Paxil over prozac?

[Anonymous]

I have been taking prozac now for nearly 6 months to try and treat my
depression/social phobia. I began on 20 mg/day, and now I'm up to 40
mg/day. For a while, the 40 mg dose seemed to be working for the most
part...I was feeling better about myself and was more outgoing. Now, I
seem to be back in a rut...I'm almost nearly as introvert and depressed
as I was before I began taking medication. I know that I can go up to
80 mg/day on this drug...my question though is if anyone has had any
experience taking paxil in place of prozac or vice versa, and what was
the outcome of your switch? Does paxil seem to make a significant
effect in the treatment of depression/social anxiety? Also, has anyone
who has taken prozac noticed a significant difference between the
40-60-80 mg/day doses? I would desperately like to hear anyone's
thought about this and/or their experience with these medications. Any
help would be greatly appreciated...thanks.

 

[Indigo]

Hi,

When things got bad enough with SA, i went and saw my gp and she prescribed me with 3 months supply of prozac, which i took, and i personally feel that didnt work for me at all. a few more months down the track things started to get from bad to worse, so i went and saw my doctor again and i told her that i felt the prozac didnt work, so instead she gave me some paxil (20mg) i have been on them for the last 8 months and there is definetly some improvement i can now cope at work better, especially interactions between my collegues, although i feel just knowing that there are others out there who suffer the same problem and knowing there is support within ourselves makes me feel a whole lot better

 

[Anonymous]

I've taken both Prozac and Paxil. 20mg of Prozac seemed to help me a lot with my depression, however, it didn't seem to help me much at all with my SA. I switched to 30mg of Paxil soon after. Paxil actually seemed to make me feel a little more comfortable in social situations. I definitely noticed a difference. I think you should give Paxil a try. Be careful though, Paxil gave me some serious withdrawal symptoms that I didn't experience from Prozac.

 

[Anonymous]

my experience with paxil was great.....before i started taking paxil i was really bad with SAD...my physaed me with 20mgs of paxil and after a month i really noticed a huge difference mentally...it felt like i as reborn again i was going out and doing things i used to do...plus!....i felt better than i ever did in my whole life.....there was a few side effects i went threw at first like over heating and sweating a lil...but as time goes by these effects become minimal....if you are thinking about taking paxil...go for it....i deffinelty recommend it....based on my experience....there is one thing that i will have to warn you about that they never told me....unfortunatly after a while of taking paxil it stops working as your body becomes resistant to it.....i was on paxil for 4 years and i was like a miracle...life couldnt be better......until one day it started to not work...i jus started a new job that i loved.....i had to quit and now im back to square one.......but hey.....4 years of being anxiety free was well worth taking paxil.....give it a shot. :roll:

 

[chris_1982]

surely with 4 years of no anxiety, didn't you get into a habit of NOT getting nervous? you're not at square 1 because you managed well for four years so you know you can do it.

Isn't the idea of medication that you use it till you are in a habit of not feeling a certain way (because your brain no longer has negative thoughts) then you wean yourself off it so that you dont notice it anymore? :?

Can anyone shed more light on this? (i've been on seroxat for a week)

 

[richkid]

I would like to know that to.

From what I undersand about SAD its a mind game about being in control of yourself.
For me taking seroxat made me feel that it would all be better if I just took them. It doesn't work like that, I don't take them anymore because I didn't want to be dependent on them. Plus the recent scares about anti depressants my counseller actually doesn't recommend them. Surely the alternetives to getting over SAD or more effective like CBT and relaxation techniques.

 

[Anonymous]

prozac didn't really do shit for me, made me feel worse actually. As for paxil, i've been on it for almost 2 years and I noticed an amazing improvement although just recently it seems to have stopped working . I'd definatly give paxil a try.

 

[spacecadet]

ME

I take paxil 40 mg for 3 years. Its made me more positive and no depression. I also take 4 mg stelazine which is an antipsychotic but also anti anxiety. It works well although make me tired at first. I now worrk full time as a temp secretary. I enjoy a better social life slowly building up

 

[Anonymous]

I went as high as 60 mg of Prozac

Riverside

I saw your post. Personally I started on 20 mg. Then went to 40 mg. As I recall the highest I went ws 60, but my general doctor thought that was way too high. I later found that I wasn't merely depressed but manic-depressive. Once they added in Lithium with 20 mg of Prozac -- I had the perfect cocktail to fight my social phobia. And 7 years later, that is the cocktail I take every day. It's worked great for me. Hope you find the right mix for yourself.

