Horrible withdrawal coming off the Effexor but doing it slowly .Day 7 now off of it and feeling anxious especially first thing in the am.Has anyone used cannabis for anxiety and found it helped?
View 10 RepliesCan someone describe the brain shivers that i have been reading about when people are coming off of certain drugs, like Effexor? I have been getting this symptom where it feels like my brain is having a mild electric shock for a second or two but that cannot possibly be what other people are talking about is it?
View 2 RepliesI've been on Effexor XR for about four years, and about three years ago I attempted to gradually reduce my dose until I was off it, but once I did so I had intense nausea. It got to the point where I forgot what it was like to just be. I had to choose between hungry or being nauseous, and it was a battle every day keeping food down. I tried telling myself that it was just withdrawal and it would pass, but two months went by and nothing changed, so I went back on Effexor, and I could once again eat and digest food just fine. I then decided I needed to move on with my life, I couldn't revolve it around trying to get off this medication, so I've just been taking it ever since. I've been learning more about how cannabis can help with a wide variety of symptoms, and was hoping someone had experience with treating nausea withdrawal symptoms or, though I doubt it, if you know of someone that used cannabis to help them get off of Effexor.
View 2 Repliesrecently just increased my effexor xr to 150mgs. On the 15th so about a week and a half.. I'm still really shaky with the anxiety.. does anyone know how long I should start to feel some relief.. been thru many ad s before this I'm praying this one works.. I'm also extra anxious bc of that time of the month too
View 6 RepliesI really want to get off propranolol but I can't seem to do it without getting horrible withdrawal symptoms like racing heart, sweats, dizziness and breathlessness! Has anyone successfully got off it and if so how did you do it? I have tried tapering my dose I have went from 120mg per day down to 10/20mg a day but this last hurdle is messing with me!
View 6 RepliesI have been taking 15mg of mirtazapine for 6 months for sleep problems and anxiety.
It has helped me sleep and feel more relaxed. But have struggled with word retrieval and foggy head. I decided to come off it and have been on 7.5 mg for 4 weeks, I have been doing ok but the last three days have had problems sleep waking after 3 hours and my anxiety feels like it coming back! Is this just withdrawal or am I going back my old ways?
Been on antidepressants for 16 years I've just come of them 3 weeks ago. Feel so sick,how long will I be like this?
View 11 RepliesBeen on Venlafaxine 75 mg timed release tablets for about two years. I have waited til the spring to try to come off as it's sunnier and better time of year to do it. Had mild depression for two years and then had some nasty panic attacks when I moved house two years ago. In the UK we have the normal tablet and then the timed release tablet. I am trying to come off by using the 37.5mg timed release in the morning then the 37.5mg normal tablet with 10% (7.5 mg) chopped in the evening, for a starter. I previously tried going one day on the 37.5 and then the 75mg and try to alternate but this seemed too big a drop for me. Funny now as I feel a bit more snappy and vulnerable with this tiny 10% reduction. I was hoping that this small reduction wouldn't be noticed and I could slowly withdraw from this drug.
View 8 RepliesI have been on 10mg PROPRANOLOL for a few years for anxiety attacks which would last 4 days of continuous sickness and sweating, also heart palpitations.
I have managed to control this over the past 2 years and very rarely get panic attacks , if i do the sickness and palpitations last a day.
I was taking this medication twice a day, however the beginning of last year i weaned myself down to one tablet a day (10mg) and then eventually stopped taking my tablets all together. i then became very anxious and had to reverse back to 0ne tablet daily. This is with the odd attack.
A year later and having no attacks i would like to try again and wean myself of completely but scared i will revert back to being sick an anxious again. However putting that to one side and thinking positive i would like to stop them.
Can i cut the tablets with a drug cutter and reduce the amount to 5 mg daily and stop.
