone relate?

I suffer from co-occurring Social Anxiety Disorder and ADHD and am being treated for both by the same physician. My doctor prescribed me adderall for my inattentiveness/lack of focus and a common SSRI for SAD. What I’ve found is that this mixture has the effect of see-sawing my brain: I can be hyper focused on a task and see it through to completion after taking the adderall while also being unable to break free of whatever I’m doing and lapsing into intense anxiety when back in a public setting. I space the two medications apart by a few hours, taking the SSRI in the evening and the adderall mid-morning.

In the morning before the adderall, I feel emotionally upbeat but also still not entirely comfortable in the presence of others. Then when I take it, I feel jittery and anxious yet with executive function mostly intact.

Does anyone else in this sub suffer from both conditions and have experienced similar issues? I’ve also found of late that my working memory feels shot at times, even when not in public.

So I’ve been on Paxil for about 8 months for ppd and ppa. I was on 40mg for 4 months then I switched to 37.5 CR. I was on that for 3 months. After I felt better for a good time I decided to go down. I went from 37.5 to 25mg for a month then 25mg to 12mg for a month then stayed on 12.5mg for about 3 weeks then I have been off Paxil fully for 5 days. Going down doses the only withdrawal I used to get was dizziness and sweating for like a week then I felt better. But being off Paxil completely day 4 and 5 have been so hard. I’ve been having all the withdrawal symptoms from dizziness, sweating, flu like symptoms, sleep disturbances but on day 4 and 5 mood swings and anxiety has been so bad. I feel on edge. I don’t know is it’s a withdrawal symptoms or cause I’m off Paxil that my anxiety came back. My dr is telling me to go back to 12.5 today or wait 2 weeks to see if the anxiety is a withdrawal and it will go away. But if I wait 2-3 weeks then start Paxil again I would have to go through side effects again. Should I go back now to 12.5mg will that help with the withdrawal or should I wait and see? Please help

i have been on paxil for 15 years now but over a year ago i started getting bad brain fog and it will not go away
im only on 10 mg but im wondering if anyone else has felt this before .. im only 41 it started when i was 39
i’ve been eating healthy getting sleep exercising but nothing helps

I’ve been tapering Paxil CR for the past 3 months. I successfully went from 37.5mg to 12.5mg. But when I went from 12.5mg to nothing on day 4 I started having anxiety again and other severe withdrawals like dizziness, diarrhea flu like symptoms but mostly mood swings and anxiety. So on day 6 of withdrawal I decided to go back to 12.5mg. Took it today in the morning. Question! When will I start feeling better? When will withdrawals especially anxiety start easing up?

Hi all, I’ve been taking Paxera (the brand name in my country) like this: 5 mg for 10 days, then 10 mg for 20 days, and for the past 12 days I’ve been on 15 mg. I usually take it around 9 a.m., along with 0.25 mg Xanax in the morning and 0.5 mg Xanax at night.

When I was on 10 mg, I felt relatively okay, but ever since increasing to 15 mg, my old anxieties have come back. I have health anxiety and tend to interpret even minor symptoms as something serious, especially fears related to my brain. Even though all the tests I’ve had so far have come back clear, these thoughts and sensations are still bothering me.

I’m not really thinking about reducing the dose right now, but I’m wondering: has it been long enough to properly see the effects of this dose, or should I give it a bit more time or could this mean that this medication isn’t the right one for me?

Of course, I’m managing this process with my psychiatrist, and I know the best decision is to make it together with him. Still, I’m curious to hear about your experiences and opinions.

I was taking Paroxetine from jan 2024 tot may 2025, 20mg worked wonders for me. So much wonders I thought I could without. So I stopped.

End of sept 2025 I started again bc of huge anxiety return. This time it didn't work wonders for me. Increased to 30mg, did a little but too many side effects.

I recently switched from Paroxetine to Sertraline about 6 weeks ago on my doctor’s advice because paroxetine wasn’t helping enough anymore and I was having side effects.
I cross-tapered off paroxetine and have now been completely off it for about 4 weeks as well. I’ve been on 50mg sertraline for almost 4 weeks.

What confuses me is that the first 1–2 weeks actually seemed VERY promising. I felt calmer, clearer mentally, less physically anxious, and I genuinely thought the medication was finally starting to help. But now, around week 4, I suddenly feel terrible again.

My anxiety has increased massively, both physically and mentally, and my depression also feels much worse. I feel extremely physically anxious again: shaky, tense, panicky, overstimulated, constant internal stress/adrenaline feeling, tight stomach, etc. Mentally I feel hopeless and overwhelmed, like my entire anxiety disorder came crashing back in full force.

I’m feeling pretty desperate and discouraged right now.

Has anyone experienced a delayed worsening like this during the first weeks of sertraline after switching from another SSRI? Did it eventually improve for you?