# A good Paxil review and my personal opinion



## Cuauhtemoc (Jul 22, 2010)

Hi, I suffered from social anxiety my entire life and it sucked.
I was the guy in school with almost no friends, no girlfriend, shy to play sports(even the ones I was good), fear of talking in public and all that you guys probably know
When I was 17, almost 18 I went to a psychiatrist after doing some research on the web. She prescribed me paroxetine(paxil). I am a chemist and I've always placed my faith in chemicals, when I talked with her I said straight up:
No herbal ****, therapy, spiritual conseling, or anything, I want a drug that makes me feel great, just like alcohol but without the side effects.

So I started with 20mg, some hours after taking it I felt the first effect, I was sweating lol and I got very euphoric. I went out, worked out like crazy, came back home running fast...not bad at all
The euphoria disappeared after 1 week, so did the sweating and I just started feeling a lot more confident and relaxed in social situations.
I got 1 side effect although, I take a lot longer to orgasm, but I can't say that is bad...not at all! I will never fear premature ejaculation! And I can ejaculate if I concentrate anyway
I got into college when I was 18, after being some months in paroxetine and it was a completely new life for me, I was talkative, made friends, went to parties, I could talk to complete strangers(I even discovered I'm a pretty funny guy!) and I even succeded in approaching girls, damn I even got a girlfriend.
So, here we have, someone who tried and enjoyed paxil, which seems pretty rare around here.

Now, my opinion, I've met online other people who had some success with SSRI's but after a good start they think "oh, i'm just feeling good because I'm drugged, I want to quit it and try some herbs and therapy"
Just ****ing enjoy it, you know, I love feeling happy, talkative and even a little sleepy sometimes, it feels so relaxing...
Dude, what's the point? If you are feeling great why drop it? Depression and anxiety are chronic diseases, you need constant medication to get better, I never had a psychological reason for being shy, I had a great childhood, great parents, never had financial troubles, still I felt anxious around people and slightly depressed(mainly because of that)

You don't see somebody with diabetes saying, "oh, I'm just alive because I take insulin, I will quit it and try to never eat sugar again or try some holistic approach because it's healthier"
Other thing, SSRI's may take a while to kick in, don't get mad and switch to other drug after trying for 1 week.
I see some people around here getting all crazy and trying things like opioids and then saying how they are a lot better than SSRI's. That's obvious, a SSRI will not make you feel like you are on heroine, it's also addictive and will eventually kill you. Moreover it's so strong you won't even feel weaker medications anymore.

Another thing, Paxil had some other "good" side effects
1-I took it for SA, but I feel a lot happier now, so I probably had some slight depression
2-I can't give a **** about anything anymore, I don't care if my cat died or I got a bad grade at college, some people may say I'm a robot? But so what? Suffering sucks, being happy is awesome.
3-Lucid Dreams, oh god, i love sleeping, I feel like I'm flying
4-Delayed orgasm, great to impress a girl, they don't like minute man
5-Alcohol gets 10x as potent, before paxil I had to drink a LOT(and spend a lot of money in clubs...) to get even a bit drunk, now I take 2 shots of vodka and I'm on heaven till the end of the party.
6-Sometimes I feel a little sedated, which is also great, I mean, I don't get sedated while driving or anything, but when I'm at home just chilling or something I feel like I smoked marijuana, it's pretty relaxing
7-At first I thought my memory got bad, but it's not that, I just don't recall every little moment like I used before, I recall important things, but before the med I was so nervous I remembered every little detail, especially in social situations, I could remember the color of your shirt from 1 week ago because I was so tense while talking to you I focused on stupid things like this instead of just enjoying chatting.
In terms of studies I did even better after paxil, since I was more relaxed in exams, asked more questions in class or to other students.

So yeah, in my opinion paxil works, and people ***** too much about "good" side effects, yes being naturally happy and non-anxious must be great, but I was not born that way, so I get drugged, and my life has never been better.


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## feelalone (May 1, 2010)

Cuauhtemoc said:


> Hi, I suffered from social anxiety my entire life and it sucked.
> I was the guy in school with almost no friends, no girlfriend, shy to play sports(even the ones I was good), fear of talking in public and all that you guys probably know
> When I was 17, almost 18 I went to a psychiatrist after doing some research on the web. She prescribed me paroxetine(paxil). I am a chemist and I've always placed my faith in chemicals, when I talked with her I said straight up:
> No herbal ****, therapy, spiritual conseling, or anything, I want a drug that makes me feel great, just like alcohol but without the side effects.
> ...


