Metoprolol Withdrawal (Page 20) (Top voted first)

i've been taking metoprolol for several years as partial treatment for high blood pressure. through diet and exercise, i've lowered my BP to the point my doctor says drop the metoprolol.

i did, 3 days ago, and i'm soooo tired, dizzy, irritable, and my vision is blurred.

is this withdrawal? how long will it last?

i remember starting this medication was terrible to get used to. it appears that stopping it is just as bad.

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Todd,

Doctors don't want you to take natural supplement because then they cant sell their life threatening drugs to you.................Look up things on your own.. If you want to take supplements... or see a naturopathic doctor... I do know that magnesium totally helped my heart when I was the (M).. I have not had a palpitation in months.. I doubt fish oil can hurt you unless you take a truck load. Just follow your heart and gut and how you feel..............I don't tell a doctor anything anymore. and I take about 700 mgs. of magnesium a day or I use the magnesium oil. Magnesium is a magic mineral and as we age gets depleted in the body.. look up the pros and cons on your own and see.. Unless you have a certain disorder I don't think magnesium is harmful.. Look up Dr. Stephen Sinatra on utube.. he will talk about the awesome foursome. COQ10, magnesium, L Carnitine and D-Mannose...

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As a result of reading what people suggest here, I've been taking the Dr. Sinatra "awesome foursome" for the past few weeks. That is: Magnesium, CoQ10, Acetyl-L-Carnitine, and D-Ribose. It's Dr. Sinatra's view, supported by a good amount of medical literature, that blood pressure and heart rhythm problems are connected to problems producing adequate ATP in the heart tissue. I've had no recurrence of M withdrawal symptoms, and in general I feel normal/good. I also use Hawthorn, so I guess that's an awesome fivesome.

As for palpitations, I still get them once in a while, but I try not to fixate on them. I find them to be more likely given certain triggering conditions. One is sleep deprivation. Sometimes I wake up too early and don't fall back to sleep; on such days I'm more likely to experience palpitations. Another factor is alcohol. The day (or two) after even moderate alcohol consumption, I'm more likely to feel palpitations. By "moderate" I'm talking about, say, two beers. This is particularly the case if I have those two beers two days in a row. Heart rhythm problems after heavy drinking are well documented, but I guess as we age we become more susceptible to this, at lower dosages. I'm not talking about lots of palpitations; just a few, but enough to notice. If I were to drink more, I'm sure it would be more acute, but the days of having more than two drinks are long behind me.

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@Todd

I'm still taking 25 mg of hydrochlorothiazide, the diuretic. I'm still significantly overweight, and I suspect I'll need that until I am able to get my weight down. Obesity seems to cause fluid retention.

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oh; man .. more meds on top of meds...............good old Western Medicine

when I was weaning off and having anxiety I took L Theanine . it really helps along with meditation ..
go to health food store and check out calming herbs .. Oh; Camomille tea is good and anything that calms the central nervous system. I have been there and its not fun.. also check out Valerian root........there are so many to choose from but just do your own research.

hope you feel better soon.

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Todd sympathize with your problem. Sometimes too much stress can overload our brain! Not sure how each person handles it. I have had 2 real panic attacks. Both on an airplane! I have learned a meditation technique that worked for me but it wasn't easy. Luckily I haven't been troubled since, but have been around a few people in my working days that were suffering from them. The natural cure is always best trio avoid the poisons of modern medicine. Keep posting how you're doing. Good luck. Remember take a few deep breaths and try to picture yourself in a quiet lovely place. That's what worked for me.

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Sry u had trouble Todd. I tried the same drug once and it was awful. I had similar results. Cardiologists don't see patients enough in some cases to be effective. Takes months at times for a single appointment. You almost have to self manage to a degree. You don't have a choice. It's really sad how hard it is to get proper care nowadays .

I literally asked my doctor how would be best to properly ween lorazepam since it's so hard to cut at small intervals and his reply was I don't know ... The seemed hurried and I paid another 70.00 visit fee. All to hear I don't know.

Called a pharmacist and he said I should quit cold turkey at .5 mg. I don't see how these people do their jobs without killing people.

Finally I ordered a kilogram pill scale and I'm gonna just do the math and shave my own. No other reasonable choice. This raises the question... Why are there no smaller doses than .5mg lorazepam if they people have to ween? Seems like they want u to stay on it to me.

Even liquid lorazepam you can only get down to .2 mg intervals . Sad really.

