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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc: 
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 Understanding ‘brain shivers'
#8726129 - 08/04/08 06:39 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Understanding ‘brain shivers'
August 4, 2008 - The Olympian
Brain shivers? As odd as it sounds, "brain shivers" is a term used to describe sensations experienced when you discontinue regular antidepressant use. Known as "discontinuation syndrome" in the medical community, the experience of brain shivers is an under-recognized phenomenon.
So what is a brain shiver exactly? By all accounts, you'll know a brain shiver when you have one. It's not just run-of-the-mill dizziness, but an Electric Kool-Aid Acid kind of vertigo. Some people describe a brain shiver as similar to an electric shock, the sense of having hit one's funny bone, or like a strobe light pulsing inside of your head. One person I interviewed described it as feeling like "someone vomiting inside of your brain."
A brain shiver is often followed by brief but significant vertigo, nausea, disorientation, lightheadedness and/or ringing in the ears. In short, to say that brain shivers are an unpleasant experience would be putting it lightly.
Brain shivers result from discontinuing regular use of antidepressants and sometimes from missing just one dose. Certain antidepressants are more commonly associated with brain shivers: venlafaxine (Effexor), duloxetine (Cymbalta) and escitalopram (Lexapro), with Effexor leading the pack. Effexor and Cymbalta are serotonin and noradrenalin reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) and Lexapro is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), all of which affect the levels of serotonin (a neurotransmitter) in the brain. Brain shivers have also been reported following use of the drugs commonly known as Ecstasy and LSD (which are structurally similar to serotonin).
Certain motions seem to precipitate brain shivers. Brain shivers will often occur upon shifting your eyes or moving your head suddenly. The sensations tend to remain primarily in the head but can sometimes begin in the head and radiate downward and outward, even to your extremities.
Brain shivers are short episodes, usually lasting only several seconds at a time. Although the episodes themselves tend to be brief, the experience of having brain shivers intermittently can last anywhere from several days to several weeks. And brain shivers tend to increase in frequency as the withdrawal time from the antidepressant increases.
Although many doctors are not familiar with this side effect of ending antidepressant use, the clinical terminology used to describe brain shivers includes paresthesia (a fancy word for tingling), electric shock sensations and discontinuation symptoms (a bit of an understatement there, eh?). A doctor may be alerted to a patient who has discontinued his antidepressant regime without informing him by a patient's report of these symptoms.
Although there is no known danger or consequence of experiencing brain shivers, if you believe you suffer from brain shivers, you should let your physician know. You'll not only be helping yourself but you'll also help to educate the medical profession as to the existence of a withdrawal symptom that has been underreported.
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 MHbound
Ballin Out At All Cost
Registered: 09/24/07
Posts: 5,910
Loc: Under The Rainbow
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Re: Understanding ‘brain shivers' [Re: veggie]
#8726160 - 08/04/08 06:48 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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I hate these man. The best way I can explain it is it feels like your brain is literally vibrating in your head. My vision begins to shake back and forth. I hate it. Thank god I'm off all of those stupid ass drugs. It made me sick at times as well. 
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pothead_bob
Resident Pothead
Registered: 04/12/08
Posts: 1,677
Loc: Your computer screen
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Re: Understanding ‘brain shivers' [Re: MHbound]
#8726226 - 08/04/08 07:00 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Happens for LSD and ecstasy, but not mushrooms? I wonder why that is. Don't mushrooms also affect your seretonin receptors in a similar manner?
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No knowledge can be certain, if it is not based
upon mathematics or upon some other knowledge
which is itself based upon the mathematical
sciences. -Leonardo da Vinci (1425-1519)
Speak well of your enemies. After all, you made them.
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MHbound
Ballin Out At All Cost
Registered: 09/24/07
Posts: 5,910
Loc: Under The Rainbow
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Re: Understanding ‘brain shivers' [Re: pothead_bob]
#8726265 - 08/04/08 07:06 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Yea, I can't answer that question though.
Maybe the chemical similarities are closer in MDMA and LSD than with Psyilocybin/Psilocin. 