My pdoc prescribed me paxil, but I'm still a little undecided, even if reading your report Paxil seems really a good med 
could you explain what was your initial dose and your current dose, and how much time do you take to arrive at your current dose?
And about sexual side effects, they don't disappear after some months?


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## mikoy (Aug 12, 2010)

Cuauhtemoc YES YES YES !! I was shy from my birth I think...I think some people have biological low serotonin or something like that...I love my paroxetine for all good things in my social anxiety. But I'm on 8 week 20 mg paroxetine, and I still waiting for some mood elevation :f

Cuauhtemoc how long you're on paroxetine?


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## swim (Apr 4, 2011)

It was like this for me also, at the very beginning of treatment, then in years it wore out.


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## Cuauhtemoc (Jul 22, 2010)

I started with a low dose, 10mg or 15mg, don't really remember, now I'm on 45 lol.

I think it has been 6 years, about that. And it is still running strong on my veins.
I got out of it for 1 month by the way, because I had problems with my prescription and insurance, I didn't get electric shocks or anything, but I felt a little down...nothing too bad!
Fact is, I don't think I will ever be the same again, I got crazy! In a good way, lol.
I can't shut up anymore when I'm around friends, I just discovered the joy of life, from the shy recluse guy I once was I'm now the guy people look up to when they want to give out parties.
I don't think I have ever shed a tear after starting it, some relatives and friends have died, and I got a little sad, but then I was the first to make a good commentary about them, remembering how they were funny instead of crying senseless.

I don't know how paroxetine works with people with strong depression, that was not my cause, my main problem was SA.
If a low dose isn't working as expected ask your shrink to up it, 20mg didn't work that well with me anymore, but 45mg works as a charm for almost 5 years...
I mean, after taking about 20mg for a while I felt great, but since I'm a somewhat big guy(200lbs, some times more lol) my psychiatrist said I would feel even better with 45mg...
And I did, not saying I coudn't live with a smaller dose, but why risk it?
I even said to her, oh well, give me 100mg or something haha, I will be in heaven, but she said it could be too taxing on my liver, so well...


Now some other tips, if your SA is over, explore your new found ability to talk with people, try to make friends, get enrolled into some new sport, gym, foreign language class, get into college(if you are young) or find a job(if you don't have one).
At the beggining I was all talkative but I kept my old habits, staying at home, playing videogames, not bad...but then I got into brazilian jiu jitsu(I did it while younger, but quit), started college and got a job at a research lab.
Before it I had only 4 good friends, all male, lol. Now I have tons of new friends, tons of them female(and boy I was shy of talking to girls)...
I also did a lot better at sports, I'm brazilian and everybody here plays soccer, I was quit ok at it, but I was shy of being agressive and stealing the ball or even making a goal because I didn't want to be noticed, even worse, I was very scared of doing something wrong and getting blamed by my team, not anymore, if they blame me for something I tell them to get lost, it's just a game after all.


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## mikoy (Aug 12, 2010)

It's great that paroxetine works for you so good.


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## Bacon (Jul 4, 2010)

Yes Paxil 40 works very good for me also. Man i wish paxil was euphoric for me. The only drug that makes me not care about anything is Xanax.


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## areq1987 (Jul 10, 2010)

I boosted my dose of paroxetine from 40 to 50mg today. 50mg= max dose for sa- is it true>?


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## areq1987 (Jul 10, 2010)

Bacon said:


> The only drug that makes me not care about anything is Xanax.


try Tegretol CR..


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## CD700 (Apr 22, 2010)

I think i might try Paxil again at some stage
Lot's of alcohol drinking while i was on it probably stopped it from working I think


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## hiddenaway (Jan 16, 2011)

> Dude, what's the point? If you are feeling great why drop it? Depression and anxiety are chronic diseases, you need constant medication to get better, I never had a psychological reason for being shy, I had a great childhood, great parents, never had financial troubles, still I felt anxious around people and slightly depressed(mainly because of that)


What happens is that after long-term use you just get so tired of the side-effects. I have had weight issues with every SSRI I've been on including Paxil. What might be delayed orgasm for you was absolutely NO orgasm for me, plus 25 extra pounds. It starts to depress you so much that it begins to outweigh the benefits, or at least make them not as great. Then you start thinking "God, I have to take this my whole life, keep gaining weight and suffering with never orgasming, ever, and if I stop I have to put up with being socially isolated" It truly sucks. I think Paxil is great for social anxiety, but unfortunately for many it does not come without some seriously painful side effects.


