Moe96: I messed up real bad, Help me please!!

[Moe96]

Hello, I’ve been going through severe mental withdrawals symptoms for 2 months now after my last dose of Effexor 75mg that i only took for 4 days and 37,5mg for a week prior. 
 

So I’ve been on the medicine before and each time i try to go off of it i go through hell. This time though i decided to reinstate the medicine after being off of it for more than a year and a half (was on different antidepressants during that period at different times). 

I decided to go on it again because of a returning of panic and OCD symptoms (which was the reason i got on the medication). i started with 37,5mg for a week then 75mg for 4 days, but the reason i decided to stop it again is that I’ve been getting extremely suicidal each time i try a new drug in the last 2 years, which happened in this case too since i thought that was just the case with SSRIs or Tricyclic antidepressants. and I remembered how my personality changes on them a lot and i how become cold, very apathetic and anhedonic (i became like that within a week of restarting it). so I realised that i made a big mistake that’s why i took a rash decision and decided to stop immediately. thought it wouldn’t cause me bad enough withdrawals due to the short duration i took it, but after 2 days only i got typical withdrawal symptoms like nausea, sweating, lightheadedness etc and thought I’d power through because  them and they’ll eventually resolve, but 2 weeks in and the symptoms hit me BIG time! Horrifying Depersonalisation/Derealization, more intense suicidal ideation, insomnia, crushing depression, dysphoria, nightmares, extreme anhedonia, cognitive impairment (thinking of words for writing this topic feels like it’s like hurting my brain), weird episodes where my brain felt like it was being severely deprived of dopamine where I’d get an urge to scream or punch my head through a wall or cause some destruction around (idk if it’s psychosis) and mild auditory and visual hallucinations when i close my eyes while trying to fall asleep.

 

So right now it’s been nearly 2 months since this had started and I’m very afraid that i caused myself a bad case of brain damage and that i won’t recover. I’ve been really really suicidal because of this because i don’t think I’m able to emotionally or physically endure it.  In the last 2 weeks though, i got 1-4 days of remission each week (first remission lasted 2 days non-consecutively but the second was and it lasted 3-4 days) i went back to normal and thought it was finally over, but then crashed again and went back to square 1 as if the symptoms just started all over.
 

I need to mention thought a month earlier of restarting Effexor i decided to reinstate Anafranil 25mg for OCD and got bad depersonalisation and suicidality from the first dose! i couldn’t tolerate that for more than 3 days so i stopped it. Ended up with bad mental withdrawals for like 10 days and that was it. 
 

probably reinstating and discontinuing this rapidly has messed me up badly and is the reason I’m going through this or it could be just the Effexor idk.

 

I’ve tried a lot of supplements like omega3, vitamin d3, methylfolate, methyl cobalamin, magnesium citrate and a multi but i felt the my symptoms even exacerbated..!!

 

I’m afraid of reinstating and then ending up being worse. Also scared that my brain has been

permanently damaged because of my stupidity and naivety and that things will only get worse and I’ll end up taking my own life because of the pain….I really don’t wanna stay like this so please please please help me get back to normal i feel so stuck and helpless!!! 

 

PS: Sorry i was unable to express myself better because English isn’t my first language and I’m having a really bad brain fog. 
 

Moe

Edited August 19, 2023 by manymoretodays
name to title, moved from SS

[Altostrata]

Welcome, @Moe96

 

Going on and off psychiatric drugs can make you hypersensitive to those drugs, other drugs, often caffeine and alcohol, even foods.

 

It is possible that the increase to 75mg Effexor after a week of 37,5mg Effexor caused an adverse reaction called kindling, where your nervous system produces many kinds of unpleasant symptoms. This is not withdrawal.

 

Your nervous system was upset by taking the drug. It's likely this will very slowly go away over months. Since you had a serious adverse reaction, you probably should not consider reinstatement.

 

To help us out, follow these instructions Please summarize your drug and withdrawal history in your signature You may need to use a computer to do this.

[Moe96]

Thanks for answering @Altostrata

I just wonder if i could do anything to lessen the severity of the symptoms I’m experiencing? Like do i follow a healthier lifestyle so the symptoms become manageable and my nervous system heals faster, or does the reaction have to run its course regardless of what i do? 
 

