Levaquin and zombie

im not a member of this website but here's my story. I am 23, healthy, and in good shape. Never really had anything serious. I came down with a sinus infection almost 2 weeks ago and was prescribed amoxicillin, which i immediately had a reaction to. broke out in a rash.. I was then prescribed Zithromax and Prednisone. I was taking prednisone and felt weird then looked up the side effects and decided not to take it. After my Z-max, I was not feeling any better and returned to the doctor yesterday. He prescribed Levaquin and Duramax. I decided to check the side effects BEFORE beginning taking the medicine. I went to medicinenet.com, and no serious side effects were listed. I took the levaquin on an empty stomach, and about an hour later, my mood shifted from Happy/Playful to Zombie-like and confused. I wanted to cry but I wasn't sad about anything. I couldn't sleep that night, and woke up after having a nightmare. I came to work today and researched it and found multiple websites of people complaining about this medicine! What is going on!?

I am taking Levaquin for a sinus infection and have had many of the side effects as those above. I've been on it for 4 days out of a 5 day prescription. Last night was my worse night of all on it. I too had severe insomnia and until this morning, after reading these postings, did not know how to describe it, but it was like I was in a quasi zombie like mental state. It was very scary. Up to last night, I did have spurts of nasea and weird dreams. I take Cymbalta for depression, which is under control, until I started taking Levaquin. Just in these 4 days, I feel as if I have slipped back into a slight depression. I have 1 more day left and am not taking it. Unfortunately, I am allergic to all the "good" antiobiotic drugs, but will request from my doctor not to ever be prescribed Levaquin again - no matter what.

If you are reading these postings, then obviously you are concerned and possibly having these or other side effects from this drug, as I was/am. Stop taking this drug and talk to your doctor.

I am currently taking Levaquin 750 mg for bacterial pneumonia. I've been taking Levaquin for 4 days now and feel obligated to warn those taking this drug that it causes severe insomnia - WHICH IS JUST THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT IS REQUIRED WHEN YOUR BODY IS TRYING TO HEAL ITSELF!!
The drug also causes a rather severe intensification in your mental state and thinking - causing you to enter into a quasi zombie-like mental state. This is worsened when combined with the insomnia that the drug causes.
THESE DRUG COMPANIES ARE TO BLAME BECAUSE THEY DON'T TELL YOU ABOUT THE REAL DEAL CONSEQUENCES OF TAKING THEIR PRODUCTS.
Beware of the insomnia and zombie-like state that this drug induces!!

In France I was very fit and active and supple. Just before I left in May 1980 to emigrate to Canada I had a stomach infection that was treated with cipro antibiotic by my Dr in France. I finished them in Canada in my first two days. In France I became very hot and ‘spaced out’ when I began the medication, ached like mad and went to bed for a day (very unusual). I thought it was the infection. On the plane and in Canada I felt like a zombie and ached for some years. 27 year later I find that it was almost certainly a reaction to a drug. Since that time I have often been prescribed cipro for a bad prostate starting in 1985, when I had an operation. It took years of working out and exercsing to get fit - but always ached. Since the 1985 operation my prostate has played up a lot and I have been prescribed cipro many times. I thought that reactions to look out for were a bad tum. I have had progressively worse muscle pains and have had to work out more to keep things under control. I had not realized these drugs can effect the brain and also cause muscles to rupture, as well as causing terrible leg and other body part aches. This year in February in USA I was prescribed Levaquin a member of the same drug family (fluoroquinolones). On way back I was unusually stiff in the car and had headaches and could hardly get out of it or bend my legs. I thought it was old age. Since getting back I have had quite awful leg aches, ‘odd feelings’ and some terrible shooting headaches (never had until Daytona) which have worsened when I have had some Levaquin here in Canada in last few weeks. It has made my legs and knees almost impossibly painful to move and my left leg muscle to seize up behind my knee, so I have to fight to get up off chair or bed. It is best to stand and keep moving. The way these antibiotics work is to kill off a certain enzyme in the chain that the bacteria need to reproduce the cells, so they die. Just lately researchers in the UK have found cipro kills plants, They investigated and are developing a new form of weed killer based on that. Just think about it. The reason is that for 30 years! No one knew that the particular enzyme is present in the ‘DNA’ of ALL plants. Because a very common side effect of these drugs is to permanently destroy the cells of cartilage, muscles, rupture tendons and change the brain and central nervous system of humans, in the same way as it kills plants and bacteria, I have a suspicion that maybe the enzyme or a close relative is present in some humans. If so there could well be a genetic connection. SO if you suffer from thee effects let you family know !

I took Levaquin 750 mg for 2 days. The first night it made me sleepy and drowsy. The second night I took it, I was high. I felt like I was a zombie. I sat in front of my computer rocking back and forward. And al I wanted to do while I sat there was take more and more and more levaquin. I wanted sit there and eat them like they were candy. That urge was so overwhelming. So, I hurried up and I flushed them down the toilet except for 3. Knowing that they were there, I wanted to eat those 3, so I flushed them.
That was the worst night of my life. I said to myself if this is how high suppose to feel. I don't ever be high.
This drug need to be taken off the market.

I am 27 yrs old, started taking levaquin for prostitis; an haven't slept for feels like weeks, but been only 3 days..insomnia, i feel like a zombie, rolling in bed now, i have to goto work for 10 hrs, how's that work..maybe try couple more days, maybe it will go away..

My 89 year old mother, a resident of a nursing home, was given Levaquin for a UTI. Within about three days, she was bizarre. She actually could not distinguish between reality and her dreams. She believed so strongly about what she perceived being real, that I asked that two psychiatric evaluators be called in. Knowing the doctor's attitude (based on an immediate past experience with Lexapro that made Mom a zombie and his reluctance to take her off of it), Mom refused the Levaquin. In our state, at least, the nh cannot force a patient to take a medicine when it is refused. After seeing this site earlier in the week, I was adamant that she would not take one more Levaquin and will not in the remainder of her life.
Tonight she is still a bit fuzzy on some things. And as a happy postcript, the evaluators said her mind was very good and her memory was excellent and agreed that her bizarre (and I do mean bizarre!) behavior was likely caused by either the Levaquin and the UTI; also that the Lexapro was too strong for someone her age.
We are in the process of changing doctors. His "I am god, you are stupid" attitude can be gone! It is unacceptable.