# Side effects of paxil not sure if I should take it



## Mattistuck (Aug 13, 2011)

I've been on medicines before and none of them worked they pretty much just wasted money made me incoherent and made me eat alot more and I gained fifty lbs. I gave up the meds and started exercising and eating better and lost thirty lbs so far. Im still dealing with my anxiety and i start a new job tommorow so now that im gonna be around people on a daily basis i want to see if I should get on a medication to help me and my doctor recommended 5 mg paxil. Now if I start taking this I'm really concerned that I'm gonna gain all this weight back or that the meds will slow down my metabolism and I will gain weight back. I've read blogs with people saying that they took this medicine and they packed on twenty lbs and they tried to lose it but they couldn't and when they finally got off the meds they lost the weight. Some other people said they excercised while on the medicine and were able to lose weight. These people were arguing saying it is possible to lose weight while the others say the drug won't let you. And these may have all been women so I'm not sure if that's why it was harder because I heard it is harder for women to lose weight than men? I dunno I just want to know if I start taking this med will I gain weight or make it harder on myself to lose weight if I'm still exercising?


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## candiedsky (Aug 7, 2011)

everyone reacts differently. I've never taken paxil so I don't know, but you could be unaffected by this side effect.


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## Minnow (Oct 22, 2011)

Unfortunately there's no way to know how you'll react. 5mg seems like a mild dose of Paxil (I take 40mg daily), so maybe your doctor hopes that would minimize the side effects. I think it comes down to whether possibly reducing the anxiety you experience in your job would be worth the risk of possible weight gain.

Also, just my personal experience - I haven't had any weight changes with Paxil thus far. I do pay attention to my eating and try to exercise regularly. I'm female, too. I haven't tried to actively lose weight while taking Paxil, however, I'm planning on trying after my current break ends, so we'll see how that goes.


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