And yes, I’m reacting to every supplement i take too (including magnesium) so i don’t think i can take any at the moment.

[Altostrata]

Before further discussion Please summarize your drug and withdrawal history in your signature Thank you.

[Moe96]

Okay, I just added it. 

[Altostrata]

It appears that since about 2019, you've made a large drug change every few months. 

 

What are you most troublesome current symptoms and when did they start?

[Moe96]

Yes, my psychiatrist/s would make me tapper and start a new drug rapidly apparently since I’ve been reading on proper ways to taper which should take months at least. 

 

Right now I’m experiencing severe dysphoric mood coupled with suicidal thoughts and on-off depersonalisation, mild auditory and visual hallucinations (especially during falling asleep), mild visual snow, after images, vivid dreams, anhedonia, cognitive impairment, tremors and episodes of severe intense depression that I’ve never experienced in my life before.  it’s so severe to a point that it’s is physically unbearable. I would get burning physical sensations in my chest and neck when they start and it would last for hours then ease up. It just feels physically extremely heavy. 
 

The depersonalisation and suicidal ideation eased up a bit in comparison to last month, unless i take a supplement or get exposed to nicotine which would trigger them sometimes. 
 

I experience 2-3 days or less each week of remission of mood related symptoms but not the hallucinations or vivid dreams. Sometimes the dreams are less vivid or i don’t remember them, and sometimes i don’t mind them, but other times they cause me distress. 
 

Right now, it’s been a week since i decided to cut out dairy and gluten and eat high protein with variety of vegetables to see if it will help,  Also going on morning walks everyday. I haven’t experienced one of those episodes since then and my mood has been a bit less unstable and overall symptoms have been a bit more manageable except sleep, which is still hugely affected. I don’t feel like I’m getting good quality sleep except sometimes here and there. 
during times of remission, if i drank tea, or get exposed to nicotine (i live with smokers) or eat unhealthy, i’ll be fine though. 
 

these symptoms have all started only after the Effexor discontinuation 2 months and a half ago.
last year i also tapered off Duloxetine rapidly but i didn’t experience such symptoms because i was already eating healthy (organic only food then ketogenic diet) coupled with exercising. I just experienced sleep issues for one week and then they resolved. 

Right now I’m at loss of what to do more because this is just to much to endure. Like I’m even reacting to benzos if i take them for relief. And by reacting i meant that the next day if of taking the benzo i would get one of those intense dysphoric mood episodes. Same thing happened with magnesium lately. 

 

also could such an adverse reaction start nearly 2 weeks after discontinuing the medication? Because that’s when the symptoms had started, by then i was taking methylfolate 400mg,  methycobalamin 1000mg, a multivitamin, vitamin d 2000 iu, Magnesium 500mg. To help but only a 3 weeks after it occurred to me that i could be reacting to those supplements as well, because looking back, the symptoms would get much much worse after taking them but for some reason i didn’t make the connection. 

[Altostrata]

I am sorry your psychiatrist messed up your nervous system so badly with these frequent drug changes.

 

It is unlikely the Effexor you took for less than 2 weeks in June caused your current problems. How did you feel while you were taking Prozac? When was your last dose?

[Moe96]

Prozac was the worst of all the antidepressants I’ve tried. It made me extremely suicidal at first when i took it in 2022, and i stayed on it for 4 months. Then another try in 2023 for 3 weeks only between January and February with the same negative side effects. Every medication I’ve tried after Prozac now gives me the same side effects which is severe suicidal ideation. And i don’t really have a suicidal depression. But all of these symptoms that I’ve listed have only started after stopping Effexor 2 and a half months ago. I did not have such intense symptoms after stopping prozac. The side effects only lasted while i was on the drug. And i thought it would be the same case with Effexor which is why i stopped it. 
 

I also need to mention that when i discontinued Effexor back in 2020 for 3 months, i was going through something similar but less intense. I had the same extreme low mood issues, tremors, sleep problems and and movements disturbances. They resolved after i reinstated the drug but not completely. They just become more apparent when I’m off any antidepressants. 
 

is there anything i can do to heal my nervous system? Do i have any hope of going back to normal?
 

