Head vibrations/electrical sensations through brain and body (esp. spine), leg and body numbness..HELP!

[DragonTU84]

Hey all. Perhaps I should introduce myself.

My name is Crystal, and since October 31st around 3 am, I have been in a constant struggle with problems ranging from clenching chest pains, heart palps, increased heartrate, head jitters/electrical vibrations/sensations through head and spine (like a painful electrical current that radiates up and down my spine), I have had my limbs go tingly, and even one time my right leg went numb and it kind of cocked up a little and went limp, so I was unable to move it...

I went to the ER numerous times, where they did a CT with contrast of the chest, thyroid tests, electrolyte blood test, etc.

I have also gone to Psychiatrists, Neurologists, Cardiologists, etc. The only real physical thing they could come up with was my Mitral Valve Prolapse, but said it was too minor to be causing any problems.

The doctors issued EEGS, another echo (I had one 2 years ago), EKGs and haltar monitors, ya name it. I have had bloodwork for my B-12 levels, thyroid tests I can't even count anymore, Lyme Titer, ANA Titer, etc...

They concluded possibly anxiety and panic attacks, but these problems are too PHYSICALLY severe to possibly be. Many doctors are still scratching their heads at me and don't know WHAT's GOING ON!!

[gtdevore]

haha...sigh i know how you feel.  i can feel the pain and suffering you feel because ive been there.  but let me tell you....the stress that you feel right now because of it all will not help you.  I dont have any answers to what the deal was with me or you...i dont have health insurance so i just rode it out and hoped id come out with my life.  but i learned that the more i stressed and the more i worried, the more the symptoms would play tricks on me.  even in the middle of an attack i would force myself to remain calm even though im losing eyesight or im feeling intense pain or numbness in my chest and as soon as i could calm down and realize its going to be ok...it would fade. my worse attacks were in the begining when i really thought i was going to die and i would freak out on the virge of loosing conciousness. and i would fight to stay awake by running...running out of pure terror.

i honestly think my trouble resulted in a reaction from the mixing of the 3 different drugs i used.  i did some research and some of the chemicals in them warn not to mix with the other chemicals i used...saying there could be life threatening consiquences.  and from then on who knows why my body kept acting so crazy.  i will never take another depression pill again for sure though.  the area of the brain they mess with is just such a important part of the body i dont want to be tamporing with.  they really are dangerous medications..

its comforting to know another person out there is experiencing the same problems because i feel like the only one.  obviously we both have problems with our central nervous system....ive done pretty good damage to my nerves.  i dont know how much youve done.  i hear everything wrong with me should get better besides for my eyesight.  im probably going to have to go to an eye specialist of some sort about that.

i tell you what though....some of the things ive gone through in the past year are pretty creepy.  nobody ive talked to, even a doctor, knows what the symptoms my body was doing ment....like my fingers turning dark red brown before my eyes and blood blisters forming on my finger tips (i didnt have fingerprints for the longest time because of the scars) and the muscle spasms causing my body to curl in a backwards U and my tastebuds burning and loss of hearing and eyesight....sometimes i wonder how close i really did come to dying.  i heard from a drug counciler that im lucy to be alive and i believe it...

just remember we've made it through the tough part.  slowly but surley things are gonna get better.  relax, and try not to stress about it.  just understand that your gonna be different than how you used to feel for awhile and accept it.  itll get better.

though those meds are bull.  they anger me.  i feel that they could be substitued with safer and more fulfilling alternatives like playing the guitar or working out or something...i dunno.  after all the hell ive gone through because of them, i dont see how its legal.  anyways take care.  if you want to call me im george- 972.921.4584

[DragonTU84]

gtdevore posted:

"i didnt read your whole thing because it was too long...but i will say ive had similar things happen to me that happened to you. and im still trying to find someone with the answer to what is wrong with me.
symptoms: severe panick attacks, heart palps, chest pain and numbness, numb legs and fingertips, aching organs, muscle spasms and twitchs (once my body curled backwards...really scary), fingers turning dark red brown with blisters coming out of fingertips, blotchy vision,.........and yesterday was the first time this happened but i had the same electrical buzzing and vibrating occur in my brain. i thought i was having a stroke. but it sounds like mine was less severe than yours.

