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EXTREME Brain Shocks - From Vicodin? ..wtf

N

needshelpnow

Bluelighter
Joined
May 8, 2009
Messages
55
Hello Bluelighters,

I had a bad experience with these 15mg hydro pills tonight, and after a few hours of research, I'm now afraid to fall asleep!

After a while of searching around, I found a similar thread dedicated to this topic, but I hope you'll excuse the new posted-thread as what's going on even right now on this end is pretty scary.. I thought about driving to the ER, so needless to say, if anyone can give me some advice i would be very very greatful!

Anyways, these crazy brain shocks have happened at least 20 times to me tonight. I had planned on going to bed at midnight, and its now 5am and I'm afraid to go to sleep. This has never ever happened to me before and I'd consider myself an experienced user having been a daily opiate user for 3 years now. I only took 60mg of hydro today, after taking about 100mg that last 4 days or so. I had been using the hydrocodone for about 1 1/2 weeks, on top of my usual 1TSP per day pod tea useage. I had no probs this week and was even able to hit the gym every other day for a strenuous workout.

The shocks would shoot through my entire body which would make my heart race awkwardly and uncontrollably. This would happen every time i would lose focus in a day-dream-like state, and when going into a "Nod".. All of a sudden I'd have some intense random hallucinogenic images/thoughts and then when i "came to", literally a nano-second after, this is when the brain rush/shock of warmth would surge from my head all the way to my extremeties with lightning speed. All the while, this extremely intense sensation of life-threatening emergency styled fear comes over me.

It is the scariest shit and I've read that it's been tied to sleep paralisis, narcolepsy, and "sudden unexplained death syndrome" which happens from sudden cardiac arythmia's with wakeful hallucinations (strokes/heartattacks.. Look this up on wikipedia, its supposivly closely linked.

These types of random imagistic wakeful hallucinations have been happening for about a week now, but I considered it fairly normal in the nod period after a good doseage.. But now they've turned to extremely negative/crazy nightmareish visions/dreams which results in that head-shock and heart pound. This exact scenario is presented in the wiki-thread regarding sudden unexplained death syndrome. I thought it was my "first anxiety attack" at first, and some deep deep breaths calmed me down, but the more i read, hte more it sounds 100% like 'brain shock' symptoms

There's no APAP in these pills by the way, any reccomendations for me, lol.. I'll be sticking to my low-dose pod tea from now on, fuck hydro

if anyone has some comments or advice, please feel free to chime in.. I'm scared shitless right now, i think this happened to me before a long time ago from rolling/smoking weed, but nothing as intense as this! :(

-Needshelpnow
 
You need to see a neurologist or endocrinologist. This could be a sign of a deeper condition.

Have you ever been on SSRIs?
 
never been on any SSRI's sir,

and as i said, this is the first time this has ever happened

I've also noticed that these particular vicodins have an anti-histamine in them, which i've read can lead to brain shocks/convulsions/mesed up heart when combined with pain killers...

Why they'd put it in a pain pill, is beyond me..

I'm inclined to think that it's not a life-long/underlying issue, but it still has yet to subside. any other comments on the subjcet, please let me know! Still awake and quite scared over on this end..!
 
I'm sure by now you were able to get to sleep without any zaps. I occasionally get these when using opiates/opioids, which isn't often. I'm actually most likely to get them with opioids as opposed to stimulants or psychedelics. Hydrocodone is most likely to cause them for me. Like you, it always happens when I first feel like I'm really sinking into sleep. I don't even use very high doses, either. Usually the zaps are pretty mild, but definitely enough to keep me awake. I don't think anyone knows what they are exactly or why they occur, but you're not alone in experiencing them with Vicodin. The safest thing you can do is just stay up until your high wears off. I've used alcohol to get rid of them quicker (I think), but obviously if you've had a high dose mixing with a CNS depressant could result in something a lot worse than having to stay up for a few extra hours. Consider using a different opioid if it happens again.
 
i would complain to your doctor....perfect excuse to get some better opiates.
 
Hunch:

You're combining 2 respiratory depressants that happen to be synergistic. They also both happen to be antitussive. The antihistamine has powerful antiemetic properties. The upshot is that the body not only senses that it is not obtaining sufficient oxygen. It also senses that it can neither stimulate its respiratory muscles, nor cough, nor vomit (and possibly not swallow). This results in a survival reflex similar to that experienced by sufferers of sleep apnea. You are jolted awake so that you can force your body to do what it is unable to do autonomically. The associated fear is part of the body's acute stress response. Things to do:

1) Discontinue the hydrocodone altogether.
2) Switch to a hydrocodone without an antihistamine.
3) Switch to oxycodone (I think).
4) Provoke the diver's reflex by immersing your face in cold water and/or wearing a cold water mask.

This is all speculation.
 
they put it in there for 2 reasons.
Main reason is it's "suppose to" help with the effects of the hyrdocodone. Like, make them more enhanced or something.
The other reasons is for abuse. People aren't going to take a bunch of vicodin if they know that there's acetaminophen in it too.

But you can easily get the acetaminophen out if you just use cold water extraction method.

It sounds like you didn't do your homework before you tried these drugs.... I mean you say you're "experienced" but you didn't even know there was another drug in it until just now when you researched it?? Anyone who tries any drug should always look up consequences and what to expect from them.

You shouldn't have taken them along with "heavy workouts". It sounds like a combination of these things may have lead to your problem.

Just go see a doctor.
 
stop doing drugs it could be killing you
and im usually the one encouraging use.

i got wicked brain zaps but no where near as extreme as yours from WDing off hydro. it was worse than the other symptoms.
 
I've had this problem with oxycodone before. On a fairly low dose too. It only happened to me once. Just as I was about to fall asleep, my closed eye vision would show some weird colors/images and look like flashing lights. Then, if I tried to 'wake' myself out of this weird condition, I couldn't. So it was like a jolt/shock that felt like it was sucking me into it without much escape. It freaked me out because I'd have to wait till the 'trip' was over (20-30seconds) before I could get up out of it. So I stayed awake till the oxycodone wore off...

thankfully I've never had it since but it was spooky.
 
Sorry I can't really help with the question....... But, 15mg hydro pills with no apap?

Hydrocodone?

Have I missed something? Didn't know they went above 10mg.........
 
Forgot to ask, is it pheniramine, doxylamine, theophylline, diphenhydramine, meclizine or hydroxyzine in them pills?

APAP is pretty stupid as an abuse deterrent. You wanna discomfit the abuser, not kill him. And the vastly different water solubilities. I'm sure there are plenty of substances which are unpleasant but nontoxic at high doses and also have similar solubilities to hydrocodone.

As a side-note, one of the major gaffes in that popular TV show about the asshole doctor that walks with a cane is that he eats approximately 10-15 grams of APAP a day, every day. I'm stunned they've never even tried to explain this away. And given his connections, one would think he'd pick a clean opioid to feast on, or order specially-compounded hydrocodone. Stupid writers. They could even have him sucking on Actiq lollipops while he's cracking jokes.
 
Could be that you have an underlying form of epilepsy.

I've never had seizures in my life until a time in my life where i suddenly got off a year long benzo addicton and started to take tramadol, got 2 seizures from that stuff.
 
Yea, well benzo withdrawal itself causes seizures. Tramadol probably just lowered the seizure threshold. Then again, Tramadol is known to cause seizures on it's own. Good you made it out alive.
 
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