Quit cold turkey symptoms and conditions

SORRY HAVEN'T TRIED IT YET CHECKING OUT WITH OTHER PEOPLE WHO HAVE TAKEN IT.COULD ANY ONE LET ME KNOW HOW IT WORKS FOR THEM? THANK YOU.WILL BE STARTING SOMETIME TOMORROW PLEASE LET ME KNOW THANK YOU

Hello EveryOne out there...OK OK....

Now Why have I been out of touch since Sept 14th.... 2007???

I have been VERY VERY ill.....

Y'See, I went to see this new Doctor (Quack) for continued pain in my chest (sternum) area....that I have been having trouble with all Summer. (Severe Costochondritis/Fibromyalgia) By Sept 14th, this Quack who claims to be a Doctor had given me this prescription for Prednisone pills (20 mg each)....with orders to take mega doses of this toxic poison in order to combat the pain I was suffering. I was so desperate to get out of pain that I went ahead and filled the prescription and started taking the pills that eventful Friday night. I made the fatal mistake of trusting this Doctor!!!

If I had any sense God gave green apples I would have researched this a little before taking this medicine!! I would have run like all heck in the opposite direction!

I had been taking these reccomended large doses for approx two weeks back then per Doctor 'Quack's' order.... I have been hooked after the first week....and now currently desperately trying to get off of it with only marginal success!!

I have been on this Prednisone crap for some 49 days, currently and desperately trying to get off of it....with terrible side effects!! I have experienced every side effect known to the Devil himself and even discovered some new ones that I never knew was possible!? Case in point! I can't sleep night after night without terrible withdrawals all night long!!! I am forced to contend with them every night here. Not to mention I fight the withdrawals all days long too. I have this inept doctor and I am sorry I even went to him in the first place...!

The withdrawals I am now getting are harder to deal with than the original chest pain itself!!! Not to mention even eating the so-called 'wrong' foods sets off even more withdrawals almost immediately. I am now extremely sensitive to light and the sun~ not to mention.....noise....and stress....

I am much sicker from this Quack Doctor's so-called "HELP" than I ever was before....

I don't mind saying his name and trying to steer everyone away from this jerk Doctor here in Las Vegas who takes advantage of people in pain when they are desperate by feeding them toxic poisons and passing the poison off as something harmless thats gonna help them??? Just ask me who he is and I will tell you. I have no qualms about it....

Bottom line is I have spent this last month trying to get off this crap and I just found out that the withdrawals may bother me up to a YEAR after I take my last dose of this crap poison!! I have been going thru H***!!! A nightmare I would LOVE to pass onto this Quack who pretends to be a doctor!

I am down to about 7.5 mg per day now from about 180 mg that he gave me originally Sept 14 2007. Believe me this was not easy thing for me to do. I went "Toxic" on this drug weeks ago and it has affected my ability to process, think and reason properly. I feel like part of my mind is now missing or went on permanent vacation!! Dizziness,feeling like I'm gonna pass out, Brain Fog and Mass Confusion is the order for the day~depending on the time of day???

"The side effects of prednisone include adrenal suppression, which can occur with periods of prednisone use to surpass seven days. Adrenal suppression refers to the body’s inability to synthesize natural corticosteroids, resulting in a dependency on the prednisone taken by the patient. This is why doctors do not recommend the cessation of prednisone when the patient has taken it for longer than seven days. They reduce the dose gradually over a few days in the case of short-term prednisone use, and over weeks or months in the case of long-term treatment. Stopping prednisone treatment abruptly can cause the life-threatening Addison’s disease, in which in the body no longer produces sufficient amounts of adrenal steroid hormones"

I want to SUE this Doctor for making me this sick!!!!!

SDR

GRRRRRRRRRrrrrr!!!!!!!