I have been on a rollercoaster ride for months now trying to figure out this anxiety i've been dealing with. So i'm going to share the whole thing. For years i've been a constant drug user started with intense drinking to mdma and LSD every weekend then to uppers (Adderall and Dex) which was a daily bases for almost a year then pain pills to the point where i couldn't take them they made me unhappy and agro. Around the end of my get F***ed up days i was taking mad amounts of E and mushrooms which when it came to frying i was A OK on never had a bad time till one day. At the time i thought i was having a bad trip but now i think it was an anxiety attack. After that night when i tried to fry even if i was happy to and totally down i would have the worst panic attack so i quit taking psychedelics then stopped MDMA cause i always had an attack every time i used anything besides marijuana and occasional drinking and felt just fine (btw i was and still am a constant weed smoker) in november i went to portland and had a 3 day anxiety attack very random i went to the doctors when i got back he said besides some slight thyroid imbalance be has no idea why im anxious. I have been taking Paxil and Klonopin since November and at first it helped i felt i had a bit more control then it got worse again i've been dealing with fainting and awful morning anxiety and my doc keeps upping the dose but i'm still waking up panicked and idk why. Ppl have brought this up to me but i doubt a lot of bad things they say about marijuana but i'm starting to wonder. Could marijuana interfere with my medication prevent me from feeling better or even feed my anxiety??
View 3 RepliesI shared a joint (weed + tabac) with a few friends about 2/3 weeks ago (my first time), and I'm scared because my body just doesn't feel right ever since.
Because I do have Obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety problems, the immediate hours following the smoke I just couldn't relax and paranoia began to hit me. I had a bit of a panic attack, during which I was disturbed to notice these tiny flashes or floaters in my vision and a slight loss of concentration in 1 eye.
Anyway,anxiety hit me BIG TIME the following week when I noticed this things were still in my field of vision ! I was absolutely terrified, an emotional wreck because I believed (still sort of do) that I had made a huge mistake and screwed up my vision and life for good. I started having periodic shooting eye pains as well which added to the anxiety. However, I went to the opticians and was given the all clear. After this I told myself to relax and began to feel a bit better.....the pain in my eyes eased up.
BUT.....in the 2nd week more symptoms started to follow. I became light headed and weak, periodic ear pain, changes in heart rate and had cold shakes many times during the day. I also began to experience chest pains and pressure on my head developed. It's been a horrible chain reaction, as the symptoms intensified so did the anxiety and that led to me having horrible nightmares and difficulties getting a good night's sleep
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I can't believe I'm saying this but my body shape is also slightly out of line. The head and neck are titled slightly away from body. And that's not something im imaging, because my friends have said that when they look closely they can spot it too. When I do force my body to align itself properly, I feel discomfort in my chest. The pressure on the head is still there, especially coming from the back. Sometimes when I bend down or I move my jaw when eating.....I don't know it's really difficult to explain but I experience pressure changes on my head and things just feel wrong.
I suppose my question is........is this sequence of symptoms all to do with my stress/anxiety and my mind?.....Or has the marijuana created all or parts of this and messed up my body?
On a broader note.......should people like myself with OCD/anxiety brain chemistry smoke marijuana. Are the risks greater for us?
Okay so i smoked weed for the first time at a party but i only took two hits and i did not feel high and then one month later i smoked weed again only took two hits and i did not feel high again but that night i got drunk for the first time as well. (With four beers to be specific) i went to bed that night and everything was okay until about 4am i woke up because i felt sick so i went to the bathroom to see it i needed to throw up but nothing came out so i just went back to bed and felt fine for the rest of the night. The next morning i woke up and i felt very weird i can't quite pinpoint the feeling but it was weird and i would get mini anxiety attacks for the rest of the day. Along with that i would also kind of feel out of breath when i was sitting down or just walking but i ignored it. That night i felt very sick and i felt a feeling around my chest area long with anxiety i also kept feeling like i was gonna throw up and by body would suddenly get very hot. Then i got a big anxiety attack that lasted about five minutes. I just thought i was hungover but when i asked my friends they reassured me i only had four beers and 20 hours later i should not be feeling hungover. For the next three days everything was normal except for feeling out of breath a lot when i was doing simple activities. Then a few days later i was laying down on the couch watching a scary movie with my family and suddenly when the movie got very intense i got a huge anxiety attack which caused my heart to race and me to feel like i was on the verge of passing out. Afterwords i felt very tired so i fell asleep but then again in the middle of the night i had another anxiety attack. Ever since that day i have not felt normal again. I always have a sensation in my chest that causes anxiety and depression. It has been a year since that day and i can honestly say i have not gotten better. I can not watch scary movies because my anxiety gets the best of me i have lost a lot of my friends because the depression has caused me to be uninterested in everything around me. I used to be such a happy person and so full of life but now i cannot remember the last time i was happy. I always try to focus on the positive but this feeling of anxiety has taken over my life. What can i do and what could this possibly be?