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## layitontheline (Aug 19, 2009)

areq1987 said:


> I boosted my dose of paroxetine from 40 to 50mg today. 50mg= max dose for sa- is it true>?


I'm on 60mg, which I've been told is the max.

I started on 5mg (years ago I tried starting at 20mg and had extreme nausea/sickness for days, so I took it really slow this time) > 10mg > 20mg > 30mg > 40mg > 60 mg

I'm glad paxil has worked so well for you OP. I am quite pleased with how much it has helped me and am a bit boggled by all the apparently bad experiences people on this forum seem to have had.


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## Cuauhtemoc (Jul 22, 2010)

hiddenaway said:


> What happens is that after long-term use you just get so tired of the side-effects. I have had weight issues with every SSRI I've been on including Paxil. What might be delayed orgasm for you was absolutely NO orgasm for me, plus 25 extra pounds. It starts to depress you so much that it begins to outweigh the benefits, or at least make them not as great. Then you start thinking "God, I have to take this my whole life, keep gaining weight and suffering with never orgasming, ever, and if I stop I have to put up with being socially isolated" It truly sucks. I think Paxil is great for social anxiety, but unfortunately for many it does not come without some seriously painful side effects.


Oh yeah, I've heard it is pretty bad for women, thanks I'm a man lol.
I was skinny all my life so I didn't care about gaining weight, but I didn't gain any at all haha.
Yes, no orgasm surely suck
But atleast your social anxiety got better, which means there is hope! I mean, someday they will come up with a drug that gets rid of SA without these side effects, so prevalent on women.

I put this up to encourage people who are afraid of Paxil because of the reviews on this site, I mean, c'mon I'm sure some people had bad side effects, but I'm also sure some people had a pretty damn good time on it.
I also was getting a bit angry about people who had good effects but got all emotional with things like:
"oh, I feel great, but I feel like a robot, I want to suffer"
or
"Oh I felt great but that's just because I'm on drugs, I want to get better naturally"
I mean, it's their choice, but I just think it's a terrible choice and I should express my opinion and maybe help people like me out there that get disencouraged because of all the bad reviews.
I suffered a whole lot because of SA, I don't want people to feel as bad as I once did

EDIT:
A small thing about benzodiazepines, when I first went to my shrink she also prescribed me Rivotril(clonazepam) to take IF I had some kind of trouble sleeping or a panic attack(I never had one tbh, but I wanted to get a prescription haha)
Once I was alone at home and tried to take some clonazepam to get high, I was a stupid teenager!
It worked, although I felt sleepy afterwards, and then I slept for like 12 hours. But once I woke up, I felt like crap, it was the closest thing to depression since starting Paxil. I almost felt like crying, it was really terrible.
So I don't recommend benzodiazepines(except for emergencies) while on SSRI's, it feels like they deplete you of serotonine or something
I see many people who take benzos daily, I couldn't withstand that to be honest.
I think the same is valid for alcohol, before Paxil I drunk heavily some times and it felt terrible after the effect subsided...so I never drunk too much after starting Paxil, after all I don't need to drink a lot anyway to get pretty high, even one beer can makes me pretty happy


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## mikoy (Aug 12, 2010)

Weight gain with SSRI is from better appetite?


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## Cuauhtemoc (Jul 22, 2010)

Not sure, it may be, as depression supresses your appetite.
Maybe less cortisol, because you feel less stressed...Cortisol is a catabolic hormone

I had almost no weight gain because of it, I gained about 10kg in all these years, but with a lot of effort lol(I was pretty skinny) and almost no fat


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## feelalone (May 1, 2010)

Bacon said:


> Yes Paxil 40 works very good for me also. Man i wish paxil was euphoric for me. The only drug that makes me not care about anything is Xanax.


Hi, I like xanax very much, it's my favourite drug for SA. Can you compare, please, xanax and paxil effects?


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## Bacon (Jul 4, 2010)

feelalone said:


> Hi, I like xanax very much, it's my favourite drug for SA. Can you compare, please, xanax and paxil effects?


