Metoprolol Withdrawal (Page 41)

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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Ed, we are behind you 100% and we all know what you are going through. It is real. I don't think the prescribing doctors (mine anyway) gave much thought to telling me about this drug and I don't think the designers of this drug intended for people to get off it. It seems to be so powerful that once you're on it...getting off isn't an option. Especially if you gave a heart condition , how could you trust your body with the erratic palps and anxiety? Unacceptable for the medical profession to be so careless and reckless with these strong medications. My advice is to go slow... Very slow. Wean off it as slowly as you can. There is no rush and the smaller steps down, the less intense the side effects. You can do it.

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Exactly what I experience. SVT. Usually triggered by a bending movement or sometimes even jumping. Thanks for posting. Glad I'm not alone!

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Look into aspartame causing heart palps. I had palps for 7 years until I stopped using aspartame and now I have none for 1 and 1/2 years.

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No problem. Dissenting opinions always welcome here. I've taken Toprol-XL 200mg QD for < 10 years, no problems. I take it because of my open heart surgery and as an adjunct to other BP meds. Definitely, once someone loses enough eight to experience a significant BP reduction, the doctors nee to do their homework and reduce, or cut down and DC. That's just good medicine, My older bro is a Interventional Cardiologist and when psychiatry started using beta-blockers to mask the signs of anxiety (hand tremors, sweating, etc.), Big Bro took me aside and said, "You do know NEVER to stop Inderal [propranolol —that was the drug of choice] abruptly, don't you, no matter how small the dose." Well, maybe I might not have with small doses if my bro hadn't clued me in. I like to think I know my drugs and I've always been pretty familiar with beta-blockers. Thanks for you input and, of course, no hard feelings.

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Bravo Ed and Jimbo! Well said Sirs! Today is a bad day, vision issues, racing system, wonky head- all this of course equals anxiety! I'm on vacation from work thank goodness. See the doc next week again next Tues. I have also decided to forgo 99% of supplements until at least mid February, I can't seem to take anything without a hyper sensitive reaction. Keep at it all.... we WILL overcome this poisoning!

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I went to the er with a panic attack recently and the er doc, seeing my bp assumed hypertension and prescribed metoprolol xl 50mg 1x daily. I've been on metoprolol xl 50mg 1x daily for 5 days, 3 at full dose and then 2 days with dose cut in half after explaining to my pcp that it's making my panic attacks worse and wound up in the er this past Monday with even higher bp and felt like dying. With the dose cut in half, I still get panic attacks about an hour after taking it but I've been doing breathing exercises to get out of a full blown attack. My pcp said that I'd only have to split the dose for 2 days and then I could stop taking it. Today was the last half dose day. Does that sound right or should I do the cut back over a longer period of time?

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I am taking dust, literally Dust! I cant get off this stuff! I cant go any slower. Im taking dust every 5 days and cant go any longer in between. My heart races, head hurts and anxiety is bad. I want off this stuff. Been trying for 6 months. Any advice for me?? Please!?

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Sandra I'd say maybe you might see your practitioner for some help. Sounds like you're having such a difficult time. Sorry to hear that. There are other medications that can be prescribed. If your doctor isn't a help maybe try to seek another opinion. Please let us know how you're doing. Wishing you à better 2016. Also sending a shout it to all my fellow posters on this page wishing all a blessed, happy, healthy 2016!! Keep the faith!

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Sandra, My dr prescribed me xanax (alprazolam) I know, another drug. but it helped me tremendously the first 5 months. and i have been slowly tapering off from xanax since my anxiety has lessened. I was taking 1/4mg 2 to 3 times a day. I'm down to 1/4 before bed. Sometimes i go a day with out any at all. the anxiety hasn't subsided completely and last week was horrible with a rebound of withdrawals 7 months later. This week however i feel a lot better. I'm also taking ashwaghandha which helps. I was also feeling so fatigued (a side effect of the anxiety) and took a supplement called activi-t by life season and it helped my energy levels. Also taking magnesium daily by Natural Vitality and it helps regulate my heart rhythm.

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Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Today is real bad. Got the head zap thing going on. Took a small amount of "dust" 4 days ago. Cant believe my body is so sensitive. Is it the beta blocker that makes us sensitive or is our body just sensitive?!

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Sean, slow down. Slow way down on detox pace. Sandra, my doc said lick the pill every few days. Seriously! Also you can try Visteril instead of xanax. Xanax is itself difficult to get off of.
Something about this drug seems to bring out the WORST in hypersensitive folks. It's so annoying and frustrating . Don't give up.

