Serotonin Syndrome/ chronic long term high serotonin cause of anxiety and illness.

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April 8, 2026

I am wondering if anyone else has experienced several episodes of high serotonin? After nearly dying from the last episode in February, my husband and I finally worked out that all the suffering over the last few years was from chronically high serotonin. After stopping paroxetine for a while to get rid of excess serotonin, I never felt better. This lead me down the rabbit hole of researching chronic high serotonin and the effect on our brains. It seems serotonin is not the happy thing we thought it was. Very few people realise this. I am yet to meet someone who discovered that their brains absolutely hate serotonin like mine...I get enough from daily life and SSRis were making me sick. That on top of taking pain medication tipped me over the edge, leading to 4 years of constant agitation and anxiety. I honestly thought I was dying of something, and spent years researching every possible autoimmune disease I could have. What a waste of time. Serotonin was making me sick,

Paxil — 2.5 — 24 years — reinstated | Mirtazapine — 15mg — 3 — reinstated | Valium — 2.5 — 7 months — actively tapering | without clinician
Also tapering Tapentadol and dexamphetamine

4 Replies

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CatinaApr 8

Community AnchorEffexor

"It seems serotonin is not the happy thing we thought it was." — @Lost summer

This is true! Have you read this article by Brooke Siem about what serotonin actually does in the body? It's very eye-opening! https://brookesiem.substack.com/p/155-heres-what-serotonin-actually

Venlafaxine (tapering) - Current dose 16.64 mg
Trazodone - 50 mg
Synthroid - 25 mcg

“Your brain and body know how to heal. Trust the process and keep going.”

Please Note: I am not a healthcare professional. Any advice given is based on personal experience and that of others in the lay withdrawal community.

Lost summerApr 11

LighthousePaxil · reinstated

I found Georgi Dinkov on Utube. He literally saved my life. I tell everyone I know to listen to him. It's not just serotonin...Estrogen is terrible too. This man isn't even in the medical, pharmacology, neuroscience field, and he is literally the most intelligent person I have ever listened too.

⭐

CatinaApr 11

Community AnchorEffexor

"I found Georgi Dinkov on Utube. He literally saved my life. I tell everyone I know to listen to him. It's not just serotonin...Estrogen is terrible too. This man isn't even in the medical, pharmacology, neuroscience field, and he is literally the most intelligent person I have..." — @Lost summer

Good to know. I'll check him out. 👍

songbirdSep 23

WelcomerValium · holding

Yes.. I was trying to tell my clinician this a few years back because fluoxetine caused me to have severe serotonin overload migraines. She denied these migraines were a real thing. She then put me on Effexor “for the pain or fibromyalgia”. (Wtf, it was worse). I haven’t done much research into serotonin specifically but I do a lot of research into the gut-brain link. I am aware that some psychiatric medications can damage or alter the natural microbiome of the gut and I believe this can be the source of some health issues that cause chronic systemic inflammation, things like a leaky gut, for example will be factor, at least they have been for me, from decades of psychiatric medications. I think this is linked to serotonin but I have to do further research to make a causal link.

Valium — 2 years, 2 months — holding | Topamax — 25mg — 3 years, 3 months — actively tapering | other — 3mcg — 3 years, 9 months — supporting others | other — 30mg — 3 years, 3 months — supporting others

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