The Long Road Off Paxil

A young lady named Summer Beretsky, a journalism student no less at the time, had a bit of a problem a ways back, which she describes in this piece in yesterday's Los Angeles Times:

"My panic attacks began in college. They would occur during situations in which escape proved either difficult or embarrassing: in class, in my cellblock of a dorm room, on the highway. They became a daily event and interfered with my daily activities, so I did what countless direct-to-consumer television ads told me to do: I went to my doctor.

"He gave me a script for Paxil, mumbled something about how half the population takes this sort of stuff and told me to take it easy.

"After a week or two, the panic attacks just stopped. For this, I was thankful. I could drive, go to class and spend time in my dorm room. But Paxil had one pretty undesirable effect on me: I started to lose interest in just about everything. I stopped initiating social activities (who needs that sort of thing?) and was no longer motivated to perform well academically."

She, then, went through several rounds of withdrawal hell, but eventually got in the clear.

"After my motivation and emotions returned, I started doing what I should have done when my panic attacks began: I became an information-seeking machine. I read books. I sought out alternative therapies. I took an anxiety-management class, tried acupuncture and learned about mindfulness meditation.

"Things started to improve, and the good news is this: Things are still, miraculously, improving. I'm now aware of how my freshly Paxil-free body reacts to anxiety-producing stimuli -- my heart races and my muscles tighten -- and because of this, I know when to start calming myself down.

"We live in a quick-fix world. You want a burger? Go to the drive-thru and you'll have one in less than a minute. You want to change the channel on the TV? Don't bother getting up; just use the remote.

"And likewise, for our panic attacks, we expect to find instant solutions behind the pharmacy counter. But quick fixes aren't always the best long-term solutions. Paxil was a merely a bank loan that I had to eventually repay with interest."

I congratulate the LAT for running her piece. It wasn't long ago that you would've never seen such an article in the mainstream media, but that seems to have changed in the past year. I wonder why.

BTW, as I have noted before, I know psychiatrists who won't prescribe Paxil for the very reasons Beretsky ran into and they wonder why it's still on the market.

Here's Beretsky's YouTube vid describing Paxil Hell. I've not been able to watch it since YouTube was misbehavin' yesterday, so I'll just assume it's dandy YouTubery and suggest you watch it.