[Altostrata]

6 hours ago, Moe96 said:

They resolved after i reinstated the drug but not completely. They just become more apparent when I’m off any antidepressants. 

 

You have described a withdrawal reaction from going off Effexor in 2020. It's possible you've had one withdrawal reaction on top of another. How did you feel on Paxil after starting it in 2018 after Effexor.

[Moe96]

Paxil was initially good (for like 2-4 months), but then its lost its effectiveness and started making me suicidal and gave me mild depersonalization. SSRIs I’ve tried like Paxil and Prozac gave me suicidal feelings while i was on them but i felt they were stronger and more impulsive on Prozac. Paxil withdrawal was somewhat similar to what I’m living now but also less intense because there was no hallucinations or sensory and movement disturbances. I also started noticing cognitive impairment symptoms first when i was on Paxil back in 2018 which are still present and way worse now (like brain fog, inability to focus or concentrate, short-term-memory issues and word recall). Though Paxil’s withdrawal was short lived because i was cross-tapering to Effexor. 

[Altostrata]

13 hours ago, Moe96 said:

Though Paxil’s withdrawal was short lived because i was cross-tapering to Effexor. 

 

You felt better on 150mg Effexor 05/2019-08/2020, after going off Paxil? You took it for 15 months. How did you feel in that gap 08/2020-12/2020, when you went back on Effexor?

 

Why did you switch from Effexor to Prozac in 12/2021? You took Abilify with Prozac? Why?

[Moe96]

Effexor was helping me mostly with my pure ocd (the reason i got on it in the first place) without giving me suicidal ideation, but looking back, in that period after getting back on it, it was not much helpful because my ocd, mood, and other issues were really bad and i kept struggling for that entire year and 3 months and couldn’t discontinue it out of fear of withdrawals and my ignorance, plus I wasn’t being monitored by a psychiatrist then and i was able to buy antidepressants where i live without prescription. 
 

the gap of three months i was off of it was so distressing. My ocd had never been worse, i was having extreme mood swings, sensory and movement disturbance that affected my entire body. I started having them during that time and made me think that i was developing an autoimmune disorder. Ofc i’d go to a lot of doctors, hospitals etc and get a lot of tests done for all the results to come out fine, untill one neurologist concluded that it might be psychological. That’s when i decided to get back on it, and when i did it worked better than the last time. 

 

My psychiatrist decided to switch me to prozac in hopes it would help me better with my mood. and later on he wanted me to augment it with Abilify to boost its effectiveness and help with my energy and motivation issues. It gave me severe restlessness where I couldn’t sit still for 5 minutes straight without having the urge to get up and move. It also gave me auditory hallucinations while falling asleep (a side effect i experience on antipsychotics), so we discontinued it 2 weeks after. 

[Altostrata]

8 hours ago, Moe96 said:

the gap of three months i was off of it was so distressing. My ocd had never been worse, i was having extreme mood swings, sensory and movement disturbance that affected my entire body. I started having them during that time and made me think that i was developing an autoimmune disorder.

 

This probably was withdrawal from Effexor.

 

How did you feel shortly after you went off Effexor 05/2018? How did you switch to Paxil at that time?

 

[Moe96]

So back in 2018 my psychiatrist made me quit Effexor 225mg cold Turkey and start Paxil 3 days after. Though it was short, but i felt awful for those 3 days. I remember having cry spells out of nowhere. I also had nausea, dizziness and a general feeling of being unwell that subsided within the first 10 days After i got on Paxil.  

[Altostrata]

You felt well while taking Paxil 05/2018-04/2019? And this is what happened when you took Effexor again 05/2019-08/2020?

 

19 hours ago, Moe96 said:

looking back, in that period after getting back on it, it was not much helpful because my ocd, mood, and other issues were really bad and i kept struggling for that entire year and 3 months

 

What other issues did you have while taking Effexor 05/2019-08/2020?

[Moe96]

Aside from worsening anxiety and ocd, i was also having irritability, fatigue, brain fog and moderate anhedonia. When i discontinued it and got on it again in 2020 my ocd got better and other symptoms had lessened to an extent. In the last 2 months of being on it in 2021 though things got a bit worse again like having a constant low mood and anxiety except for ocd which was still in remission until 2022.