Make sure that you've been properly diagnosed -- depressive or manic-depressive, or whatever you are.

 

[Anonymous]

Seroxat

To any one taking this drug i strongley advise you to come off it........i took this drug for 6 months and i felt great,,,,,,,,,,however when i tried to come off it i had serious side affects.......... it took 18 months for me to finally come off this drug! Please see your doctors now and ask for the liquid form so that you can gradualy start to ween your selves off this 1/2mg at a time.

 

[Anonymous]

re: paxil

I'm responding to your question about paxil. I have never been on prozac, but I was on zoloft for my social anxiety. Zoloft was not very effective, but since I've been on PAXIL CR I have seen a huge difference. The CR means controlled release. Everyone is different, and I am not being treated for depression, but so far I think Paxil CR is working for me and my social anxiety. Ask your doctor, it may help you.-Julz

 

[Anonymous]

Please remember that most of what you guys are talking about is the placeboe effect. We go seek out help at the very worst times in our lives.
Things will get better with or without happy pills. Things are at their worst just before the storm lifts. Long-term social anxiety/shyness has nothing to do with "depression". If there was a drug for shyness or social anxiety, I would take it in a minute. I hope someday they develop such a drug.

 

[Anonymous]

Paxil

Hi, I was on Paxil for almost 4.5 years for SA and chronic depression and it was great. Sadly, it stopped working about 8 months ago. I have switched to Effexor, which is helping some, but I really don't feel as good as I did on Paxil. I didn't have any withdrawl symptoms as I tapered down from Paxil and I tapered up Effexor at the same time. It may just be that I haven't found the correct dose of Effexor yet.

On Paxil I stopped the constant replaying of conversations -- before during and after the actual conversations -- stopped having intrusive visions of horrible accidents while driving or walking down stairs -- stopped being constantly concerned that people might KNOW something about me. These are all things that started coming back as the Paxil stopped being effective. I don't think that the placebo effect is actually what was going on.

Lisa

 

[Anonymous]

somewhat informed opinion (delusion is always possible)

hey all--

I had a lousy Paxil experience (side effects like nervousness, depression, impotence), but everyone reacts differently. (I was also paranoid about withdrawal.) Bear in mind that my problem is probably avoidant personality disorder, meaning that I don't respond to antidepressants the way folks with "pure" depression or SA do...

I took Effexor for a while. It was great for depression (no trace of it most days!) and OK for SA (I could deal with things better), but it also eventually removed my emotions from me (I was at a funeral, thinking to myself, "Ya know, I should feel sad right now, but I just don't..."). When I got off it I had to taper slowly because of the crazy strange withdrawal syndrome--brain zaps, wierd psychotic feelings, dizziness, anxiety/panic attacks, general bizarrerie like that. To get off it I had to wean myself down to taking five of the tiny time-release balls inside one of the capsules (I took me over a week to take that whole capsule! lol) before I could stop with a tolerable level of side effects.

Victim: I know about the placebo studies. But I've been on a number of meds... and some things (like my Paxil and Effexor experiences) are certainly NOT placebo effects. For most folks these drugs do *something* (good or bad). I'm not attacking you, I just wanted to clarify a little so that folks don't think meds are pure BS or something.
I presume that Victim is referring to the studies that show that about 30% of people given placebo meds improve over 6 weeks (about the same amount who do nothing and improve). Statistically meds tend to not do much better, but they do slightly better in a statistically significant fashion (in my understanding; feel free to elaborate/clarify/debunk/call me an idiot ).

Unfortunately AVPD has no good treatments from what I read, and that not much improvement is truly expected... those with pure SA may be lucky because it CAN be overcome... methinks with AVPD I'm just screwed... someone shoot me now. It sucks. But I digress...

 

[LeapFrog]

Can I purchase Paxil online? If so, where?