Paroxetine Dreams

[electrocutee]

So I'm currently on Loxamine (or Paxil/Seroxat depending where you are). I was prescribed it for anxiety and depression around a year ago. Its actually the first time I've used medication.
I'm used to the incredibly intense dreams that come as a side effect of this stuff, and although I find that to be quite pleasant, yesterday was a different story. I had been drinking rather heavily the previous night, so I was throwing up all morning and didn't bother to take my medication as it wasn't going to stay down at all! During the day I had a sleep for about 4 hours, didn't recall any of my dreams from that but when it came to the time when I would usually go to bed, I was wide awake. So I stayed up until around 5am in the end, and when I tried sleeping for the first couple of hours I was having these annoying lucid dreams where I would wake up after a couple of seconds of being asleep, and not even feel like having slept at all. It was strange, I don't know if it was due to the fact that I had forgotten my medication or because I'd completely screwed with my sleeping pattern
Anyone else experienced these kinds of strange awake dreams when coming off Paroxetine medication?
I'm thinking it isn't really the right medication for me anyway and I'd like to come off it at some point but I've heard about how hard it is to come off and all the negative side effects seem pretty scary considering I've never come off any medication before

[pita]

Antidepressants give me crazy dreams, both when I take them and when I come off of them.

[meyaj]

Yes, this is completely normal. SSRIs strongly reduce REM sleep. When withdrawing from the medication, you get a rebound effect, and vivid dreams tend to kick in stronger than ever.

[millenniumman75]

I get these kinds of dreams if I go 36 hours without a dose. They are very vivid. I ought to write down what I dream about - I could be told something.

Anyway, I do plan on stopping someday as well. Tapering off slowly is the only way to go.

[jim_morrison]

I don't really get any odd dreams on SSRI/SNRI's or even benzos for that matter, but when I took mirtazapine, an antidepressant from a different class I had some of the most crazy and vivid dreams of my entire life.

[electrocutee]

Yeah I was thinking I should start writing down what I dream about because at the least it is very amusing Before was prescribed antidepressants I was taking diazepam to help me sleep when I was suffering really badly, and a couple of times I remember sleep walking. Now that was strange!

[jim_morrison]

Originally Posted by electrocutee

Yeah I was thinking I should start writing down what I dream about because at the least it is very amusing !

You should see what I have written down in my dream journal from my period taking mirtazapine, I was having contact with levitating aliens, entering futuristic like houses that would change size and dimensions as I walked through them etc lol it was so friggin bizzarre! The strange thing is I could remember so many hours of dreaming so clearly. Whereas now I can barely remember my dreams for 10 minutes after I wake up! My pdoc said that mirtazapine doesn't actually change your dreams but just puts you in a different stage of sleep to normal so your recollection of dreams is more clear, go knows whats actually going on with that med though.