I've been taking paroxetine 30mg once daily for 4 years for
depression.  Im a 230lb (= ~ 100kg) 40 yo caucasian male nondrinker no
other meds.  Started the medication because of deep depression, have
continued on it because it works for the depression very nicely and I
havent experimented with stopping it fr same reason and  on advice
that medication is otherwise generally benign and since my prior
depression was disabling.  However I am quite tired of having a so
much reduced libido and {*filter*} sensations etc.  So I've asked my
doctor (who is a friend of the family)  and doctor said anecdotal
patient reports suggest buproprion users tend not to report libido
inhibition, but that as to terminating paxil  the literature isn't
definitive other than to follow a taper.  Since other posts in other
groups complain of "severe" withdrawal and since when I once missed a
dose for 24hours because I couldn't get to pharmacy I had an enormous
sinking spell, nightmares, difficult waking, etc., I am wondering what
a reasonable plan will be for trying a taper off from paxil.  I have
no m{*filter*}objection to using antidepressants but I am tired of the side
effects and so I am wondering if I perhaps don't need the SSRI anymore
and how I will find out --  i.e., what is the period after which any
unpleasantness during or after taper-off would no longer be considered
likely to be  "withdrawal" but instead would be viewed as my probable
unmedicated baseline condition.

Another set of questions I have is what it implies chemically for my
future that I have become so adjusted to using the SSRI, when after
all I wasn't depressed most of my life. Although I was prone to
depressive episodes throughout my life, and depression does appear in
some of my siblings, by and large I did well without medication.

I also wonder, really as a matter of curiousity,  what effect
recreational drug use and excessive drinking might have had on my
brain chemistry baseline.  I was drinking about a gallon of German
beer daily and using powder {*filter*} 3 to 7 times per month in
10-hour-episodes when I began abstaining from everything about three
years ago. I hadn't been at that usage level too very long but had
since my 20s smoked pot from 0 to 20 times per month depending upon
the period in the history  (its 15 years Im surveying), been a binge
drinker since 17 yo with the frequency of binges trending generally
upwards until I reached a drink-almost-every-day status about seven
years ago, and had a two month period of heavy powder {*filter*} use in
my early 20s which was a period of deep depression but then no use of
that drug again until about  1.4 years before I began abstinence.

Well anyone with some actual knowledge about these neurochemical
questions or direct personal experience, your thoughts would be much
appreciated.

M
As a "recovering" (as we describe it in a support group)
{*filter*}ic/drug consumer I am also philosophically pondering the
question of what is "normal" fior me vis-a-vis depressive symptoms.
My family is of north european and scandinavian origin and there seems
to be some predisposition to a dour outlook on things generally
anyway.

However, my only reason for actually changing the medication is the
remarkable suppression of my interest in sex and in the sharply
reduced level of sensations I perceive from my {*filter*} organ (almost
like being locally anesthetised though I suppose it has to do with how
the signals are actually read in the brain?)  and {*filter*}ic
disfunction, etc. during those infrequent occasions when I actually am
even interested enough even to try to  engage in relations.