Brain Shivers and other Adventures

It's been over four months since I went cold turkey off the antidepressant Paxil..
Some where, some how, antidepressant drugs got tagged 'happy pills'...
I can advise you from my experience no antideppresant even comes close
to living up to it...
My 'family Doctor' got me started on this little adventure...
Three years ago..Not cuz I was sick..
It was advised as a means to avoid getting sick...
Do to a lot of stress in my everyday life.
I used to be a automotive mechanic...
Should have taken the advice of that industry's standard..
If it ain't broken, don't fix it...
The Family Doctor wrote me a 'referral' to see a Psychiatrist...
In the movies, Psychiatrists want to hear about your 'issues'...
They let you kick back on a stylin' recliner and listen to you create a major script for daytime TV...
Somewhere along the line Psychiatrists got smarter...
Now days they are just the drug dealers..
You got to pony up to a Psychologist to get the couch treatment...
All that writing Psychologist are doing while the patient is 'working through their issues' is the real place daytime TV scripts come from...
They fax all that stuff off at the end of the week to their literary agent, and forget about it...
I know this cuz, it's the only way I can explain why Psychologists never 'really' remember what it was you were talking about during your last session..
"Refresh my memory"
Paxil is a serotonin re uptake inhibitor...It slows down the bodies natural breakdown of the chemical manufactured in the brain...
Serotonin like many chemicals our bodies manufacture to keep us balanced tends to become in short supply as we age.
Serotonin is a buffer...A cushion that helps stress 'roll off' and generally speaking a smiley face to remain...
After three months I changed my Psychiatrist...
The first guy couldn't understand why after six weeks on Paxil my smiley face hadn't flown back in the window....
I was plunged into the world of 'mental health' first with the events of my Father.
In his early forties he fell victim to a form of schizophrenic disorder..
His second wife Betsy (also schizophrenic),....My wife Shirley,.... And I, were there for him through out his twenty year battle back from a stuporous state to some sense of a fulfilled life..
Four years ago and subsequently every year after including this year, a very close friend of mine has been battling suicide..
I had the privilege by request of the patient, to sit in on Psychiatrist sessions with my Father, and Betsy his second wife...
I am closely involved with the care of my close friend and always am included in those Psychiatrist sessions also...
By my close friend's current Psychiatrist's own admission...
Medical science to date does not have the knowledge, nor the technology, to confirm the diagnosis of most types of mental health issues..
Currently most mental health issues are diagnosed by 'symptoms'..
Some forms of mental health can be 'seen' by MRI and CAT scans..
These are usually in the schizophrenic disorders class as schizophrenic disorders leave scar tissue on the brain..
The close friend I refer two has had no less than four different Psychiatrists over the last four years...
Two of them, frustrated at 'trying' one type of antidepressant for six weeks, then another type for six weeks, wound up asking the patient...
What do you think we should do?
As I write this my friend is currently back in the hospital needing another 'evaluation' do to suicidal thoughts..
The common terminology used by Paxil junkies when describing withdrawal symptoms is 'brain shivers'...It feels like wave after wave of pressure squeezing and releasing inside ones brain...
Kind of what a hyperactive dog in training must feel around it's neck with a choke collar.
Equilibrium is rudely interrupted..
You ever wake up in the middle of the night and go bumping into walls trying to get to the bathroom?...
Brain shivers are a bad hangover without the previous benefits....
The first two weeks of withdrawal mine were accompanied by a high pitched sound in my ears...
Like a bird chirp. peep..peep...That was unnerving...
My Dad's first symptoms..were a cartoon music loop that kept playing over and over in his head...I hadn't forgotten that and It was freaking me out...
Very low energy level moving in slowwww motion...
I geared up though before I dove off....Drama mine helps a little with the equilibrium...
I didn't know drama mine is a antihistamine....I usually avoid them..That's just a personal preference..
It was worth the trade of in this case..
Other weapons in the arsenal: Saint John's Wort...A natural ingredient 'good mood' enhancer....I got Tylenol to combat headaches.. I was advised they are constant throughout the detox period...
Which leads me to the detox period...The way did it....Two weeks..
There is a easier softer road....One can choose to 'wean' themselves off Paxil slowly stepping down the dosage over a three to six month period...
Some people are successful doing it that way..
It's the same concept as nicotine patch withdrawal.
Personally, I don't have that kind of patience...
Might be one reason I was prescribed the drug in the first place..
Anyway, I think a lot of mental health issues today are a result of the social life style we are leading..
There are just a lot of stress factors in everyday life..
I have taken to the determination that a healthy state of mine is greatly determined by an individuals 'way' of addressing life daily..
You ever see the movie City Slickers?...."One thing", right?....Such an awesome concept...
I am still getting to the one thing...
I feel it's real important to understand what the real 'one thing' is..
With all the pressures of what is expected both from ourselves and those around us...
I think it does a body wise to take some time to contemplate...
Get clear on what that magical 'one thing' is...for you...