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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Is it normal to be hallucinating right now?

C

Cloroxtastebad

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 17, 2012
Messages
244
12 days ago i began to taper off effexor because of worsening depression. i was on 300mg and tapered to 0 as of yesterday. Yes, it was fast. unfortunately i couldn't fill another prescription...

Anyway the withdrawals have not been pleasant but they were expected..till today. I am experiencing profound auditory hallucinations. my house, of which has nobody in it but me and my brother, sounds like a party is going on. I hear laughing all around and tons of overlapping voices. its very loud too. when my brother talks to me its hard to hear him almost, and whatever he says then echos for minutes afterwards. What is causing these hallucinations?
 
Have you taken any other drugs?

The Effexor works on neurotransmitters in your brain and your brain is reacting to the decrease levels of the medication.

It is not normal to be in that condition. I would go to the ER and get checked out.
 
I took some morphine sulfate as prescribed by doctor earlier. I didnt take more then prescribed and havnt taken anything else. Im thinking i may go to the good old hospital. Ill give it a little bit longer and see if it gets better. It would be much better if i could see a doctor in the morning, financially speaking that is.
 
I don't know too much about Effexor (venlafaxine) dosages off the top of my head, but 300mg sounds pretty high to me.

You may be experiencing pretty severe withdrawal symptoms from the Effexor.

Morphine doesn't normally cause hallucinations, but it can cause extremely intense and vivid dreams.

How long were you on Effexor for before you stopped taking it?

I recommend speaking to your doctor about this sooner rather than later.
 
That is a big drop in one of the SNRIs known to have pretty bad discontinuation effects. Definitely hallucinations are possible, I had a friend hallucinate from a Paxil cold/turkey. But usually Effexor is more terrible body aches, brain zaps, sweating, etc than symptoms that are edging towards psychosis. I don't think you need to go to the hospital. I do think you should see a doctor about getting enough Effexor to do a longer taper. Quickly stopping high dosages of psych drugs tends to be unpleasant and may even result in damage (usually reversible but still damage) as well as longer withdrawals than one would have had tapering. Essentially your brain is experiencing a type of shock and will have to find it's way back to an equilibrium (which it will)

Personally I cold turkeyed Effexor and had a couple weeks of intense nausea and vertigo but then it passed. But don't do as I did, get to a doctor to get more. Effexor is well known by all doctors as having intense discontinuation symptoms, so there shouldn't be any fight to get you back on and do a longer taper.
 
300mg is on the higher end of the spectrum. The FDA recommends not going higher then 225mg, however venlafaxine begins to work on dopamine when moved to 300mg. I was on the medication for 6 months.

The hallucinations have subsided as of about half an hour ago. I have an appointment first thing tomorrow morning.

It does mention hallucinations as a withdrawal symptom however all the reports ive read have just mentioned slight alterations in vision such as spinning like your real dizzy.. this doesnt sound like hallucination to me. sounds like light headed/dizziness. There were people who mentioned faint auditory distortions or noises, nothing like my full on auditory hallucinations.

I can say at one point i was very scared. The random distant voices and noises turned into one distant voice repeating over and over "yes lets go yes lets go yes lets go" in a woman's voice coming from upstairs.
 
hmmm, I wonder if the fact that you were hitting dopamine at that dosage level has anything to do with it. I wonder if temporary use of a small dose of seroquel or another AAP would be helpful in dampening down those symptoms then. Unless you are trying to stay off all psych meds altogether, which is certainly a valid option as well.
 
If i had a seroquel i certainly would have taken it. It could be contributed to that. if the problem persists ill grab some seroquel, however seroquel makes me feel like an unmotivated piece of shit.

I have been following the plans of my previous psychiatrist for five years and ive been going in the wrong direction. I saw a new psychiatrist and told him what i wanted to do and my theory behind why it should work.
He agreed without hesitation and i will begin my new regimen after ive given myself some time to be chemical free. My brain is all confused up there.

New regimen will be 300mg of wellbutrin + 30mg of mirtazapine.

I believe my docs have been hitting me too hard with serotogenic drugs causing me to feel unmotivated, lethargic, emotionless, and profound brain fog. I know the doctors wanted to approach it as an axiety/depression issue, but i believe most of my anxiety stems from my worsening depression. My anxiety is primarily social, in which stimulant drugs are very effective for. SSRI's if anything have made it worse by making me feel slow and inattentive. I dont want to use amphetamines though, that will be a temporary cure that will no doubt-ably lead to worsened depression and anxiety in the end. Wellbutrin is perfect for this. works on dopamine and norepinephrine like amphetamines but isnt a releasing agent. mirtazapine will help with sleep and add to the antidepressive effects of wellbutrin
 
Cloroxtastebad said:
If i had a seroquel i certainly would have taken it. It could be contributed to that. if the problem persists ill grab some seroquel, however seroquel makes me feel like an unmotivated piece of shit.
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Seroquel makes everyone feel like an unmotivated piece of shit I think, that's it's job ;) Personally i think the AAPs should be used in short-term crisis situations only. Long term use has all sorts of problems. But useful when one really needs the brain to just stop doing whatever it is doing.