anyways, its been a year now since it started and everything is fading...no more panick attacks (or very rare), my body acts normal, though my eyes have nerve damage done so they arent the same and my toes are still a little numb...but for the most part im getting better.

my started from a depression medicine (welbutrin) mixed with an energy drink (redline) and 4 pills of coricdin cold and cough.

anyways, if yours is anything like mine...i dunno i personally recomend staying away from thes meds...they scare me after this whole ordeal. time, strength and patience is what got me over this but anyways good luck"

________________________________________________________________

Thank you for your reply back to me, gtdevore. Wow, I cannot believe all that Wellbutrin has done to you...:( I am wondering though WHY exactly the medicines (the anti-depressants) was causing this ADVERSE REACTION to us??? Is there some underlying physical/neurological problem or defecit that led our bodies and minds to behave in such a way??? Even to the point where it led our bodies to go NUMB, UNABLE TO MOVE, causing OUR BRAINS TO GO COMPLETELY WIRE, even DISRUPT THE ELECTRICAL AND CHEMICAL BALANCE so as to cause such horrid reactions??

And that is horrible to hear about your reaction: you even got BLISTERS??? I have NEVER heard of a reaction like that. I am wondering if you were just by chance ALLERGIC to something that was in that medication, which would explain the BLISTERS....

And your BACK EVEN ARCHED BACKWARDS?!?!?!? Wow...I mean what happened??? That sounds like no ordinary muscle spasm or twitch....please explain to me exactly what it was you experienced or had.

I had my back go stiff/sore, and had this JOLT SHARP KNOT PAIN in one part of my back, and my back would get the ELECTRICAL VIBRATION AND SURGE up and down my spine and in my brain, and my muscles in my back would TENSE UP, but NO WHERE near enough to make my back arch!!!!

Or IS there something else underneath it all...that doctors JUST aren't seeing?? That is the cause of our chest pains, muscle pains and spasms, heart palps, panic attacks, AS WELL AS our adverse reaction to these meds. to lead to HEAD JITTERS AND ELECTRICAL SENSATIONS, etc.???

Was it all really JUST THE MED.?? Or is there some underlying dilemma all of us are facing that they aren't seeing...aside from the Panic Attacks and Anxiety itself?? Or is it simply that our bodies just can't react well with those particular medications??? But WHY, then, WHY is it US that must have those adverse reactions to those meds., and all strikingly SIMILAR and some EXACT reactions too?? This can't be but mere coincidence....

If there are ANY SPECIALISTS or DOCTORS who come to this board...even though I know it is for Patient-to-Patient...PLEASE answer our cries of DESPERATION and DESPAIR!!! WHAT IS GOING ON WITH US??? Why is it that we, of all individuals, have this ADVERSE REACTION to these meds., and all are too strikingly similar or exact to just poo-poo away!!

Please, for the love of God, if anyone can answer that, please do!!!

~Crystal

[dedinsinsation]

Funny all those symptoms seem to be related to anxiety.. Mostly if you have taken SSRI's such as paxil.. I didn't get brain zaps.. I got like zaps on my body.. I've had about every symptom you have named withdrawing 7 months off paxil after taking it for 2 years.. So yeah, it would easily be anxiety. I had bad experience with pills for that ****.. It basically leaves your brain in worse than a mess than before hand.. I suffer from heavy derealization (I always feel like I'm in a dream, like I'm looking through glass or what not) you withdrawal off that ****.. You have to work through stuff that was there before the pill.. And stuff the pill caused.. I went on it for panic attacks.. When I weaned off.. I had about 8 different types of mental illnesses..