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todesengel
the chinese chicken
Registered: 08/04/05
Posts: 778
Last seen: 6 days, 14 hours
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Re: Understanding ‘brain shivers' [Re: pothead_bob]
#8726274 - 08/04/08 07:07 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Weird. I hope I never experience one.
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pothead_bob
Resident Pothead
Registered: 04/12/08
Posts: 1,677
Loc: Your computer screen
Last seen: 2 days, 9 hours
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Re: Understanding ‘brain shivers' [Re: todesengel]
#8726297 - 08/04/08 07:11 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
Sounds like a good reason to say no when your doctor says yes.
Now that's a good idea. People call me crazy, but I don't think the doctor always is looking out for you. Do they get a comission for dealing prescription drugs?
One time they prescribed me Prevacid for my acid reflux and I ended up growing a set of tits, haha... geiniomastic or something, they called it. I asked the doctor why he didn't tell me that was a side effect when he prescribed the pill. I ended up stopping the med and changing my diet and shrinking my chest back down to normal. I know better now to look up side effects and not take meds that aren't absolutely necessary. So much can be treated with alternative medicine.
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No knowledge can be certain, if it is not based
upon mathematics or upon some other knowledge
which is itself based upon the mathematical
sciences. -Leonardo da Vinci (1425-1519)
Speak well of your enemies. After all, you made them.
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MHbound
Ballin Out At All Cost
Registered: 09/24/07
Posts: 5,910
Loc: Under The Rainbow
Last seen: 1 year, 4 months
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Re: Understanding ‘brain shivers' [Re: pothead_bob]
#8726342 - 08/04/08 07:21 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Yes they get paid. You know the drug reps that come by and hand out drugs? They take them out to nice lunches, give them TONS of free samples that gets the patients that can't afford the meds, but can afford the doctors fee.
There are other things, but those are a few there.
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SolomonTheShaman
I love to travel
Registered: 07/06/08
Posts: 211
Last seen: 2 years, 9 months
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 Re: Understanding ‘brain shivers' [Re: MHbound]
#8726530 - 08/04/08 07:55 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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I took Effexor through prescription in my late teens. I've had moments similar to what they describe as a "brain shiver" and find it interesting to be so widespread. Never done acid, and I haven't experienced that on the 'shrooms. What's funny also, effexor was prescribed to me to help with anxiety, depression, etc. blah blah, and after being on it for about a year and a half, I now look back and see how meditation and using the ganja and mushrooms have been more mentally/spiritually beneficial than any Rx. I took Ritalin briefly as a child due to a diagnosis with ADD (weren't more than half the kids 1993?) After telling my mother I didn't like the way it made me feel, we ceased the ritalin. MHbound has a good point also, pharmaceutical companies and the drugging of America and our youth. Interesting stuff.
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"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
-Mohandas Gandhi
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MHbound
Ballin Out At All Cost
Registered: 09/24/07
Posts: 5,910
Loc: Under The Rainbow
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The withdrawals from anti-depressants are one of the most dangerous withdrawals known to man. Its really sad too. You goto a psychiatrist you get one of them. Welbutrin, Effexor, Lexapro...Etc.
Take this:
I was on 225mg of Effexor(very high dose), 150 MG of welbutrin, 20 mg of lexapro, and some other shit. It got to the point I had to goto the hospital because I couldn't piss. I've had a seizure due to them. I have never had any negative effects on drugs(non rx that is) like I have with the RX's.
Doctors don't know what they are giving you. They simply hand you one, and tell you to come back in a month. If it isn't working they will either change it or add another. I mean even I know that 1 or the other can not only cancel out the other, but can cause very bad mental effects...Suicidal shit, but hey why should they care.
I have only ever found one doctor who treated me with what I needed to be. He didn't care what was given to him by the reps. I no longer take anything thank bejesus.
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SolomonTheShaman
I love to travel
Registered: 07/06/08
Posts: 211
Last seen: 2 years, 9 months
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Re: Understanding ‘brain shivers' [Re: MHbound]
#8726619 - 08/04/08 08:15 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Crazy...I'm glad to hear you're not on anything now. They're not all bad, but in high doses and in combinations, the withdrawals are hell. Like I said anyway, I'm all for plant medications rather than crap like lexapro or prozac.