[Altostrata]

Is this correct?

08/2016-05/2018 Effexor 250mg -- cold turkey, withdrawal symptoms after

05/2018-04/2019 Paxil 40mg -- resolved Effexor withdrawal, depersonalization, suicidality, withdrawal after stopping
05/2019-08/2020 Effexor 150mg -- struggling, withdrawal after stopping
12/2020-12/2021 Effexor 150mg -- withdrawal symptoms better, withdrawal after stopping
12/2021-04/2022 Prozac 40mg -- suicidality

 

Quote

06/2023 Effexor (1 week 37,5mg, 4 days 75mg)

 

How did you feel on 37.5mg Effexor?

[Moe96]

Correct. 
 

On Effexor 37,5mg i had 1 or 2 days of normalcy where i felt better and thought the medication was working faster than usual. It was at the 5th or 6th day of the week i was on that dose. 
after dosing up to 75mg, i began experiencing some side effects like sweating, faster heart rate, irritability and suicidal feelings. I don’t if it has to do with anything but i was taking my dose at 10am, and I would experience the symptoms i mentioned in the evening for like 2 hours or more.

 

i remembered feeling that way sometimes on Effexor when i was on it 2019-2020. Sometimes would last for hours or a day or so.  

[Altostrata]

On 8/22/2023 at 12:36 AM, Altostrata said:

It is possible that the increase to 75mg Effexor after a week of 37,5mg Effexor caused an adverse reaction called kindling, where your nervous system produces many kinds of unpleasant symptoms. This is not withdrawal.

 

It seems to me that your withdrawal syndrome dates from your going off Effexor in 2021, though you had prior bouts of withdrawal as well.

 

Since you felt better on 37.5mg Effexor in June, you might try a reinstatement of 10mg-12.5mg Effexor to see if it helps the withdrawal symptoms. This topic explains how to take a small amount Tips for tapering off venlafaxine (Effexor)

 

If you can get venlafaxine XR in capsules containing small beads, you can measure out a low dose by weighing or counting the beads. If you only have immediate-release venlafaxine, you'd have to take it twice a day.

[Barry2954]

On 8/18/2023 at 1:29 PM, Moe96 said:

Hello, I’ve been going through severe mental withdrawals symptoms for 2 months now after my last dose of Effexor 75mg that i only took for 4 days and 37,5mg for a week prior. 
 

So I’ve been on the medicine before and each time i try to go off of it i go through hell. This time though i decided to reinstate the medicine after being off of it for more than a year and a half (was on different antidepressants during that period at different times). 

I decided to go on it again because of a returning of panic and OCD symptoms (which was the reason i got on the medication). i started with 37,5mg for a week then 75mg for 4 days, but the reason i decided to stop it again is that I’ve been getting extremely suicidal each time i try a new drug in the last 2 years, which happened in this case too since i thought that was just the case with SSRIs or Tricyclic antidepressants. and I remembered how my personality changes on them a lot and i how become cold, very apathetic and anhedonic (i became like that within a week of restarting it). so I realised that i made a big mistake that’s why i took a rash decision and decided to stop immediately. thought it wouldn’t cause me bad enough withdrawals due to the short duration i took it, but after 2 days only i got typical withdrawal symptoms like nausea, sweating, lightheadedness etc and thought I’d power through because  them and they’ll eventually resolve, but 2 weeks in and the symptoms hit me BIG time! Horrifying Depersonalisation/Derealization, more intense suicidal ideation, insomnia, crushing depression, dysphoria, nightmares, extreme anhedonia, cognitive impairment (thinking of words for writing this topic feels like it’s like hurting my brain), weird episodes where my brain felt like it was being severely deprived of dopamine where I’d get an urge to scream or punch my head through a wall or cause some destruction around (idk if it’s psychosis) and mild auditory and visual hallucinations when i close my eyes while trying to fall asleep.

 

So right now it’s been nearly 2 months since this had started and I’m very afraid that i caused myself a bad case of brain damage and that i won’t recover. I’ve been really really suicidal because of this because i don’t think I’m able to emotionally or physically endure it.  In the last 2 weeks though, i got 1-4 days of remission each week (first remission lasted 2 days non-consecutively but the second was and it lasted 3-4 days) i went back to normal and thought it was finally over, but then crashed again and went back to square 1 as if the symptoms just started all over.
 

