text reads as follows: Antidepressants end of text. various people have mentioned on this board that they are using or have used antidepressants. anybody have anything else to add on the subject? my own experience with paxil has been both very positive and very negative. currently i'm back on paxil and it's working wonderfully. it doesn't cure shy bowel or ibs but it certainly makes them a lot better and less life impingeing. however i do feel like i'm living on chemical credit and that one day i'll have to pay for this 'vacation'. so i don't view it as a longterm solution but it feels right for me to be on them at the moment. does anyone have experience of being on paxil or other antidepressants - like st johns wort, or prozac - that they'd like to share?
Some antidepressants (such as Seroxat - or Paxil as it's known in the States) can help reduce general levels of anxiety and help with Social Phobia (Shy Bowel is technically a Specific Social Phobia). It may be worth thinking about going on one if you are having a really difficult time with your Shy Bowel and are experiencing depression as a result. Certain antidepressants can also alleviate IBS to an extent. The big drawback with antidepressants is the withdrawal you experience when you come off them; Seroxat withdrawal for example can be very difficult though this is not always emphasized by doctors, so think carefully before you start using them. However if you feel that you are at your wits end, antidepressants can be very useful in offering some 'ground under your feet' and may provide a 'vacation' from the severity of your symptoms - giving you time to assess what psychological approaches and/or lifestyle changes you need to make. The relief that people experience varies from person to person; talk to your doctor if you think they might be useful for you.
very positive in that when i am taking it, it reduces my ibs, my shy bowel, and my shy bladder considerably and this in turn has a very positive effect on my depression.
very negative in that when i come off it i get nasty withdrawal symptoms: big anger surges, strong mood instability, and even was feeling homicidal towards my parents. (the homicidal/suicidal feelings side of paxil withdrawal have been well documented and may have something to do with a substance in the brain called 5-HIAA. SSRI's (such as paxil) work by stopping seretonin (the feelgood chemical in the brain) going into 'resting' or 're-uptake' mode (seretonin has two states in the brain: active when it's being used and re-uptake position when it's not), thus giving your brain the impression that you have high seretonin levels. which is great, except the downside of this is that it may stop the natural process of seretonin getting converted into 5-HIAA. What does 5-HIAA do? It's still a bit unclear in medical circles but a defecit of it in the brain has been linked to violent crime behaviour, homicide, suicide, and addiction. Hence while you're on paxil, you're fine because your active seretonin levels are nice and high so you feel good. But all the time you're on them your 5-HIAA levels may be slowly dropping. Then one day, you decide to slowly wean yourself off paxil, and hey presto! your seretonin levels start dropping, your 5-HIAA levels are already lower than they should be, and you've got a recipe for feeling pretty violent/depressed/unstable.) even on this message board, i was angry in an inappropriate way with alice who used to post, when i was going through my own paxil withdrawal - as people who've been around long enough will remember.
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