Burning sensations from withdrawal -- skin, mouth, head, elsewhere

[Pepms]

On 2/18/2021 at 7:01 PM, dadtobe said:

@saimshah Unfortunately it's just a symptom of withdrawal that will get better with time. I also have the burning. It's improved from when I initially had it, but it still comes back for a week or 2 at a time. 

How much time it took for you to improve ? How are you now ?

[dadtobe]

@Pepms My burning was a combination of Benzo withdrawal and probably Lexapro. For me, it varied throughout my withdrawal. I still deal with it 18 months off now, but I had severe burning where it hurt to even sit on the couch. It severe burning stopped at around month 10 or so. It literally stopped over night for me where it never got that bad again. Now it's just a noticeable itch / very mild burn, usually more noticeable when I'm stressed. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of time to go away. I'm hoping it'll be completely gone in another 6 months or so.

[Hope42]

I have been suffering so much from burning brain and body, since I CT'ed sertraline 1.5 years ago. In the last months, I feel that it is ecen getting worse. Anyone who can relate?

[Darklight]

Hi Hope42

 

I've experienced various burning parts of me. The first was in my upper spine. This then reduced for a few months and has now come back in another part of my spine. 

 

I'm experiencing the burning brain most of the time to different levels of severity. Everything fluctuates so much. I'm beginning to understand that fluctuation is key in the healing from this experience. I was expecting linear improvement and got very dismayed when I seemed to jump back to old symptoms months later but from this site and from others I'm in touch with I'm learning that recovering from what is CNS/brain injury jumps forward and then back with frequency.

 

My feet also burn particularly the toes, most of the time.  I find that lying down seems to make all burning worse. 

 

This is reported by many people and it made me very scared to begin with. Now I try to look at it as healing nerve endings, likening it to the itching of a scar healing. I do know people who experience this burning/stinging all over their bodies pretty constantly. I use an icepack on my head when the burning is at its worst there. 

 

I have found the symptoms and tips section on this site very helpful. 

 

 

[Hope42]

Thank you du much🙏

[Roserdl]

Cold showers and cytokine suppress by Life Extension

 

In the first four months my brain was on fire.  Cold showers really made a difference.  They also help manage emotional symptoms without meds.  They aren't easy but if start off hot and then cool it down and use that setting (under 68 degrees for a few minutes) then aim for a minute at the coldest setting (build up to this over time, start with ten seconds or just your hands and feet.  Whenever my symptom flair I am back in the shower.  If symptoms are really bad it may take a few days to see much difference but you wil

[j1290]

I'll be darned.  I just never thought of a cold shower or ice pack.   So glad to get these suggestions!

[Taperstruggles]

I would really hope to hear from some of those that have had this horrible symptom of burning feet/legs and that it has resolved for.  I've been dealing with this for a month now and it is truly horrible. Super scary, giving me anxiety due to it being so painful and disturbing and also since googling this symptom is all bad news, chronic progressive neuropathy etc. 
It's affecting everything, sleep, relaxation, work. I can't think with this burning/ice sensation (it varies between too hot and too cold feeling and pain). I had a few better days and thought I was ok but now it's been back for weeks without a single days break, in fact I believe it's getting worse even though I have not tapered any more for months. I have it all day, every day, the first thing I feel or think in the morning when I wake, it wakes me at night. Last thing I try to shake to fall asleep. Does reinstating a higher dose help? 

[conkaia]

3 hours ago, Taperstruggles said:

I would really hope to hear from some of those that have had this horrible symptom of burning feet/legs and that it has resolved for.  I've been dealing with this for a month now and it is truly horrible. Super scary, giving me anxiety due to it being so painful and disturbing and also since googling this symptom is all bad news, chronic progressive neuropathy etc. 
It's affecting everything, sleep, relaxation, work. I can't think with this burning/ice sensation (it varies between too hot and too cold feeling and pain). I had a few better days and thought I was ok but now it's been back for weeks without a single days break, in fact I believe it's getting worse even though I have not tapered any more for months. I have it all day, every day, the first thing I feel or think in the morning when I wake, it wakes me at night. Last thing I try to shake to fall asleep. Does reinstating a higher dose help? 

Hi from your drug signature it looks like you made a big drop of escitalopram back in July.  This has likely been too much for your nervous system, causing those symptoms.  It might pass on its own or if its becoming too much, you could consider going up a small amount maybe to 3mg? Read the thread on reinstating on here if you haven't already. 