I AM A 53 YEAR OLD WOMAN, I STARTED LIPITOR IN JUNE 2007, AS OF NOW I HAVE AS FOLLOWS.
HORRIBLE WRIST PAIN,
LOWER THUMB PAIN,
KNEE PAIN,
FOOT AND ANKLE PAIN,
SHOULDER AND NECK PAIN,
SCIATIC PAIN,
HEADACHES,
BLURRED VISION,
MEMORY LOSS,
PALM OF HAND PAIN,
TINGLY FEELING IN HEAD, SOMETIMES GOES INTO MY EYE.
I AM ON 20MG OF LIPITOR AND I AM NOT TAKING THEM AFTER THIS DAY, I HAD TRIED THEM IN THE PAST BUT AT THE SAME TIME I WAS ON ZETIA SO WAS NOT SURE WHAT CAUSED WHAT, NOW I KNOW, IS THERE ANY BAD WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS IF YOU QUIT COLD TURKEY?

I am a 32 yo Mother to 4 children. My ONLY purpose for taking Yasmin was to control the severity of my periods. After the fourth child my periods became so heavy, crampy and unbearable that I had to do something. I have been on Yasmin for a little over a year now and all I can say is had I known then what I know now...I wouldn've said to hell with that!!!

Mood Swings, I mean my god ladies, they are awful, my husband of 10 years never once called me a Bitch and now I hear it all the time it seems, the weight gain was off and on. My metabolisim slowed to a stop basicaly, my hair started to fall out of my head and found itself on my face. The sobbing for no reason (at a dog commercial ladies..a dog commercial) constantly being tired, then not being able to sleep when i knew I was exhausted.

My libido was non exsistant which caused termoil in my marriage for a period of time. There was nothing I could do. I felt so helpless. Out of control, sad, sick, and in general just BLAH!

Secondly the medication was supposed to help reduce the severity of my periods and make them shorter..HA HA HA HA HA!! That's the biggest joke. They are still the same now as they ever were. 8-9 days, filling a super pad within and hour and a half, having to wear both tampons and pads just to go out in public. I have had no pills for a week. I quit cold turkey so to speak and I have had spotting lots of spotting, headaches, and bloating associated with nausea. I am glad that I am off of the Yasmin pill and I'll never go on Yasmin again!

I would love to know of a lawsuit pending against them, so that I could be returned all the money I spent in copays, to feel worse than I did before I started taking it.

I have been taking Topamax for chronic headaches migraines. I am really frustrated after trying Topamax for the second time. I tried it for about four months early in the year and here I am again trying the drug once more. I am using 100 mg both times and see no results even this time around. I have only been on it for about two months. My neurologist tells me to be patient, but it's really hard to when my life is ruined and I cannot work as a hairdresser (product fragrances and chemicals that trigger headaches). My career may be over and I am only 23. I just don't understand why I am on epilepsy medication. All of these problems have lead me into depression, which is a whole other topic. My neurologist keeps scheduling me for followups about once a month which seems pointless and extremely costly. I feel like I am getting taken advantage of money-wise. I want to stop taking my medication and try chiropractic care. I know better than to quit cold turkey... Should I just call my neurologist and cancel my appointment and ween myself off my medication???

This website may not have saved my life, but it has certainly saved my sanity. Beginning in May 2007 I was prescribed Toprol XL for a supposed heart condition. I was instructed to begin with 50 mg per day and go to 100 mg per day after 10 days. Since I already had the 50 mg tablets, I simply started taking 2 of them together when I raised the dosage. On July 25 I ran out of the 50 mg tabs and filled a prescription for 100 mg tabs. Immediately upon starting the 100 mg tabs I began experiencing side effects which increased in severity daily. By Monday July 30 I was convinced I was losing my mind. Then I discovered this website, and read that many other people had suffered in the same way. What I have trouble grasping is why the same dosage had different effects. I tolerated the 100 mg/day dose just fine when taking 2 50 mg tabs, but the 100 mg was dreadful. I've checked the pills, and both the 50 mg and 100 mg are Astra-Zeneca products, not generic. The markings, shape and size are consistent with 100 mg tabs, so I haven't been inadvertently given an overdose. I immediately backed off the dosage, and am gradually going to reduce and stop the medication. I urge anyone who is having these problems not to stop at reporting them here, but also to contact Astra-Zeneca at www.astrazeneca.com, and to report them to the FDA's Medwatch website, www.fda.gov/medwatch. It may seem fruitless to contact Astra Zeneca, but they need to be made aware of these problems.

