Toprol-XL and severe anxiety

I've been on the generic of Toprol XL for a month and a half. I take 12.5 mg in the morning and 12.5 at night. I have gained 10lbs so far, I feel groggy, lightheaded, fuzzy, sleepy all the time no matter how much sleep I get. I get episodes where it feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest making it hard to get a good deap breath. I have a headache almost every day. I suffer from severe anxiety to the point that I don't like leaving my house. I worry about stupid things obsessively. I just feel crappy constantly. I was prescribed it due to a high heart rate, but I've never had high blood pressure. I have a dr's appt May 6 and I'm going to ask her to start weaning me off of it. If I would have known the side effects would be this bad I would have asked to be prescribed something else from the get go.

One month ago I went into CHF, I have cardiomyopathy and A-fib. They put in an ICD that paces. I was sent home on Toprol 50 2x/day .Lisinopril 5 1x/day, Digoxin 125 1x/day & Coumadin. I weigh 86 lbs. These heart meds zapped all the life I had remaining out of me. Even at half doses I was in a fog with severe anxiety. I felt so bad I was readmitted 2x/ in a month. I have tried to take them at night, I have tried spacing them and nothing works other than being drug free. (Coumadin is not a problem) The Dr said there are some folks who just can't tolerate them, and that my real protection comes from my ICD. I worry about not taking the meds, but I have no quality of life with them so what can I do?

I took Toprol for 2 months and experienced depression, and severe anxiety. My doctor prescibed Xanax to relieve the anxiety, and it really helped. The problem was, I have never before taking this BP medication, ever, experienced either depression or anxiety. I, also, experienced chest pain very like a heart attack, but with no elivated BP, or dizziness. I weened myself off the Toprol, 4 months ago, and have experienced none of the above symptoms since! I have, since ceasing taking Toprol, taken a echo cardiogram with treadmill and my tests were not only normal, but I felt perfectly finely during the tests.

Achy joint pain increasing the pain in my wrists, hands and feet. Ache in big toe does resemble gout. Cervical neck pain and hip joint pain come and go, but the pain in my wrists, and feet remain constant. Lower back muscle pain and deep muscle pain on my right chest area. Some loss of short term memory and confusion in daily routines that did not exist before. The severe anxiety when missing a dose is very disturbing and that is exactly what happens to me and I don't want to be "addicted" to a drug. My depression (which was under control for thirty years) has now returned. If this is the price I have to pay just to lower my BP for a bit, than NO THANKS. I am on 50 mgs of Toprol and I want my doctor to decrease my dose.