You have to caution modern healthcare with some good personal research or you might get in a mess.

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For the most part, my vertigo and dizziness eventually became less prevalent as my other symptoms began to subside. However, as I noted earlier, I was also taking Hawthorn once I got off the M, and I found that it was contributing to those symptoms as well. I couldn't figure out why I still had a fairly strong case of vertigo when my heart palps and chest pain became minimal, and once I got off the Hawthorn, it got much better. This probably doesn't help in answering your question, but that was pretty much my experience.

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I was in M and Bystolic in April and quit in May due to bad side effects. Two weeks ago I had CT angiogram. They gave me M by mouth and 4x in IV along with Xanax to get my heart rate down to 60. This past Sunday I felt it wore off. I started to have the same feelings I had when I quit the beta blockers in May. Feeling like shaking, anxious, feeling edgy, muscle twitches, etc. I went to my Pdoc and he gave me 10mg of Prozac and 0.5 mg of Clonazepam. Today is day 4 for Prozac and day 2 for Clonazepam. I have taken it the last 2 nights and cut in half (0.25 mg). I wake up shaky and anxious. Am I going through withdrawals again?

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If you are taking benzodiazepines then you need to be very cautious and make sure you take them same time everyday and never ever quit them cold turkey. Ween off if you want off. Your symptoms sound to me to be a side effect of those drugs and u might need to explore that possibility . I don't know the details but I'd be cautious when taking them. If you maintain a dosage prescribed, it might take a full week for your side effects to stabilize.

I'm no physician, this is just my opinion.

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Xanax and clonazepam are in the same class but switching from one to another can be tricky and then throwing Prozac in there can be rough. The benzos effect a part of the brain which directly effects muscles among other things and can cause certain uncomfortable side effects. An addiction to these drugs can be very fast for some people .

Be weary of taking too much of these drugs . Go easy. But never ever quit cold turkey, make small reductions if you r experiencing bad side effects.

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Ditto on that had been said about benzodiazepines. These are powerfully addictive sedatives. The effect of one 25mg pull of Xanax is like two or three martinis. You wouldn't consider it appropriate if your doctor advised you to have a couple of stiff drinks every morning and then again after dinner, for the foreseeable future. If anxiety it's the problem, or a contributing factor, as it usually is, you need to find other tools for dealing with it. Benzos will take you down.

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Hi again. I'm not sure the details of your chart or why you are on these drugs. I'm sure your doctor has reasons. I'm not sure if you are experiencing tons of anxiety or you are on them for other reasons.

But I would like to add that I am currently weening off lorazepam and I'm currently at .75 mg. I cut down about .125 every ten days, depending on how I feel. Everyone has their own pace with benzos. They can be very difficult for certain people.

I got addicted to lorazepam by no fault of my own . Took it just a few times because my doctor told me to and the realized I had to ween off. The withdrawals were dangerous. Initially he tried to give me something similar to Prozac to supposedly help the weening process since they both deal with the same area of the brain but it caused me all kinds of problems. I quit it after only two pills.

But I'm still weening lorazepam and going slowly. Since you have been on for a shorter time, you can probably ween faster but I'd still use caution. It's dangerous too ween a benzo too fast . Personally, I think benzos should be banned except in extreme circumstances. Heck, you'd be better off with pot.

Sometimes a benzo with Prozac can be a lot for your brain to handle at first. Not to mentioned you switched from one benzo to another too and your body has to adjust for that.

I'm not your doctor so I cannot reasonably advise you but I can offer my insight if I were you as a frame of reference. If I were you, I would carefully get off benzos altogether and never take another unless your situation is dire. Prozac by itself is probably ok but together might be a rough beginning.

You should always value and listen to your doctors advice if that advice is in your best interest and makes sense. But taking pills just to treat one side effect after another is a slippery slope indeed. It can sometimes do more harm than good. I guess what I'm saying is this.... Listen to your doctor but avoid the benzos if you can. They are bad news. Only take them as a last resort to your problems.

Best wishes....

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Well it's hard to say what ur addiction level is if any with that little use. The manufacturer recommends short term use of any benzo pretty much because of its addictive quality. Some people can get dependent on them super fast. But everyone is different.

But honestly, if you read about those benzos and especially watch a few YouTube videos on withdrawal issues from people addicted, you will certainly see my point.

I would honestly avoid benzos if you can. If it was my body, I would because of my own experience. There are other, safer ways to manage stress. Granted some people have no choice but to take them but I'd use them only if you absolutely had to.

