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Thursday, February 8, 2007 12:00 AM

My mother stopped her Paxil and appears to have gone crazy

She went on Paxil eight years ago when my dad died, and now she's acting irrationally.

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  • Thursday, February 8, 2007 11:20 AM

    Paxil is capable of this

    The first thing to check is if she stopped Paxil cold turkey. If she did, then that alone is capable of causing this behavior, and more.

    My sister, after several years on Paxil, attempted to quit cold turkey a few years ago. This set off a chain of incredibly frightening events for her and her family over the course of the next 2 months, as her brain was *completely* unable to normalize, triggering delusions, psychotic episodes, and constant unbearable anxiety. We almost had to commit her to a facility as we (and she) was worried she was going to hurt herself. She had been taking the Paxil originally for panic attacks that ensued after the birth of her first child.

    The whole experience was the most painful mental trauma I have ever watched another human being endure. The doctors were trying klonopin, buspar, xanax, and combinations thereof just to try get her mind to calm down. Eventually she went back on another SSRI (Celexa) as nothing worked.

    To this day the word "Paxil" makes me feel angry. There have been some class action lawsuits suggested as I've seen evidence that the makers of Paxil suppressed reports that going off Paxil creates this horrifying scenario more often than you would think.

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