This medication has saved my life. I am in my mid 20's and have been taking Toprol for 2 years. Ever since 9-11 I have had a hard time keeping my anxiety under control. I tired a number of anxiety medications but Toprol was the only thing that could keep my heart rate under control.

When I forget to take the meds I experience an elevated heart rate. It goes away shortly after I take the next dose. After being on this medication for so long I've started to notice minor problems with weight gain, low energy, and depression. I think now that I have my blood pressure under control it's time to start ramping down the dose.

Talk to your doctor before you get off this medication. I quit cold turkey once before and my blood pressure skyrocketed.

I have been off birth control since 2003. I had been taking Alesse and started to get terrible mood swings and horrific nightmares. I quit taking the pill all together and felt great. I recently decided to try the pill again. My doctor put me on Yasmin as a day 1 start. I started 3/11/06, I instantly gained weight, had terrible mood swings, headaches, breast tenderness and unstoppable "break thru bleeding." The final straw was when I woke myself and my boyfriend up with blood curling screams from a night terror. That was it, I quit cold turkey. The last day I took the pill was 3/26, since I wasn't on it very long I'm hoping I won't have any side effects while it gets out of my system however I have noticed that I have been extremely clumsy. I've been constantly dropping things, spilling things and I have even went so far as to cut my hand while washing dishes to the point of needing stitches. Has anyone ever had anything like this happen to them?

I'd been on Yasmin for almost 4 years, and around November of 2005 started experiencing very severe stomach cramping and bloating, depression, acne, and total loss of libido. I also noticed an increased amount of ear wax build up! I went to my doctor, and found out I had lost almost 35 pounds since my last check up (1 year ago in January, and I was only 125 pounds at that point) and she suggested that I switch to a lower estrogen dose birth control - which I have tried for almost 2 months..and it is simply not working. I am now going totally off of birth control and I hope this works..When I returned to my doctor last week to inform her of my decision to quit cold turkey, she told me that would help my stomach cramping, etc., but if it didn't that I might have IBS..
Can anyone else tell me if they have experienced anything like this with Yasmin?

Well, just wanted to say. I got off this drug!! I quit cold turkey about 3 wks ago and I must say I feel great!! I have so much energy, I'm not tired all the time, I don't sleep all day, my weight is going back down, I don't feel faint or dizzy, I don't feel dependant on this drug anymore, during the first week I was so dizzy & faint w/hardly any balance, I felt like my brain was shifting but after the second week I had more energy than I had in a long time. My body is getting back to normal, it's been 3 week's now and I don't have any of the side effect's associated with this EVIL!!! drug. My husband said this is the longest he has seen me stay awake in a long time, my kid's are enjoying me being back on earth (jokey joke) Hey!!! I'm Back!!!! IT FEEL'S SO GOOD TO BE ME AGAIN!! my prayers are with all who remains or who start this drug because your gonna need it!

hello again gypsi!
I also had alot of water retention. I was very swollen and I still had solid weight on me. I cut out all sugar and had very low carbs in my diet. I got more physically active, on the days I felt good. For me, caffeine is a great diuretic. It has helped me alot with the water retention and being swollen. I really can't explain about how fast it has been. I just happen to have had a bad experience with pred. and now that I'm off of it I seem to lose weight faster than I ever have in my whole life. After I lose the rest, and I feel this will certainly takes its good old time, I'll have to watch the sugar and carbs more. I have days when I get on the scales and see 2 or 3 lbs. come back on and then in a day two it's gone again. Weird. Don't panic gypsi. I have three sizes of clothes in my closets and sometimes none of them fit! Other times I can go to a smaller size. It's going to be a while before I feel normal again. Who know, maybe never ha ha
Today has been a better day for my blood pressure. I know this problem has come from being on pred. so long and being told to quit cold turkey. It's been three months now off of pred. U r in my prayers gypsi. I know how u feel. I promise it will get better with the weight. I've still got a year or so of pred. withdrawal. I'm tough. We'll make it.... nice talking to ya keep in touch trailblazen....................

