Chris, please go to google and type in "paxil withdrawal tapering" and get informed on this. You'll get a ton of hits. For example, here's a quote from this page:
Quote: The Right Way to Wean Off an (SSRI/SNRI/SSNRI) antidepressant How should I taper off and how long should I take to taper off?
Work closely with a doctor. Don’t go off medication without medical supervision. The best way to minimize withdrawal side effects is to wean off the medication. By reducing the dosage in small increments, your serotonergic system can gradually take over it's own natural serotonin producing activity and slowly adapt to living without the drug.
This process may take up to a year or longer.
Some doctors are halving the dose every week or two. We do not recommend to taper off that fast. Nor do we recommend to skip daily doses. Taper gradually with an absolute maximum of 5% per week. When it gets down to the smallest dose, (10mg capsule), you can try "The Orange Juice Bit", "Cutting Tablets" or "Oral Suspensions-Liquid Preparations":
"Orange Juice Bit"
pour a glass of orange juice pull apart the capsule and stir into the orange juice drink 9/10 of it and repeat this every day until the 7th day. The next week drink 8/10 of it until the 14th day, then 7/10 until the 21th day, 6/10 until the 28th day, and so on... repeat the "orange juice bit" several weeks until you've totally come off your (SSRI) antidepressant...
Never ever use Grapefruit Juice. Grapefruit juice is an inhibitor of the cytochrome P-450 enzymes. These enzymes are known to metabolize (break down) (SSRI) antidepressants in the liver. Drinking grapefruit juice whilst you are taking an (SSRI) antidepressant can create a serious toxic reaction, because the chemical ingredient will build to toxic levels in the bloodstream!
"Cutting Tablets"
If you don't take capsules but tablets, you can try to chip smaller doses off the tablets. Unfortunately this is a very uneasy task. You could order a pill cutter or pill splitter at your local pharmacist to facilitate this procedure. Pill-cutters aren't that expensive.
"Oral Suspensions-Liquid Preparations"
A much better way to wean off when it gets down to the smallest dose is simply to turn to your doctor who can provide you a liquid preparation (oral suspension-10 mg./5 ml.) of Paxil, Prozac or Zoloft and possibly more liquid versions of other SSRI's. Most people don't know about it, or don't consider it because it's supposedly for kids. It's very easy to use and more reliable then chopping up tablets. Ask your doctor for it !
Take notice that even this process of slowly tapering off could be too fast for you to avoid withdrawal reactions or other serotonin related side-effects. This will be different for every individual.
