[darcyb]

There’s plenty about withdrawal symptoms to get depressed about. It’s not easy. Withdrawal affects the same parts of you that depression can, and when the two are mixed together, feeling hopeless is easy.

Depression can happen to anybody in this adventure if it’s chemical or the result of withdrawal pushing you to your tolerance limits. We believe it often hinges on if you see yourself as a victim or just someone having an experience, and in either of these two, your measure of time vs results complicates things further.

Try to keep these thoughts in mind:

• Youre allowed to be depressed. How much time do you allow yourself to grieve the death of a loved one? A week? A month? A year? Do what your heart needs to heal by giving yourself permission to fall. Youre not supposed to be an internalizing/unfeeling wall. Even if it feels like its some specter and you cant figure out where its coming from, its OK to be there for now. It will change.
  
  
• Just because you are depressed today, does not mean that youll be the same way tomorrow. This will not last long if you consider that there are plenty of years ahead of you which will be depression free. Life doesnt have condemnation built-in. Only your imagination can fool you into believing that youre stuck for good.
  
  
• Having a depressive experience does not signify a return of a daily depression like you may have had before. Perceive this one differently.
  
  
• Admitting the previous points, how can you possibly know how long a depression will last or if it will be here tomorrow? You cant, but you can avoid them by not contributing to them. You can shorten its duration by not believing or convincing yourself that you'll have more episodes. And even if you do, does it really serve you to have a moment of, aha! Im depressed! I was right damn it ? Wouldnt it be more useful if when you did feel depressed again you thought, hey, heres that depression again. I wonder what I can do to make it better today. The trick is to never need to know if youll be depressed in the future or not because it doesnt immediately matter. When and if you get there, youll be a different person equipped with even more knowledge and experience with depressive episodes and youll be better prepared to dispel them. You can help yourself get better if you do the work now however, and that involves not entertaining fatalistic scenarios.
  
  
• When you have thoughts like, "the whole world hates me", ask yourself if you interviewed the billions of inhabitants on this planet to find out if this was even remotely true. Get out of the illusionary bubble whenever you can by challenging your beliefs so that you dont miss out the opportunity of the adopting the next growth promoting one.
  
  
• When you have thoughts like, "I just cant go on like this anymore, I would rather be dead", seek love immediately through friends, family or even a hot line. If you think you dont have any friends, think again (billions of people, remember). Theres at least one friend you forgot about and millions of others in the social services sector that would give you so much without expecting any return. You came here for a reason, your soul chose to have experiences for its/your growth and this dark period will pass too. Youre not coming up to a wall or finding an ending, youre moving through something and you can never stop moving. Wait, relax and rest with a candle, music or something while thinking of a laughing baby, a bundle of baby kittens or someone bending over and ripping their pants.
  
  
• If youre committed to getting off Paxil and depression hits you hard during the withdrawal, know that its only temporary. Youre so close to being free from experiences you no longer want, its worth waiting just another day or week. Trust that the end goal is coming to you with perfect timing. In the meantime, no matter how low you feel or how little you actually want to do, push yourself at least a little each day. Try singing, watching a comedian, catch a funny movie (like Patch Adams), take a walk outside, go around collecting hugs or best of all: volunteer. Youll be immensely surprised at how good it feels when youre in the service of others. The universe is a copycat machine, confirming that you already have what you give, because you were able to give it.
  
  
• Laugh. Just laugh. Depression killer #1 is laughter. You cannot be low while raising enough energy for a completely senseless zany outburst! If you cant think of anything funny, just practice laughing. The body sends out happy-hormones often with the physical demonstration and not necessarily the punch line.

Saint John's Wort can be a useful herb, and that's discussed in the Supplements section.