thanx gypsi! The problem is that my doctor took me off cold turkey 10 weeks ago! I've been told no one should quit cold turkey and it really scared me. What should I do now after 10 weeks of no pred.? The ten weeks have been harder on me than when I was on pred. I even took 5 mgs today to get my blood pressure back up and it worked. I'm not going to start taking it again, but I can't stand feeling the way I am now. Thanks for responding I appreciate it trailblazen

My brother has a nerve disease that affects his legs and feet.
Numbness and severe pain. He has alot of good days though.
As far as the withdrawl symptoms I've experienced are: insomnia, sadness (real bad), tempermental, hands swelling, sweating ( could not tolerate heat or humidity), blurry vision, extreme lack of self-esteem. My hands do not swell anymore, moodiness is better, still have insomnia, weight is coming off slowly and as I talked about before, my stomach problems have finally stopped. I was on pred. 4 yrs. So I feel like I'm doing alot better and so will your son. After reading all the posts when I first found this site, I didn't feel so strange and alone. Of course, everyone is different. Just know he will get rid of the withdrawl. My doctor had me quit cold turkey and that's why I feel I have had such a hard time. Weaning off of it is the right thing to do. I also had horrible headaches which have stopped. Take care.....Keep us posted on your son...........: )

I was prescribed Propoxy after sustaining a heel injury. A water cooler feel on my heel...and I received a deep cut that required 15 stitches. Bruising on my heel, ankle and calf...was a really bad freak accident. I was taking Propoxy for twelve days and then suddenly quit as I no longer required to take it though I have a quarter of a prescription bottle full of the pills.

I have been experiecing the feeling of nausea...and pain in my intestines as if I was constipated. I called the local pharmacy and the pharmacists says it can give you constipation and so that explained the pain in my intestines. So I am now eating bulk. My tast buds have suffered not hungry nor do I find anything appetizing to eat.

It's been three days since I quit taking the meds. Quit cold turkey and hope to feel better tomorrow after feeling sick for three days.

-I have been on Effexor XR for almost 1 year @ 150mg.

When I was first on the drug I would feel the dizziness, brain shock, etc, side affects if I went roughly 2 days without taking the drug (on accident). In the past few months I start getting severe withdrawl side affects (dizziness, brain shocks, etc.) as soon as it hit 24 hours from my last dose (If I took a pill at 2pm on one day, by 3pm on the next day I was having severe side affects).

What seemed to be unrelated at first was the fact that in the past 2-3 months I started to have severe sleeping problems. I got extremely worse in the past 2 months as no matter what time I went to bed it became extremely difficult for me to wake up before 10am - 11am (which obviously affected my work). It was the hardest thing in the world to drag myself out of bed, no matter what time it was (it was almost impossible for me to get out of bed before 8am). I would then work for a few hours and come home and take a nap. I went to my Doctor (same one that prescribed me the Effexor XR) and he sent me to a sleep study thinking that I might have Sleep Apneia. Immediately after that a friend recommended trying to get off of the Effexor XR and as soon as I started weening down my doseage, my sleep went back to normal. In any regard, I was able to ween myself down to 37.5 MG for a couple of weeks and have now been off of it or 3 days and it has sucked. I've tried getting off before and have many horror stories as other people (the following horror story is one that happened about 2-3 months ago when I tried to quit cold turkey once from full 150 mg a day doseage, not a good idea!).