I need to mention thought a month earlier of restarting Effexor i decided to reinstate Anafranil 25mg for OCD and got bad depersonalisation and suicidality from the first dose! i couldn’t tolerate that for more than 3 days so i stopped it. Ended up with bad mental withdrawals for like 10 days and that was it. 
 

probably reinstating and discontinuing this rapidly has messed me up badly and is the reason I’m going through this or it could be just the Effexor idk.

 

I’ve tried a lot of supplements like omega3, vitamin d3, methylfolate, methyl cobalamin, magnesium citrate and a multi but i felt the my symptoms even exacerbated..!!

 

I’m afraid of reinstating and then ending up being worse. Also scared that my brain has been

permanently damaged because of my stupidity and naivety and that things will only get worse and I’ll end up taking my own life because of the pain….I really don’t wanna stay like this so please please please help me get back to normal i feel so stuck and helpless!!! 

 

PS: Sorry i was unable to express myself better because English isn’t my first language and I’m having a really bad brain fog. 
 

Moe

After my treatment with sertraline resulted in thunderclap headaches I experienced five years of adrenergic storming, with the feeling of a constant flow of electricity through my body due to constant adrenaline flow. There was no choice but to stop taking the sertraline, from the maximum 'safe' dose, without tapering. I have never been able to answer the question of why I was experiencing similar bouts of head punching and destruction to your own. It was like an intensification of the hyped up condition caused by the adrenaline.

[Moe96]

On 8/26/2023 at 9:17 PM, Altostrata said:

It is unlikely the Effexor you took for less than 2 weeks in June caused your current problems.

Hello @Altostrata, I have been very lost in the adverse reaction / withdrawal that i’m going through and I still am. As for Effexor’s tiny doses reinstatement, I couldn’t do that since I’m extremely sensitive to everything right now.

I’m still not doing good at all, and new symptoms are emerging and others come and go or increase and decrease in severity. The symptoms I’m experiencing only really appeared 2 weeks after my last Effexor trial, but i’m also not sure whether it was caused by it or the supplements i was taking at the time to mitigate the acute Effexor withdrawal i was having. I was taking Methylcobalamin 1000mcg, Methylfolate 400mcg, vitamin d3 4000 iu, magnesium 400 mg, and a multivitamin. I took them for like 2-3 weeks and i was feeling extremely awful on them. For some reason i couldn’t make the connection during those 2-3 weeks that i was reacting badly to them. I just thought that it was from the Effexor withdrawal. Once i stopped them the symptoms went away not long after, but now get triggered by many things i get exposed to like nicotine, caffeine, spices, chemicals, medications and some foods.. I don’t know really what caused what but the reactions i’m getting to the things i mentioned are really really bad and they’re mental (suicidal urges, depression, anxiety), cognitive (cognitive impairment), neurological (visual snow), and some debilitating physical ones too (hearing sensitivity and extreme fatigue and exhaustion). I’m also not sure if my current physical and emotional symptoms (aside from the reactions to chemicals etc) are an emotional response to what i went through during that period of Effexor withdrawal / supplements reaction or if it’s a mixture of withdrawal and kindling or a negative reaction to the supplements i took. I just hope that i haven’t permanently screwed up my brain.. 

though i need to mention that i went through the physical and cognitive and mental symptoms i’m having (aside from the suicidal urges) before when i was off the medications, but i wasn’t getting such extreme reactions to stuff at all.

What’s worse is that my already existing mental illness (before meds) adds a lot to the suffering…

[Barry2954]

5 hours ago, Moe96 said:

Hello @Altostrata, I have been very lost in the adverse reaction / withdrawal that i’m going through and I still am. As for Effexor’s tiny doses reinstatement, I couldn’t do that since I’m extremely sensitive to everything right now.

