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What is your experience with switching medication and brain zaps?
I've just started switching my medication and it's been pretty bad for me. Brain zaps are very frequent and I'm crying a lot. I'm struggling.
I've been trying to find out what other people's experience has been like when they switch meds. What is normal and what isn't. People who relate to brain zaps and how they deal with it. Are brain zaps even considered a real thing?
What has your experience been like?
They are absolutely a real thing.
I got them after coming off of SSRIs. They were extremely unsettling, and I totally get where you're at right now. I'm sorry you have to deal with that. Changing medications is hard enough as is.
Some hopefully good news for you is that they didn't last that long for me. Maybe only a few weeks/months? And even then towards the tail end they were extremely intermittent, like maybe once every few days or so. I would forget about them until one popped in to remind me they still existed. There wasn't ever an "oh good, they stopped" moment for me -- instead I just realized one day that I hadn't had one in a while, and they haven't come back since (and it's been over a decade).
Thank you for that link! It does help to have other people talk about their experiences.
Mine isn't shocking, but it's more unsettling and mildly disorienting. Like you can feel and "hear" it at the same time. I always describe it as the static you get when your turn old school televisions on or off. But in your brain.
The reason I question if this was a real thing was because I told my psychiatrist this. And his reply was that he didn't think I was getting brain zaps because there are no muscles in the brain.
I felt very dismissed, sad and confused. He gave me some meds to address it anyway. A low dose of medication that's used for epilepsy.
I've been getting brain zaps for a long while now, but only when I miss my medication dose. So I've just assumed that was normal. But last year, I had incredibly high fever and around that time it was weird because I would have brain zaps even though I didn't miss my medication.
Then it would happen whenever I got sick. Then it progressed to just happening even with meds.
So I told my psychiatrist it was still happening. He says sometimes things happen and doctors don't know why so he can't really speculate.
So he decided to change all my meds.
I asked him whether I'd have issue with the zaps because it happens nore when I go off meds. He said I just had to persevere for a while till things stabilise. He also said none of his patients have complained about changing meds this way before.
So now I'm constantly getting brain zaps but I'm also always questioning myself if it's really a thing since my doctor seems to not really acknowledge it as a thing.
Your psychiatrist dismissed your concerns as imagined because “there are no muscles in the brain”? I’m in awe. I don’t even need my undergrad in psych to know that dismissal is so absurd it’s laughable.
Migraines must also be fanciful; the brain has no migraine muscle, after all. And seizures? Indicative of an over-active imagination. Your depression? Not real. The only way to experience anything is via a muscle.
Setting aside the profoundly unscientific nature of his statement, a good psychiatrist should never make you feel dismissed. I know how hard it is to change therapists/psychs, but if you’ve noticed a trend in these feelings, you should consider finding another. It will be worth it in the long run.
Either way, I’m sorry he made you feel that way. I hope things improve for you going forward.
My dad called them "Brain Shivers" and had a hard time as well. Sitting and just talking seemed to really help him so grab someone you can do that with or dm me and I'll send my discord info and you can talk to me.
When I switched meds I went through some pretty wild mood swings and would be vibrating with energy one moment and then barely able to sit up right the next. I'm lucky to have my awesome wife who has supported me through so very much.
Thank you for the reply. I'm going through mood swings as well. Although it's between "Oh I'm fine and I feel normal enough" and "Huddled on the floor in a heap of my own tears"
But the change can be pretty sudden.
This makes me feel better that it seems normal.
My experience is that it is very real, extremely "painful" (it is hard to put into words), and also that it goes away. Zen meditation helps a bit if you're able to do it, but it's not a magical solution. You just gotta hang in there.
However, if it is truly unbearable and is not subsiding, a visit to the doctor may be warranted. You can go back to the old meds, make for a longer transition, or add some other medication temporarily to make things smoother.
But it will go away eventually.
Good luck :)
Thank you for the assurance. I will see how it goes for the next week and if it is still terrible, I'll book an appointment with my psychiatrist.
