Ativan/Effexor & Jaw Tension

[Guest [MD...]]

Hello Buddies,

 

I was hoping to get a little advice from the group.  Here is a little background on my story:

 

I am a 32 year old male with no real history of anxiety or depression.  Roughly 5 months ago, my life took a total 180 for the worst.  I had a great job as an eCommerce manager with a Fortune 500 company and my wife and I were expecting our first child.  Due to some mild anxiety with a lot going in on my life at the time, I was seeing my PCP for treatment.  They ended up prescribing to me Buspar and Lexapro.  Within 24 hours of taking the medication, I had a severe reaction to the Lexapro and/or combination of the two due to too much serotonin.  Some say it was serotonin syndrome while others have said just a really bad reaction to the drugs.  Long-story short, this reaction put me into a state of what I would call extreme anxiety.  I couldn't sleep a wink, my body was twitching everywhere, I had tremors and the list goes on and on.  I ended up going to the ER and they prescribed Ativan to help calm me down.  I was taking 1 MG in the morning and 1 MG at night to help me sleep.  Being someone who has never used a benzo before, this made me feel even worse and caused a ton of depression and crying spells.  After two weeks with no improvement, I went to a new PCP for help and they said that this is beyond their area of expertise and I should go seek professional psychiatric help.  The waiting list for help in my neck of the woods is a few months out and I couldn't wait that long.  My PCP recommended that I go to a different ER and request psychiatric help.  At this point, I was ready to commit myself in desperation.  I packed a few bags and headed to the ER.  This was one of the toughest decisions of my life.  At the time, the in-patient appointment was full so they recommended out-patient.  It was probably a blessing at the time since in-patient would have probably been a traumatizing experience.  To hold me over, they prescribed 75 mg of Effexor XR (later increased to 150 mg) on top of the Ativan to help with the depression.  Note that I did all of my research before taking any of the drugs, but I was so desperate at this point.  The psychiatrist at out-patient wanted me off the Ativan so I began to taper and we just planned to use the Effexor XR for the anxiety.  At this point, I had been on Ativan for roughly 1 month.  I began to taper over a two month time period.

 

Flash-forward to today and I have been off Ativan for roughly 1.5 months.  I still feel awful and I haven't felt well one day throughout this horrible ordeal.  In terms of primary symptoms, my major complaint is an extremely tense jaw with teeth that feel like they are being pulled from my mouth.  It is not necessarily painful, but extremely tense and uncomfortable. I assume I'm clenching at night and have tried a mouth guard, but it only seems to make the clenching worse.  My lesser symptoms include constant head pressure, bounding pulse throughout my body (neck, back of head, stomach etc.) which makes sleeping difficult, muscle twitching (calves are the worst!), stomach issues and moderate nervousness.

 

My real question is related to the jaw tension.  I recognize that this is a common benzo withdrawal symptom, but could it be possible this is a side effect of the Effexor?  I really can't tell at this point since I was never on the Effexor by itself until recently and the Ativan may have been offsetting this side effect.  The tension was getting worse towards the end of my taper and peaked around 2 weeks post taper.  It still persists today and is still extremely uncomfortable.

 

I'm just wondering if I should try and taper the Effexor as it could be causing the jaw tension?  I'm extremely sensitive to medication (as discovered) and nothing has really done me any good thus far.  At this point, I'm trying not to make any other mistakes.  I've had to resign from my job and am currently taking care of a 3 month old baby during the day.  While this keeps me busy, it is extremely difficult to do as a first time parent while going through this whole ordeal.

 

On a positive note, I'm hopeful I will get back to normal someday.  I'm a very motivated person and am going to use this experience as a blessing to help others in any way that I can.  I never really knew what true suffering was until the past few months.

 

All of this for mild anxiety   Any help would be much appreciated!       

[[Er...]]

I can't answer anything on if the Effexor is related to the jaw tension but I can tell you that Effexor w/d was the most brutal thing I have ever been through. Fortunately it only lasted a few weeks whereas I'm 14.5 months off benzos and still not 100% healed from them. You DEFINITLY need to taper Effexor. The "brain zaps" caused by discontinuing Effexor are crazy. Some people are able to stop Effexor with no issues but I definitly was not one of them. My doctor had to cross me to another SNRI to get me off Effexor years ago. Maybe you'll have an easier time than I did. Good luck!!!

[Guest [MD...]]

Hey EricSS,

 

Thank you for the reply.  As far as Effexor goes, I definitely plan to do a controlled taper by weighing beads.  At this point, I have no interest in crossing to any other med as I'm not willing to take the risk.  As you can see from my story, I have not had much luck over the past few months.  It is safe to say that psychiatric drugs have temporarily ruined my life!

[[Er...]]

Hey EricSS,

 

Thank you for the reply.  As far as Effexor goes, I definitely plan to do a controlled taper by weighing beads.  At this point, I have no interest in crossing to any other med as I'm not willing to take the risk.  As you can see from my story, I have not had much luck over the past few months.  It is safe to say that psychiatric drugs have temporarily ruined my life!

 

They crossed me only for a few weeks and then I was able to stop the other medicine because I couldn't stop the Effexor by itself with a taper. This was a long time ago.

