"i have watched my wife spiral completely out of control"

i am the spouse of the person taking this damn drug paxil - and i want to tell you i am at my wits end with all this - this is really a long story ill try and compress it - i live in canada and am moving to san francisco - have been spending lots of time here in san fran where my parents live - my dad is dieing - my mom got fleeced by some con men for a lot of money - my brother in law tried to grab the estate etc - am now 3 days from taking oath for us citizenship - my wife who is in canada right now had started on paxil after i came here in july and she has gradually increased the dosage to i believe some where in the neighborhood of 40-50 mg - also she is taking atavan and drinking - everything has been ok between us and we have been together for about 10 years - we were looking forward to moving to the us and she had taken stress leave from work back in july and the damn doctor had prescribed this to make her feel better - yeah right - i have watched my wife spiral completely out of control - we have been visiting as she would come here or i would go there to see each other - so i was not completely tuned in to what was happening - i am horrified from the things i have been reading about here and in other places on the net - and i am mad as hell that this doctor prescribed this stuff to her - the absolute least he should have done was to inform me of what was happening

well monday night i spoke to her on the phone and all i can say is "this is not my wife" - she told me among other things that she wanted a divorce - never wanted to see me again - never wanted to speak to me again - and that she was going to mail my personal possessions to me and she was going to see a lawyer etc etc - for about 45 minutes of screaming yelling and crying - for the next 4 days i have been a complete wreck - i can not leave here to go back there until after the oath taking ceremony for citizenship on tuesday - i will be leaving right after that - yesterday was the first time i was able to put this whole thing together - i now feel as though my wife is suffering from some kind of paxil induced psychosis but none of our friends want to hear that - they are all convinced that she wants a divorce and thats that - i have just heard today that she has stopped taking this paxil cold turkey - but i dont know if thats true or if she stopped last week and this is withdrawl

at this point my life is going down the toilet and i am not the one taking this damn drug - i am so mad at the doctor and at the medical establishment in general also pissed off with her family and friends as everyone thinks she just wants a divorce - maybe she does i dont know - 3 weeks ago when she was here which was a few days before my citizenship interview she told me she was hearing voices - i asked her directly if she was really hearing voices and she said no so i thought she had been joking - now i know and i feel very guilty for not having realized that she was out of control

what in gods name has happened - i am a wreck - she must be a lot worse but i didnt realize this til yesterday when i put it all together and started reading about paxil - im afraid that now its too late to salvage my marriage

i dont know what to do - i need to talk to someone - no one (our friends) seems to understand the dangers of this drug - im positive this is all due to the drug or her withdrawal from it

-- submitted by Chris, 44