[Taperstruggles]

On 10/6/2022 at 12:55 AM, conkaia said:

Hi from your drug signature it looks like you made a big drop of escitalopram back in July.  This has likely been too much for your nervous system, causing those symptoms.  It might pass on its own or if its becoming too much, you could consider going up a small amount maybe to 3mg? Read the thread on reinstating on here if you haven't already. 

Yes I did consider that as soon as my symptoms kicked in more than a month ago, I asked on the forums then if I should consider going up bit was advised not to. I've understood that reinstatement is best done as soon as possible after taper? and that doing it now after many months have past could lead to more issues so I'm screed to go down that route. I wouldn't mind going up if I could be sure I wouldn't run into problems, but alas, no one can give me that guarantee. 

[conkaia]

15 hours ago, Taperstruggles said:

Yes I did consider that as soon as my symptoms kicked in more than a month ago, I asked on the forums then if I should consider going up bit was advised not to. I've understood that reinstatement is best done as soon as possible after taper? and that doing it now after many months have past could lead to more issues so I'm screed to go down that route. I wouldn't mind going up if I could be sure I wouldn't run into problems, but alas, no one can give me that guarantee. 

Yes the sooner after drop the better. It’s a hard one as any change at all could destabilise you further. Having said that, you could reinstate a tiny bit extra, like to 2.6mg and see if you got any relief from that. You’re right, unfortunately there’s no way of knowing for sure what to do for the best. I hope it passes for you soon. 

[Latoya]

I am in about week 9 of Buspar withdrawals all symptoms have subsided. The only thing that seems to be lingering is the blurry eye sight and brain burning. Has anyone experienced the "brain burning" and does it go away? What causes it also?

[Hope42]

I had the burning while I was taking Sertraline, and still have it. How are you feeling now?

[dadtobe]

It's been a long time since I've posted. I know when I was sick I basically searched the forums a ton to find similar cases to mine and a lot of times when people were feeling better (at least that was my hope), they'd completely drop off this site. So I just wanted to briefly come back and say I'm doing a ton better, although I'm not "healed" in the sense that I feel like I have the same joy in life as I did prior to taking Klonopin / Lexapro, I still have hyper sensitivity to stress that causes catastrophic thinking, but I'm not pacing the house like a madman anymore and I get over it in a day or two with good sleep. I feel like I'm closer towards the end of this journey now than the beginning, but I still probably have 15% or so to go which I know will probably be another year or two. There was a time when I thought I'd never get better and I had the thoughts I'm not allowed to talk about here because the physical pain was so intense for so many months I never thought it'd end, but it did.

 

My severe burning skin left me after about a year off the meds, and was replaced by what I'd probably call severe psychomotor agitation for another year and a half along with what I would describe as the same symptoms as fibromyalgia (which I started to think I had) but that went away too, maybe 8 months ago.  All this alongside major insomnia, sleeping maybe 5-6 hours of broken sleep a night. My Apple watch was super useful in seeing my improvements, tracking months where I walked less, seeing my resting heart rate increase for months at a time, to now being back to where it was prior to starting withdrawal.

Insomnia was my last major symptom. I was sleeping 4-6 hours a night broken up until a few months ago. I stopped sleeping in the same room as my wife for over 3 years, which was pretty sad, because I couldn't sleep. I was so fatigued by 1PM in the afternoon, I literally couldn't do anything the rest of the day. I couldn't plan trips, because I feared I wouldn't sleep and I'd be tired by 1PM. I tried taking sleeping meds occasionally, like zzzquil, but most of the time I ended up feeling a lot worse when they didn't work, which was most of the time. I ended up buying a book on Insomnia called "Say goodnight to insomnia" and started reading it when I couldn't sleep, which was super useful. After finding the book, which practices some form CBT for sleep I think, I found a local sleep psychologist who practiced this. We journaled my sleep and spoke once a week. I kid you not, after working with the psychologist within 4 weeks, I was able to sleep almost as much as I wanted to again. My mentally towards sleep was to try and spend as much time in bed as possible to try and get as much sleep as possible. I was trying to go to bed very early, at like 8pm, to maximize the amount of broken sleep I could possibly get by the next morning. This would just have me taking a few hours to fall asleep, and then waking up at like 1-2AM for 3+ hours, and then maybe getting another hour of sleep if I was lucky. The sleep psych, had me contract my time in bed. He made me go to bed very late (midnight) and get up at 7am. They also cut me off from all stimulating electronics an hour before bed, and told me to read a really boring book during that hour. We did this for a couple weeks, which was hell, since I hadn't used an alarm clock for years, but eventually I somehow started to instantly fall asleep within 5 or 10 minutes of my head hitting the pillow at midnight, versus rolling around for hours. A week or two later, I started sleeping through the night and my sleep was no longer as broken. After getting to where I pretty much no longer had broken sleep, we expanded my sleep schedule outwards by 15 minutes a week. While I'm still not 100% perfect every night, the afternoon fatigue and brain fog went away. I don't think this sleep stuff would have worked early on even if I wanted it to, but I think because I've spent 3+ years healing, I was finally to the point where something like this could work. 

