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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Need suggestions for my son

D

DianaElaine

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
60
Need suggestions for my son - ASAP!

ok .. so he's on paxil, has tried to get off 4 times and no matter how slow he goes, his anxiety is through the roof, terror and fear beyond torture, all day and night. Depression also, deep and dark and wanting to die.

He's been inpatient and the stupid hospitals never helped him with the effects, gave him ONE 0.5 ativan, which is to him, like a sweet tart. 8)

He was released from several, stating that they had nothing stronger ... like HELL they didn't! :!

Anyway ... we've gone natural and diet .. and everything we could think of, nothing works. So I'm here to get some suggestions on something else. I don't care to be lectured, I'm old enough to know the negative of drugs, etc... yada yada .... and am trying like hell to find something to ease my son's symptoms, as he tries once again, to re-establish back on Paxil, so he can go SLOWLY off, like 5mg. each week or two, which looks like the only way he's going to ever get off this drug from hell.

If you can suggest something to ease his anxiety, terror, deep dark depression and hopelessness, both conventional, unconventional ... or 'other' drugs, if you know what I mean. Hell .. I don't care WHAT it is, if it works!

I myself, take Xanax to get me through the days dealing with his pain, and it works fine for me. I take 1-2 0.5 mg. a day, and that's enough for me.

Thanks ahead of time ...
 
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There is nothing like a competent, devoted Psychiatrist to do the diagnostics and prescribe what he has observed to work .
It is quite often a combination of antidepressants and/or anti psychotics,and/ or mood stabilizers
and/or anticonvulsants .. the list goes on and on .
Paxil. Effexor and others have bad reputations for pounding those that cease abruptly .

Have you tried to get personal recommendations for a good P-doc that works privately ? They are out there even though your experience at the hospital left lacking .
 
I went through Paxil w/d about 6 years ago and it was absolute hell. I went for 3 weeks suffering with the shocks, twitching, panic, insomnia etc when i read online that getting your doctor to prescribe 1 or 2 20 mg capsules of Pozac (fluoxetine) and taking one dose for 2 days may very well abolish all symptoms of w/d and Prozac has a ridiculously long half life so its self tapering for most patients. it worked like a charm for me...within 6 hours of taking a 20 mg Prozac capsule i felt near complete relief and had very minor symptoms for only a day or 2 afterwards. i highly recommend it.

Fletchacet

ps...if he gets benzos, use the VERY sparingly...they are a nasty trap to fall into and jumping from Paxil to Xanax lets say, is not getting him med free.
 
If his son has a large benzo tolerance or extreme anxiety I'm not sure Kava alone would stop it, maybe relieve it a little.

OP: Feel free to hit up on AIM or once you're a bluelighter you could just message me for information on Kava-Kava. Using klonopin/xanax sparingly combined with Kava King's lateral root and you might be able to help your son with anxiety.
 
please only do this under the care of a physician.

i have a great deal of experience with this issue, and i believe with hobhead above that the front-line approach is basically to add in another SSRI (preferentially) or non-SSRI antidepressant (if the other SSRIs don't work for you) as you lower the Paxil, very, very slowly. It took me 10 months to do it, but by the end I was on a low dose of Zoloft instead of a medium dose of Paxil, and Zoloft, at least for me, does not produce withdrawal symptoms. and my tapering off Paxil was virtually unnoticeable.

it seems like you are trying to treat the withdrawal symptomatically, but unless for some reason your son needs to be off all antidepressants, I think the usual approach is to try to keep the brain chemistry approx the same while swapping out the dangerous med for other less dangerous ones. sometimes a non-SSRI like wellbutrin is also added, because it can be combined with an SSRI. (UNDER A DR'S CARE ONLY). all of this before any use of benzos.

& I do believe at this point that we know that the other mainline antidepressants do not have the same bad side effect profile for most people that paxil has.

gsk, doing good for the world by selling a less effective drug that they knew was dangerous before they ever sold it. (read the history, it's appalling.)
 
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hobhead said:
There is nothing like a competent, devoted Psychiatrist to do the diagnostics and prescribe what he has observed to work .
It is quite often a combination of antidepressants and/or anti psychotics,and/ or mood stabilizers
and/or anticonvulsants .. the list goes on and on .
Paxil. Effexor and others have bad reputations for pounding those that cease abruptly .

Have you tried to get personal recommendations for a good P-doc that works privately ? They are out there even though your experience at the hospital left lacking .
Click to expand...

Have gone that route ... 2 psychiatrists who threw crap meds at him, none of which worked for the anxiety or deep depression (not to mention horrible physical symptoms).

Nobody has suggested mood stabilizers yet or anticonvulsants .. OR any psychotics ... I'm just not sure if those will take the HORRIBLE physical symptoms away:

adrenaline rushes throughout body all day off and on
pins and needles .. same as above
head feels like exploding
wanting to throw up all the time
shaking all over from panic attacks (out of this world)
fear and terror upon waking up for several hours

etc. etc.
 