View 1 RepliesI have been smoking for like 2 years everyday til one day i had this horrifying panic attack and went to get help at that time i was not diagnosed with substance induced anxiety, just generalized anxiety, i took clonazepam and sertraline and worked pretty good, but in the midst of that I started to smoke again and suspend my eventually suspended my treatment after 4 months, a lot of time passed and i started to have paranoia and derealization symptoms to the point that it was unbearable, at this point still smoked pot but every time a smoked it gave me paranoia and feeling real depressed, but i was addicted when i was no smoking i was just feeling numb, i went to seek help to the psychiatrist and like i said diagnosed me with substance induced depression and anxiety, it was very true that i had depression. He put me into a lot of things: wellbutrin, lorazepam and risperdal, it didn't worked quite well in fact he added me prozac. and didn't worked either, but i was exercising everyday, eating well, meditate and yoga and actually was feeling a bit better but not entirely so he added me another dosage of prozac and reduce the clonazepam, 5 days passed and i was feeling super bad, had the worst anxiety and depression i had in my life. i talked to him and he said ok so back to one dosage of prozac and more clonazepam and well it did help but i was not feeling a bit better like i was. the days passed and felt a little bit more depressed i went to the psychiatrist again and put me on ritalin, which the first day worked wonderful, but left me a few hours later super fatigued and sleepy and depressed so i told him and he said to me to take another one in the midday again worked good but in the night i was so tired and depressed, then another day passed and the feelings of ritalin weren't working as before until today, one week after, i thing a don't feel anything from this drug, in fact i'm feeling more depressed :( and feeling a little bit of derealization like before but not so much. I think the doctor screwed me with all the meds it's my guess but maybe i'm just being paranoid and only feeling the same but less hopeful, i'm so desperate to feel happy again. So i go back to this question do you think my depression was caused by the abuse of cannabis or i was just predisposed to be depressed and the cannabis lifted my depression, because i'm thinking that when I was feeling a little better was because i was motivated and doing good stuff for my body and mind, and know because i think i'm more depressed i stopped doing that. i fear that this "disease" of substance abuse, did damage my brain and left me like this forever but i get a little hope when i think it's just normal depression and i can do a little better by doing good things for me, but what about the meds? should i just stop taking them, obviously with caution, or keep taking the meds and also do good stuff for me, because my problem is that i'm afraid the meds are making my depression worse. i want to mention that 5 days ago a smoked a little pot and it was the worst panic attack i have ever had. but it was just that time and left me wondering if that also left me more irreversible depressed. What do you think about my story, what do you think i should do? getting a second opinion with another psychiatrist or maybe seeing a psychologist its better?
View 2 RepliesThis year, I started to smoke marijuana. I've smoked it a few times until three days ago. I've smoked too much of it and got a horrible panic attack. I've been sitting on the floor more than two hours thinking I'm going to die. The whole world was rotating and twirling around me and my heart was beating so fast that I thought I have a heart attack. I took a deep breath and told myself everything's gonna be alright. My friend told me: Stay calm, it's just a temporary effect of a drug. It's not dying.
Ok, I've survived. But on the next day, I've got anxiety attack three times. I'm 18 and I've never had any anxiety in my life. But marijuana teached me. Last three days, I've had 7 anxiety attacks. My anxiety attack consists of headache and feeling powerless and crazy.
I want to know just one thing. Are those anxiety attacks going to stop? Are they here because of THC still being in my body? Or am I going to experience them for the rest of my life?