 

Anyway, I wish everyone best of luck, if anyone stumbles upon this and wants to reach out, feel free to PM me. I don't really use this site anymore but I thought about it today and realized I should probably go back and say something. 

[dadtobe]

On 4/5/2023 at 10:11 AM, Hope42 said:

I had the burning while I was taking Sertraline, and still have it. How are you feeling now?

My burning is basically gone. I can feel skin sensations but they aren't the relentless burning that I used to have.

[Cat1W]

I have had burning feet for almost 5 years since the withdrawal from trazadone. I'm hoping that one day it might go but have accepted this is how life is now.  It does make a difference - I cannot wear shoes or socks as warmth makes it worse and I have to use ice slippers at night, getting up 4 or 5 times to swap them with others from the freezer. It is nothing compared to the hell I've been through in the past........and I consider myself fortunate compared to what so many others go through. I have only been off gabapentin for a year though - prescribed to help the burning (!) but after reading David Healey's articles on his RisK website, I realised that might also be stopping any recovery. 

 

[Cat1W]

21 hours ago, dadtobe said:

My burning is basically gone. I can feel skin sensations but they aren't the relentless burning that I used to have.

Sorry trying to reply to you dadtobe........thankyou for your post and that's really interesting about sleep, so will try and reply to that directly. 

[Cat1W]

21 hours ago, dadtobe said:

It's been a long time since I've posted. I know when I was sick I basically searched the forums a ton to find similar cases to mine and a lot of times when people were feeling better (at least that was my hope), they'd completely drop off this site. So I just wanted to briefly come back and say I'm doing a ton better, although I'm not "healed" in the sense that I feel like I have the same joy in life as I did prior to taking Klonopin / Lexapro, I still have hyper sensitivity to stress that causes catastrophic thinking, but I'm not pacing the house like a madman anymore and I get over it in a day or two with good sleep. I feel like I'm closer towards the end of this journey now than the beginning, but I still probably have 15% or so to go which I know will probably be another year or two. There was a time when I thought I'd never get better and I had the thoughts I'm not allowed to talk about here because the physical pain was so intense for so many months I never thought it'd end, but it did.

 

My severe burning skin left me after about a year off the meds, and was replaced by what I'd probably call severe psychomotor agitation for another year and a half along with what I would describe as the same symptoms as fibromyalgia (which I started to think I had) but that went away too, maybe 8 months ago.  All this alongside major insomnia, sleeping maybe 5-6 hours of broken sleep a night. My Apple watch was super useful in seeing my improvements, tracking months where I walked less, seeing my resting heart rate increase for months at a time, to now being back to where it was prior to starting withdrawal.

Insomnia was my last major symptom. I was sleeping 4-6 hours a night broken up until a few months ago. I stopped sleeping in the same room as my wife for over 3 years, which was pretty sad, because I couldn't sleep. I was so fatigued by 1PM in the afternoon, I literally couldn't do anything the rest of the day. I couldn't plan trips, because I feared I wouldn't sleep and I'd be tired by 1PM. I tried taking sleeping meds occasionally, like zzzquil, but most of the time I ended up feeling a lot worse when they didn't work, which was most of the time. I ended up buying a book on Insomnia called "Say goodnight to insomnia" and started reading it when I couldn't sleep, which was super useful. After finding the book, which practices some form CBT for sleep I think, I found a local sleep psychologist who practiced this. We journaled my sleep and spoke once a week. I kid you not, after working with the psychologist within 4 weeks, I was able to sleep almost as much as I wanted to again. My mentally towards sleep was to try and spend as much time in bed as possible to try and get as much sleep as possible. I was trying to go to bed very early, at like 8pm, to maximize the amount of broken sleep I could possibly get by the next morning. This would just have me taking a few hours to fall asleep, and then waking up at like 1-2AM for 3+ hours, and then maybe getting another hour of sleep if I was lucky. The sleep psych, had me contract my time in bed. He made me go to bed very late (midnight) and get up at 7am. They also cut me off from all stimulating electronics an hour before bed, and told me to read a really boring book during that hour. We did this for a couple weeks, which was hell, since I hadn't used an alarm clock for years, but eventually I somehow started to instantly fall asleep within 5 or 10 minutes of my head hitting the pillow at midnight, versus rolling around for hours. A week or two later, I started sleeping through the night and my sleep was no longer as broken. After getting to where I pretty much no longer had broken sleep, we expanded my sleep schedule outwards by 15 minutes a week. While I'm still not 100% perfect every night, the afternoon fatigue and brain fog went away. I don't think this sleep stuff would have worked early on even if I wanted it to, but I think because I've spent 3+ years healing, I was finally to the point where something like this could work. 