Mediation hasn't really been able to work for me when I'm already in a terrible state. But also the zaps keep getting in the way of trying to clear my mind. Haha.
Yes! I got them too, switching from one to another type of pill. It sucked, for me it was usually while walking and I hated it. I wondered if it had to do with rapid eye movement during more active motions. Although it felt terrible at first, I kind of got used to them and they became more of a nuisance.
In the end, the frequent zaps (more than 5 times a day) lasted a couple weeks. Then it was more like once a day and I think by the end of the second month they were gone entirely. Every once in a while I still have them (6 months later) but it is so rare I couldn’t tell you how often.
How often do you currently experience them? I hope it gets better soon!
Thank you for sharing your experience! This does give me hope.
I have the same experience. For some reason closing my eyes reduces the zaps. I've googled and some people say the same thing? I do wonder if it's eye movement related.
I get the zaps very frequently. I can't count them. It's every few minutes. One after the other. If I reduce motion, it happens less. But it does sometimes happen even when I'm just lying down.
But maybe the eye movement when using the phone while lying down is affecting it.
I also end up feeling nauseated and foggy. But I can push through those when I'm with people.
That is much worse than I had, that’s terrible. Let’s hope they become less frequent soon, even my worst days sound like they would be a relief for you. I think it’s definitely worth asking a professional about this, they might have some kind of way to limit the amount.
I really hope you get well soon!
Edit: just read your other responses and it sounds like asking the professional isn’t really working. Don’t feel like it is just you, this really is a thing. If your doctor isn’t able to help, maybe it’s an idea to look for a second opinion.
Brain zaps are real. Professor Wendy Burn - a previous president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK - acknowledges them in this tweet from 2020
We shouldn't give medical advice, so talk to your doctor about this. But techniques I've seen are to taper down more slowly.
I switched from a very high dose of venlafaxine and my healthcare team decided to do a monitored rapid switch - so I stopped venlafaxine on a very rapid taper down, then waited a short time before starting mirtazipine. This meant I had pretty unpleasant discontinuation effects, but only for a short time. Mirtazapine kicking in was nice, but it's overall less effective for me, but has fewer side-effects.
Thank you for the tweet. It gives me hope but also am very sad to see all the comments about being dismissed by their doctors.
Because I was dismissed too. My psychiatrist said he doesn't think I'm having brain zaps because there's no muscles in the brain.
The statement was incomprehensible to me.
I just felt dismissed and went home and cried afterwards. Because maybe I was making it up after all. Who knows. It's me. I'm the problem.
You know, all that train of thought.
My therapist told me that was bull and to ditch my psychiatrist and get a different one.
I've been on these things (SSRI, SNRIs, and some of the newer classes) since I was a teenager (before 2000). I won't come off of them until I die, and if I come off of them I will die. My depression left untreated is terminal.
Brain zaps are real. I'm a scientist, so I know that I need to be careful because I'm the easiest person to fool. It's just too unique an experience and attested by too many people with the exact same words. We can talk about philosophy stuff, but if a bunch of people say "blue", it's blue.
As for switching meds, some are worse than others. I've switched meds a lot. Sometimes it's been easy. Sometimes it's been hard.
If you can share your meds, I can share my experience with them.
Not OP, but curious of your experience (if any) with bupropion.
I'm on vilazodone and bupropion currently.
Buproprion has been great for me. I'm not going to arm chair psych it, but I've never gone off of it. If I don't take it in the morning, I'll skip it. If I don't, I'm up at 2 am when the extended release kicks in.
I definitely agree it has some stimulant effect. When I skip a dose i do seem to need to sleep in the next morning.
Anyway, my experience agrees with what I've read in the literature.
Now, the vilazodone... If I miss a dose of that, it's not like sertraline. Not as much brain zap. Some, but not as much. It's much worse though.
