It feels similar to being electrocuted or having little lighting in your brain, i’m just curious as to what’s actually happening?
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SSNRI like Cymbalta cause brain zaps that blinded me for a second or two. The withdrawal from tapering off was like going cold Turkey at first and now I have permanent extreme RLS. When I was exposing my symptoms to my Doctor he was bewildered but by my next visit he had a plan for me to stop taking them in the safest way possible.
Doctor here. Not sure. Used Effexor, aka venlafaxine, and the zaps would start after 24 hours, it was a nightmare to taper off of.
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Serotonin and norepinephrine, two neurotransmitters targeted by antidepressants, modulate pain signal processing in the body. Both neurotransmitters may have an inhibitory effect on pain, and when removed, the pain can rebound. In other words, brain zaps could represent the “waking up” of nerve cells that were previously inhibited from firing.
Marks DM, Shah MJ, Patkar AA, Masand PS, Park GY, Pae CU. Serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors for pain control: premise and promise. Curr Neuropharmacol. 2009 Dec;7(4):331-6. doi: 10.2174/157015909790031201. PMID: 20514212; PMCID: PMC2811866.
Edit: Thank you for the gold, kind redditors!
Edit2: Thank you for all the awards!
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The fun thing shut brain zaps is that you don’t need to have been on SSRIs or SNRIs to experience them- they can be triggered by stress or a lack of sleep.
Actively SSRIs or SNRIs can also trigger them. That’s actually part of the reason I weaned myself off Effexor (after consulting my doctor, and while doing therapy). The fun thing is, months later, way past the time where I’d still be withdrawing, I still get brain zaps when I move my eyes while tired. Or sometimes it just goes off like a firecracker while I’m trying to sleep, which of course makes sleep harder to come by.
So it’s interesting to note that medications that increase the amount of serotonin present in the brain as well as a lack of serotonin can cause this symptom, which suggests that it’s either coming from a complementary system, or is a sign of imbalance in your serotonin levels(too much/too little).
Either way, it fucking sucks.
I get the brain zaps even when im taking them normally I kinda like them, I take Mirtazapine (apparently a very low dosage) 15mg so i gotta take em when i go to bed because they cause extreme drowsiness. The zaps are like a little light show in my brain in the dark plus the occasional shock which is more akin to a mild static shock and easily shrugged off makes for a fun little ride as i drift off.
I had to transition from Prozac to Mirtazapine (because the prozac was preventing me from sleeping) by taking both at the same time which caused an increase of twitchiness and brain zaps aswell as a very strange feeling of disembodyment consistent for about 4 weeks which was an interesting time of my life as the prozac fought to keep me awake and the mirtazapine tried to send me to sleep i sorta didnt exist for a month.
But I’ve grown to enjoy the strange jolts and lightning in my head.
while serotonin is inhibitory to emotional brain which produces calming effects and relieve anxiety/depression its also nonselective to that part of brain and it inhibits spinal cord sensations also… (less genital feeling etc)
upon withdrawal you are left in overexcited spinal neurons aswell and you get zaps tingling vertigo
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