This is somewhat funny & scary...I had gone about 2-3 days at one point in trying to cut cold turkey from 150 mg a day(I was also out of pills) and was suffering from severe withdrawl affects and decided to drive to my pharmacy to have it refilled because I could not take it anymore. My pharmacy is one that is in a large grocery store...so while it was being refilled I tried to find some granola bars so I would have something to eat to take with the medication. I was so dizzy and confused that I had to call my wife (fiance at the time) on my cell phone. I had to ask her to help me find the granola bars (this was a store that I often shopped at) and was standing in the middle of an isle with tears streaming down my face begging her to help me over the phone. I'm a 30+ year old professional who is 6'2" and was (prior to my weight gain recently) a healthy 250 pds, and was reduced to tears in a grocery store trying to find granola bars. The storry is sad, true, scary, and slightly funny all at the same time.

I've also managed to put on about 25-30 pds in the last 2-3 weeks as well. One of the side effects I personally got when I went too long between doses (or now in trying to stop completely and was feeling after reducing doseage) is a weird nausea feeling (I suppose similar to the one others have felt too). If you've ever felt nausea from being overly hungry, this is the type of nausea feeling I get. I feel like my body needs some food to help it feel better, so I eat and eat, and it's a very temperal relief (unfortunately, even the temporal relief doesn't always come), then the nausea is back. Hence the 25-30 pounds in the last 2-3 weeks.

In closing, I think it is sad that most doctors probably do not fully understand the drug. I know the manufacturer states that the side affects occur in about 10% of those that use the drug. However, I wonder what the percentage of severe side affects is in those that try to come off of the drug? I'm sure it has to be very high as the only thing my doctor made clear was to talk to him when/if I want to ever come off of the drug. THESE SIDE AFFECTS FROM COMING OFF OF THE DRUG ABSOULTELY NEEDS TO BE MADE CLEAR TO PATIENTS BEFORE THEY START OUT ON THIS DRUG!
Thanks,
M

It's been 1 month since I quit cold turkey. My doctors said to quit taking it. My symptoms r : insomnia, dark cloud over my head feeling, panicking, not eating much( a good thing ) gums are irritated, corners of mouth splitting (never had that in my life) legs weak, restless, can't concentrate sometimes. I know it's a matter of time before this all goes away. I hold on to that. It will get better. Thanx for asking. I like this website.

can anyone tell me how coming off of pred. can affect your monthly cycle? I quit cold turkey and really having a hard time thanx : )

I have been on Lisinopril for over 2 weeks now and have had a persistent cough the whole time... I was switched from a Beta-Blocker to this new drug over night. Neither my Doctor or pharmacist said anything about stopping the Beta -Blocker slowly before starting the Lisinopril. I ended up with bp readings of 160/ 100 and a pulse of 100-120. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. The Doctor said nothing to me but, "so you decided to quit cold turkey, lucky you didn't end up in the emergency room with heart problems." I think I was better of with Tenormin. I was only taking 50 mgs per day, I think he could have increased that to twice daily. He says my cough will go away, we'll see.
Thanks for listening...

I am a 31 year old female who has been taking zoloft 50mg for over a year due to post tramatic syndrom. It took almost 2 months for my anxiety/depression and panic attacks to go away. It did help me get through it but in the process I have gain over 30lbs. I run over 2 miles a day 5 days a week and keep gaining weight. I havent weighed this much since I had my children. Anyway, i quit cold turkey 3 days ago and am experiencing dizziness, crazy, scary dreams, hot flashes and fatigue. I hope it does not get worse. I don't want to be back on the fat pill.

I started taking Zoloft October of 2003. I started with 25mg & slowly graduated to 200mg. Over the past year I have gained 25lbs. even though I exercise 4 days a week for an hour & watch what I eat every day. I couldn't understand why I was gaining weight when I was watching so well. I asked my doctor about weight gain with Zoloft & he said that it actually makes you lose weight. I finally decided to check out websites about the side effects & I was so shocked at how many other people had weight gains also. So I decided to take myself off of Zoloft. For about a week I dropped down to 100mg a day but then deiceded to quit cold turkey & have been feeling like crap ever since. I have severe headaches (which I very rarely ever get), constant feeling of nausea, electric zaps that start at my feet & shoot up through my body, feeling when I turn my head too quickly like my brain is slow to catch up with my eyes & I feel like I'm gonna fall if I don't hold on to something or just relax for a minute.