Sounds pretty similar to my experience then. I've been on 300mg XL for a few years now. I lucked out, Wellbutrin was only the second drug I tried, and hot damn does it work for me. I stayed on sertraline through the bupropion adjustment, then realized I just didn't need it anymore. I didn't like how apathetic sertraline made me anyway.
Bupropion blew my goddamn mind. After the long and unpleasant adjustment, I felt like I was finally experiencing life like "normal people." It was suddenly clear that I'd been deeply depressed since childhood. All the things I used to think I couldn't be were now within my grasp. I fully expect to continue taking bupropion for the rest of my life.
I'm pretty good about remembering to take it, but man some days something interrupts my morning routine and I walk out the door without it. I usually realize by about noon, because I'm in a dark, cynical mood. People irritate me, my patience goes out the window, and my temper flares. I know I'm in for a shitty night, my mind is going to gravitate to all the things I don't want to think about.
I still have some days where I see red when my boss talks to me like I don't know anything. I'd be interested in something I can take as-needed for those days, but I'm managing my anger adequately through meditation, mindfulness, and breathing.
How are your side-effects? Anything long-term? I went through it all during those first months, but thankfully almost all of them have faded with time. Almost. I still have near-daily nausea; my digestive system in general seems...out of whack.
Thank you! I do feel more reassured.
I don't think my depression is as bad.
I guess part of my fear is that I'm overreacting to such a small dose because when I brought up my worry about the effects of suddenly switching especially since I am already getting brain zaps with medication and that was the reason for the switch. My psychiatrist said that I just had to persevere and that none of his patients have complained before.
I would share my meds but I feel like I've already give away too much information to anyone who knows me and might come across tildes. Haha.
But I really do appreciate the offer.
Although I'm not currently on any medication, I have had a bunch of these when withdrawing from benzodiazepenes, when I have been using serotonegenic party drugs and when I'm severely sleep deprived.
They are alarming but I believe (and hope) not too harmful in the long run.
I've got my own bias about my experience of brain zaps being equivalent to partial seizures, but that aside, withdrawal from benzos are absolutely linked to seizures. It is one of the only drugs whose withdrawal can actually kill you. If you take benzos in the future, please be careful to wean yourself down. Alcohol can technically help in a pinch.
I actually had a seizure from going cold turkey when I was sick of being dependent on benzos at that time. To back up your bias/experience it was like sleep paralysis (another interesting phenomenon) with a series of brain zaps and when I came round from it and able to move again I was drenched in sweat and obviously really freaked out.
I still do take benzos occasionally to help me zzz after parties etc, but nothing regular enough to be habit forming because no way in hell I'm going back to that.
Same! I started getting what I can only call brain zaps at around 19; years before I ever had any sort of psychiatric medication. Glad I'm not alone in that, I've always only heard about them in the context of antidepressant withdrawals and have been very confused about that.
You should talk to a doctor about that. It might be a form of epilepsy or other type of seizure. There are several other reasons than epilepsy, but only a proper assessment by medical professionals can tell you what it is is, and how it can be alleviated. Which they might very well be able to help you do.
"You should talk to your doctor about getting a referral to a neurologist if possible. My experience is that they're partial seizures. An anticonvulsant was absolutely life changing for me."
Pardon for copy pasting myself within a topic, but I think this is important.
I had a terrible doctor that had me cut effexor (which apparently is one of the worst to do) cold turkey. It was horrible abd took about a month to get over being nearly bedridden. Even years later I can sometimes feel brain zaps from withdrawals
venlafaxine cold turkey is rough!!
I've had them as long as I can remember, but just ignored it. I've never taken any medication before, so I don't know what causes them :/
You should talk to your doctor about getting a referral to a neurologist if possible. My experience is that they're partial seizures. An anticonvulsant was absolutely life changing for me.
Is there any risk of it getting serious/worse? If not, I won't bother, they're only 2-3 times a day and fairly mild, I think I can live with it.
To be clear, I am not a doctor and my word should not be taken as medical advice. But seizures can worsen as you get older and can cause brain damage over time. Even mild, it may not be something you have to live with!