Fletchacet said:
I went through Paxil w/d about 6 years ago and it was absolute hell. I went for 3 weeks suffering with the shocks, twitching, panic, insomnia etc when i read online that getting your doctor to prescribe 1 or 2 20 mg capsules of Pozac (fluoxetine) and taking one dose for 2 days may very well abolish all symptoms of w/d and Prozac has a ridiculously long half life so its self tapering for most patients. it worked like a charm for me...within 6 hours of taking a 20 mg Prozac capsule i felt near complete relief and had very minor symptoms for only a day or 2 afterwards. i highly recommend it.

Fletchacet

ps...if he gets benzos, use the VERY sparingly...they are a nasty trap to fall into and jumping from Paxil to Xanax lets say, is not getting him med free.
Click to expand...


He tried the Prozac also ... that's what ended him in the ER the first time. He crashed HARD!

From the "Paxil Progress' forum, many have had the same horrible results with the switch from Paxil to Prozac, or even just adding in a bit of Prozac to help, as you mentioned.

He felt nothing for one week, then horrible symptoms that got worse as the next week came on, to the point of completely crashing and in the ER. :X
 
skoat said:
If his son has a large benzo tolerance or extreme anxiety I'm not sure Kava alone would stop it, maybe relieve it a little.

OP: Feel free to hit up on AIM or once you're a bluelighter you could just message me for information on Kava-Kava. Using klonopin/xanax sparingly combined with Kava King's lateral root and you might be able to help your son with anxiety.
Click to expand...

Agree Skoat .. his anxiety is through the roof! Extreme is putting it mildly.

I am a bluelighter member, if that's what you mean ... and are you speaking of adding you to AIM?

He's tried both Xanax and Klonopin also ... Xanax makes him even MORE depressed and Klonopin makes his anxiety even WORSE, if that's possible. :!
 
xoqqiy axlotao3al said:
please only do this under the care of a physician.

i have a great deal of experience with this issue, and i believe with hobhead above that the front-line approach is basically to add in another SSRI (preferentially) or non-SSRI antidepressant (if the other SSRIs don't work for you) as you lower the Paxil, very, very slowly. It took me 10 months to do it, but by the end I was on a low dose of Zoloft instead of a medium dose of Paxil, and Zoloft, at least for me, does not produce withdrawal symptoms. and my tapering off Paxil was virtually unnoticeable.

it seems like you are trying to treat the withdrawal symptomatically, but unless for some reason your son needs to be off all antidepressants, I think the usual approach is to try to keep the brain chemistry approx the same while swapping out the dangerous med for other less dangerous ones. sometimes a non-SSRI like wellbutrin is also added, because it can be combined with an SSRI. (UNDER A DR'S CARE ONLY). all of this before any use of benzos.

& I do believe at this point that we know that the other mainline antidepressants do not have the same bad side effect profile for most people that paxil has.

gsk, doing good for the world by selling a less effective drug that they knew was dangerous before they ever sold it. (read the history, it's appalling.)
Click to expand...

This approach sounds pretty reasonable. He's never tried Zoloft, he could suggest that near the end, as you did ... to his therapist (she works with a psychiatrist for his meds).

You are right about keeping the brain chemistry the same .... with a less dangerous one, but my son really wants to get off all meds if possible. All though he knows that he may not ever be able to do that, it's what he'd really want to do, if he could.

Paxil is an EVIL EVIL drug!

P.S. Zoloft is an SSRI ... so what other non-ssri is there .. if that doesn't work for him, to go on near the end, if he's going to stay on meds? Any suggestions?
 
Not a bluelighter yet ... close though .... just wanted to mention: I've been to the other forum ... but only the person going through the anxiety, can post, no family members. :(

I can read though
 
If xanax makes it worse as well as klonopin, I'd try getting him some Valium 10mgs and see if that helps.

Your son's situation sounds serious, if you could find a benzo that worked for him it would do a lot of good in the short run. I don't know much about SSRI's besides the fact that they can come with some shitty withdrawls.

If its possible financially I'd send my son to the best psychiatrist possible. Not a psychologist, it doesn't seem like your son can be talked out of his symptoms.
 
I think the ideal would be a psychiatrist who can work through various benzos, Diazepam sounds like the obvious choice at this point, but I'm not a psych… combined with an excellent psychologist who can help him to craft Cognitive Behavioral strategies to better understand and lessen his drastic symptoms.

When a patient's symptoms are as out-of-control as they are in your son, the patient needs the benzos to calm down enough to be able to listen and interact during talk therapy with a clear head and act out coping strategies with a clear head. This worked with me.

