Toprol-XL and severly

Let me just say, if you are thinking of starting Toprol then you need to consider this. It works great at lowering your heart rate, but it also with make you gain weight, have anxiety attacks, severe shortness of breath, insomnia, and a low libido. Your doctor's are not going to tell you this and will blame all the side effects on other things. At least that was my experience and what seems to be many other experiences according to this site. I was put on Toprol due to an elevated heart rate (186 beats per minute) that was caused by being severly anemic. Now other than being anemic, I was a completely healthy and fit 29 year-old female without any other heart problems. After being on 100 mg of Toprol for 4 days I would periodically feel a dull pain in my chest and would get extremely pale. On the 6th day, the pain was so bad I went to the emergency room, they told me that it was just an anxiety attack. Up until this point in my life, I had never experienced any sort of anxiety or depression and could not think of anything that would cause it (no stress in life, great marriage, etc.) After the visit to the ER, I decided to reduce my Toprol down to 50 mg a day to see if that helped my problem any. After reducing my meds, I felt 85% better. No chest pains. Well, I'm not one to take medication for long periods of time (I think in the long run they can sometimes cause more harm than help) and since I was only to take the Toprol until my anemia was under control, I decided recently to start to wean myself off (without doctor's consent.) I am currently down to 25 mg a day, which hasn't been easy. I've tried to move down to 12.5 a day, but have trouble sleeping and feel very anxious. I've been on Toprol for 2 months and I have gained 10 pounds (eat like I always have...fruits, veggies, whole wheat and lean meat) and have a low sex drive (never a problem before). I'm too young for this crap.