Should she stop using her SSRI for a few days?
Under no circumstances as the rebound (withdrawl) from suddenly stopping an SSRI can be horrendus, with fits of violent temper that'd give steroids a good run for their money. SSRI's NEED to be tapered down gradually to prevent this
I am against SSRI's unless absolutely needed even then my belief is diet and excercise can fix most serotonin depletion problems, some food for thought!!!
Without a detailed medical history to hand, how could you know whether she needs to be taking SSRIs or not. Telling someone to stop without knowing the full story ranges from a bad descision to plain wreckless
I would advise her to wean off the SSRI Paxil i'm betting and get on a diet and excersise program and if that fails then continue with a Benzodiazapine like Alprolazam .25mg three times a day that should help while not fucking with the sensitive Serotonin system.
So instead you propose the person starts with a drug which produces a physical dependance which can lead to fatalities if suddenly withdrawn. Also, you're just replacing fucking with serotonogic system to fucking with the GABA system, which could be described as equally as sensitive, if not moreso
Have you ever been through Paxil WD's??? I think not and the serotonin system not being sensitive hahaha look what paxil does when you stop it and tell me that its a better bet then benzos and .25mg three times a day is relitively easy to wean off if one needs to but its the safest bet for anxiety that is life crippling!!!
I have & I'd rather endure that again than go through months of withdrawl symptoms that benzo addicts report. Benzos are far from the safest method of dealing with anxiety
Anxiety comes from subconscious fears, and the best way to deal with subconscious fears is to make them conscious and face them. Ie. If you have social anxiety, purposely force yourself into social situations. A medication will not fix anyone's problems.
The best and safest way of dealing with chronic, debilitating anxiety is to get involved with CBT (cognative behaviour therapy) which teaches you to avoid the thought processes that lead to anxiety. CBT brings the causes of anxiety to the concious mind and then shows coping mechanisms that don't depend upon a regieme of drugs with potentially nasty side effects from continuous use.
Thing is, these days we're used to the idea of instant gratification, which is most abily demonstrated by drug use (you carry out an action & get immediately rewarded). CBT does not give the instant gratification & also involves some hard work on the behalf of the patient, but in the end is a cure for the anxiety state. All anti-anxiety drugs do not cure the anxiety, but are merely a sticking plaster type of solution ie a temporasry one, not a perm one and as such should not be used long term.
Personally I think this instant gratification mindset is at the route of a lot of society's problewms as people are less & less inclined to put effort into something wher the reward is a long time off. As for SSRI's, I wouldn't touch them againm after having them prescribed in the past for my SAD, but that doesn't mean that I'm against them
per se as I've seen some people who have benefitted enormously from using them.
Oh and one more thing - RC's are not an homogeneous group of drugs with the same mechanism of action or chemical structure, it's a broad ranging title that covers a range of drugs with only one thing in common - that they have no long term/detailed history of use in man and are generally unexplored territory. As such, there's no answer thast can be given for interactions between SSRIs & RCs
Agrered on the food part though- but eating healthy is important in any context. ![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
