Metoprolol Withdrawal (Page 65)

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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Im feeling absolutely terrible today. Very lightheaded and dizzy and bad anxiety. Im on a 2 week cycle it seems. When will this end?? Just keeps me wondering if its withdrawal at all since it wont stop :( im trying to go to school, hold down two jobs and I am married with two teenagers. This needs to stop!!!

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Sandra , i have been thinking that we may all be over the withdrawals but maybe the anxiety is giving us hell especially since it presents lots of physical symptoms.

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JR-Would the anxiety cause constant lightheadedness and dizziness? I dont feel like I have actual anxiety but maybe its presenting itself different?

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Sandra- read on it there is alot of people who suffer from it and based on used taking beta blockers we got our bodies used to having adrenaline , anxiety blocked from it . So its hard to readjust . Especially health anxiety , you start thinking you have this or that . In this case we are thinking we are going thru withdrawals still

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Be careful with the Diovan. It gave me crippling chest pain.

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I have been on metoprolol tartrate 25mg for 4 years, mostly for psvt, but also to help with bp. I was fine taking 12.5mg twice a day, until 5 days ago when my pulse dropped to 42 and became erratic during the day--If I go upstairs, I am short of breath, heart is pounding and missing beats. Yesterday my Dr. said to stop the metoprolol. I have only missed 2 doses so far and I feel horrible. I am not sure if it is anxiety or symptoms of withdrawal. I have no appetite and am afraid to move! Any help would be appreciated.....

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Fuzzy, that's how my issues with Metoprolol started. It began with a low pulse for several days along with chest pain, shortness of breath, anxiety, and so on. There were times when I felt so lethargic that I was going to pass out. I had no clue what was causing it until all of the signs led to a Metoprolol problem. It was this very website that confirmed my suspicions. If you read back into this thread, you'll find dozens upon dozens of people with essentially the same problem.

First off, though, the majority of people are unable to simply quit this drug, and it can be very dangerous to do so if you're not careful. You'll likely need to wean off of it very slowly until you're ready to get off of it entirely. Unfortunately, everyone is different, so there is no single regimen that works for everybody. It took me about five weeks of weaning slowly followed by another five or six weeks of withdrawal after I quit. It has taken other people months to over a year, so if you're as sensitive to the drug as many of us are, you'll pretty much need to find a routine that'll work comfortably for you.......or at least as comfortable as can be. It isn't easy, but it is possible. If you hang out around here for a while, I'm sure others will be piping in with their thoughts as well. There's good people here! Wishing you the best!

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Fuzzy......just to add a little more info.....but the good news is that you're currently on a relatively low dosage. At 12mg twice daily, you can likely begin by cutting that amount to around 9 or 10mg twice a day for a week or so to see how you feel. The key is to cut back to an amount where your body eventually feels comfortable with the change and stabilizes. Once you've stabilized for a few days or however long it takes, you can cut the dosage again.....maybe 6mg per dose. The idea is to continue this weaning process until your daily dosage is to an absolute minimum while feeling stabilized before quitting. Once you quit, though, there could also be a withdrawal period, so you'll need to be prepared. Most doctors don't have a clue as to how this drug affects some people with a high sensitivity to it, so you may not find them very helpful. As sad as that is for us to acknowledge, unfortunately it's the truth. I just know that this drug was responsible for creating the worst two or three months of my life, and I wouldn't wish this kind of experience on anybody. Just know that you have friends here willing to help. Without them, I don't quite know how I would've done it.

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Thanks Jimbo! I had a restless night, woke up at 4am, feeling jittery and disoriented. I decided to take some metoprolol and I felt somewhat better, but have not recovered from the anxiety. I cannot go cold turkey, as my Dr. Suggested. I am going to slowly wean myself off of this drug.

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Fuzzy I hope your Metoprolol using ER(extended release). If so, when it's scored you break the covering on it and your getting erratic doses of it. I did an earlier post about doing that. Good luck weaning.

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Needing some opinions. For the last week or so I have been extremely lightheaded especially when moving around. It will not go away no matter what I do. Even sitting I feel a little dizzy with a slight headache. I am 4 months off. Could this still be withdrawal? I havent felt back to normal but I have had some good days but this cycle seems to be lasting longer than when I do have bad days.

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Sandra, I wouldn't have a clue if what you're experiencing is withdrawal or not. The worst of your symptoms have gone on for much longer than they lasted for me but, then again, others have stated that it's taken up to a year or more to get beyond the withdrawal period. I find it sad and disturbing that many of you still aren't feeling much better after all this time, but one would think that you'll get to feeling back to normal at some point. I sincerely wish I could be of more help.

