This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/chao-cha0 on 2026-02-13 12:00:52+00:00.
Hey yall, as the title states, I did not taper off my medication and now I’m facing the consequences.
I started taking Paroxetine 10mg around 6 months ago for depression and anxiety. This was the first SSRI I have ever tried. But after months of taking it, I started having suicidal thoughts that would increase day by day to the point of distress. At the time I realized, I had started another antidepressant as well (Elavil 10mg), but I hadn’t taken it for that long, maybe a month at most. I contacted my doctor who manages my medication and she let me know to stop taking both medications. She never mentioned any other instructions, but I know exactly how horrible stopping Paroxetine can be, and I STILL decided to stop cold turkey anyway instead of creating my own tapering schedule. I am now days into stopping the medication, and I have felt the absolute worst feelings physically and emotionally. Now I constantly wake up drenched in sweat, nauseous to the point of barely eating, my anxiety has gotten so much worse (uncontrollable anger + crying, anxiety attacks), fatigue, feeling lightheaded… and so much more. The problem is, I’m too far into stopping the medication that I can’t just take it again to relieve myself, as it can cause adverse effects. The only thing that I can do is just try to keep going dealing with these symptoms. Not only has this affected me, but it’s affecting my household too. So far, I have lashed out on everyone for very minor things and I regret it so much. I can tell that I am stressing everyone out with how I can’t deal with my emotions. To top it all off, the symptoms that I am experiencing are the MILD SYMPTOMS! I really fucked myself over for making a stupid decision, and I regret everything. I just want to go back in time to just fix it all.
TL;DR: I cold turkeyed Paroxetine instead of tapering and I completely ruined my life and can’t retake it, so I have to thug it out.