About a month or two ago I was having nausea in the AM around 4/4:30. Every morning. I'm not pregnant. I would dry heave and puke. It was first just in the mornings but it started to go throughout the day. I would get clammy hands, get hot then cold, dizzy, and wasn't able to eat or drink anything. I was hospitalized for one day due to dehydration and two days later was admitted for three days. They did urine tests, blood, stool samples, X-rays, ultrasound, and found nothing. They say it's cannabis hyperemesis, but since I got out of the hospital I've been smoking and feeling fine. I am however going through a rough patch with my friends due to me thinking they don't care. This morning I woke up at 5:40 nauseas. Took a shower, took a zofran, had half a glass of milk and tried distracting myself. I threw up some sour cream or milk. I had a potato last night with A LOT of sour cream that I got two weeks ago. Is it that that made me sick this morning or are my symptoms coming back? Please help this has been an ongoing issue and is an annoyance especially trying to get things done. I'm 17 by the way and have been smoking marijuana since I was about 14
View 2 Repliesit seems like I've always had a tiny bit of anxiety, but it was always at bay and not too bad. I've had a few panic attacks but not much else, then roughly 4 months ago I had some weed with a few friends which I've only had a few times before because I hate smoking due to asthma, then it seems like since that night it's made all my anxiety come out at once.
My heart has never felt the same since, I'm way more panicky, I think anything I have could mean I'm dying and so on.
My question is can one night of smoking weed bring all this out, or do you think it was always going to come out at some point?
I have read and studied so far it appears I have developed a drug induced anxiety disorder.
This happened 3 weeks ago when I smoked cannabis for the first time.
I had a panic attack, because I felt it was never going to end. I felt like I was going to die and that my friend was going to murder me. Since then I haven't felt the same. The first week it was a nightmare;, I suffered from derealization where I felt everything was a dream and I wasn't real. My sight was jumpy, could not focus at all and I had constant panic attacks. These last two weeks seem to get better. Near no panic attacks but still this feeling of detachment and feeling out of place... and fear. I have less vivid dreams but they come and go.
I am scared that this will last forever. I was prescribed citalopram 10mgs but i haven't taken this as I have faith i can get cured without it.
I also cannot imagine suffering from the side effects of citalopram as what I am experiencing is already horrifying.
Does this last forever? What can I do to cure it? I have no previous history of mental illness. I also am quite chubby 66kgs so could it be the effects of the THC in my system? as I said i feel better than when it started but i am losing hope.
I'm 15, I started smoking weed around December. I smoked every weekend, and I woke smoke 2 - 4 joints at a time. I continued to do it until around April, when I stopped because every time I smoked I would get anxiety and my heart would race. at the time, i didn't let it bother me because I believed it was normal. I quit 3 weeks ago, and I have been having signs of depersonalization and anxiety. My heart has been beating very fast and hard for the past 48 hours, and I had an anxiety attack last night.
View 7 RepliesI'm 19 years old and began smoking weed back when I was 16. It all started for fun and the first 2 years of the weed use were pretty normal, you know smoking a few times per month but no dependency or any abuse from the drug. Within time I began smoking more and more until I got to the point of smoking every single day on every single occasion. I began abusing of weed back in October 2012 and kept increasing my drug usage within time. I smoked every single day.. From monday to thursday I would usually smoke every night and on weekends I would smoke all day long. I kept this habit for around 6 months. (Some days I would smoke in the morning and all day long). Anyway, I began feeling paranoid on my last months of using weed. It all changed back in June. I was in the car on a long road trip together with my brother and my mom. My mom was driving and I was not high at all.. I had smoked a little in the morning from that day but nothing to worry about. Anyway, when we were traveling in the car, I began feeling pretty scared about a thought that came in to mind. The thought was about me punching my mom, although I love my mom with my entire life and would never do anything bad to her. I didn't know what a panic attack was at all, I didn't know what the symptoms of anxiety were and didn't know what the hell was happening to me. Anyway, I began to feel very very scared. We got to the hotel and I tried to forget about that scary thought my smoking later on that day. On the next day, the thought was still in my mind and I kept fighting with it until I researched and knew I suffered from a panic attack. I never in life had experienced anything similar to it and never had any type of anxiety issues. Since that experience, I decided to quit smoking pot so I did cold turkey. I also quit smoking cigarette and reducing my alcohol usage. Later on, I began experiencing the withdrawal symptoms. Extreme anxiety, panic attacks every day, and began to feel weird around my parents since I got that scary thought. I coped with it and the symptoms reduce their intensity one month after. I was feeling pretty good a month ago, coping with a little anxiety but everything seemed ok. But two weeks ago my anxiety was raised and worsened again. Now I'm feeling very scared because I'm not sure if I'm still experiencing withdrawals or if I really developed and anxiety disorder because of my weed use abuse. I get anxious every time I remind myself that I'm anxious, I'm scared of feeling this way my entire life and scared of thinking I screwed my life up. Has anyone experienced anything similar to this and cured from it????? Was my anxiety caused by my drug abuse or am I only experiencing withdrawals? Any recommendations? I pray everyday and try to keep myself positive every day. I'm a normal guy.. Some days I feel well but some days are the hell to me. I don't have social anxiety and I keep living my normal life.
