Paxil Withdrawal
I added a 4th Celexa, bringing my dose to 80 mg. In the US, that is considered too much but in Europe, according to my doctor, they use as much as 100 mg. Since I was on a high dose of Paxil, I probably will need the 100 mg eventually. My psychiatrist said that although the Paxil is now out of my system, my body is craving the Paxil and the Celexa does not satisfy the craving. Therefore, it will be about 6 more weeks until the craving is gone. In the meantime, I will continue to have days where …
Off Paxil CR and On Celexa
So it took about a month but I did it. So far so good. I have some morning drowsiness which one cup of coffee is taking care of. I am feeling pretty good, despite some unusual stress happening right now. This is just a quick entry to let you know the switch went well.
Third Week Switching from Paxil CR to Celexa
I am now taking 60 mg of Celexa and only 25 mg of Paxil CR. I am doing fine except I was drowsy the first few mornings of taking the 3rd Celexa for the first time. The psychiatrist told me to cut the morning pill in half and add it to the night dose. He always tells me to spread out the anti-anxiety medication into 3 doses a day. I think some doctors tell people to take it all at once. What does your doctor tell you to do?
When anti-anxiety medication is not enough to control anxiety.
My daughter suffers from a very very severe case of anxiety disorder. (Read post My daughter needed help for her anxiety disorder.) She has lived a life controlled by worry and depression. At age 34, Beth is finally seeing the light. She is successfully using a cocktail of anti-anxiety medications (prozac, neurontin, klonopin) which have definitely decreased her anxiety. But the medication has not completed the task of controlling Beth’s anxiety sufficiently. She continues to be functioning in a limited capacity both in her personal and business life.
For 2 years her psychiatrist has been begging Beth to see a Cognitive …
Psychotherapy was my first attempt to free myself from anxiety and depression.
So once my second child Evan was in the picture, I think I really operated on pure adrenalin in a robotic manner. I would never let anything happen to my babies. They now became the reason for waking up each day. I focussed on them completely. If I had any other life before, it no longer existed. I felt like a juggler. I can’t imagine how mothers of twins manage. After all, my kids were 3 1/2 years apart. That should not have been so difficult. But it was. I was not able to cope like a normal mother. I …
I suffered from anxiety as far back as I can remember.
Looking back, I realize that I was nervous even as a kid. I am 58 years old, by the way. It is a very sad irony that my mother (may she rest in peace) passed away suddenly when I was 12 years old. This might make you think that trauma caused me to have severe anxiety. Well it did, and certainly the course of my life was horribly altered, but I know that I was an anxiety sufferer before she died. I was one of those children that almost literally hung onto mom’s apron strings. (Women wore aprons all day long in those days). I can remember …
Anxiety controlled my life. Therapy was not helping.
If you are reading this blog, chances are you are a worrier. Chances are you have a child, sibling and/or a parent who is also a worrier. Furthermore, if you are reading this blog, chances are that you have not found relief from this often paralyzing condition. I’ve been there. I am still there some of the time. I want to tell you about the help I found for my debilitating anxiety.
I am 58 years old and I have been in psychotherapy for about 30 years! Without this, I know that I would have fallen apart a long time ago. …