Posted by cityguy on March 5, 2005, at 11:47:27
In reply to Brain Shocks, posted by Hopespringseternal on January 14, 2005, at 16:56:29
My first posting as well. I was very intrigued to find someone who was also experiencing "auditory brain shocks". My experience has been rather different from yours since I was not trying to "get off" the Lexapro. I ended up on Lexapro because I had screwed up my hearing during some target shooting. It landed me in the ER with bilateral labyrinthine concussions. In other words severe dizzines, naseau, tinnitus and hearing loss. Of course the Dr. said that the dizziness and naseau would eventually return to normal but that the tinnitus and hearing loss would probably be permanent. So you can imagine I was pretty depressed - my whole world change. About two years after that accident I started having these episodes where looking up or turning my head over my shoulder would cause these brain shocks along with some light-headedness, but I could hear the shocks usually you just feel them like when you hit your funny bone. Of course I went to the ENT and they didn't see anything wrong and never heard of "auditory brain shocks". And there should be no pain with labyrinthine concussions. So as with everything they treat you symptomatically prescribing antivert and occassional anti-naseau pills. Although the antivert helped somewhat it was not a panacea. These episodes would usually last about 3 days and go away. I began to get use to these episodes as much as someone could.
I seem to have a limit to how much of these SSRI's my body can take and since they are cummulative no matter how many milligrams you are taking eventually I get to a point where my brain starts to feel kinda spacey. The Dr's typically just change to a different brand and we continue on for a little while and then I'm back to the same place. My solution is to cut back, intially skipping a day or reducing the dosage by a small amount.
Around Thanksgiving I I was starting to feel like the Lexapro was getting to that point. So I decided to go from 20mg to 10mg.
Around Christmas of 2004 I started to feel as if I was coming down with something like a cold or the flu. Having been a month since I cut back my dosage I certainly didn't attribute it to that, but I took it easy and waited for what I thought was the inevitable flu. The first week of January the shocks where back...but they were not going away like they had in the past. I went to see my new Psychiatrist because I had just moved and talked to him about my medication and the "brain shocks" and expressed that I felt that my past Dr. tended to treat anxiety with SSRI's because of the feared addiction to ativan and the other "benzies" but that I was feeling more anxious than depressed at this time. He agreed to get me off the SSRI's and try the Ativan. He warned me that I might have some side-effects as I weaned myself from the Lexapro. I had told him that I had already cut my dosage in half and had not had any noticeable side effects. So I was to take 5mg for a week and if I felt OK I could stop the medication. I took the 5 mg pills for about 10 days and not having noticed any problems stopped the medication.
The next week the "brain shocks" where at an all time high so I called the Psychiatrist and told him that the shocks were now coming on without "batting and eye". I now had them when I tried to go to sleep or take a nap. The shocks would radiate into my face, down my right arm, down my right leg and at one point jolted my entire upper body off the sofa. He didn't think there was any relation to the medication. Although my emotions where running the gambit as well. I would start crying at the littlest things.
Back to the ENT. The ENT still doesn't think it's related to my ear problems and suggested I see a neurologist that it might be MS. The Neurologist doesn't think it's neurological. Huh? Did I just say that? Well that's what he told me. In the meantime...my whole body seems to be out of whack...my hands and feet are freezing cold while my face feels like I have a severe sunburn other than that I feel like I have the flu but don't have the congestion. I feel so bad that I just want death to take me. With all this going on my "anxiety" is non-existent. How weird is that.
So within the last 3 days I started feeling a bit better. The shocks were pretty much gone and I wake up feeling a bit better in the mornings although I do seem to deteriorate as the day goes on. I think I'm almost through this. So last night I am laying down trying to go to sleep and what happens. Tiny brain shocks with every other beat of my heart. So what happens during the alternating beat - I'm not sure how to describe it - it almost feels as if I'm having a stroke/seizure or period of unconciousness. I'd be hard pressed to describe it but I couldn't get to sleep because of the uncomfortable feeling.
I'm not sure if this is SSRI related or not, but it certainly does seem like a similar sensation. The medical community has not been of any help - but I'm really not surprised. I've learned to look at Dr's like just another "fry chef" at McDonalds, doing just enough to get through the day...their real interest is in collecting their paycheck and helping people put bandaids on cuts and looking forward to the weekends. Doing any more would cut into their personal time. By the way the cost of these so-called medical professionals for 2 visits to the ENT, 2 to my primary and 2 for the Psychiatrist and 1 to the Neurologist and the lab tests/MRI - well the results aren't in just yet...but I can tell you for the ENT to stick a scope into my nose through to my throat was $731 and it took them about 3 mintues.
poster:cityguy
thread:442237
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/newbs/20041227/msgs/466949.html