Research

I’ve been reading a lot lately on how to withdraw from paroxetine safely. There’s a lot of resources online but what worries me are the unnecessary risks of discontinuing this medication. Relapse might happen again if tapering were not properly done. Back when my husband was completely unaware of the potential withdrawals, he just quit cold turkey. I know this is purely ignorant, but we knew nothing back then. Reflecting on this experience, I hope we can win this “weaning” process. I know the longer you take it – the more risk of you, getting this out from your system. Gradual tapering also depends to individual’s tolerance. His PD advised him to take one pill every other day, in which we try yesterday but was unsuccessful. It ended up “him” wide awake all night. My husband is taking the CR version of paroxetine. It is coated with a substance that allows them to be slowly released over a 24-hour period. Hence it is called the “controlled release”. Just found out that this tab is not meant for cutting and doing it so will result to dangerous rates of absorption. I guess we don’t have a choice than to switch to a regular paroxetine for us to taper it properly. You’ll be surprise that in the Philippines, only 20mg is available in the market? So how on earth can we wean this SSRI? Well, I might be wrong, but here’s a site about the Product Information.

The Experiment

I feel that doctors whose been practicing for a long time doesn’t recognize the severe psychiatric drug withdrawal reactions. Because if yes, he should have given us a regular paroxetine. And not those who were just given to him by his MED REP! I don’t want my husband to be too dependent with his meds. If you’ve been a follower’ you’d know why I put up this blog from the first place. As much as possible we try to find workarounds on how to combat SSRI’s. I know discomfort will come on our way as this is expected for those who tried to taper this drug. I know there is no sugar-coating and how difficult the withdrawal is. We’ve been there! Relapse is harder.

if your on the same boat? how did you handle yours?

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

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Solace by Rhea

Duchess of Sunshine, Ambassador of Positive Vibes & Chief Idea Officer

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