Anyone who has had discontinuation syndrome knows the experience of "brain zaps" - basically feels like an electric shock toy going off inside your head somewhere behind your eyes/sinuses. Is it anything like that?
Brain zaps are the worst thing ever. I had to go off of effexor because I'm bipolar and had my first manic episode while on it. I looked like a crazy person for a while. I mean, I am a crazy person, but you can't tell that up front lol.
For real. I'm on that stuff and if I am just a few hours late taking it I get the zaps. Slightest head movement and ⚡ zzzZZAP ⚡. Missing a day and I'm unable or unwilling to move.
It’s not head movement I think. I believe it’s eye movement triggered.
Given the predatory nature of our species, it's gonna be a tough call moving your head without having your eyes snap to various objects around.
Can't even begin to imagine.
Me too 😟
It's been great getting off it.
(Different drug but still SSRI)
I still get the zaps when I'm tired.
Took about a month for them to be less noticable.
It was Effexor for me too, I was forced off it cold turkey and had been exhibiting signs of serotonin syndrome. 10 years later I still haven't found anything that works long term to help keep the zaps away and they get debilitating sometimes.
Strange I also took effexor for a while, it was the worst drug I ever taken. I got brain zaps as a kid long before I ever took any antidepressants but eventually they stopped. I never knew they were associated with stopping antidepressants, I have never seen anyone describe them before other than this thread.
When I was taking effexor I would forget to take them and also eventually I just built up a tolerance to them, and when I didn't have the drug in my system I got this sort of lagging feeling. Like my whole body would feel like it was lagging behind me, moving my hands or head or whatever felt weird. I kept getting those symptoms even when taking effexor and I also developed worse symptoms like psychosis and an inability to sleep(like didn't sleep for over a week) so I eventually just stopped taking effexor cold turkey. I felt that lagging feeling for months after but it eventually went away. I refuse any psych meds now because of my experiences with effexor.
I went on a pretty hardcore low-carb diet once to combat some digestive issues, and it triggered brain fog and brain zaps in the first couple of weeks. Our body treats sugar like a drug, unsurprisingly.
I went off Effexor cold turkey (not by choice) in 2013 and this has been my life ever since. Sometimes it's so bad it makes my limbs tingle.
Same, but mine did eventually go away. I hope you find some relief.
Came here to say this. Like someone taking a tens unit to my gray matter.
WTF I had those brain zaps a lot as a kid, I have described this to many doctors before and no one has ever given me any sort of explanation. And now I just see some random lemmy comment precisely describe them. I didn't have them in association with discontinuing antidepressants just randomly got them as a kid.
As someone who has experienced multiple brain traumas, I do have feelings there too. Different impacts have had different results. Falling 20ft and cracking my skull on concrete left me seeing everything in a hue of orange for a couple of years. Getting my face crushed by a car left me feeling strange all in the front. Getting shot in the head was so strange, it's like the back part of my brain still hurts. Especially when I try to remember certain things.
are you immortal?
or a cat with 6 lives left?
Do you work for arpeture science or something?
Dude ia a gta character
What the fuck are you doing in your life and have you thought about not doing that?
The 20 ft fall was bullies in school about 30 years ago. Getting my face crushed was a drunk driver running a stop sign. I was on a motorcycle wearing a helmet, but the helmet didn't help. Getting shot. I still don't know. I got robbed and gave him what he wanted, but I guess he just wanted to shoot someone and I happened to be it. Life ain't fair https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eD_vjNjE1JM
I have a feeling the motorcycle helmet helped more than you realize. Because you're still alive.
Crashed into a car with my bike with no helmet (always wear a helmet people!) and lost all memory. My head hurt for a year afterwards when I tried to read something. Years later, the patch is still numb to the touch, and causes a sensation of stinging in one eye, it causes tears if I rub it.
It's most probably feelings from your nerves, that you are re-interpreting as coming from inside your brain. Kind of like how headaches sometimes feel as if they are in the middle of your brain.
I mean I do get brain fog, does that count?