I was strongly anti-psych meds and was suffering from many of your son's symptoms. But hey! Turned out I'd never actually tried a benzo. (and I'd also been the garbage can for Paxil and Effexor and Zoloft scripts that my earlier psych docs had prescribed. Ugh. Paxil. Fuck. Gettin goff that shit was fucking hell. Zoloft was almost worse, fyi.) I was in 3x/week, then 5x/week talk therapy and it was getting ridiculous: my panic and terror would not shut down long enough for me to process any of the info I was getting from either my CBT sessions or from my psychoanalysis.

This blockage was alleviated by adding a small daily dose of Xanax that, when combined with Ambien, Lamictal and Seroquel (low dose), minimized the symptoms that were keeping me crazy and allowed me to actually focus on the underlying issues that were causing me to wake up screaming in the middle of the night for 2 years in a row. (just one symptom of many. My life was also ruled by fera bordering on terror almost constantly)

I did not need to go to an extremely high dose of xanax (.75mg) and I was able to discontinue the Seroquel and most of the ambien when ready.

Good luck. I'm glad your son's got a such an active advocate for his health/mental health care. That's rare and very valuable. I hope you can find the people you need and the solutions you need.

Before I severely ruptured a disc and got sucked into surgeries and another level of Western Medicine Hell, I was finding that yoga was really giving me good benefits in controlling some of the more hellish symptoms. But of course, this was after I had attained some sort of stability through my meds. But yoga is a very powerful tool if taught by the right person/people in the right environment. And I don't think that's what you need recommendations for at this point.

So back to good luck. I really mean it and I hope you find a solution soon.
 
Look around where you live for a psychiatrist who specializes in anxiety/panic disorder. I would consider diazepam as well. Your son is very lukcy to have you. Good luck!!!!
 
Why is he trying to get off paxil? Is it not working for him? I currently take 60mg. At one point, I thought it wasn't doing it's job. So, I went searching for other AD's. Tried Effexor (made me too irritable), pristiq (gave me panic attacks) and lexapro (threw me into a total manic state of constant anxiety and paranoid thoughts and high blood pressure).

I then realized that Paxil WAS working. Went back on it and added seroquel and am feeling MUCH better. Point being, there is no 'magic pill' out there that will totally rid you of all problems. Exercise and diet are important and therapy helps me as well.

If paxil isn't working, I would suggest Zoloft as a next line of defense (I took it years ago and it also helped). Seroquel and Clonazepam also help me as well. I tried xanax, but didn't like the short half life.

Hope this helps and I hope he gets better soon.
 
im confused here..is he looking for a new med or simply trying to come off Paxil? If hes merely trying to stop the Paxil, i recommend using the Prozac method I mentioned above. If he wants something else, is it because the Paxil isnt helping or what? Benzos are best avoided if he gets good results from an SSRI. I cant imagine why you would want your son addicted to benzos instead of SSRI's (if thats what youre asking about). Its a much much worse withdrawal (surprisingly yes, Paxil w/d is generally not as severe, or at least not as endless as a benzo w/d). If i could go back and never have started benzos, I would in a heartbeat. now im afraid i ill be on them for life. be safe.

Fletchacet
 
Fletchacet said:
im confused here..is he looking for a new med or simply trying to come off Paxil? If hes merely trying to stop the Paxil, i recommend using the Prozac method I mentioned above. If he wants something else, is it because the Paxil isnt helping or what? Benzos are best avoided if he gets good results from an SSRI. I cant imagine why you would want your son addicted to benzos instead of SSRI's (if thats what youre asking about). Its a much much worse withdrawal (surprisingly yes, Paxil w/d is generally not as severe, or at least not as endless as a benzo w/d). If i could go back and never have started benzos, I would in a heartbeat. now im afraid i ill be on them for life. be safe.

Fletchacet
Click to expand...

Sounds like her son is in a tremendous amount of mental pain and his life is a nightmare because of all of this. If careful benzo administration would help him I don't see why it's an issue. I too will be on benzos for the rest of my life but I hate to think of any child in this kind of distress.
 
Violenza666 said:
Sounds like her son is in a tremendous amount of mental pain and his life is a nightmare because of all of this. If careful benzo administration would help him I don't see why it's an issue. I too will be on benzos for the rest of my life but I hate to think of any child in this kind of distress.
Click to expand...

if this is the case, then im 100% behiind benzo usage to end this kind of suffering. im just curious if its Paxil w/d causing this anguish or if the anguish is the despite Paxil. youre very right, even high doses of strong benzos (like 8-10 mg/day of Xanax) is preferable to this type of hell. i just wanted a clarification as to what shes asking for. help with paxil w/d or help with her sons symptoms for which he tried paxil and it didnt work. and even i have to admit, that relying on benzos for life is preferable to the nightmaring symptoms that they relieve.

Fletchacet
 
For some reason, my psychiatrist doesn't believe in going over 2mg of Clonazepam and/or Xanax, for any reason (it seems). Does anyone have a similar Dr. or ever heard of this theory.
 
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