Xanax is instant relief. I take a form of Xanax called Niravam it melts under the tongue with a minty taste and hits you immediately with a rush of sedation. GREAT for panic attacks! God i love it!!! paxil is meh its Ok i guess helps a bit. But the benzos are amazing! Niravam is great! Its like Super Xanax and hits me from head to toe in less than 1 minute. .5 MG of Niravam hits me harder than 2 MG of normal xanax! Niravam just has this Rush of sedation. Im guessing since it is meant to be taken under the tongue and goes straight into the blood stream. God its a good med.


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## Cuauhtemoc (Jul 22, 2010)

Yes, benzos are instantaneous but they have some bad side effects in the long term. Like loss of memory.
I think they are better for people with panic attacks and general anxiety, not my case at all, never had a panic attack, I was mostly VERY shy. But I did well after initiating a conversation, my main problem was breaking the silence.


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## flarf (May 13, 2010)

been on 20mg paxil for a year now and its starting to lose its effect big time. should i ask for a higher dosage or switch to something else?


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## CD700 (Apr 22, 2010)

iwearshirts said:


> been on 20mg paxil for a year now and its starting to lose its effect big time. should i ask for a higher dosage or switch to something else?


Go higher then augment with something


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## CD700 (Apr 22, 2010)

http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl?post=/babble/20000321/msgs/28633.html#28633


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## mikoy (Aug 12, 2010)

Geez, everyone on this link recommends Adderall ! It's normal to up the dose...people forget that it's amphetamine salts. How do you think, why it's not available in most countries around the world?


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## BearFan (Mar 22, 2008)

I've had the same problems with Pexeva (a form of Paxil), works good in the short-term but made it really hard to lose weight in the longer term. For the guy who recommended Adderall, it helped me a little bit when I tried it, but it's the not really the best choice because (unless you have some ADD symptoms) its hard to get a prescription and there is a crash associated with it. It can also amp you up and increase anxiety.


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## Cuauhtemoc (Jul 22, 2010)

I don't recommend mixing paxil with benzodiazepines, as I said benzos create tolerance and you need to up your dose, moreover they make you crash and destroy your memory. Yes, they are strong and you feel great, but in the long term it sucks.
Never tried Adderall but I know tons of people in my university used it to study, to pull all nighters, and it makes you crash badly. Yes, it is also strong as it gets, but not good in the long term.

These strong drugs are the ones I don't recommend because once you get used to them you will always need the strong stuff just to feel normal, while IMHO you don't get used to SSRI's, yes you may need to up your dose from 20mg to 40, or even 60mg, but not much higher than that and you can take it your whole life.
I know people who take 8mg of clonazepam daily because they started with 0,5mg and are completely accustomed to it.


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## Canadian4Life (Sep 27, 2010)

I have tried a few ssri snri's and benzos. After trying them all I found only Clonazpam helped. after a while it made me lazy and tired and I was less social because of that. But it got me out of the house. I tried paxil as a last resort after about 6 different antidepressants and paxil is the only I can handle. From day 1 it took effect. It does help me with my depression as well but for social anxiety it is a big help. Paxil not only calms anxiety it actually is changing my outlook on my anxiety. I feel I want to be around people more, I don't have to think about going out I can just get in my car and go, I made alot of new friends and got a wicked job. There's a lot of things paxil fixed for me.. I think some people are born low in serotonin and paxil for me fixes that deficiency. My life revolved around my anxiety and now It doesn't. I can still see how the anxiety used to affect me and I am actually upset that I spent years and years living (or so I thought) with something wrong but I could never pin point what and where I was always smiling growing up depression was something I didn't dream I had. So paxil for me fixed my "chemical imbalance" or whatever the doc calls it. I thought I was living my life to the fullest before paxil and now I see how much I was missing out on. I am thankful To find something that works. I tried other serotonin drugs like zoloft, prozac, effexor, mirtazapine, celexa all in the same class as paxil which increase serotonin but none helped me. I quit the serotonin route and went back to benzos and was even tried on dexedrine and ritalin. Worked great for a few weeks then tolerance built MASSIVELY. So back for one last shot at a serotonin drug and I'm glad I did. Paxil I started on and and 17 months later still working great. What i Dont get is howcome I didnt get ANY effect or help from any other serotonin drug... every other ssri was like taking placebo . 

