Ive been on Paxil for about 4 weeks, I titrated fast and reached 20mg 2 weeks ago. From my understanding, it takes 6-8 weeks at therapeutic dose to really do the job. is this true? Heres my progress so far:
-The visual vertigo is MUCH better. My vision feels almost like normal now.
Before Paxil, the Cawthorne Cooksey excercises would make me horribly dizzy and nauseous within a few seconds. Now they barely bother me, Im just a bit dizzy when I stop. I dont use VRT, but I just use this as a benchmark.
Before Paxil, I would experience a rocking sensation sometimes when sitting still. I never experience that anymore since being on Paxil. I feel totally normal when sitting still now.
I feel almost normal sometimes. But despite these improvements, I still feel pretty rotten at times during the day.
Hi
My friend said it took her 12 weeks before the symptoms she was experiencing from terrible anxiety faded. Then she was fine…Just tired and gained about 8-10 pounds. After a year, her doctor told her to get off and she’s been fine ever since.
I only wish I had that kind of luck!
So you’ve been fine as far as side effects go?
What about the other meds you tried? Can you refresh me?
Kelley
Lots of motion still bothers me. Motion still makes me feel lightheaded and imbalanced. My reaction is not as bad as before, but its still uncomfortable.
Hi
My friend said it took her 12 weeks before the symptoms she was experiencing from terrible anxiety faded. Then she was fine…Just tired and gained about 8-10 pounds. After a year, her doctor told her to get off and she’s been fine ever since.
I only wish I had that kind of luck!
So you’ve been fine as far as side effects go?
What about the other meds you tried? Can you refresh me?
Kelley
— End quote
Good to know! The only side effects I have are the sexual ones, lucky me. Otherwise this is super easy to tolerate, even considering that I titrated quickly.
I tried Verapamil, Propranolol, and Nortriptyline with no improvement.
It took me a good 6-8 weeks when I started my first SSRI (Celexa) before I noticed the dizziness going away. But that was the full build up time–I was only at the therapeutic dose for 2-3 weeks of that time.
I’d think you’d start to feel some improvement in a couple weeks if this was to be the drug for you. I think it’s a good sign though that the visual stuff seems to be better and that you tolerated the quick ramp up!
My friend said it took her 12 weeks before the symptoms she was experiencing from terrible anxiety faded. Then she was fine…Just tired and gained about 8-10 pounds. After a year, her doctor told her to get off and she’s been fine ever since.
— End quote
Kelley, what a great success story. Just knowing that genuinely gives me hope for a better future.
(a) I had read that SSRIs cause an almost immediate change in serotonin levels but in the case of people who suffer from mood disorders, it takes many weeks for their nervous system to respond. That seems to be what happened in your friend’s case.
(b) Conversely, I recently read (can’t remember where but maybe it was something IchBinDarren posted) that serotonin affected the size of the capillaries in the brain and in this way it helped with migraine. I guess this effect would occur quite quickly.
It seems there is more than one mechanism for SSRIs to help with migraine. Unfortunately, I’m very sensitive to their side effects so they’re not an option I’m entertaining at present even though some MAV docs like to try them first. For example I believe Dr Hain at the Mayo is an advocate of trying Effexor first. (Of course strictly speaking Effexor is an SNRI but I believe it’s seen as a sort of “honourary” SSRI).
From your posts I can see you’re well informed about meds, so have you got any views on this.
Your progress sounds good, I would just keep on doing what you are doing.
I titrated slowly on Celexa, and for the first couple of weeks I had only side effects. On the third week, I felt slightly better, and then I got better very fast and plateaued at 80% improvement for about 2 months. Then finally it started going back up, and now I would say I am at 90-some percent. The only trouble is at night, when I feel like there is some spinning, which I why I still take a tiny benzo before bedtime every other day or so.
Sounds like a good drug for you. And another thing — you have evidence that an SSRI can help you, so that if you decide to switch from Paxil, the odds are that you will find something else that will work.
Kind of a side bar here, but I took paxil many years ago for depression, only going up to 10mg, and I’m sure it didn’t take that many weeks to work. I may be going on it now for great anxiety so I hope I don’t need to wait that many weeks! I suspect it may slowly start to work and that’s ok, but I sure can’t wait a long time!