Hi I know this is a topic somewhere on the message boards but i couldn't find it. I'm not sure if this is a repeat question or not, but I was reading here about people being able to go off some of their meds since being gluten free. I'm almost at one year of gluten-free so I thought I should try to lessen my dose of paxil - I have gone about a week of decreasing from 20-to 10 but I can't sleep, even though i'm tired, I have had horrible headaches and I just generally feel anxious and jumpy. Did this happen to other people who came off the meds? I have been doing some reading about it and I'm kind of nervous. Any advice?

I had to wean off of Paxil VERY VERY slowly... you may want to get a Pharmacists advice on how to go about best doing this for you. I can't remember exactly what steps I took, but I know it took a long time. You can't just quit Paxil overnight, or even in a week, there are BAAAAAAD withdrawal symptoms!!!!

Paxil is a slow one to come off of. I was on half a pill every other day for months. I kept taking it for a lot longer than I needed to because the withdrawal was just nasty, I didn't have time for it. I had dizziness, headaches, visual disturbances. However, in spite of that, I have no regrets of taking it (I took it for post-partum depression), since it worked very well for me for it's intended purposes. I wasn't gluten-free at the time, so I really can't comment on that, and I did not (nor ever ) have symptoms of celiac disease at the time either.

Best of luck to you, you'll get there!

IT took me six months to wean off Lexapro. People don't seem to understand the damage those drugs can do you you, (yes, they do work for their intended purpose, but the long term affects on your body/brain are unknown.) I start out also with 20 to 10 then a full pill one day then half the next for a month, then a one every other day for a month or so, then then half every other day for a month or so, then half two days out... etc. SSRI's have a half life, the time they stay in your body.

Please go slow in weaning yourself off Paxil. The side affects can be very hard on your system.

I took it for about a year or so, then it just seemed to stop working as well..I just stopped cold turkey..to be honest I can't tell you if it made me feel bad, it was when my FM was at its worse and I was taking 8 or 9 [800mgs] of RX motrin a day for pain

Withdrawl from any SSRI should be done very slowly . . . I would either talk to your MD or talk to the pharmacist. From everything I've been told by my MD, it should take months . . . .

thanks for the advice everybody!

Paxil is a ugly drug. The side effects were horrible. Plus the Dr. kept having to increase the dosage. I wasnt warned about weaning off it and just quit taking it, I immediately switched to prozac. It was horrible, I acted like I was on steroids. I had horrible anger problems etc. for about a week or 2. It was crazy, I was like what is wrong with me? I was told later what it was.