Posted by tich on January 22, 2002, at 19:08:21
hi all,
so nice to see all of the informative discussion. this is my first time to the group. i was hoping to get some sort of feedback regarding my issue.
i'm a 27 year old female suffering from life-long moderate familial depression. about a year ago, i finally decided to take the plunge and get medicated due to the fact that the depression was definitely getting worse and i found my quality of life to be deteriorating. my doctor prescribed 20mg of paxil daily which was a life-saver! the experience i've had on paxil has definitely been positive, but i've found that in the last few months, i haven't been responding as well to the drug. after the initial two weeks of adjustment, my usual side effects were: severe insomnia, 20lb weight gain, involuntary twitching, constipation, anorgasmia and loss of libido. after a couple of months, my doctor reduced my dosage to 10mg per day which not only gave me the benefits of the good moods and anti-anxiety, but also reduced the side effects to practically nothing. now, i find my moods to be swinging, my behaviour has been very erratic, and, while i'm not as terribly low and depressed as i was before taking paxil, my moods are very flat and i haven't taken much interest in life at all. both my psychologist and my gp have reccommended effexor which i will be starting in a couple of weeks, once i taper down on paxil.
my question is this: is there anybody out there who has had basically the same experience as me? i'm interested in hearing how happy you are with effexor as opposed to paxil and if your side effects are better or worse. i am not on any other medications (other than the pill), and have not had any MAJOR terrible reactions to paxil, but i think my body is just becoming too used to it. i have read through a lot of the postings here, but am interested if there is anybody who has been through the same kind of experiences on ad's as i have.
thanks for your time!
ps - for any of you interested in losing weight, i'm going to put a plug in for weight watchers. i've currently lost 15 of the 20lbs i gained on paxil. it's safe, healthy and not terribly hard!
poster:tich
thread:91140
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020116/msgs/91140.html