 

In regards to the benzo, I like you was s short term user. Your jaw tension is likely related to this. I sometimes catch myself clentching my jaw and benzos are powerful relaxers. I think part of the reason I had so many issues after short term use is because I was a moderately heavy drinker prior to getting on benzos so my GABA receptors were already hammered from that. I'm not sure if you were a drinker or not but I feel that definitely contributed to my issues even though I only used benzos short term.

[[ca...]]

I wish that I could answer all of your questions. I was on Xanax for a short period of time and have been paying for it going on 2 1/2 years. The jaw tension and pain is something that that has been pretty constant throughout my withdrawal experience. It started about one month after I tapered. I had times when it would go away and then suddenly come back. It just happened to me again about a week ago. The difference now is that it comes and goes throughout the day. Sometimes it gets intense and then fades.

 

Finding and getting help is the most frustrating part of this ordeal. The quick fix approach by our medical system has a very dark side to it. We, the patient have to pay the price for their "get the patient out of my office in 5 minutes"approach. Most of these drugs are meant for intervention measures and not for long term solutions.

 

Even though I am still having symptoms at 2 1/2 years out, I am doing much better. For most, it appears to be a very slow healing process. We have to learn to be very patient and not expect to be completely healed by a certain date. That was something that had me very discouraged. It sounds like you are doing the right thing by tapering from the Effexor. Every medication has it's withdrawal period. A few years ago I was prescribed Celexa. I tapered off of it with some difficulty but it only took about 2 months for me to be symptom free.

 

Don't give up on finding help along the way. Do research as I have seen you have been doing. I don't think it is advisable to go back to those that put you in this mess.

[Guest [MD...]]

Hey EricSS,

 

Thank you for the reply.  As far as Effexor goes, I definitely plan to do a controlled taper by weighing beads.  At this point, I have no interest in crossing to any other med as I'm not willing to take the risk.  As you can see from my story, I have not had much luck over the past few months.  It is safe to say that psychiatric drugs have temporarily ruined my life!

 

They crossed me only for a few weeks and then I was able to stop the other medicine because I couldn't stop the Effexor by itself with a taper. This was a long time ago.

 

In regards to the benzo, I like you was s short term user. Your jaw tension is likely related to this. I sometimes catch myself clentching my jaw and benzos are powerful relaxers. I think part of the reason I had so many issues after short term use is because I was a moderately heavy drinker prior to getting on benzos so my GABA receptors were already hammered from that. I'm not sure if you were a drinker or not but I feel that definitely contributed to my issues even though I only used benzos short term.

 

Other than the occasional weekend bender, I wasn't a heavy drinker by any means.  After all of this, I doubt I'll touch alcohol again.  I seemed to be very sensitive to all medication which I think explains part of my withdrawal.

[Guest [MD...]]

I wish that I could answer all of your questions. I was on Xanax for a short period of time and have been paying for it going on 2 1/2 years. The jaw tension and pain is something that that has been pretty constant throughout my withdrawal experience. It started about one month after I tapered. I had times when it would go away and then suddenly come back. It just happened to me again about a week ago. The difference now is that it comes and goes throughout the day. Sometimes it gets intense and then fades.

 

Finding and getting help is the most frustrating part of this ordeal. The quick fix approach by our medical system has a very dark side to it. We, the patient have to pay the price for their "get the patient out of my office in 5 minutes"approach. Most of these drugs are meant for intervention measures and not for long term solutions.

 

Even though I am still having symptoms at 2 1/2 years out, I am doing much better. For most, it appears to be a very slow healing process. We have to learn to be very patient and not expect to be completely healed by a certain date. That was something that had me very discouraged. It sounds like you are doing the right thing by tapering from the Effexor. Every medication has it's withdrawal period. A few years ago I was prescribed Celexa. I tapered off of it with some difficulty but it only took about 2 months for me to be symptom free.

 

Don't give up on finding help along the way. Do research as I have seen you have been doing. I don't think it is advisable to go back to those that put you in this mess.

 

Thanks for the kind words.  I'll never give up.  I don't see any alternative.  I find the most frustrating part is family and friends don't really understand what I'm going through.  They just think I developed severe anxiety out of the blue and really have no idea what I have and am still going through.

[Guest [MD...]]

Happy to say that I am 2 weeks off Effexor.  You are right!  The brain zaps are horrible!  It seemed to happen everytime I move my eyes.  It's getting better though!  I still have jaw tension/teeth pain, but that is improving somewhat.  I'm beyond thrilled to no longer have these poisons in my body!

[[Er...]]

Happy to say that I am 2 weeks off Effexor.  You are right!  The brain zaps are horrible!  It seemed to happen everytime I move my eyes.  It's getting better though!  I still have jaw tension/teeth pain, but that is improving somewhat.  I'm beyond thrilled to no longer have these poisons in my body!

 

Great to hear!  If you are 2 weeks out from Effexor you're definitely through the worst of it.  And you're right about it being tied into eye movement.  To this day, over 10 years later,  I can bring on minor zaps and slight vertigo by moving my eyes in a certain direction (up and to the side).  It only lasts for a second but it is always a reminder to me.

[Guest [MD...]]

Wow!  10 years later!  Just try not to move your eyes that way   I was only on it for 3 months + a 3 month taper.  Hopefully that helps the recovery time.  Thanks again for the comments!