Brain Zaps ……….. Oh how i HATE YOU!!!!!

When I started getting these, I was taking the medication Venlafaxine, although I had at various stages in my adulthood, felt milder forms of them. they used to wake me up just as I was dropping off to sleep, it would at that time, feel like someone was walking over my grave, I searched online for information, but found nothing. so although they were annoying and caused me to have days of no sleep at all, I could handle them

However…………………… when on the Venlafaxine, they would start at lunchtime and continue until I went to sleep. there wasn’t any cause that i could see, it didn’t matter if I moved and stayed still, didn’t matter if I sat or laid down. It was like they had a mind of their own, then when I tapered off the med and had stopped, they got worse, they started when I woke and never stopped, so really in effect, they don’t stop at all I guess!

I told my GP about them at my very last appointment and he looks at me with confusion and says, is there anything you have done differently that could be causing them?!?! hmm………. now I’d searched the internet for 2 weeks prior to find out if there was anything that i could do to stop them and found site after site about brain zaps being a side effect of Venlafaxine (it also states fluoxetine and citilopran, but never actually got them with those meds) although most of the information I read was about people who has stopped the med and how it was a withdrawal side effect. now he’s still looking at me in confusion while I’m telling him this and it’s not just my GP, it seems that from everything I’ve read, although it is a known problem, doctors are not actually aware of the issue, how bad is that???? he’s put me on another anti depressant (mirtizapine) in the hope that not only will it help the depression, but also the brain zaps ………….. 8 days in and still no change on either aspect

How brains zaps feel for me

I get an electric shock feeling run through my head……………. down my face………….. through my mouth and to the tip of my tongue…………. when it hits the tip of my tongue, i feel pins and needles in it …………… not pleasant

The electric shock feeling continues down my neck ………… my chest ……….. causing palpitations, or at least the feel of them ……………. plus my chest starts to feel achy

I also get it branch off from my neck …………………down my arms ……………..to the ends of my fingers ……………….. the pins and needles there are painful!

I have Tinnitus, which is quite loud anyway, more so when my migraines are bad, but when i have a brain zap………. the buzz feels like i have a bee or something in my head and each zap I hear Buzz Buzz Buzz …. you get the idea eh

Now the Buzz, is so loud, that obviously it makes my already painful migraine worse

Each Brain zap last probably a second, but i don’t have the one, each attack (I’ll call it attack, coz really that’s what it is) I get around 10 – I even made a vibration mobile alert on my iPhone with one, so as to show my fiance how quickly I get them

unfortunately they have helped towards my lack of life because I can’t go or do anything. They border on painful, even washing my hair is really difficult to do, coz when I do its, zap,zap,zap. so by the evenings, I’m clutching my fists to try to stop the pins and needles in my fingers, laying down to try to keep still in the hope that it will calm them even a tiny bit and when it gets really bad, contemplating bashing my head against the wall and crushing my fingers, sorry if that offends, but its the truth!

I have yet to find anything that will ease them, help them and I’ve looked, even to the point of scouring youtube for people’s experiences

So fellow brain zappers, you are not alone, it’s a condition many have and does seem to be related to anti depressants and quite possibly Venlafaxine.

Comments are welcomed, thoughts and feelings, advice if you have it. Because so many of us need it …………..

Category : Health
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