What was your Metoprolol withdrawal experience?

Yesterday was honestly one of the toughest days I’ve had through this whole thing. I’m on Day 20 now, and I had what I would consider one of the strongest surges so far. It hit pretty hard out of nowhere and felt almost like a full-blown panic attack—my heart was pounding like it was beating out of my chest, I got really flushed, shaky, and lightheaded. Even after the initial spike passed, I didn’t bounce back quickly like I have on some other days. Instead, I was stuck in this long drawn-out comedown where the shakiness, flushing, and especially the lightheaded feeling kept coming in waves for hours.
On top of that, my body just felt completely drained afterward, like I had nothing left. My right side tightened up pretty bad—especially my shoulder—which even caused my hand to tremble, while my left side felt weaker or less engaged. My legs filled up again and felt bigger through a lot of the day, and I even started noticing some Raynaud’s-type symptoms in my fingers. Mentally, it hit me pretty hard too. After that surge, I found myself checking every little sensation in my chest, questioning everything, and just feeling completely worn down and honestly at my breaking point with it all.
One thing I did realize is that these symptoms are very similar to what I felt when I was actually on metoprolol, except back then it was constant, and now it comes and goes in waves. That inconsistency is what’s making it so hard mentally—just when I start feeling like I’m getting back to normal, I’ll get hit with something like yesterday. I’m still recovering from it today—still flushed, still a bit shaky and drained—but it does seem to follow the same pattern where it eventually settles. I just really didn’t expect it to still hit this hard this far in, and it’s been tough to not question everything after a day like that.

I'm going thru this now. However, I feel lucky. I requested to break my 25 mg in half just to try it out. I took it 5 days and felt like a tournicate around my chest was getting tighter and tighter. No one told me not to stop. Day two of stopping, I experienced everything similar. Severe night palpitations, weakness, shooting pains. Finally took nitro in afternoon which helped but after some research, I find out stopping could cause a heart attack, I went to ER, was observed and tested. No heart attack enzymes. Weaker than a wet rag! Odd feelings in my chest. I couldn't call my cardio, not in, 100 miles away. My primary care Dr called me and calmed me down. He said my dose was small and short lived but I would have a couple more rough days. He's right! On my 3rd day I watered some outdoor plants and made a meal. Cannot walk my dog. Today I'm so thankful I only took half a pill and for only 5 days. I'm so sorry you're going through this. I took it for night palpitations and they are coming back already. My heart tested perfect for a Female 76 year old. Don't know yet what Holter Monitor results are. I just want the right BP medicine!!

There seem to be people for whom sudden discontinuance is a problem for others is no big deal. I was in the latter category, taking 25 mg Metoprolol extended release for 5 years. Earlier this year I was instructed to discontinue without titrating. I didn't notice any effects at the time or since (other than an increase in resting heart rate,

It also depends on the dosage of metoprolol the person is taking, at least according to the EP I saw. It may not be necessary to taper off a low dosage, ie, 25 mg/day, though it would be necessary to taper off a higher dosage. I tapered off a dosage of 150 mg/day over a two week period ( following the instructions of the EP I was seeing) years ago when we were trying to switch the medication over to diltiazem to see if that medication would not lower my heart rate so much and could do a good job at controlling my tachycardia.

I’m on Day 24 now and still trying to figure out where exactly I’m at with all of this. I’m definitely not where I was at the beginning—things aren’t constant anymore—but I’m still dealing with some pretty frustrating and unpredictable flare-ups. The overall pattern now is that I’ll feel relatively stable for stretches, then get hit with a surge that brings everything back temporarily.
During the surges, the main symptoms are intense shakiness and that jumpy, adrenaline-type feeling. My heart will start pounding hard, and I get very flushed in my face and upper body. One of the more concerning parts for me is that during these stronger episodes, my speech can feel off—like my brain can’t keep up or I have trouble getting words out as clearly as I normally would. It’s not constant, but when it happens, it definitely freaks me out and adds to the anxiety of the moment. Along with that, I get lightheaded and feel generally unstable until the surge peaks and starts to come down.
After these episodes, I’m usually left pretty drained for a while, with lingering shakiness and flushing that can last hours. I’ve also been dealing with ongoing issues like my legs feeling fuller or larger during the day and some unevenness in my body—one side feeling tighter while the other feels weaker—but those also come and go.
The biggest difference from earlier on is that I do have periods now where I feel mostly normal, and I’ve even had some mornings that were much more stable than before. But it’s still inconsistent. I can go from thinking I’m turning a corner to having a flare that sets me back mentally, even if it eventually passes like the others.
At this point, I’d describe it as not being in the constant phase anymore, but not fully settled either. It feels like my system is trying to stabilize but still overshoots at times, especially during certain parts of the day. Mentally, that inconsistency has been the hardest part—just not knowing when a surge might hit and trying not to overanalyze every sensation, especially after a stronger episode.