Hmm, maybe I'll look into it. It's wild, cause I never even knew that other people had this until today, and now I find out it might actually be a problem. At least I know I'm not crazy now! :)
It's important to remember that we don't know why antidepressants work. Obviously the results speak for themselves, but our understanding of what's actually going on is quite limited.
Talk to your prescriber ASAP.
But yes "brain zaps" are real. I experienced them getting off an SNRI too quickly. I've done a lot of medication changes though, most of them don't have brain zaps.
I also experience partial seizures. It's the same sensation. At one point I hypothesized a pathway and mechanism that would explain it, I could pull out the journal or figure it out again if folks are interested.
My recommendation is to minimize your sensory input and movement. Lie down, close your eyes, and breathe. It is natural to feel exhausted after an episode, let yourself rest. You're going to be OK. If accessible, a benzodiazepene (or analog) at a low dose should help calm your brain (though frankly it isn't advisable to take medical advice from an internet stranger).
Thank you! I've been lying down and listening to audio books to get through it.
The thing about seizures seem worrying though.
My psychiatrist knows about it. I've been getting brain zaps more frequently even without missing a dose. It only used to happen when I missed my meds. So the switch is due to the brain zaps and hoping the new medicine will work out better.
But now it just means I'm constantly getting zapped because I'm not taking the old meds anymore.
Your prescriber should have worked with you on a schedule to wean off the old meds, that's irresponsible of them and I'm sorry you're suffering.
I do hope today is better and you adjust quickly. I also hope you have found solace in knowing you aren't alone and others have gotten through this.
I would not worry overmuch about my partial seizures comparison, especially since seizure is a scary word. I'm not a medical professional and I have yet to actually find one that makes the connection. But if you and your doctor are struggling to get these zaps under a control, perhaps use it as guidance to talk to a specialist.
Thank you for that. I've decided that I should change my psychiatrist. I've been thinking about it for a long while, but this does really suck.
It's just a matter of figuring out how. I'm using a public system where I can't choose my own doctor. I get assigned one. I'm going to call the hospital and figure it out.
god yes yes yes ive switched medication (SSRIs) so many times before i finally managed to settle down on one that works for me and between me switching tablets and my terrible memory to actually consistently take them i ended up facing the dreaded brain zaps, i remember frantically googling stuff like "weird stutter in brain" and "brain vibrating" and panicking because i had no idea what it was or what was causing it. Eventually i found some good threads on a student forum where people were discussing brain zaps just like this and i was able to calm myself down.
I still occasionally get them but I just look at them as my tablets doing their thing! I didnt really have any tricks for dealing with them at the time other than just sitting down incase it continued. Hope it gets better for you if it continues to concern you talk to your doctor! They know more than me lol
For me, I got off of Lexapro on my own due to it not working and my anxiety making me think that if I told the doctor that it wasn't working, that he'd be offended or hurt that I wasn't responding well to his suggestion. I was in my early 20s, but I know better now.
Anyway, I have permanent brain zaps, but thankfully, they only show up when I'm trying to oversleep. So it's kind of a blessing for me because it makes me more productive. They're rare enough anyway that I don't really get bothered by them.
Lesson learned: if you plan to quit/switch a medication, make sure to taper off according to a doctor's advice and don't try to do it on your own, even if your anxiety is convincing you to try to do so. Of course, Google could've taught you that, too.
I got them when I was taking buspirone. I hated it.
Did you switch medication? Did it stop?
I switched medication and it stopped. I'm not sure if it would have eventually faded away if I stayed on buspirone, but the zaps were uncomfortable enough I didn't want to wait to find out.
Late to the party, but I had mild brain zaps when tapering off citalopram (Celexa) too fast. I kind of liked them, in the same way that cracking joints feels satisfying. I'd experience a build-up of some nebulous feeling in my head and trigger a brain zap by rapidly moving my eyes from side to side.
It took a month or so before they stopped, future drugs I tapered more slowly and I've not had them since.