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Sandra I've been off this poison for 5 mos today and I'm still having cyclical good and bad stretches. I keep working with various minerals, which seems to help, a crucial one being potassium as well as copper. It's still a daily or weekly crap shoot, most frustrating. M takes away our bodies ability to control hormones And apparently it takes some of us much longer than others to regain that control. It's SO frustrating to feel so awful and everyone around you just doesn't have a CLUE about the struggle. The loss of normal I feel good today expectations is incredibly distressing. I find myself looking at folks going on with their lives, looking comfortable in their own bodies with envy, I want to be able to just LIVE without the constant bodily self checks from moment to moment, never knowing when or if you are going to feel semi normal on any given day or even hour. This stinks, period.

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Jimbo...I am on my way to Dr. today and I have cut my dosage of metoprolol in half. I am not sure what to say to doctor. My bp has been fine and my pulse is around 70-80. Of course my anxiety is still here. I don't want to seem like a hypochondriac to him, but this struggle to deal with metoprolol is real. I don't think I have felt normal since I started taking it 4 years ago. I don't want to get the psvts back, but I also don't want this feeling. ...

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Dr. Switched me from metropolo to coreg ( carvedilol) yesterday first dose, suppose to take 2 times a day, side affects the first day are terrible ,week shakey walk like a zombie unsteady on my feet anyone else ever take this? He also want me to continue with amlodipine and hydrochlorothiazide at the same time

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Fuzzy, for what it's worth, some doctors seem to "get it" when it comes to the issues we're having and others don't. I have found that the majority of doctors fall into the latter category. More often than not they want to prescribe alternative drugs as opposed to treating the source of the problem. My hunch is that most of them don't even know what the source of the problem is. Pretty pathetic, if you ask me. I was fortunate enough to be in a position to avoid any alternative drugs, and I felt all along that the ONLY solution was to get off the Metoprolol once and for all. One doctor told me that "we need to listen to our own bodies, for only we can truly know what our bodies are trying to tell us." That's perhaps the best advice that any doctor has ever given me. I just found that if I kept my weight down, eat properly, and exercise daily, that my BP and HR would eventually settle in to where it needs to be, and it did. If your BP and HR are within the normal range, I would definitely continue with the weaning process while avoiding any other medications unless it's absolutely necessary.

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Lauren, you gave me a little hope today. Thank you! Do you get any lightheadedness still?

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I had those things to, yet my Dr. Said it was just acute tachycardia.. i got these symptoms after raking acyclovir for shingles.
Has anyone went threw the same symptoms? My life has not been the same either. I'm on 6 Mg of MT Tartate and have symptoms coming off, numbness right arm, occasionally pain in chest, joint pain in right shoulder, tiredness and dry cough. My lungs are congested more but I have asthma. It gets worse o ming off. I have had no rapid heartbeat and was doing great at 12.5
Dr, thinks I'm ok now. Have not stopped yet the 6mg, should I cut in fourths?

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Just an update, been pretty busy, my project ends tomorrow. Everything went fine. I restarted metoprolol, took 25mg extended succinate from Dr Reddy's lab for two days.

Then I rethought the idea and split them in two. Probably a smart move. I take a lot of other stuff nowadays, supplements like choline, ALCAR, and PEA, curcumin et al.

My energy level has been high which I needed. The first two weeks went good but I wasn't satisfied. Then I revised my work process and by last Friday I found myself on the verge of finishing my scope of work a week before the deadline. (I have a tremendous amount of self control when put under the microscope.

I try to live right, think right, and the outcome was more than everyone expected. I need the money. I worked even harder. They want me to work from home, I have some time off, for at least a few weeks.

The only issues which may or may not have been metoprolol related was not quite sleeping as well as I should have, The other difference was a huge appetite. Fortunately I had a kitchenette and an expense account which I stayed well within the limits but still eating like a king, with healthy stuff I usually can't afford.

My plan is to stop the metoprolol in a day or two. I will get home and get rested. Tuesday is my semiannual appt with my primary md. He is very orthodox and I think he wants me back on the statin, at least. But he doesn't call those shots,my cardiologist does. My concern is my diet on the road. Hopefully I have gained weight. I had to eat more to feed my brain. That's where it goes.

All the best to the people in this thread who have big problems with metoprolol. I will touch base after I get home. All is well on my end.

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I was on 25mg of metoprolol for 10 years for high blood pressure. I'm on day my 11 day and I must say it's the best I've felt in many years. The first 5/6 days were the most difficult. This forum helped me a great deal by knowing what to expect. It gave me reassurance these symptoms were all part of the withdraw. I cut my dosage back to 12.5 for 5 days then went without any. I saw my doctor on day 5 of my half day dosage. He said my dosage was low to stop them completely. I was waking up dizzy and with blurred vision and having blurred vision during the day , my blood pressure was low. This is why I started to reduce the dosage, prier to my doctor's appointment. Thank You to all who shared their stories, it helped very much. :)

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