Brain Zaps after tapering off anti-depression medication

Hi @dablues, I am sorry that you are dealing with such discomfort. I know that @jh31251, @texasduchess, @sheffieldsmith, @rwinney, and @cp6401 have experienced tapering off of anti-depressants/anxiety medication.

One of the Connect members in the past mentioned weaning off of her medication (Effexor) for depression and suggested the following tips which I think might be helpful during your search for an answer.
1) You may need to ask your doctor for a slower tapering program than other patients. Some people are just more sensitive to dosage changes. Be aware that symptoms will get better, then may reappear each time you taper. AAFMA (practice group of family physicians) says that the symptoms typically last 1-2 weeks and as long as 4 weeks, so I just kept reminding myself that it was temporary.
2) Be watchful for things that make your symptoms worse. For example, caffeine seems to trigger the brain zaps for me (still, even after being off for several weeks), so I cut back my caffeine intake. I didn’t give it up completely (because I still need to function), but cut back on how much real coffee I was drinking, mixed decaf with regular, and switched to tea sometimes. In the end, I probably cut my daily caffeine intake in half, and it did help quite a lot.
3) Ibuprofen or other pain reliever can help with the flu-like body aches.
4) Benadryl helped with the brain zaps.
5) Exercise helped with both. Even if I wasn’t up to a run, a few blocks of walking would settle down the symptoms for a while at least. (Then, when they come back, just take another walk. We took a lot of walks for a while there).
6) Get enough sleep. As I came down off the meds, my normal sleeping patterns returned, which was great, but it did mean that I needed to plan time to let my body rest.
7) Pay attention to your diet. Your brain uses carbs to make seratonin, so now is not the time to go on the Atkins diet. Eat well and make sure you’re getting enough healthy carbs. You may crave sweets; I certainly did. I tried to counteract this by having bananas, graham crackers, and other healthy things I could snack on instead of sticking my head in a birthday cake like I seemed to want.

There are a lot of people that experience "brain zaps" when tapering of anti-depressants at a rapid rate. How long ago did you wean yourself off of the clonazapam and how long was the intermission before starting it back up?

Hi @dablues,
I noticed your posts about changes in meds. How is the Cymbalta working for you?

You also mentioned that you stopped the meds you were taking for testing. Did you get any good information from the allergy testing?

Cymbalta is working except I gained 14 lbs. I was underweight but now am uncomfortable as the weight goes directly to my stomach first. Since the YMCA reopened I went back to exerciing and hope to see if I lose weight. I am not a big eater so always was on the slim side

Hi @paris48, Thanks for joining in the conversation. According to Healthline, Brain shakes are sensations that people sometimes feel when they stop taking certain medications, especially antidepressants. You might also hear them referred to as “brain zaps,” “brain shocks,” “brain flips,” or “brain shivers. Are you experiencing anything like this?