Conclusion : If one ssri/snri doesn't work for you at all that DOES NOT mean they all won't work!
-Dopaminergics like dexedrine, ritalin, adderall will help you in the short term but they will lead you into a deep depression and make your social phobia WORSE in the long run. If you have a plan to keep toleraance down and can work your social anxiety using dexedrine, adderall or ritalin good but for me it was too much ups and downs. 
-benzodiazepines: Good and Bad. I still get a prescription for clonazepam don't kid me but I take them as needed and yes it is a big help. But I know i;m addicted and they are VERY addictive. 

so overall paxil has my vote! and I thought ssri/snri's were useless.


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## handsup (Jun 22, 2013)

Interesting story. Hopefully I can be like you too. I am a new user of paxil.


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## Canadian4Life (Sep 27, 2010)

Been on Paxil 18 months now... 20 mg once in the morning. Went from 5 mg to 20 mg in a week. It helped me from day one and still is helping me mentally deal with stress whereas benzos just dulled stress. Side effects mild.. sexual ones but the relief is worth every bit


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## xDan (Apr 8, 2015)

Honestly, it seems you have gone from socially anxious to socially fearless - and most people are not socially fearless, and as you said, you can save a ton of money on alcohol because you get drunk so quickly!


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

The only thing Paxil reliably treats is premature ejaculation.

Sure, some people improve on Paxil, but in trials the placebo effect is stunning with 1/3 of patients getting better on sugar pills. After you subtract the placebo effect, the majority fail Paxil even in studies paid for by the drug maker and designed to be as biased as possible.

The studies are exceedingly biased. It's obvious you're getting Paxil rather than placebo, since sugar pills don't cause anorgasmia. The studies claim to be double blind, but blatantly obvious sexual effects entirely remove the blinders resulting in extreme bias. If you can't tell the difference between Paxil & Placebo you would have to be so oblivious that you can't tell the difference between water & whiskey!

I will admit the plenty of patients improve on Paxil, though many of them improve despite treatment, not because of treatment.

Even if an SSRI works for you, you may not be able to tolerate it. My brother found both Zoloft & Lexapro helpful for his severe OCD. But he stopped them because he could no longer tolerate the sexual side effects after nearly a decade on them. He decided the cure was worse than the disease.

I'm not impressed by a drug that "works" for one-third of patients. Would you buy a car that starts 35% of the time? I think that's the Cuban & North Korean definition of "works well."


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## xDan (Apr 8, 2015)

I'm pretty sure that the underlying cause of SA is crutial in determining wich medication/treatment is best, but unfortunately its all trial and error since we cant really find the underlying cause.

For example, if your SA is primarily caused by serotonin deficency, an SSRI should be the best choice since it will work directly on the deficency. Obviously SSRI's are chemically different and therefore are metabolised in various ways and work uniquely as SRI's, which is why SSRI's can vary greatly in effectivness from person to person - although it does seem Paxil, Lexapro and Zoloft are generally the most successful of the lot for SA - Lexapro particually for MDD.

If a lack of serotonin is not the cause of the SA, then I cant see SSRI's being of any use except for achieving the placebo effect. Alot of people seem to mistake dopamine deficency as being a likely cause of SA, but actually serotonin is linked to SA more than dopamine (or noradrenaline). Dopamine deficiency is usually linked instead with Parkinson's Disease. Noradrenaline is also mistaken as being 'bad' for SA sufferers, and this may be the case for most people, but for others it may actually be useful - although SNRI's tend to have a lesser chance of being effective than SSRI's and more people report them as being useless, perhaps with the exception of Effexor which barely works on noradrenaline even at high doses - in fact Zoloft works pretty much identically on Dopamine as Effexor works on noradrenaline, yet it isn't an SDRI, although it really should be considering Bupropin is an NDRI. It seems in Ultrashy's case, serotonin deficency is probably not the cause of the SA and I noted that becuase you understandably had no success on any SSRI - which makes sense if serotonin is not a cause of your SA. Its kinda like taking dirrehea relief when you dont have dirrehea - it wont do anything for the underlying problem (for example if you have stomach ache and not diarrhoea), but all you know is that it only could help.

If dopamine deficency was the main cause of SA, then I'm sure SSRIs would not be first line treatments and instead SDRI's and DRI's would be used instead. The research is clear that serotonin deficency is a likely cause, but in other cases GABA is the cause, which is why Benzodiazepines are so effective, although they tend to be slightly effective anyway since GABA generally calms the brain down.

I am personally coming off Zoloft, pretty slowly, but because of having some success on Zoloft (except for being jittery which I suspect is due to its action on Dopamine), I am willing to try other SSRI's instead of MAOI's or Benzos.


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