Alternatives to Paxil?

[Guest guest]

I have had CFIDS for almost 10 years now. About one year after the onset

while in the hospital for a few days a neurologist put me on 20mgs of Paxil.

Since then (about 9 years) I have gone off it 3 times, the third time being a

few months after I saw Dr. Cheney for the third time and he warned me of the

dangers of SSRI's. So now I have been off Paxil for 8 months (which is the

longest so far out of the 3 periods). The problem is I seem to crash more

often now, my hands are almost always cold (I mean ice cold), and I just don't

seem to be able to handle as much day to day activity and stress as I did in

the past few years....but I am not really " depressed " or having panic attacks.

Doctor Dr. Cheney told me because of the CFIDS I basically live and die by

my adrenals (hence the crashing that happens from time to time). So if the

adrenals have low reserves and are being taxed in CFIDS, then maybe the Paxil

was taking the edge off the day to day general anxiety that without knowing

is taxing the already overworked adrenal glands. So it's now getting to the

point that if I can't recover from this latest crash (crashed from the trip

Seattle to North Carolina, actually fell asleep in Cheney's office), I am

thinking of maybe going back on a low dose of Paxil to see if it can help me

get

back to a comfortable functioning level. But before I do that, I wanted try

some alternatives because I worked so hard to get off Paxil. So has anyone

had any success with any alternatives?....like 5-HTP, Saint 's Wort,

SAM-e, Kava Kava, Passion Flower, etc? Dr. Cheney did give me something made

by

Medi-Herb called " Nevaton " which has St. 's Wort in it, but it just

doesn't seem to really be helping. Any suggestions?

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.