I’m still not doing good at all, and new symptoms are emerging and others come and go or increase and decrease in severity. The symptoms I’m experiencing only really appeared 2 weeks after my last Effexor trial, but i’m also not sure whether it was caused by it or the supplements i was taking at the time to mitigate the acute Effexor withdrawal i was having. I was taking Methylcobalamin 1000mcg, Methylfolate 400mcg, vitamin d3 4000 iu, magnesium 400 mg, and a multivitamin. I took them for like 2-3 weeks and i was feeling extremely awful on them. For some reason i couldn’t make the connection during those 2-3 weeks that i was reacting badly to them. I just thought that it was from the Effexor withdrawal. Once i stopped them the symptoms went away not long after, but now get triggered by many things i get exposed to like nicotine, caffeine, spices, chemicals, medications and some foods.. I don’t know really what caused what but the reactions i’m getting to the things i mentioned are really really bad and they’re mental (suicidal urges, depression, anxiety), cognitive (cognitive impairment), neurological (visual snow), and some debilitating physical ones too (hearing sensitivity and extreme fatigue and exhaustion). I’m also not sure if my current physical and emotional symptoms (aside from the reactions to chemicals etc) are an emotional response to what i went through during that period of Effexor withdrawal / supplements reaction or if it’s a mixture of withdrawal and kindling or a negative reaction to the supplements i took. I just hope that i haven’t permanently screwed up my brain.. 

though i need to mention that i went through the physical and cognitive and mental symptoms i’m having (aside from the suicidal urges) before when i was off the medications, but i wasn’t getting such extreme reactions to stuff at all.

What’s worse is that my already existing mental illness (before meds) adds a lot to the suffering…

Some of your responses, to things like coffee and nicotine, sound as though they relate to GABAergic dysregulation similar to that which I experienced. My own likely resulted from the benzodiazepines I was given but I can see that both the prozac and quetiapine, perhaps other medications as well, which you have been on could have caused this dysregulation. The psychiatric medications basically cause the need for ongoing treatment and further psychiatric diagnoses. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2019.00087/full   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26365137/  I am looking at BIND (benzodiazepine induced neurological dysfunction) as being the result of my own GABAergic dysregulation. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10309976/

[LotusRising]

@Moe96

 

Can you catch me up on what's been happening since Sept 2023? Did you reinstate effexor? When did you try the supplements?

 

6 hours ago, Moe96 said:

’m still not doing good at all, and new symptoms are emerging and others come and go or increase and decrease in severity.

This sounds like the windows and waves pattern, which would be expected after coming off medications. It's also not uncommon to have increased sensitivities.

 

 

[Moe96]

Thanks for responding @LotusRising,

 

I did not reinstate Effexor when Altostrata suggested it to mitigate withdrawals because i was so afraid since i was going through an extreme reaction. It was just my last trial for 11 days in june 2023. I started taking the supplements (specifically Methylcobalamin 1000mcg, Methylfolate 400 mcg) right when i stopped the Effexor. I was taking the magnesium and vitamin d3 on and off in the prior 8 months with no issues. 
I kept taking all the mentioned supplements up until 2-3 weeks later from stopping Effexor which was when the reactions and withdrawals hit badly.

 

So since September i’ve developed new symptoms like intense hypnagogic hallucinations, worsened insomnia (due to the hypnagogic hallucinations), Hyperacusis, very mild tinnitus, worse cognitive functioning (brain fog, i’m having trouble finding even very simple words during conversations, and attention span or concentration are shot, i can barely read a couple of sentences until my brain gives up), worsened visual snow (static, after images, floaters), severe fatigue and exhaustion (unable to stand up and walk for more than 10-20 mins), worsened depression and suicidal ideation.

 

A possible cause of the new symptoms is I have also taken a mild benzo (Bromazepam) 4 times only (smallest dose, 1 only each week) and a pain killer shot at the emergency room which all happened in August when i was getting severe panic attacks. I didn’t notice having a bad reaction to the benzo (I just slept well and had no hypnagogic hallucinations or vivid dreams) but i had an awful mental reaction (DPDR) to the pain killer at the ER which lasted a couple of hours. 
 

 

Another possible cause: I’ve noticed that some of these symptoms (hyperacusis, visual snow) have worsened a lot after attempting to change my diet to keto or carnivore, or just gluten, dairy and sugar free. First try was in august, second in September, third try was in October and the fourth was in November when i also took magnesium again for like a week.
Each one of those dieting trials lasted only 1-2 weeks. 