View 11 RepliesI am 19 years old and have been smoking marijuana for a year. I have now taken a break from smoking weed for the past 2 weeks and a month ago I had a severe panic attack. I am still somewhat feeling the effects of depersonalisation but they were much more severe a few weeks ago and I have a doctors appointment on the 25th of April. I have never felt panic in my life but on Wednesday over a month ago. I have always felt great when I smoked weed but for some reason this time I felt awful. I had woke up on a March break morning around 11 am and I smoked this good weed that I had never tried before. I always smoke out of bongs and I had smoked right when I woke up so I probably was dehydrated and my blood sugar was low. I know weed lowers blood sugar and it was on an empty stomach. It took about ten minutes and eventually I had tunnel vision, I couldn't look at my tv because the screen was too bright, felt like a mini seizure, heart was racing, sweating, felt like I was choking and I was going to have a heart attack. I realize that you cannot die from a panic attack but it was very uncomfortable. The weird thing is that I have never felt panic at all after smoking weed. I smoked half a bowl of this good weed I had never tried and shortly after I smoked this good regular weed that I am used to. I went to ER and took some tests but I eventually left as I did not want to wait there all day. The first week back to school was frightening but now a month later, school is almost over and I am starting to feel somewhat normal. Do you think this will just take time for me to completely get over? I have been feeling depersonalisation because things didn't seem real and everything seemed like a dream. I would have to touch myself to see if I was real it seemed and I had bad anxiety ever since. I feel almost normal now but I am wondering if I just need to wait for the weed to get out of my system in order for me to feel normal again. I smoked weed about a week ago and ever since I think I should quit until I figure out my personal life. I have always felt depression even before I started smoking weed. Growing up as a child my mom was an alcoholic and she would give me suicide notes, my brother died when I was 13 and I was attacked by random people near my street a couple years ago which caused some paranoia and increased anxiety about walking outside at night. It's not like weed caused this, I think that it brought out the real me, it brought out my actual problems and I think the herb is just telling me to fix my issues that I have been having for so long. It's been just over a month and I am starting to feel much better. For the longest time my subconscious mind was paying attention to every breath which was hard and annoying to sleep. I still somewhat feel like this but I am starting to accept it and not care. I have a driving test in a couple weeks and I am scared to be honest. The weird thing is, I have always been scared to do new things like driving or getting a job. Even when I was a kid I was afraid to talk to girls, I know this may sound like I am crazy. I have gotten over the fears of talking to girls now though because I am 19 and not 14 any more. I am hoping to see a psychologist shortly after my doctors appointment which I am hoping to get some clarification and advice to fix my issues. I was also very bullied as a child during elementary school because I was overweight which I think is the reason why I lost a lot of weight and I am now working out daily, mainly running. But, I am very self concious about my body now, I always look in the mirror at my body because I still worry about looking fat and what others think of me. I have always cared about what others think of me which I hate. I think I am getting better at thinking positive now. Another thing is, even before I started smoking weed, I was a very stressed person from school and my personal life. I get in fights with my mom and it stresses me out. She is no longer an alcoholic but it really bothers me even if she has one drink. What I think is weed is not bad for you and cannot harm in very many ways. It can trigger certain things as it had happened to me, but it is physically impossible to die from marijuana. I have smoked weed after my attack and I was fine for the most part. All marijuana does is relax you and increase the serotonin in your brain. It gives you the ability to think more outside the box and it makes you focus on things more which can create a paranoia. Anxiety and depersonalization are in your head. If you think negatively you will react negatively. I want to become a psychologist and I am going to university next year so I know a lot about the mind. I am just wondering if I will get over it and most people say it takes time which I agree with. I will not permanently stop smoking weed but I will definitely cut back drastically.
