I'm not so sure about the fruit juices recommendation in a previous posting. They contain a lot of sugar. Better to eat fruit, becuae it takes longer to ingest and contains fiber and fills you up more. A few other recommendations: -Get used to whole grains -- bread, pasta and rice. They have improved them so they are easy to prepare and are very tasty. They are more filling and satisfying that refined products. - If you eat a lot of processed food, start reading the labels. If there are more than 4 or 5 ingredients, don't eat it. - Try ot avoid or cut down on sugar. Get a cheap paperback that lists the sugar content in all foods. You'll be surprised. Sugar is all over the place. - Stay away from butter and whole milk products. Use skim milk, or low fat milk. If you like cheese, eat it in moderation, and try to select hard cheese, because harder ones have less fat. Try to use only fats that are liquid at room temperature, like olive oil, canola oil, corn oil. Your heart and arteries will thank you. - Eat white meat of chicken, and avoid the skin, which is nearly all fat. Lean cuts of beef and pork are okay, as well as nearly all fish. - Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. If you have good, healthful eating habits, and you exercise regularly, the weight will take care of itself.

Hrmmmm... this may not be the best time for you to switch pills. In fact, IMNSHO it's a BAD time to be changing ANYTHING unless the situation is truly dire. If I were you, I'd call the doctor back, explain your family circumstances, ask for three or six months' script for your previous pill, and then when life settles down some you can switch over. FWIW, vasectomies are not 100% either - I know two "vasectomy babies". Yoicks. If you're relying entirely on your DH's vasectomy for birth control, he should have a sperm check done every year. We're a weird family, DH has had a vasectomy as well as me having a tubal, but he's always had that shuddery feeling not being certain he's shooting blanks, so I humored him. Then the urologist bollixed it! He clipped the same vas deferens twice - it IS a bit crowded with the tiny incisions they're using and the bits are slippery in there, I guess those tiny tubes kept escaping *chuckle* - instead of getting them both so DH had to go back and have it done again. A lot of urologists are using titanium clips now rather than the old cut-and-burn method. I've read since that about 1% of vasectomies have to be redone. Poor DH was miserable for about 3 days both times (they were done on Friday mornings so he would have the weekend to recover) and was tender for several more. I spent a lot of time running back and forth to the freezer for ice packs. Had to get permission from his boss to wear sweatpants to work for about a week and it was about 3 weeks before he could wear jeans without discomfort (and he doesn't wear boxers so "the boys" don't dangle). He still gets twinges/pulling sensations sometimes, especially when he's running. It's been something like 5 years. Still considers it worth it though. I had a tubal because I damn well wanted one, and the laparoscopy served double duty to check for endometriosis (yes, mild, and guess what the first line treatment is? birth control pills! LOL). DLM - *chuckle* not many people know the term - it's German. Means "middle pain" I think. I had it SO often it just about drove me out of my mind, doc said "oh yeah, that's probably mittelschmertz" like it was the common cold. Middle-WHAT? Most women will get a little twinge when they ovulate, barely enough to notice (or write it off as gas), but for some of us it's whoooo-doggie, shoot me now please. I do think the gall bladder was worse though. I had frequent attacks for YEARS before anyone thought of the GB. ER and regular doctors would say muscle spasms, constipation (!), even rib problems, but never gallstones. Always got the attacks at night, remember the hours of pacing - couldn't sit down, couldn't lie down, - and could never correlate it to anything. I'd get it if I had junk food for supper, or a super-healthy supper, if I'd exercised that day or not. Someone finally did an ultrasound after several years of me repeatedly ending up in the ER screaming my head off and found that my gallbladder was the size of a baseball (it's normally the size of a walnut) and cram-full of nasty stuff, thisclose to peritonitis. I had the BEST surgeon though. Normally it's a quickie surgery, in and out in an hour and a half, but he took FOUR hours to make sure he could stick with the lap' instead of just filleting me like the assisting surgeon wanted to do. (He knew it would take me a year to come back from that - as it was it took three months for me to completely recover from from the lap'.)

dudleyfuddpucker, Im not here to argue any facts with you but I must respond to your comments. I'm not sure you read my ENTIRE post ... what I wrote was: There is a great website, Healthy Child Healthy World, which contains some great information. I pulled this from their site re: fabric softeners: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and industry-generated Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) from the 1990s Is it only clear to me that Im referencing the HCHW site?? (I said I pulled this from THEIR site) The fact that you would compare Healthy Child Healthy World or the Environmental Working Group to a "Craigslist posting" shows you have no knowledge whatsoever of them or their work. They are legitimate organizations staffed with scientists, doctors, engineers, CEOs, etc and they do reference specific studies (but youd actually have to go to the site and read it). I pulled this from the EWG site: EWG's ground-breaking January 2010 report, Off the Books, documented that a loophole in the toxics control law has permitted industry to keep secret more than 17,000 chemicals. The report prompted a front-page story in the Washington Post and spurred the Environmental Protection Agency to begin denying some confidentiality claims. Regulators in 13 states asked Congress to crack down on excessive secrecy. EWG senior scientist David Andrews briefed Congressional and EPA officials. And for the record, no where did I write that YOU stuck your head in the sand. I think I was also pretty clear that it is up to individuals to make up their own minds (I assume the readers of this forum are intelligent enough to read and make their own decisions). This is why I posted links to the sites for them to read if they choose. I believe I said do your "do diligence" and read. Too many people sit back and say, "they sell it so it must be safe" or "the MSDS says its safe". I think history has shown that "they" dont always know if something is safe. Take flame retardants as just ONE example. Different chemicals were approved for use and then years later were deemed unsafe and taken off the market (after they doused children's sleepwear and clothes with them). The US is now taking action to remove Deca-BDE from the market as it can potentially cause cancer and may impact brain function (please see my link if youre interested in reading FACT not fiction). You are fooled if you think every one of the chemicals in use today has been tested for safety. Even if it has been tested, they do not test the safety of the chemicals in combination with each other. Nuf said, make up your own mind.

I took Paxil for a year and a half for depression. At first the it did indeed take the edge off the depression, for which I was thankful. *However,* during that timeframe I gained 40lbs !!!!! And I was not thin to begin with. So, my advice is -- consider switching to something like Welbutrin rather than taking an SSRI (Paxil, Lexapro, etc.) Cutting carbs and sugars is something we should all do, but I am the queen of carbs. It's a struggle, but one thing I want you to bear in mind is that in time, your hormones will stabilize and the terrible anxiety you are coping with will settle down. Anxiety can take control of your world if you let it. Don't let it. Get outside, take some walks, practice deep breathing. Here's what I did -- when I felt the panic kind of anxiety coming, I immediately took half of a 5mg Xanax pill -- and I told myself that between the medication and understanding what was happening, the panic attack would stop. And it almost always did. Things will get better!!