I wanted to get T-nation’s advice on something: I have been having problems sleeping and controlling my appetite pretty much my entire life, which my shrink believes is due to underlying mild anxiety/depression. Despite these problems I have a successful career in business, succesful academically, and also have made great gains physically, so although I do get overly anxious, I pretty much enjoy my life.
My shrink prescribed the antidepressant Paxil CR (25mg). I am concern about what this drug will do to my motivation (I am currently a Type-A, both in business and in the gym), I have heard it might make you emotional numb, as well as weight gain from the drug. Does Paxil inherently cause weight gain? My concern is that putting on 20 lbs of blubber will make me a hell of a lot more anxious & depressed. If I continue to eat clean and follow the T-man lifestyle, would this drug interfere with gains? Obviously these are not concerns of the average, non T-person shrink, that is why I am asking you guys. Also are there any supplements I should not take while on Paxil.
Yes Iam on 35 mg and have been for about 6 months.At first I gained some weight all the way to 248 but now I am back down to 222 lean 6 foot tall.I really dont notice any changes except when I dont take a dose and Iam a nut case all day till I take my pill for the day.I have noticed I have calmed down quiet a bit and Iam not as quick to pop off at the mouth or lie around depressed all day.My workouts are very intense the paxil didnt seem to effect my engery levels.Hope that helped
A few years back, I was given Paxil for an anxiety issue I was dealing with at the time. What happened? Well I started eating everything in sight and put on some serious weight! Going from 190lbs to 255lbs. After I hit about 230, I went to the doctor and asked for something different. So he gave me Prozac. Well, I kept putting on the weight. So I eventually tapered myself off the Prozac and about 3 weeks later my muscles started twitching. Long story short, I was later diagnosed with Benign Fasciculation Syndrome (BFS). My muscles still twitch to this day when I get stressed out.
Hindsight 20/20, I never would have started messing with my brain chemistry. I dont think medical science is advanced enough to do it safely and wisely. Drop the words --paxil electric shock-- into a search engine.
My only other advice I can offer, is that while I was on the SSRIs, I experienced few mental lows. On the same token, I experienced few mental highs (times of excitement). In fact I remember one point worth mentioning; One day I was pulled over for speeding. Normally (and now), Ill get a little rush out of that. But at the time I was pulled over for speeding, I got nothing. I gave him my info, accepted the ticket, and then passed it on to my attorney. It was pretty much even keel all the way.
Anyway, I blame the SSRIs for my muscle twitching. I could very well be off base on it, but it just seemed too coincidental. Ive also found other people with the exact same symptoms after coming off SSRIs.
Im surprised your doctor didnt prescribe Prozac, as it seems to have some appetite suppressive sides to it, more than Paxil. However, Paxil seems to be the -anxiety- drug of choice, so maybe thats why he went that route.
Anyway, I now weigh ~205. My goal for the next three months is to get down to 195.
I have been on Paxil CR 25mg per day for about 8 months now. Before that I have been on antidepressants off and on for the majority of my adult life. I will tell you that as far as antidepressants go I have had the best success with Paxil. And I have tried them all!!! Tricyclics, SSRIs, atypicals, etc.
With that said I will also tell you that it appears from my own experience and research that response AND SIDE EFFECTS are very individual to different antidepressants. While one person my have a great response to a certain antidepressant and manageable side effects, another person may not have any beneficial responce and bad side effects. This is likely because while we see any number of persons that appear to have the same symptoms that we call depression, for any given person it is likely a different imbalance in neurotransmitters that for another person. But I digress …
Anyway if you are a responder to Paxil I think that 25mg. can be very beneficial for you. I am also a highly motivated Type A and it has not done anything to lessen my motivation at work or in the gym. I did experience some sexual side effects at first but those have subsided. These effects were lessening of libido and difficulty getting wood. I know this sounds bad but after a few weeks everything went back to normal and it may have been all in my head since I knew these were possible side effects. The only side effect that has continued is difficulty having an orgasm. This is certainly bothersome at times but if you are a minute-man it can be a help. You have to weigh all the pros and cons. Good luck.
Have you considered St-John’s Wort, also known as nature’s Prozac? If you’re not suffering from major chronic depression, it might be worth looking into. I don’t get the impression you’re chronically depressed if you’re enjoying life.