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Sandra.
I can understand what you are going through.. It took me a year to get off of the (M) and It was a nightmare.. I have been off now since last April.. my body was so addicted to this stuff........Anyway; I did it very slowly.. Instead of cutting the pills I would extend the time I took it.. LIke lets say I took 25mgs. at 9 am I would extend that to 10 a.m. and that was a horrible struggle.. I would just let my body tell me what to do.. I kept extending the time I took the 25 mgs. until I felt stable enough to cut down.. that is why it took me a year.. and I still had horrific side effects.. I even had to back track a few times it got so bad.. If I was on 50mgs. and cut back and I was having issues I just went right back up to the 50 until I felt stable.. I don't know what dust is but have you heard of titration.. you have to look It up. I think it means you mix the dust with water but look it up
I also took magnesium, theanine, things for my nerves, I did EFT and even went through videos on utube on how to get clean of drugs..
Hang in there and find ways that work for you.. try a bunch of things and see what works.. I couldn't even walk two feet without my heart pounding.. I was basically in the house for a year and just did some shopping and minor things.. but it was so worth it..
Good Luck

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Thank you BEE and Lauren! This is the craziest ride ever!! Hoping 2016 is my year. ;-)

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Maybe it's because we've discovered that nearly all psych drugs have a withdrawal period and we need to taper, but I'd look closely at beat-blockers before I discontinued them. FYI, Ayerst, (now Wyeth-Ayerst) the developer of INDERAL (propranolol), the first b-blocker, emphasized in their advertising NEVER to stop the med abruptly and always to taper. I remember seeing this in drug ads (in med journals) when I was in college! In the 1970s! I never imagined the problem could be so large and sous. I today directed my physicians to check patient charts for beta-blockers and ensure that what might have been perceived as psych symptoms might actually be withdrawal suggested by a dumb doctor! I learned a lot from your posts. guys, and it brought back my early training. I don't personally review every patient's Hx and although I technically OK all admissions, all of us "Service Chiefs" tend to go along with the decisions made by trusted subordinates. But what if one of my assistants sin't sufficiently knowledgable? This is one of those things thatch easily slip through. I conference-called a few of my counterparts at other hospitals. We had a good talk. All knew of this and some had seen it in patients originally scheduled to be admitted to psych wards. I'm still technically out sick (serous accident followed by Degenerative Disk Disorder)m but I'm still the boss. I rarely issue mandates and try to govern by consensus, but I was very clear in this directive. Review all your patient's charts and he's for beta-blocker use and/or withdrawal. Thank you. Having a couple of doctorates doesn't make me or anyone else "above" learning from our patients. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen!

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I actually had a patient who asked if she could have the Xanax 2mg tablet and bite off a1/4 of a tab (0.5mg) or LESS when she needed to do so. No, she didn't want more than the usual month;s supply, but this worked better and the dose didn't quite stay static — but she never took "too much". Hydroxyzine (Atarax and Vistrail) aren't worth much as tranquilizers; the drug is an antihistamine, but if you're sensitive enough to experience some of the effects/withdrawal syndrome reported,you can give it a try. Remember that even though it FEELS like you're withdrawing from an addicting drug, you're NOT, so while Xanax would help in most sedative withdrawal (and some antidepressant withdrawal syndromes where we cannot taper off the original drug; it happens on occasion), the Vistaril relieves your symptoms, it's worth a try. Both Xanax and Vistaril come in extremely low dosage forms (Xanax goes down to 0.25mg and Vistaril is available as 10mg caps; however, Xanax is a pretty strong benzo; the 2mg tab [highest strength] is, in my opinion, considerably stronger than it's alleged equivalent, 10mg of Valium. I'm assuming BRAND NAMES, btw.) Hope this helps.

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Bee, thanks for piping in here! I sincerely hope that those of us who have struggled with this drug can keep this thread alive and well by continuing to add our contributions for those who continue to struggle with it. I personally found that the struggle itself can add nothing but confusion and anguish once we first realize that we're having a serious problem, and none of the doctors I saw ever thought that Metoprolol was the primary root of my problem. In fact, as Dr. Joey has stated, a couple of my doctors even hinted toward the idea that I may have had a problem with my own psych and that it wasn't a problem with the drug at all. I just called "BS," for I knew only too well that it was the drug that was causing all the havoc in my system. The new people here just need to realize first and foremost that if they suspect that they're having a problem with this drug, that the chances are very good that it is indeed this poison that's fouling up our systems.