I realize this is my own fault because I quit cold turkey on my own without consulting with my physician, however I want other people out there to know that you aren't going crazy that the withdrawal symptoms are real & really bad.

I just want to know how long before I start to feel normal again without constantly feeling sick on my stomach.

Chest pain, perhaps heartburn (or gas?) so bad that I can barely breathe...this only happens when I attempt to stop taking prednisone altogether. This time I tapered down from 50 mg to 25 mg (for a week) to 0 as of Sunday.

I had been taking prednisone to combat an allergic reaction to poison sumac. I began taking 50 mg/day for a week, doubled it for another week, cut back to 50 for a third week, quit cold turkey and the rash "caught fire," so I started up again. This time I'm determined to stay off, but I wonder how long I have to put up with this horrible chest pain!

I was taking 1mg.of Xanax 3x a day for 3yrs., I quit cold turkey at a Dr. advice (very stupid Dr.). After 2 days of hell I had 2 siezures in a 30 minute time span. The second almost killed me, I had 4 broken ribs and minor kidney damage. For 2 weeks my speech was slured and my mind was somewhere else.

My very trusted psychiatrist changed my meds from Effexor to Zoloft after I complained of continuing depression and the usual suspects...Crying all the time...Zoloft was to be the "cry stopper". A week went by after the initial introduction and he increased the meds to 175 mg 2xper day. OH MY GOD-- I have never been worse off, my intestines were constantly churning and I was in the bathroom 8-12 per day and was incontinant at nighttime. Truly disgusting and violent diarhea. Not only that I didn't put 2 and 2 together and went to my physical doctor and she had me give a stool sample and you had to do it yourself. How humiliating and vile. I have now been off the Zoloft for over a week and I still am having the symptoms of gas and diarhea but not as bad, but I am wondering when they will go away? Anyone here have any ideas. I was on 175 mg 2x/day for approx 2 months. I'm wondering just what kind of damage that did to my gastrointestinal tract!!!
I still trust my Psych, he ddn't know I was going to have an allergic reaction of sorts. Hopefully I won't ever have to deal with this again. I also am having a light headed ness and that weird Acid-creepy feeling when I quit cold turkey. But after finding out that it was the culprit to the diarhea, I wouldn't take one more pill.

Jacquie in San Diego

Well to be honest, I think some of bad things that have been said are WAY exaggerated. I have been on this drug for 6 yrs and yes I have gained a little weight but it really doesn't bother me because I have never felt better. This is the best drug that I have ever been on for depression. ALOT of what people have experienced with this drug and with trying to get taken off of it is all in their MIND. If you keep telling youself something, you will actually start to believe it. I was also specifically told NOT to quit COLD turkey because it can actually cause death because of the withdrawls, they can be very harmful. So people who do that are STUPID. I feel nothing for those who have done that and complain about what happend for the first few days they were off of it because if they were serious about trying to fix their problem, they would have done it the RIGHT WAY.

Have been on Zoloft for two years now. Taking 50mg daily. Recently I tried quiting cold turkey due to being fatigued all the time. Also because I was getting frustrated when every time I would get a prescription filled, they would give me 100mg pills that I would have to cut up.So in reality, I wasn't taking exactly 50mg every day. What a joke these insurance companies are to allow that. I also was able to get a 90 day prescription fill and now it has changed to 1 refill every 30 days due to my medical insurance changeing their policy on refills.What a mistake it was to quit cold turkey. After the 5th day of not taking zoloft I became a basket case. I started getting these brain zaps every so often, (feeling very numb at times). I have no choice now but to stay on this drug. Its like night and day when I don't take zoloft for more than a few days. I know now that I will be on this drug for the rest of my life. The down side for me is fatigue and decreased sexual desire but the pros heavily outweigh the cons. I will try decreasing my dosage from 50mg to 25mg daily to see if this will help my fatigue problem. Has anyone tried doing this? I truely believe that Zoloft has saved my marriage.