You might be able to just quit them with so little time on them but I'd be careful. You'd be surprised how easy they can get in you. Just be very cautious of them. Once you are on a moderate amount and addicted, some benzos are harder to get off of than coke for some people.

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Geez, Tony........that benzo issue you've been having sounds horrible. Hopefully you'll get beyond it soon. I just can't imagine having to wean myself off of benzos in addition to dealing with the Metoprolol. What's sad is that we're all here having problems with the kinds of drugs that are supposed to be making us feel better, not worse! It's not like we're a bunch of drug addicts with self-induced issues but, in perspective, it really isn't much different than that, either. Many years ago I was a full-time musician who was once surrounded by a large number of people who became addicted to a variety of illegal substances - including myself - and for the life of me, I never thought I'd have to experience such misery again. Needless to say, I thought wrong.

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So.....it's been pretty quiet around here lately. I hope everybody is doing well! Things have been going well here for that past week, so I can't complain. I still get a heart palp on occasion, but I'm finally feeling close to being back to normal once again. Needless to say, it's been a tough ride.

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Hi jmbo, I'm glad you are improving. I'm doing ok. I quit blood pressure meds over a week ago and my bp is fine. Seems with all my weight loss and strict diet , I can go without it for now.

I still get tightness and discomfort in my chest at times but I don't feel it's heart related. I think it's surface related and most likely it's costochondritis. Almost 30 % of all people who go to the emergency room for chest tightness is diagnosed with this and it sure seems like what I have. And of course I'm still weening lorazepam. I'm fixing to drop to .625 mg.

I hope everyone else is doing well too. Remember to keep a positive, calm attitude when things get rough.

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Hey Tony and DJS! Yeah, I'm finally getting back to being myself once again, which is probably the reason I'm not posting here much these days. As I said earlier, I'm still having a heart palp every once in a while, but as long as I avoid the primary triggers such as alcohol and caffeine, I get along pretty well. I expect to have the palpitations for a while since I've experienced this type of thing before, but they'll likely become fewer and further between with time. All I can say is that I'm very thankful to have become Metoprolol-free once and for all! It was by far the worst experience in my life. Funny thing is, I never quite realized how much I enjoyed a good adrenaline buzz.......LOL. That's something that the 'M' took away from me, and it's only a natural thing to have your adrenaline running at an all-time high when you're doing a good workout, or playing music, or just enjoying life in general. Like Boydage's experience, it feels good to be laughing once again! You just gotta be careful with this stuff, though, for I found out the hard way that it can indeed become a life-threatening matter if one doesn't wean off of it carefully.

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Boydage, I was in a bit of a hurry to get off the Metorprolol when I realized it wasn't working for me any longer. I initially went cold turkey for about 36 hours before I had one of the worst angina episodes I've ever had. I went into the ER because of it. I then discovered this website and realized that I'd have to wean myself off of the drug. I then tried to taper my doses too quickly and found myself in the ER once again after thinking I could simply quit. I had a total of three ER trips, and all three times they found nothing wrong with me. As it was, I probably still tapered a bit too quickly before quitting once and for all, for I had a pretty horrible withdrawal period before I started feeling better. Of course, we're all different, and many of us are much more sensitive to drugs than others, so some folks just have a much easier time for whatever reason. I just happen to be very sensitive to any drug. I'm not sure if this helps, but you can always dig back into the previous posts here to find what some of us have gone through. I think I initially posted around mid May, and I was literally going through hell for the entire month of May as well as June. It wasn't until we got well into July before I started feeling better.

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Thank you Jimbo. I am at day 11. Yesterday I felt pretty good until the evening when my pulse started to race, while relaxing and watching TV! I started back on my old dose of medicine that I took before the doctors sent me on this wild ride with Metoprolol. I am eager to have this out of my system completely. I too am very sensitive to medicines and chemicals in general, so this "dependency" my body developed is disturbing. Thank you for your comments and encouragement. Aside from my pulse shooting up for no reason and some chest twinges, I'm improving I think. I'm afraid to exercise (which I know I need to do) because my pulse jacks up. It does come back down, but until I get the "all clear" from the new doctor (praying that he's competent) I'm taking it easy. I really hope my body can return to where it was before this poison took over my life.

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I'm in the same boat. Super fit but anxious. I was on metoprolol for 8 years. 6 weeks cold turkey and experiencing awful depression and anxiety. How are things now for you? It's been a few months I'm hoping we'll.

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