Sandra, of course, I'm no doctor, but from what I've experienced, I tend to think that the problems we're having with this drug are twofold: first, the drug itself, and secondly, it's our sensitivity to the drug. Some of us seem to be much more sensitive than others, but all of us here certainly seem to have a certain degree of sensitivity or we wouldn't be here. We may be in a minority for those who've needed to get off the drug at some point in time or another, but this thread alone is evidence enough for me to prove that many of us remain untreated and discarded by those in the medical profession, and for what possible reason? This drug is a very real problem for many of us. In my honest opinion, that can't be stressed enough!

In your case, Sandra, I'd strongly suggest that you listen to Bee and others who've needed to take longer periods of time in order to get off this drug. It took me over two months between weaning and withdrawal, but that obviously doesn't seem to be enough for some folks. I know exactly what you're talking about when speaking of taking "dust," too, for my last few doses were nothing but dust.....perhaps 2mg at the very most. At any rate, just know that we're all behind you and that 2016 will indeed be the year that you become free from this garbage drug once and for all.

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Jimbo. thank you... I don't mind helping but I am sounding like a broken record.. lol.. I think people should not take this drug lightly and take as much time as needed to wean off.. yes I wanted this stuff out of my system but my body wasn't responding to the normal weaning so I had to take longer. no big deal..

Oh; the crazy thing for me was that there was nothing wrong with my heart.. the doctor assumed that I had tachycardia and stress and of course they gave it to me for high blood pressure.. well where did they get the idea I had tachycardia and stress. I guess the (M) was on sale back then lol..... anyway; I had more palpitations when I was on the M and my blood pressure only went down a few points .. why bother taking the drug then?? so I said I am off this poison and I don't care what happens.. Our bodies in this group are very highly sensitive to chemicals. Doesn't that make sense?? so I started with the cq10, magnesium, L carnitine and Hawthorn; taurine and have not had one freaking palpitation for over a year. I walk a lot now and have lost a ton of weight.. my diet is raw foods for now and lots of water... and herbal teas.. there are days if I over eat carbs my heart will race just a bit.. nothing startling but I know its from sugar and carbs so I try to limit those now.. or have small things.. oh, I forgot to add that a bit of Himalayan sea salt in water and drink it down fast will stop palpitations and its safe. just try it out yourself...its amazing..

Also guys look up Dr. Stephen Sinatra. He is a natural cardiologist with some great youtube videos. {edited for privacy}.

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I guess what frustrates me the most is how can I wean any slower? Im taking "dust" once a week to a week and a half. Do I just tough itout after that week and try to make it to two weeks then 3 etc? But same dosage since I cant go smaller?

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Sandra, I certainly can't say what'll work for you, but after weaning for about five or six weeks or so, I finally reached a point where I just decided to tough it out cold turkey regardless of the withdrawal symptoms I'd have to endure. It wasn't easy, and I had some absolutely horrible days. I think I went to the ER about five times total throughout the entire ordeal, and two or three of those times occurred after I had gone cold turkey. After about three weeks into the withdrawal period I finally started to feel a bit better. Until then, I could hardly walk a single block without feeling as though I was going to have a heart attack. It wasn't until late into the fourth week that a day finally came when I actually began to feel normal again. I did, however, have a setback for a few days, but it was rather short-lived. My last dose of the "M" was on June 10th, and by mid-July I was feeling pretty good again. Other than a few miscellaneous heart palps and some slight chest pain on rare occasion, I've been feeling great ever since. I've gotten back into exercising regularly, and I'm not on a single prescription drug. This experience was by far the worst 10 weeks of my life, but somehow I managed to pull through. I have to admit that my heart aches for those who're still struggling, though, for I wouldn't wish this sort of thing on anybody. If anything, it actually angers me to no end that many in the medical profession write this off as if it's some sort of a passing problem or a psychological issue.

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Sandra, I should probably add one more thing: since I'm basically semi-retired while running my own business as a one-man operation, I also had the luxury of shutting my business down for a few weeks so that I could take the time to get off this drug. I also had the luxury of having a daughter and a son in the area in the event I needed help, so I guess you could say that I had some sense of security while venturing into the weaning and withdrawal process. I honestly don't know how I could've done it if I had to work a regular job on a daily basis, not to mention the additional stress to go along with it. While I am by no means making an attempt to encourage you to go cold turkey, I would encourage you to look at all of the options available to you in order to make life as comfortable as it can possibly be if you're considering the notion of toughing it out. Just know that we're pulling for you........ :)

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