PAWS Long-Term is a lived-experience website for people trying to understand antidepressant withdrawal and prolonged withdrawal symptoms.
I created it because severe withdrawal can be frightening, confusing and extremely isolating. When symptoms continue or appear after an apparent period of improvement, it can be difficult to understand what is happening or find information that reflects the experience from the inside.
Why I created PAWS Long-Term
My name is Mark Cunningham. I experienced severe and prolonged symptoms after withdrawing from paroxetine and, later, venlafaxine.
My experiences included anxiety, emotional changes, disrupted sleep, physical agitation, feeling unlike myself and periods when ordinary daily life became extremely difficult. On both occasions, I also experienced an unexpected delay after taking my final dose. I initially appeared to improve before a much more severe phase began approximately three months later.
This is my personal experience. It does not mean that everybody will follow the same pattern, but it showed me how difficult withdrawal can be to recognise—particularly when symptoms do not follow the timetable someone expects.
During the worst periods, I searched for explanations, reassurance and the experiences of people who understood. I often found either brief medical descriptions or frightening online stories without enough context. PAWS Long-Term is my attempt to create something more balanced.
Also what you will find here, is what life looks like after the withdrawal, do we recover, do we come out of this better or worse? You won’t find such intimate descriptions of what it is like to experience PAWS, Protracted Withdrawal, as you will find here. My hope is that you find the answers to those questions, not the questions you find when you ask google about PAWS, but the deeper ones like, will I ever recover. You deserve answers, and I will provide them. Together we can build a better life after Protracted Withdrawal
What you will find here
The website brings together:
- honest accounts of what antidepressant withdrawal felt like for me;
- carefully presented experiences reported by other people;
- explanations based on current UK clinical guidance;
- practical ways to record symptoms and prepare for healthcare appointments;
- ideas that helped me manage difficult days;
- resources for families and friends who want to understand;
- clear guidance about when urgent or professional help may be needed.
My aim is not to help readers understand what will happen to them. also to help people feel less alone, organise what they are experiencing and find clearer language for conversations with healthcare professionals.
Lived experience and medical information
I am not a doctor, prescriber, therapist or crisis service. I cannot diagnose withdrawal, recommend an individual taper, or tell anyone to stop, restart or change medication.
When I describe something that happened to me, I identify it as personal experience. When an article includes medical information, I aim to support it with reliable sources such as the NHS, NICE and the Royal College of Psychiatrists. However, we all know that often those resources are just lacking, and you need someone with Lived Experience, to talk to and to really understand, what recovery looks like, for them.
Personal accounts from forums and online communities may also be discussed because they can reveal questions and experiences that formal guidance does not always explore in detail. These reports are clearly identified as individual, unverified experiences—not scientific proof.
I will correct or update articles when better evidence or newer guidance becomes available.
What PAWS Long-Term means
The term “PAWS” is sometimes used to mean post-acute withdrawal syndrome. Language surrounding prolonged antidepressant withdrawal is not always consistent, and different people and organisations may use different terms.
This website uses PAWS Long-Term as its name, but its principal focus is antidepressant withdrawal—especially symptoms that become severe, delayed or prolonged.
What helped me may not help everyone
Some articles describe approaches that helped me cope, including meditation, grounding language, changes to eating patterns and ways of reducing stimulation.
These are accounts of what I noticed in my own life, not treatments or promises of recovery. People can react differently, and dietary changes, fasting, supplements or other health practices may not be appropriate for everybody.
Any significant health or medication decision should be discussed with an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
What I hope to build
Over time, I hope PAWS Long-Term will become a useful collection of articles, symptom-recording tools, appointment-preparation resources and practical materials created with compassion and lived experience.
Some expanded resources may eventually be offered as paid products. If that happens, they will be designed to help people organise information, communicate and feel supported—not to diagnose, treat or cure withdrawal.
The central purpose of this website will remain the same: to make a frightening and lonely experience easier to understand.
Important safety information
If you are in immediate danger, believe you may act on thoughts of suicide or self-harm, or cannot keep yourself or somebody else safe, call 999 or go to A&E.
In the UK, you can also contact NHS 111 for urgent advice or Samaritans free on 116 123 for emotional support.
This website cannot provide emergency or crisis support.
Contact
If you have a question, correction or suggestion for a subject that would help readers, you can use the Contact page.
Please do not send urgent medical or crisis messages through the website, as I cannot provide emergency assistance.
Trusted information and support
- NHS — general information about antidepressants and withdrawal.
- NICE— UK clinical recommendations about stopping antidepressant medication.
- COLLEGE OF PSYCHIATRISTS — detailed patient guidance about stopping antidepressants.
- SAMARITANS — free emotional support, day or night, on 116 123.
- CONTACT PAWS LONG TERM — corrections, suggestions and non-urgent questions.