Last Updated on August 3, 2022 by
Alternative to Meds Editorial Team
Medically Reviewed by Dr Samuel Lee MD
Table of Contents:
Paxil tapering and titration must be done meticulously and under careful guidance due to the horrendous reactions that can occur from incorrectly weaning off Paxil. Equally important, every person’s own heartwrenching story must be listened to and resolved with an individually tailored program.
Being prescribed antidepressants like Paxil, even if it seemed the only option possible during a time of demonstrable crisis, does not mean it was the only option, nor that a lifetime of being medicated must follow.
Do Your Symptoms
Require Paxil?
Alternative to Meds has been primarily invested in medication tapering such as Paxil titration for over 17 years. Using Holistic and Environmental Medicine, we have published evidence demonstrating that over 77% of people weaning off antidepressant medication and replacing them with a more healthfully designed lifestyle, and other holistic applications perform symptomatically better long-term than while medicated.
Watch this amazing and heartwarming story of a woman who went from completely debilitated to living life at its fullest. If you think you are in a worse condition than she was, and you couldn’t possibly get better … then this video stands as a testament to challenge your hopelessness.
Paxil discontinuation syndrome can cause a number of symptoms such as dizziness, headache, nausea, brain zaps, depersonalization, irritability, hallucinations, and even stroke-like reactions.9 Paxil was found in a 3-year study to be ineffective at decreasing the rate of relapse in panic disorder patients.6 According to a 1997 comparative study published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Modell et al discovered that Paxil causes significant sexual impairments in 75% of those taking the drug.8 Many persons opt to stop Paxil not only due to lack of efficacy, but also due to the significant weight gain, and other side effects the drug has long been known to cause.7 The cluster of Paxil withdrawal symptoms is collectively called Paxil discontinuation syndrome. According to a 2017 report published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, authors Gabriel and Sharma conclude that 20% of Paxil users who took the drug for at least a month experienced discontinuation syndrome after stopping the drug abruptly or when the dose was markedly reduced.6
Tapering should be gradual. The math should be exact. Don’t guesstimate. Have your prescribing physician help you measure and make any cuts exactly.
The longer a person takes SSRI medications such as Paxil, the more intense the symptoms from Paxil titration may be. Typically, physicians, who are not trained at all in mental health or Paxil titration protocols, continue to prescribe antidepressant drugs for extended periods of time, even for years. As serotonin stores are not increased by these drugs, but only exhausted over time, increasing the dosage is the norm. Consequently, any remaining serotonin can be aggressively purged through the delicate CNS (central nervous system) channels. But eventually, antidepressant medication can no longer function as a numbing agent. This can introduce more intense side effects, and a patient may do well to learn more about how to titrate off Paxil correctly, rather than continue to try to live with the increasingly harsh side effects.
Of prime importance, there is nothing humane about taking someone off a medication where you do not also help them reduce or eliminate the root cause of their original symptoms. The unwanted and lingering depression, insomnia, or other problems are what possibly led to starting a prescription drug in the first place. Giving a patient an aspirin when a little investigative work could have discovered that their migraines are due to dehydration or elevated blood sugar cannot be considered anything close to comprehensive or optimum treatment.
Please contact Alternative to Meds Center for much more detailed information about how our 