It's possible that the brain matter itself doesn't have innervations but you do have blood vessels and other structures that do have them and those are the ones you feel.
Ooooooooooh this is a great explanation!
bro has brain worms 💀💀💀
AI trying too hard these days...
I think it's plausible that moments of intense catharsis or realisation etc can cause some kind of physical dilation, like a rush of blood or endorphins or some other kind of neurochemical which you may feel as occuring "in your brain". I suffer from occasional BPPV and that's how I originally felt the symptoms, like some force was squeezing my brain and it was going to implode. But I came to understand the feeling to be inflamed blood vessels surrounding my skull rather than anything to do with my brain. It was distinctly more an all-over-the-head feeling than any headache I've had
This is a great explanation
Sometimes I’ve felt like an object I was imagining suddenly for a split second was somehow tangible inside my head. Like it has weight that I can feel, but it only lasts for a very short moment. It’s hard to put into words.
Sometimes my hair hurts
You need to wash your hair. Your hairs have tension at the scalp because of a build up of body goo preventing them laying flat. Pain goes away if you wash your scalp.
That happens when I get sick.
Yep. I've definitely felt subtle tingles at similar moments. As if I can literally feel myself learning something. Not sure if it's real or not.
Maybe check your vitamin levels and make sure you're drinking enough water. Sugar is dehydrating, a general rule I follow is drinking 2 cups of water for every cup of something else.
I feel all sorts of things seemingly in my brain but I am 99% sure they're not the brain itself.
Headaches often feel like they are in my frontal lobe, but I've also gotten other kinds that feel like they are located in the back of the brain.
When I smoke weed, my brain feels like it is relaxing and sagging, leaning against the back of my forehead as it chills. My friend often referred to this as "Frankenstein Head" and I've always felt that was pretty apt.
If I stand up too fast (being a tall motherfucker), my brain feels like someone poured pop-rocks into my skull for a moment. I also see multicolored dots and swirls in my vision.
When I get brain freeze, well... That's pretty self explanatory.
If someone was to tickle my back, stomach or nibble my ears, I get an electric tingle throughout my entire nervous system, including in the brain. It feels like being static shocked all over, but in a good way? A "pleasurable electrocution" is the only way to describe it.
I've had migraines so yes. But also I had the 'brain zap' side-effects from antipsychotics too and that is very unnerving as it feels like an electric zap in your brain. It makes you wince and twitch.
0/10, wouldn't recommend.
Ahh Paxil withdrawals. Made me ruin a date with a girl I had a crush on for 5 years and finally got the balls to ask her out only to have brain zaps so bad I had to go home in complete embarrassment.
Mine was seroquel. Did not work as planned - made me want to sleep 18 hours a day and suicidal. Ended up losing my job which didn't improve my mood...
Once I stopped it and started lithium and it was like night and day.
If it's like a pleasant tingling through your head, it might be ASMR. It can be triggered by sounds (hence the bajillion YouTube channels), but for me it's more often when I'm really enjoying thinking about something. It's a weird sensation for sure.
I get a specific feeling in my head when I'm about to start a panic or anxiety attack. It's at that moment where I can usually just like... Take a breath, relax, and try to avoid the issue calling it or I succumb and deal with it. I get the warning feeling in my brain though.
In other physical things, I can slow down or accelerate my heartbeat on demand and I've shown my SO when we were messing with a heart rate monitor. I can also make my heartbeat skip on demand but stopped that after I scared the shit out of an ex when I showed them. Also the doctor told me don't do that anymore after I told her it was a thing.
if I pay attention I can feel my amygdala clicking
There is one very specific feeling I've experienced "in my brain" and it's the exact same feeling when I either take anti depression/anxiety medication and when I take something like acid or mushrooms, it feels like an "overload" of sorts, like there's too much sensory input and I can "feel" it in my head.
Yes, happens a lot. I would be very surprised if the brain had no nerve endings at all, given that almost all human tissue has nerve endings in it (except hair maybe).
I guess what you feel is a complicated mixture of:
What is a headache, if not that?
In most cases, headache comes from the muscle
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