The other night, I decided on sheer whim to take a Paxil and see what it would do to me. I suffer from seasonal depression and was thinking of looking at it as a prescription option if my depression returns badly this year. Now, I understand that side effects are most severe during the first week of treatment, but after that night I honestly don't understand how anyone could take this stuff on a regular basis.
I took it at about 7:00PM, and noticed first effects within an hour. Slight tingling sensation, metallic taste in my mouth, and slight mood elevation. I went to go have a few beers with my friends, and the alcohol affected me much more than usual, mainly adding to the mood elevation effects. It came time to sleep, but I soon realized that this wasn't going to happen. Luckily a friend was awake, and they stayed up all night talking to me. I finally slept about 14 hours later with the help of some Kava-Kava, and awoke within another 3 hours feeling like crap. I had a nasty headache and some gastrointestinal problems that carried well into the next day. The most important thing I noticed though, was that I was far too 'high' from this drug to hope to be functional around sober people, and this is coming from someone that wouldn't mind eating a few hits of acid in a public place and interacting.
All in all the experience wasn't all that bad, or good, but I decided I would definitely not be requesting this as a prescription at my next visit.