[gtdevore]

i didnt read your whole thing because it was too long...but i will say ive had similar things happen to me that happened to you.  and im still trying to find someone with the answer to what is wrong with me.
symptoms: severe panick attacks, heart palps, chest pain and numbness, numb legs and fingertips, aching organs, muscle spasms and twitchs (once my body curled backwards...really scary), fingers turning dark red brown with blisters coming out of fingertips, blotchy vision,.........and yesterday was the first time this happened but i had the same electrical buzzing and vibrating occur in my brain. i thought i was having a stroke.  but it sounds like mine was less severe than yours.

anyways, its been a year now since it started and everything is fading...no more panick attacks (or very rare), my body acts normal, though my eyes have nerve damage done so they arent the same and my toes are still a little numb...but for the most part im getting better.

my started from a depression medicine (welbutrin) mixed with an energy drink (redline) and 4 pills of coricdin cold and cough.

anyways, if yours is anything like mine...i dunno i personally recomend staying away from thes meds...they scare me after this whole ordeal.  time, strength and patience is what got me over this but anyways good luck.

[DragonTU84]

PLEASE, ANYONE who has any advice or ideas as to what this is, PLEASE HELP! Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[DragonTU84]

\I at first thought I was going INSANE when I had my first vibrating/electrical sensation. I thought for sure I was going insane, and I didn't know WHAT to expect. I thought for sure it would lead to a seizure, I would black-out, or something!!

I was initially told that I was suffering from Panic Disorder/Panic Attacks. since I at first was getting the typical attacks of the heart palpitations, clenching chest wall pain, lightheadedness, and freaking out that I was going to die or have a heart attack.

So my doctor decided to try putting me on Zoloft, in the SSRI class of anti-depressants since she thought for sure it would do me wonders and eventually get rid of and eliminate my symptoms. My GP promptly wrote me a script for Zoloft at 25 MG, and told me, "take this, you will be fine and it will do you wonders!"

So I left, of course stupididly believing every word she said. I went and filled the prescription, and the next day popped my first pill...

About a few hours into taking it, I had the WORST feeling in my life (well, it only got WORSE from there). I felt severely woozy and lightheaded, and had to sit down to balance and keep myself together. It felt like the entire room was spinning, and my head just felt BLAH all together, like I was getting a head illness or something. I was in a store that day, since I assumed everything with the med. would be fine, and was getting ready to check out when it just HIT me like a ton of bricks. Now, I have had lightheaded spells TONS of times in the past as well as Panic Attacks and Chest Pains, and it was NOTHING like those I had experienced before!!

After that ONE day of taking the pill, I deviated away from taking it again! My symptoms improved, and I no longer had any more of those light headed spells after that one day..

However, as I was STILL suffering from the severe heart palps, chest pains and anxiety/panic attacks, my mother convinced me to give the med. another try, since my "sis was on an SSRI for her GAD and it was working her WONDERS." Still skeptical about taking the med., but DESPERATE to get rid of my other symptoms, I again popped the med...

Now, the first day I was fine, and this was on a Friday. I was back in the apartment with my fiancee, and it was late one Saturday night, and I was just lying in bed waiting for my man to finish getting ready for bed so I could follow up as well. I then all of a sudden felt this ELECTRICAL SURGE seem to VIBRATE throughout my head/brain, along with a ten-fold pins-and-needles feeling that surged through my head. I then felt the electrical surge feeling continue to surge through me, even going up and down my spinal cord. I PANICKED, of course, not knowing WHAT was happening to me. I started seeing blotches, and I PANICKED that I was going to pass out, have a seizure or SOMETHING!! I ran around the apartment, the feeling still going on through my head. I then tried sitting on the bed to calm myself down and regain myself, and it seemed like it started to pass. Then, I felt ANOTHER attack, worse than the first, which truly caused me to have blotchy vision and just go into utter chaos.

My fiancee drove me to the hospital in case by the time we got there my symptoms worsened or progressed. Eventually, the off-and-on symptoms DID pass, after about 45 min. to an hour of pure hell and off-and on VIBRATION FEELINGS and ELECTRICAL FEELINGS surging through my brain.

We just went back to the apartment, and I went to bed that night.

The next morning, I woke up, and probably a mix between me having the attack that night and due to the fact I didn't get much sleep, I felt completely SLOW and BLAH the entire day. I could barely bring myself to speak, I dragged myself slowly across the room, and I just overall felt like a complete pile of ****!!