 

Anyway, I wish everyone best of luck, if anyone stumbles upon this and wants to reach out, feel free to PM me. I don't really use this site anymore but I thought about it today and realized I should probably go back and say something. 

I find your sleep experience very interesting. I did that on my own (didn't think of finding someone to help) but just by doing a forced wake up at 06:30  every day- the earliest I have to get up to make it to work. It was terrible at first and then got better as I got used to it and I slept better. Sadly, I then fell out of the habit after a holiday but despite the waking with the burning feet thing, I do still sleep better than before the early waking time. I have also learnt not to go to bed too early ie make sure I am really tired. It helps so much. But thankyou - maybe I need to go back to the discipline of the alarm clock!

[OzAnnie]

SLEEPING!  I cannot untangle the effects of insomnia from depression. Which comes first?  What causes the other?

Currently I'm sleeping well so mood pretty "normal". 

For people who want help with how to get their sleep on track and who can't afford to see a psychologist please check out the insomnia program on Australian website This Way Up. It's excellent for educating yourself about how to tackle chronic sleep problems

https://thiswayup.org.au/

 

Another thing for women round 50 years old who have disrupted sleep: hormone replacement therapy may change your life :)

[Sheena]

Burning sensations and nerves

 

Do y’all experience burning in your brain and nerve burning and not being able to handle anything stressful at all ???

Edited October 1, 2023 by manymoretodays
added title

[manymoretodays]

@SheenaI merged your new post/topic with a similar one that may partially answer your question.  Post also in your own Introduction topic.

Great if you search first, before starting new topics in S and SC.  We have so many topics now.  Help us keep them organized.

How to do a site search on survivingantidepressants.org

 

Read, browse this whole topic from the beginning and you may find just what you need I hope.  You'll see some related topics in the first post too.

[dadtobe]

Yep, this was my life for a couple of years post jump. I couldn't handle any stress, my skin would burn for weeks on end any time I had stress. It eventually goes away, but it takes time. 

 

I was a short-termer, so slightly different, but like you I think it was a mix of going off Klonopin (Benzos) and Anti-depressants, or some combination of both that caused this. 

[dadtobe]

On 8/11/2023 at 8:08 PM, Cat1W said:

I find your sleep experience very interesting. I did that on my own (didn't think of finding someone to help) but just by doing a forced wake up at 06:30  every day- the earliest I have to get up to make it to work. It was terrible at first and then got better as I got used to it and I slept better. Sadly, I then fell out of the habit after a holiday but despite the waking with the burning feet thing, I do still sleep better than before the early waking time. I have also learnt not to go to bed too early ie make sure I am really tired. It helps so much. But thankyou - maybe I need to go back to the discipline of the alarm clock!

 

100%, I feel like I've fallen out of the rhythm already. Sleep has improved greatly, but I feel like I need to go back and do another cycle of the sleep deprivation and really try to get myself on a schedule. The discipline is tough! 

[Phoenixmama]

i just started to have burning finger tips and parts of my palm , almost 3 years out from a adverse reaction , good to know this is normal for healing 

 

[PortugueseSea]

I guess I am kind of an outlier here. My burning sensations, which I attribute to discontinuing mirtazapine 11 months ago, are mostly on my head, eyes and behind the eyes. I also do experience burning on other areas but nothing too serious or distressing. My eyes specially are almost constantly burning bad.

It seems that, on the other hand, suffering from this after 11 months is nothing unusual.

Still, together with inner tension, activation and terror. It is exhausting. Looking forward to a 2024 of healing.