View 14 RepliesI having been a cannabis smoker since the age of 15, I feel compelled to write my comments here and hope someone learns a little if not a lot! I am now 31 and stopped smoking cannabis 7 weeks ago - I have been an habitual smoker for 16 years. I always thought (in my ignorance) that the drug helped to 'calm' me that it gave me a more 'peaceful' life when in actual fact it stopped me from relating to others, helped me to disconnect and run away from myself. As a teenager (late teens) even my parents used to say that it stopped me from being so 'fiery'! But as the years have rolled on and the cannabis became a bigger part of my life it became the one thing for me to rely on, my friend and it would never fail to be there for me. From the age of 17 I was smoking it everyday and would struggle to have a day without it. In the mornings I would always still be 'stoned' from the night before and was rolling a 'joint' for breakfast which would turn into to up to 10 or so 'joints' per day. As I reached my early 20's (looking back now I understand - I didn't at the time) cannabis was the biggest part of my life and was ruining every part of me. Being a successful human being was not part of my agenda, getting 'stoned' was the most important thing. At the age of 18 i started going to 'raves' and started taking ecstasy, cocaine, amphetamines and various others, but never heroin....that frightened me! Drugs were a bigger part of my life than anything else, I have always managed to hold down a job and had good jobs, often managerial positions and I worked hard. Life went on like this until I hit 26 and felt that life had finally caught up with me - I felt suicidal and very depressed (obviously wasn't blaming the drugs!) life was all too much for me and I didn't know which way to turn. My relationship with my parents had deteriorated so badly and they didn't understand, so I went to the doctors to ask for help. I was prescribed the antidepressants that she had been trying to prescribe to me for the past 2 years and I didn't want to take them, but felt that I had no option. I guess they did help to numb me and to stop the deep depressive states, but now I was on prescribed drugs and still smoking enormous amounts of 'pot'. Six months later I was not in any better space and my father's comment of 'you need professional help' got me thinking maybe he was right. I found a private psychotherapist that advertised in my doctor's surgery and have now been in therapy for nearly five years and it was the best thing I have ever done for myself. She has helped me to understand the 'why's' that I never could have found for myself - I have just finished a two year college course and will be starting another one in September - I am a 'drug addict' and always will be.....after 7 weeks of not smoking 'pot' I have clarity in my life again. I don't feel paranoid, edgy, vacant, detached or different.....it has been hard and yes, I have smoked through my college course and I feel sure that it would have come easier to me had I not smoked. I also now understand that I smoked it to escape unhappy memories of my childhood - therapy has helped me to discuss, deal with and understand that unhappy little girl that turned to drugs because she was lost and sad - I have spent nearly £10,000 pounds (which has been hard money to find, but I have done it on my own) on my therapy and finally I can see a light at the end of the tunnel - I feel good about myself, I have great relationships with my friends and in the last 7 weeks life is not so scary and I don't feel the need to get 'stoned' to be able to cope. I am sure I still have a journey to travel and some days I have felt a little low and had the urge to get 'stoned' but know that there is so much to embrace about life that I don't want to keep squashing myself - I no longer want to be insignificant, I have so much to give to the world! I guess that sounds a little 'cheesy' but I am embracing life with both hands and trying hard to hold on - it's hard but very empowering. In my opinion cannabis use is so very harmful....its so misunderstood and I believe it is as harmful as alcohol....I do mean taken on a daily basis to excess. I am currently watching one of my closest friends go through a 'hell' of a time - she too has been smoking since we were in school and she smokes 'weed/grass' only. She suffers with serious paranoia, recently lost her job and is generally detached from the world - she sadly will not go into therapy and also takes a high dosage of anti depressants, I cannot help her, she can only help herself and she is well aware that the cannabis holds her back, clouds her life, stops her relating and generally makes her life a misery - I love her and can do nothing to help her she has to want to help herself. I am fortunate for being able to embrace my deepest and innermost fears, anxieties and what made me turn to drugs for escapism. When I look around me, anyone I know that smokes cannabis doesn't have a great life, they don't live life to their fullest potential, they don't relate to friends, family and society in general as others that do not smoke do. This is a powerful drug and believe me when I say it is addictive, because I struggle (a little less every day) daily...... I now want a drug free life, that is so important to me, for all the years I have held myself back I now want to soar - I'm scared of being successful which is why I smoked 'pot' but I will go back to college in september and I will pass my next course and I will become successful in my chosen career and cannabis will not be a part of that.
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