Sleep Paralysis W/ Hallucinations (Page 4) (Top voted first)

Has anyone else experienced sleep paralysis accompanied by hallucinations since starting viibryd? I have been on the medicine for about 4 months now and for the last 2 1/2 months have had several very scary episodes of sleep paralysis... I have never been on a anti-depressant before and never experienced sleep paralysis until i started this medicine. I am a 23 year old female and i take no other meds except a daily multi-vitamin. Ive noticed that if i accidentally miss a viibryd pill i have sleep paralysis... but have also had it on occasions of not missing a pill. It occurs about once a week... its to the point where i dread going to sleep at night in fear of sleep paralysis, but the hallucinations that come along with it are what I dread the most. Has anyone else had a similar experience with this medicine?

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I felt my Dr brushed it off as well. Made me feel crazy! I was trying to convey to depths of the terror but felt he thought I was making it up or overreacting. Very frustrating!! I felt so much better when I found this thread!

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Hey there Elliott... One ? .... :). Is it possible that the dreams you are having are ... intimate dreams? LOL. Just a 'guess' because BTDT!

Yep, the Viibryd was creating those moments for me too & so vividly....until out of no where the vivid nightmares began & my vivid erotic dreams turned into being raped by very scary men. And all I could do in my dreams to cope w/ these frightening dreams (because there was no snapping out of them!) was to begin to PLAY ALONG which of course pleased the rapist, but my fear would then turn to strength & I was in control & I guess able to wake up.

Falling dreams or going into the light dreams are the only dreams I've never given into. I used to have constant nightmares about elevators. Now those are gone. And since childhood, the bright light when I close my eyes & the out of body sensation, to which I've never been brave enough to mess around with. Haven't had one of those dreams since Viibryd.

I've been taking about 5mg. or less of Ambien for a few years now & if I don't take it, my sleep is all messed up. I am more groggy the next day and my dreams are more vivid. I sadly prefer the dark place that Ambien takes me. The only way I can describe it is like being ok w/ dreaming (for how long?) about being in your HS parking lot at night, looking for your car, maybe some confusion here or there, often --still dimly lit--- dorm room series of dreams will come up, or a dark city....but that's it. Since I've started on Cymbalta, & didn't take Ambien 1 nite, I felt like I sobbed for a long time in my sleep as I walked thru a never ending house, all in white decor, that were only seen in fractions/eye sight problems..and felt so upset that my sister's house went on forever & my home was small. The feelings of jealousy were so strong & ridiculous & not reality. It doesn't even add up in real life. I apologize for sharing my nonsense dream, but just drawing a comparison between Vii + Ambien and Cymbalta + Ambien.

The only auditory hallucination I've had on Cymbalta, was feeling like I was waking up & intertwined w/ my own thoughts, I heard a black man w/ a deep voice nicely say "hello." I just laughed it off & knew that was the SRNI talking!

Maybe God really is black? :)

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Elliott.... If Vii is working for you, not giving you SP, not affecting libido too much?!, not giving you nightmares....

then why go off of it? It does help w/ mood control. Like you would know, but I had zero PMS on Vii (& just exp. the same for Cymbalta...yay!)

I talked about this wayyy back....but when I was weaning the 1st time on Vii & had my 1st day at 10mg. I found myself nearly running for my Vii because I also felt so irritable. So I think I took a 20 mg. dose, which was hours after the 10 mg. to just feel content again. That was my 1st failed weaning experience. The 2nd & 3rd time I depended on Xanax....and just limited my schedule so I could cope better w/ the discontinuation syndrome.

I was a 40 mg. Vii taker. Can't imagine stopping at 20 mg. Same thing when I was on Prozac. I needed 40 mg. And w/ Cymbalta, I am at 60 mg. So can't imagine only taking jusr 10 mg. of Vii.

Have you ever tried Wellbutrin? Maybe add 75mg. in w/ your 10mg. of Vii. 'WB' works on Dopamine levels & really helped my irritability. I am not taking my 300mg dose of WB anymore because Cymbalta is an SNRI & works w/ Dopamine.

WB is like a refined prescription of caffeine. :). Might make you feel more anxious though.

Ask your Dr! :) I am only talking from my experience.

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Yes, I just awoke from an intensely horrifying string of bad dreams. They seemed to last forever. The smells I experienced with each dream were the worst part for me. I finally awoke after 2 hours, in a tight ball. Also, my skin began to itch really bad. After about 30 minutes trying to figure out what just happened, I realized I had not taken my 40 mg of Viibryd. I'm wondering if that is what caused me to have such awful dreams.