I suffered a bout of clinical depression about 8 years ago and I wasn’t enjoying life. My doctor prescribed Paxil. I didn’t gain weight while on it but I was already fat when I started taking it.
I did experience problems achieving orgasm for the first month or so.
I take St-John’s Wort now and it works pretty well for me. It has fewer side effects than Paxil. Photosensitivity is about the only side effect worth mentioning. I take the standard dose of 300 mg. capsules standardized to 0.3% hypericin three times a day.
You should not mix any SSRI, St-John’s Wort included, with MAO (monoamine oxidase) inhibitors. You should also avoid taking supps like 5-HTP (which increase serotonin levels in the brain) with SSRIs or you could end up with serotonin syndrome.
a few years ago i was on paxil for 2 years it helped some but it was bad for
sex life, and switched to wellbutrin and
that works better for me and no effects
on sex either, how ever a question: can
i take mag 10 caps while on wellbutrin?
this also applies to paxil and other
anti-deppressants as well and have no
info and any info would be great. later…
Try Lexapro.
I used Paxil before Celexa and Lexapro (Lexapro is the ion split of Celexa). Paxil put weight on me and when I did not tapper off of it the first time it made me feel like crap.
Lexapro is the way to go. You will not be sorry. It works great for anxiety and will let you use your type A personality to your advantage.
I took Paxil several years ago. It did not make me gain weight. I did not have any noticable side effects until one day I just felt like crap. I was totally exausted and slept constantly. I would wake up and do something for an hour and then go back to sleep for an hour or two. I must have slept 15 hours a day. It was weird because I had no problems, and then boom, lump of shit. I agree that people respond differently to these drugs.
Thanks, guys! I really appreciate all the advice…I wish I signed up on the forum earlier!
BrentM: When you say you started eating everything in sight…how far into taking Paxil did your appetitie kick into high gear? I ask b/c if I decide to heed my Doc’s advice I will monitor my mood/behavior/hunger vry closely.
MVAC: It sounds like we have similar personalities, if you don’t mind, could you please describe futher how Paxil has improved your life? Less anxious, more social, more focused?
Also, i am really curious if Tribex, red-Kat, Mag-10 or any other T-mag supplent might help out with the sexual side effects of antidepressants??
THANK YOU!
Max
Thanks a million everyone, I really appreciate the responses!!
I just recently stopped Effexor I began taking before, during and after my divorce. It gave me limp dick, shitty orgams when I could have one, and I put on a lot of weight. I would never get on another anti-depressant. It affected my drive to train, and how much I cared about my diet and training. Now, my anti-depressant consists of various deadlifts, squats and such. Somtimes I feel like I have to lift hard and heavy just to stay sane.
Doctors overprescribe antidepressants like they’re getting a cut of the money. Maybe they are. Paxil is the single worst drug I’ve ever taken. And I’ve taken lots. I took it a few years ago when I was going through some crap. I was overweight at the time and not checking my weight, so for all I know it could have made me fatter.
BrentM - I haven’t searched that on the web but I sure as hell got it, the brain electric surges. Good God those used to scare the hell out of me. The first day or two I took it, it put me in a great mood. Then after that, bleh. It makes a lot of people boring as hell. A fried of mine about broke up with his girlfriend who went on it because it made her just a lazy boring zombie girl. I would say stay the hell away from it, but I’m not your doc.
My son took Paxil to get him through an “episode” that he was obsessing about. He was on it for about four months. The drug worked great and it allowed him to work his way through the issue and he is no longer on the drug. HOWEVER, he gained weight like a motherfucker in those four months…like 15 pounds…keep in mind he was only 10 years old at the time.
Based on his experience, I would highly recommend taking the drug if prescribed by a physician, but keep your eye on how much you eat.
ZEB: Watch out with that vitamin C recommendation.
I used to take boatloads of it, until I started experiencing moods swings. Some research mentionned that vitamin C was a magnesium drainer, which is really important in all mental processes. One must do some research on the magnesium stuff, however. The final effect depends on what the magnesium molecule is linked to - in some cases, it was counterproductive because the linking molecule (aspartate, absolutely not sure, don`t take my word for it, read this 4 years back) actually had a depressing effect. Magnesium defiency was also the single common factor in a study of suicides.