I called the doctor-on-call (since it was a weekend) and told him about my horrific experience. You know what he did?? He "Poo-Pooed" me away and told me "Oh, it's not the medicine, just you. It was probably just a bad Panic Attack." I was SO mad....he also told me to "continue on the med." >:(

I continued taking the med., and that following week, on a Wednesday, I had ANOTHER milder, but more PROLONGED attack that lasted off-and-on for about 2 HOURS!! :( :( It kept me up until like 1:30 a.m., so needless to say I slept in late the next day...

The problems FINALLY seemed to dissipate, for about 2 weeks. However, after those 2 weeks were up (and I was still on the med.), I AGAIN began getting the weird head attacks!! Most were not as severe as the first, but they were still attacks nonetheless. Now, I have had Panic Attacks, and know what those were like, and sure these caused me to have Panic Attacks also, but moreso since I didn't know WHAT THE HELL was going on!!! :(

I was then getting head-related zings/buzzings/electrical sensation attacks EVERY DAY, sometimes mild and bearable and other times not.

I eventually STOPPED the med. after having it in my system for a month, but my stupid GP (she is a good doctor, but not for things like this) told me to QUIT IT COLD TURKEY. She said I should not experience too much side effects, if any.

Well, needless to say it made my head attacks TEN FOLD!! Sometimes they were mild and bearable, like before. And there were days I went without attacks. But when the bad ones struck, they left me PARALYZED in certain limbs, my head felt like it was going to go into CONVULSIONS or something, and it was just like PURE HELL!! I was completely conscious during these attacks, so you can imagine the FEAR I was under during this time.

I had an attack that was SO BAD once: I was just sitting on my computer, and then I all of a sudden felt this WEIRD sensation in my brain, particularly on my RIGHT side, and it felt like my brain/head was going to go HAYWIRE!! It physically felt like I was about to have a stroke, seizure or SOMETHING, even though I never did!! Well, of course I PANICKED, and I called the ambulance in fear it was in fact a TIA, stroke, or seizure about to happen!! I walked downstairs from my apartment, and as I stood on the stairwell by the doors to my apartment complex, I could feel my WHOLE RIGHT LEG BUCKLE UP, GO NUMB, and I COULD NOT EVEN MOVE IT!!! I was PETRIFIED!! What the HELL was going on with me?!?! :( The ambulance came, and before they came I could feel the feeling return in my right leg, it went "erect" again and I was able to regain control of it. I had to BALANCE myself by holding onto the railing of the stairs while it happened. Yet I remember every speck and detail of it perfectly...

After about a month 1/2 or so, and after starting on a mult-vitamin since I thought maybe I had some vitamin deficiencies that were attributing to my problems, my problems not only began to dissipate, but the head zings almost vanished COMPLETELY!! I still get the dizziness/lightheadedness and my head will feel quooky/odd still at times during some of my Panic Attacks, yet NOTHING like I had to endure before!! And sure, I still get heart palps and anxiety, but NOTHING like the torment and torture I had to go through getting ON and then OFF the Zoloft!!!

I am now seeing a Psychiatrist, who prescribed me with Lorazepam and also prescribed me with Lexapro, even though I TOLD him about my reaction to Zoloft. He was STILL convinced, however, that it was just Zoloft and that another SSRI should do the trick. Well guess what happened???

I took it on a Saturday, and for most of the day I was fine (aside from feeling a little tired). I thought maybe I was HOME-FREE and found a med. that would work GREAT!! I took it at NOON along with the Lorazepam, which I take 2-3 times daily. After 6 HOURS of the med. being in my system (Lexapro), I got ANOTHER head-related attack of the electrical vibrations, ten-fold pins and needles feeling, and getting sweaty and clammy, then cold. I immediately called my doctor, and STOPPED taking the med from there on out.

I am still taking another med., Lorazepam, for the panic attacks, but I still get the head zings and vibrations occassionally still (perhaps as a reaction to having the Lexapro in my sys. for that one day???).

I mean, my doctors assumed it was part of my Panic Attacks, but how could it make my LIMBS GO NUMB like that and UNABLE TO MOVE, let alone those painful electrical surge feelings I used to always get.

Anyone else have any advice/ideas as to what is going on with me??