Finally GlaxoSmithKline warns Paxil may raise suicide risk. What an unbelievable twist: Your life goes into the rough and you reach out to Paxil to get back to calmer waters, where you can sort it all out, but instead of bringing you into safty, Paxil pushes you over board.
Cecily Bostock committed suicide after only two weeks of using Paxil. She was Shawn’s childhood girlfriend. They went to high school and university together. She was a total feeler and was able to express that in her art. Her paintings could reached out and touch you very deeply. Being the feeler she was the crazy life of ours just overwhelmed her once in a while. She took the pills to calm her down and at the end they did more than we like.
I am no expert in depression and I know sometimes you sit in such a dark hole that you think you only can get out from using medications. Our excellent acupuncture Dr. Chen in San Francisco is very adamant against using antidepressants and especially Paxil. He tries to help many of his patients to get off these antidepressants and it is very hard.
It isn’t something that is discussed very openly, so it is possible that one of my friends is even using it. Let me know, let’s talk about it, find a better way together. After all that’s what friends are for: Friends don’t let friends use Paxil.
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When you go on a anti-depressant, you are almost always warned about possible increase of suicide. That’s because when you are in the deepest part of depression, you don’t always have the energy or will to kill yourself. It’s on your way back up that the tempation arrives, spurred on by that you are on drugs yet you aren’t better yet (it takes a while for it to build up in the system.) I’m not sure exactly from the article why paxil is particularly suspect; it has been known for awhile now that children and teenagers are too volitile, physically, for most antidepressants…
A friend could be on paxil, and it could be working for him– we are all not the same chemically. And paxil may save many lives for the ones it’s taken– it’s hard to know. I someone who was on it and it worked great for a year, but started to “wear off” after awhile, and she grew more and more dangerous to herself, then they switched meds, and she’s doing better.
It’s complicated. The best thing you can do for your friends is simply listen, watch and be present. Knowing someone cares if you fall off the planet is often a deterrant to doing it; while being afraid of being judged, lectured to or ostracized may make the problem worse, and that friend may withdraw from life.