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Hi Ade8,

Just an FYI, all you have to do is post a comment & you can address people or hit reply once on someone's post & ask your ?. Otherwise it comes up multiple times. :) I love this format because I get an auto email when there's a post. So just incase you don't have your settings like that, check it out. :)

As far as the increasing dose pack goes...I recommend giving it a shot & see how you feel. But keep in mind that almost everyone?! has night terrors & sleep paralysis. Auditory hallucinations & horrific side effects from discontinuation syndrome while cutting back on the dose. I don't want to scare you away from the drug, but you've read the other posts, & like just mentioned, I also feel it's the Devil's drug. But thank God I wasn't alone in this.

So ask your Dr. what he/she thinks about the med. I doubt they will give you a straight answer & you'll be brushed off. Which is pretty risky being that all this info is out there, going back to 2011. The media hasn't been informed about this med., but all we can do is continue supporting others.

Btw....Forest Labs sold the drug to another co? Or names changed to some LLC? Suspicious. Husband works in health ins. We have decided recently after reading recent stories that we would include ourselves in a class action lawsuit against the makers of Viibryd.

Anyone know how that process is done? Is there a law suit already pending? How do we track this? Thx!

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Holly - I know what you are going through. I cant tell you that the episodes do get less frequent. I have been on Viibryd now for 15 months. At first it was like 2 times a week. And i could always tell when it was going to happen..seconds before I would doze off, i would hear a loud quick buzz in my ear, almost like a bee flew close to my ear. This combined with a weird sensation almost of falling. And it kicks u awake. Weird! When that happens I fill with dread. What happens is instead of going thru all 5 stages of sleep, your brain goes from stage immediately into stage 5 where your brain turns iff your motor functions. I think since we are so lightly asleep and still aware that it incorporates the worst reasoning behind not being able to move into your dream. Mine often times are I am being smothered or crushed by someone. It feels like hallucinations because we are not in a deep sleep. My very first episode I will never forget. I was completely aware that my husband was next to me in bed and I could even see the Kentucky basketball game inTv and all of a sudden about ten hands came out of my mattress all around my body And grabbed my legs and arms and held me down! And I swear I could actually feel the warmth of the hands on my legs. It terrified me. Now i can control the dreams a little more to where its not as scary and I relax and kick myself out of it. Weird I know.

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That's horrible! I did have one where i knew there was an intruder hiding on the ground next to my side of the bed and not being able to move. I couldnt get back to sleep after that one. I never plan on giving up this drug. The misery I felt without it and knowing that my husband and five daughters were miserable with me was far worse. For years i had taken prozac or Lexapro and stuck with Zoloft for a long time....loved it but as i neared 40 years old...it wasnt working anymore because me own levels of seratonin wasnt mixing well with it anymore. I did get my own brand of hell when I first started taking Vii. This was July of 2012 and the starter pack after taking the 20mg I was feeling better but I wasnt quite myself yet. A couple days after taking 40mg.... Weird things started happening.... I would wake up feeling tingly and dizzy... And my face was like itchy like I was compelled to rub my hands all over my face like all the time. Then a few days after that I had the worst day ever. I was asleep so deeply that it felt like a coma almost.... You had to shake me awake for about a minute. I was feeling very tingly all over and was sweating badly but was very cold. And i felt like i was walking around in a dream. Like everything I was doing and saying I wasnt really doing or saying. I took a bath and when I got out I didnt know if I just took a bath. I couldnt remember or something. I was very easily enraged...like all of my senses were x10. I was ready to pounce on everyone... And then next second I would start balling. I told my oldest I thought I was going crazy. Keep in mind, I dont call a dr or go to the ER unless my limbs start falling off... And even then I would question the decision:). My sis is an ER doctor and makes fun of the people that come in with a cold... So I always doubleguess an emergent situation. But i thought this was enough to call my doctor after hours.... The nurse called me back and said Do NOT take the pill tonight instead cut it in half and see me first thing in the morning... She kept asking if I was ok and if I needed to go to the ER. The next morning he told me it was Seratonin Poisoning(or syndrome). Just too much seratonin in my system. I told him I was scared to keep taking it. He assured me it was the dryg but just the dosage was too much. So we mixed 150mg Welbutrin with 20mg of Viibryd and it's that mixture for me that works wonderfully!!
Also - I meant to tell ... The sleep paralysis seems to be triggered when I am completely exhausted. If I go a week with little sleep... You can bet I will have an episode about then.