I think either dieting was stressing me out so much that my nervous system became further upset, or it was just a coincidence when those new symptoms appeared at the same time. Hyperacusis progressed badly after my last attempt on keto in November.

 

Right now, i’m fully disabled unable to do or focus on anything other than lay in bed and scroll on Tiktok or just stare at the wall. My symptoms seem to be much worse on the mental and cognitive side though. 
 

The benzo, an antihistamine and a betw blocker that i took a couple of times last year i forgot to mentioned on my signature.
Could you please inform me on how i can update it? Thanks a lot. 
 

 

 

 

 

[Barry2954]

Sorry that I can't remember how I even added my own medications to my profile, lol. What I found was that the only benefits to my symptoms were actually from the lorazepam which they had me on; everything else received the credit from the psychiatrists but never actually had any benefit. So it's easy to forget about the medications which they don't want you to think about, much like how a magician wants you to watch one hand while they perform the real trick with their other hand. With the BIND symptoms all of the websites which I can find which detail hallucinations as symptoms are all commercial sites so I can't provide links to any of them here, sorry. I had some scary hypnagogic hallucinations during the early period after treatment, seeing large spiders on walls and the ceiling when I woke up. However here is a good article on GABA association with tinnitus and hyperacusis. https://www.jneurosci.org/content/35/44/14822 Not being aware of the potential dangers of even short term benzodiazepine medication is very easy for patients like us. It took me years to work out what the psychiatrists had done to me. This is a pretty good list of benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms, though BIND symptoms are more of a chronic nature. https://benzoreform.org/bzws-symptoms/  I didn't think to mention before that benzodiazepines bind to GABA receptors and cause them to dysfunction, so leading to these effects. What I found was that my severe response to the medications resulted from impaired liver function. Because liver enzymes break down the medications any impaired liver function results in far greater half lives of the medications in our bodies and far greater likelihood of the medications causing adverse reactions. The dietary changes, which aggravated your symptoms, might have related to liver function. For me it was likely to have initially been toxic induced liver failure but later I was getting intermittent gallstones which blocked the flow of bile to my liver. Lotusrising's suggestion of multiple chemical sensitivity may not be far off if you have impaired liver function.

[Moe96]

Hello @LotusRising,

 

I’m interested in what you think about my situation. does this sound like a kindling or hypersensitivity, or something else might be going on? Thank you.

[LotusRising]

This doesn't sound like kindling to me. It's likely that your body is hypersensitive to additional supplements, foods etc. 

 

On 2/23/2024 at 3:29 PM, Moe96 said:

Another possible cause: I’ve noticed that some of these symptoms (hyperacusis, visual snow) have worsened a lot after attempting to change my diet to keto or carnivore, or just gluten, dairy and sugar free. First try was in august, second in September, third try was in October and the fourth was in November when i also took magnesium again for like a week.
Each one of those dieting trials lasted only 1-2 weeks. 

I think either dieting was stressing me out so much that my nervous system became further upset, or it was just a coincidence when those new symptoms appeared at the same time. Hyperacusis progressed badly after my last attempt on keto in November.

Depending on what your diet was like before, I think many people don't realize that dietary changes can be very detoxing to the body, especially if you suddenly eliminate a number of food items. If you were already in a destabilized state, diets like keto/carnivore, while fantastic for things like inflammation, detox etc, can actually be stressful for some of us. These ones in particular force your body to utilize different sources for energy and the process can be stressful. This can be compounded by any number of factors, so it can actually be pretty complex!

 

Personally, I would stick to one way of eating - limit sugar, avoid processed foods and alcohol, add healthy fats, drink lots of water.

[Bren711]

I can relate to many of your symptoms after reading this. Your story sounds very similar to mine if you want to check it out. I also experience the hypnagogic hallucinations and auditory hallucinations. It’s been hard for me to do anything but stare at a wall or scroll tiktok as well, I totally feel your pain and hope you continue to improve. 

[Moe96]

Thank you, @Bren711.

 

Sorry to hear that you’re going through this too and at such a young age. I also hope you get through it as fast as possible.