I have been following the plans of my previous psychiatrist for five years and ive been going in the wrong direction. I saw a new psychiatrist and told him what i wanted to do and my theory behind why it should work.
He agreed without hesitation and i will begin my new regimen after ive given myself some time to be chemical free. My brain is all confused up there.

New regimen will be 300mg of wellbutrin + 30mg of mirtazapine.
Click to expand...

Good luck. I was in the process of doing the same thing (I added Mirt to Zoloft and was phasing out Zoloft and then going to phase in WB) but the phase out of zoloft seems to have kicked me into some sort of benzo withdrawal from the klonopin I take. Fucking psych drug cocktails....

I think staying say from long-term stimulant use makes sense. My p-doc really wants to add Modafanil and Adderal since so many of my issues stem from chronic fatigue, but I am already dealing with an iatrogenic disability from being RXed benzos, I see no reason to deal with the effects of long term stim use as well on top of it.
 
I see you are in a similar situation. How is mirtazapine working for you?

have you given any thought to Protriptyline? Its a tricyclic antidepressant that also has very positive effects on lack of energy and helps with daytime wakefulness
 
Good to see your OK and that you have a doctor's appointment this morning. I'm currently taking 150Mgs of Venlafaxine and it's worked really well for me although I am planning, with my doctor to try coming off this over the next 12 months.

The variation in reactions to ADs from person to person is quite astounding when you speak to people, I've had full blown hallucination when I tried Citalopram and Mirtazapine wasn't far behind but I am aware that Venlafaxine is known to cause problems when coming off.

Please post how you get on as it is useful information for me and anyone else taking the drug, hope you are feeling better and the doctor's visit goes OK
 
Im sure you wont have many issues coming off effexor. I had to tapper off far to quickly. If tapered over a period of many weeks or months withdrawal symptoms are not likely to occur. Or if they do i doubt they would be of any severity. Tapering from 300mg in only 12 days is a different story.

Thank you for the encouragement, its nice to have support from others with similar experiences.
 
Dude your doctor is SMOKING CRACK if he agreed that it was a "great idea!" to hop off of 300mg effexor. Sure being 'chemical free' before you start a new AD is not a bad idea, it will allow a new doctor to establish a baseline. But to not taper you off of effexor? I think this dude needs to take a refresher course in prescribing ADs.
 
Venlafaxine was awful for me, i was on 150mg per day for around 6 months and had the worst daily suicidal thoughts and crying spells ive experienced.

Even though i tapered off it and have been clean of it for around 2 months now the withdrawal symptoms were not too pleasant.
 
Venlafaxine is notorious for giving people an unpleasant discontinuation syndrome, partly due to it's short half life - so plasma concentrations drop abruptly when you stop taking it. Auditory hallucinations are not unheard of (no pun intended :D) although not as common as symptoms such as "brain zaps", headaches and malaise, and full-blown complex hallucinations are certainly a little unusual. Fortunately the syndrome tends not to last too long for most people - I'm really glad things have eased up now. I still think it is wise to see your doctor, however, to make sure nothing else is going on. I agree that dropping from 300mg/day to nothing is not ideal/recommended - it's not dangerous, but it definitely increases the risk of discontinuation symptoms.

People vary hugely in their response to antidepressants as atm said, so it can take a little time to find the regime that suits you. Good luck!
 
Thank you Effie for your response. I will let you know.kn a few week's.how the new plan is going. I talked to my doctor and he said in rare cases one will experience auditory hallucinations though hes never heard of any being as.intense as mine. He gave me 15 100mg instant release seroquel incase it happens again.

About an hour after seeing him I began having some more auditory hallucinations, not nearly as strong as last night but still noticeable. I took one seroquel and they subsided within about 30 minutes.
 
Geaux Tigers! said:
as soon as I read the thread I was like "damn he needs some quetiapine" *scroll down* yep, predictable plot! lol
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well shit, the last thing i wanted was a predictable plot.. Should of ended with "i talked to the doctor and he gave me some lsd, he wanted to understand more of what these voices were saying. he thought it would help me figure out the right next move"
 
^^^

That would be plain stupid....clearly DMT would be a much better choice, given your current symptoms :)
 
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