Hello all, I am somewhat new to this forum but I need some help today. I have been on effexor 75 -150 mg for about 3.5 years. I have varied my dose up and down for the last 6 months and myself and my Dr. have decided to change meds. I have been taking 75 mg daily for 2 weeks and then 3/4 of 75 Mg pill for a week. two days ago I was really depressed and DR said lets take the wellbrutrin again.

Yesterday was the first day of WB @ 1/2 of 150 md or 75 mg and no effexor, the day went better that I had expected. I felt OK and I started with some pretty serious brain zaps around 3:30 PM.

Today 75 mg WB in the AM and the brain zaps were not noticable until AFTER I took the WB. Now I am pretty constant brain zaps about every 10-15 seconds. I have tried Magnesium and fish oil and have not taken any benadryl due to having to work.

Does anyone have any experince if the Brain zaps would be from the withdrawls from effexor or maybe trhe WB?
Thanks Jeff

Jag,

Alot of people get brain zaps from effexor withdrawl. If it persists call you doc and let them know and maybe they can give you something to remidy it.

So far this AM I have no Zaps I believe that they are from The WB? I think I am going to go with out the 75 MG of WB today and see how I feel

Jag

OK zaps started agin about 0900 real bad again and no WB today. So I may go ahead andf take the WB

Does anyone know what will slow or decrease the intensity of these ZAPS? and any idea how long they will last?

Jeff

I know this isn't very helpful but I found mostly time fixes it. I was on clonazapam as well and I think that probably helped some as well.

If by brainzaps you mean snapshots (that's my way of describing it. It occurs when I turn my head or roll my eyes and it's like my head is a camera and my eyes freeze and I hear a sound in my head for a split second.) then I'll share what I've found. I get them if I forget a dose of Effexor. I'm on 300mg daily, 150 in the morning and 150 at night. If I forget a dose I'll get the snapshots. I had them pretty bad for a while when I was taking all 300mg together, then the dr suggested splitting the dose and the snapshots/brainzaps went away.

i've never taken effexor but i have and do take wellbutrin. when i first started it i would get a lot of brain zaps back to back. after some weeks went by, they stopped. same thing with geodon. lonelysindy is right. you may just have to give it time..

I have been off Effexor now for 16 days The brain zaps finally went away at about 12 days , I did not take the WB after the 3rd day
I have been taking SAMe 600 mg daily. doing OK the last couple of days seem to be more irratable. I have atavan to help but makes me sleepy.

I am considering trying the WB again now that I have been off Effexor for a while

I have ahad no zaps so I guess I will see if WB causes them

Jeff

It took over a year (maybe near 2 years??) for me to stop having brain zaps (i call them brain shivers, that is the first term i heard for them) after completely stopping effexor (and i ramped down as slooooowwwwwwly as possible, over SEVERAL months). So, when folks say it takes time, be prepared for a long time; not for everyone, but for a lot of people - taking/stopping effexor is a looooooong term commitment (not that many - if any - of us are warned of that when it's prescribed, but that's another story).....Good luck. If the brain zaps are all that is bothering you coming off of effexor, though, count yourself as lucky, as there are way worse withdrawal effects. (Not to downplay the freakiness of the brain zaps - it doesn't help when shrinks say "oh, they're harmless" - when they don't KNOW what they are or WHY they happen!! -- my shrink, years ago, when i had told him about the sensation, had no clue, and i said i had found the term "brain shivers" on internet forums - well now, years later, finally that is mentioned on the medication. us patients are the guinea pigs for these things; sigh. so then when i tried effexor later, once the pdocs were finally "on" to the brain zap phenomenon (YEARS LATER), they're all like "oh, they're not harmful" -- when clearly, they don't know.)........i don't know, i frankly am scared of effexor; it is a powerful med, but SO hard to get off of; yikes.

This post has been edited by lonleysindy: Jun 20 2009, 09:44 AM

they normally go away for me over a month or so, but they are worse in the first week and then gradually subside.

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I am taking Pristiq and if i miss a dose i get exactly the same thing! Didn't know it was a common thing. Has anything helped??

I am taking Pristiq and if i miss a dose i get exactly the same thing! Didn't know it was a common thing. Has anything helped??