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Yes this happened to me and really freaked me out. When I told my doctor she had never heard of such a side effect (getting those awful brain zaps and not being able to move.) since she had never heard of it I didn't know what the cause was. With the combo of the brain explosion feeling and vivid nightmares I freaked myself out that it was some kind of psychic attack. Sounds crazy but it all felt very real. Anyways I immediately switched to a low dose of Zoloft to avoid the antidepressant withdrawal thing. No problems since but I still get a slight ear ringing sensation. I think viibryd should seriously be taken off the market ASAP. PS I noticed the bad side effects would happen when I wasn't consistent taking the med at the same exact time everyday.

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I have been taking this medication for a month and missed a dose a few weeks ago. It was horrible and the strangest thing ever! Wasn't sure if it was from missing a dose until last night. Missed another dose and had it again! I've never been on an antidepressant before and this concerns me...

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I've been on viibryd 40mg for 10 weeks now and have never experienced any strange dreams or side effects. It's a very good drug if you ask me. I take it first thing in the morning. I was taking with 0.5 mg Xanax XR for a while but that put a damper on the mood lift so got off it and now back to viibryd and nothing else and feeling good again. Everyone will react differently.

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Hello Joe,

Not to burst your bubble, but I was on 40mg. of Viibryd for about 6 mos. before the SP attacks, more than vivid nightmare hallucinations, & auditory hallucinations hit me so hard they would make Hannibel Lector or Stephen King quite scared. I was not pre-disposed to SP. I had never heard of it in my life. Just keep watch for any auditory hallucinations when 1st waking. That's how it began for me. Mos. prior to the actual SP attacks.

I always ask my Dr. for the status on the drug & he recently explained to me they believe (Forest Labs) that the extra receptors are somehow being turned on AT NIGHT, while sleeping. So I would say progress has been made & hopefully Forest can fix the problem with the med. I am still traumatized from Viibryd.

At least we all know that Prozac (1...20mg pill at nite in place of a 20 mg. dose of Vii) does cut out all Vii SP attacks.

Survived Viibryd...

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Nightmares are frightening. but can seem very real or perplexing. I took a SNRI CALLED EFFEXOR AND HAD HORRID NIGHTMARES.I SWEAT, AND FELT
DISCONCERTED.

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I think this viibryd has done perminent damage to my brain. I stopped it becouse of the side effects, sleep peralisis, scary vivid dreams like being in hell. Now even though i stoped it i dont think my brain is sending the right signals for my bodys circulatin while im sleeping.i wake up and it feels like pain and numbness and like their was no cicurlation. and alot of nights i wake up like i stoped breathing and my heart jumps to start again. i would advise any person on this to stop it as soon as you can to save your life. I am afraid i might not wake up one night and the doctors say they can't find any thing wrong and just want to perscribe more antidepresents.

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I was on this medication for a short time and it was a terrible experience! I was scared to sleep and begged my husband to wake me periodically due to the sleep paralysis I was having that was terrible. When he was working 3rd shift, I had an episode where I seriously felt like the devil was speaking to me! When I woke up, I looked at a picture of my kids on the wall and their faces looked like they were morphing onto demons!! The next day I calles my dr immediately...I felt like this is something that happens to people who hurt their children and that was NOT going to be me!! Be careful with this drug!!!

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I'm scared and don't know what to do. I know after the dream tonight I am going off viibryd. But I don't think I will sleep again until I'm off of it. I'm too terrified to dream of demons laughing at me and spinning me again. I'm calling my dr first thing in the morning but right now I don't know what to do but cry.

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Hey I've had this happen too. As long as I take the meds in the morning or afternoon, it does not happen.

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Yes I have also had them
Very scary and can't move
I'm getting off this stuff

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I started Viibryd about one year ago. I was initially taking it at bedtime and did experience the horror of sleep paralysis and nightmares. Since I started taking it in the morning with food, I have not had a single issue.

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I posted a reply that I hope will help if they let it through! I had the same problems but have gotten through it. It gets better as the months go by!!

ls

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Have you consulted your doctor?

It is possible for these SSRI antidepressants to cause this type of vivid dreaming, as side effect, in some people. While it may be terrifying, what you have to remember is that the paralysis and hallucinations are actually just dreams and not really anything else.

https:/­/­rxchat.com/­wiki/­Viibryd/­

However, if they are causing you a severe problem, then you should contact your doctor, as this may not be the right medication for you.

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