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"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
-Mohandas Gandhi
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MHbound
Ballin Out At All Cost
Registered: 09/24/07
Posts: 5,910
Loc: Under The Rainbow
Last seen: 1 year, 4 months
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SolomonTheShaman
I love to travel
Registered: 07/06/08
Posts: 211
Last seen: 2 years, 9 months
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Re: Understanding ‘brain shivers' [Re: MHbound]
#8726625 - 08/04/08 08:16 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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So, uh, anyone else had brain shivers?
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"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
-Mohandas Gandhi
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dread
Power Ranger
Registered: 09/03/07
Posts: 225
Last seen: 8 days, 3 hours
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ugh... they suck so bad. My ex had them when she was coming off of effexor. I actually had them when I started taking abilify. I had way more mania and other random crazyness when i took it than before. yeah. brain shivers suck. it feel like someone just grabbed half your brain and shook it back and forth. i read somewhere that taking fish oil helps with the dreaded brain shivers.
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SolomonTheShaman
I love to travel
Registered: 07/06/08
Posts: 211
Last seen: 2 years, 9 months
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Re: Understanding ‘brain shivers' [Re: dread]
#8726831 - 08/04/08 09:07 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Omega-3 is the shit. I dunno if it helps with the brain shivers but it is good for your heart!
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"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
-Mohandas Gandhi
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N2loma
Foaming Pipe Snake
Registered: 05/17/08
Posts: 925
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
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I've had mild shivers/shocks after several days without Lexapro. Thankfully the sensations aren't primarily located in my head; they come as a weird numbing-wave feeling that passes through my forearms once in awhile (sometimes there is a faint numbing sensation in the head along with them). More annoying than anything. Of course, they disappear once the meds are taken again.
The SSRIs are effective for me but the shivers aren't pleasant, so I'd definitely plan a gradual decrease in dosage if I stop them. Thankfully I haven't had issues when switching between SSRIs.
I wouldn't dis the synthetic antidepressants and claim that the plant meds are necessarily better, as I know folks who have tried St. John's wort for depression and complained of the same basic side-effects as Prozac and the like. Similarly, valerian root can have much of the same downsides as synthetic tranquilizers like Valium and Xanax (e.g. increased grogginess on waking).
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"So can you tell me what exactly does freedom mean/
If I'm not free to be as twisted as I wanna be" -Divide by Disturbed
Good Guitars Don't Cry
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MHbound
Ballin Out At All Cost
Registered: 09/24/07
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Loc: Under The Rainbow
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Re: Understanding ‘brain shivers' [Re: N2loma]
#8727007 - 08/04/08 10:01 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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After the decrease I had the shivers for months. It was horrible.
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WageDrone
Stranger
Registered: 07/09/08
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Re: Understanding ‘brain shivers' [Re: MHbound]
#8727046 - 08/04/08 10:15 PM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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I had the brain shock type shiver whenever I stopped Effexor. It wasn't real nice, very pronounced.
Because it has a really short half-life, they would start within 12-24 hours of a missed dose.
Luckily it seems to wear off completely if you don't take it.
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impgl
CrimethINCspecial agent
Registered: 02/07/06
Posts: 2,460
Loc: california!
Last seen: 5 months, 30 days
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a few years back i was getting drunk with a group of kids and some girl busted out some anti depressants. i ate 2, never eating anything like it before. i started to feel like i was gonna come up on a roll, but thats it. i felt all weird and just went home.
the next day i felt like i kept getting these brain shivers every once in a while, like once an hour. am i just sensitive??
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omg really?
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Cognitive_Shift
@shroomery.org
Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 22,230
Loc: OhighO
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Re: Understanding ‘brain shivers' [Re: impgl]
#8728114 - 08/05/08 08:33 AM (3 years, 9 months ago) |
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Thanks Rx drug makers for continuing to make harmful and more dangerous but money making LEGAL drugs. Im sure you care about me and my family 
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L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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