This is my personal account of how I went from being a fit and healthy guy in my 30’s, in the best shape of my life and with a bright future, to having it completely destroyed by two different types of prescription medications. It all began a few years ago, in late 2009.
Antidepressants for Life Burdens: Not a Well-Considered Option
I never was a fan of taking prescription medications, but I was going through a serious bout of depression in late 2009 and the psychiatrist who was dealing with me talked me into taking antidepressants for the first time in my life. I was prescribed Lexapro (Escitalopram). I took it for a few months but I never did get any real benefits out of taking it. It seemed only to give me a lot of unwanted side effects. Then one day, out of nowhere it had some sort of opposite effect on me and I became suicidal for no reason. This was so scary at the time, feeling like the world was ending for me and not knowing why.
When I returned to see the psychiatrist who prescribed the Lexapro to me about this issue, they just ignored me and my cry for help at the time and gave me the “it’s all in your head” routine. This almost cost me my life. So that led me to see another psychiatrist for a second opinion who switched me over to another type of antidepressant called Effexor (Venlafaxine). After that, things balanced back out again, and I eventually got back to myself. But I never really was myself. I was constantly wired from Effexor but just continued to take it anyway. Along with the wired feeling, it also came with the same unwanted side effects as I had with Lexapro. After a while on Effexor, much longer than I should have been, I got sick of the side effects and wanted to come off it. I think I’d been taking it for around three and a half years at this stage and had enough. If I’d have known what was ahead of me, I’d have tried to come off it years earlier, or refused to even take it in the first place.
Withdrawal Syndrome Hell
The day came for me to come off it and my doctor at the time gave me a plan of 12 weeks to taper off it completely. I was assured that this was a normal thing to do and I shouldn’t experience many, if any, withdrawal symptoms during this time. I figured this would be okay, as I hadn’t been taking a high dose of Effexor and I trusted the doctor at the time too. I couldn’t have been more wrong. From the first day that I began to taper off Effexor, I had the worst withdrawal symptoms imaginable. I began to experience:
- Dizziness
- Mood swings
- Headaches
- Anxiety
- Sweats
- Stomach pain
- Nausea
- Trouble sleeping
- Fatigue
- Brain zaps
It was the worst hell that I have ever experienced. I can’t put into words how excruciating these symptoms were and how I nearly lost my mind over the 12 weeks I was tapering off Effexor. And during all this I had no help at all from the doctor. Any time I spoke to him and told him what I was going through, I was just told “it’s all in my head” and I shouldn’t be experiencing any of these symptoms.
A couple of weeks after I’d stopped taking Effexor completely, I finally started to balance out again. My mood seemed to return back to normal and I was back doing what I loved again, keeping fit and working out. This was my natural antidepressant. I didn’t need any chemicals in my body messing me up to make me feel normal. It didn’t stay like this for long though. I’d only stopped Effexor for a few weeks when I started to experience stomach issues. I found this strange, as I’d never had anything like this happen before. I assumed it was all connected to Effexor, seeing as I went through similar stomach issues when I’d been tapering off it. It was way too much of a coincidence for it not to be caused by Effexor. I was back at the doctor countless times over the following months, getting test after test, but no one was seeing anything wrong with me. No one would say the stomach issues were caused by Effexor either.
Over the next 11 months from when the stomach issues began, they gradually worsened as the weeks went on. I went from being able to go about my daily routine and live my normal healthy life, to being able to work out less and less and give up my social life due to not feeling well. And then around the 11 month mark, when the stomach issues were as bad as ever, along came another unexplained issue out of nowhere, I started to experience constant dizziness. This was something completely new to me. It was like I was drunk and lightheaded constantly from the time I woke up, to when I went to bed at night.
When the dizziness started, no doctor could figure out the cause of this either. This would be a common occurrence for me. Again, I was repeatedly being told that Effexor withdrawals are a myth and don’t happen and therefore Effexor can’t be behind any of these issues. So I arranged to get an MRI of my brain to see if anything serious was going on, that could possibly be linked to my current dizziness. The MRI was clear, apart from some blocked sinuses that showed up on the scan. This was nothing, just a regular head cold I had at the time I went for the scan. It had already cleared up by the time I went back for the results a few days later.
Enter the Antibiotics
Due to this sinus issue, that wasn’t even an issue to begin with, my doctor prescribed me an antibiotic to get rid of me out of his office. This is a common thing in my country, doctors handing out unnecessary prescriptions for antibiotics left and right.
He claimed that the sinuses might have been causing my dizziness for the last few weeks. I still had a bit of trust left in him, so I took his word for it and agreed to take them. I didn’t have the need to take any antibiotics in a very long time. I never really liked taking any prescription medications, but I remember taking antibiotics as a kid and being okay afterwards, so I thought no harm in giving them a try. I was given a prescription for an antibiotic called Minatev LA, also known as Biaxin. These are the brand names for it, but its actual name is Clarithromycin. It was a 10 day course, to be taken twice a day. I never had a second thought about taking this medication and had no idea of the dangers, but how wrong I was. My life changed that day I took the first pill, back in September 2015, and has never been the same ever since. From the moment I swallowed the first pill I immediately started to feel sick along with numerous side effects. This is what I experienced:
- Headaches
- Stomach pain
- Body rash
- Severe chest pain
- Difficulty sleeping
- Sweats
- Stabbing pains in my side
- Tinnitus
- Numbness down one side of my body
- Anxiety
- Muscle pain
It was awful, this antibiotic had me as sick as a dog. I went back to see the doctor about it. He had a look at the rash all over my abdomen and said I’d be fine and not to worry. I should have trusted my own instincts back then and stopped taking it, but I didn’t. It wouldn’t be until later on down the line that I found out how dangerous antibiotics would be. So back then, I listened to the doctor and thought to myself to just finish the course and I should get back to normal again when I’m done with them. That was over three and a half years ago and I’ve not been right since.
Things just got worse and my health really declined over the following weeks after taking the clarithromycin. My stomach issues got a thousand times worse, and so did my dizziness. Along with those two main issues, I also got a whole new set of symptoms. I literally felt like I was going to drop dead at any minute. I ended up having to go to the emergency department at the hospital a few times because I felt that bad. I started to have severe chest pains and didn’t know what was happening to me. But each time I went, I was just sent home after they ran some basic tests and told it would be highly unlikely that I had a bad reaction to the clarithromycin. It was a short time after that I found out that this class of antibiotic can cause heart problems and death.
- Common antibiotic linked to sudden heart deaths
- FDA Alert: Clarithromycin Risky in Patients With Heart Disease
I wasn’t imagining these symptoms, it wasn’t all in my head. This is what I was experiencing and it was hell. No one would believe me or try and help me, I was just looked upon as some crazy person. It was like I was the first person in the entire universe that had a bad reaction to medication. There are people out there with serious peanut allergies and shellfish allergies, simple things that we all eat every day, but they can die from them and the doctors are finding it hard to believe that I got sick from these laboratory made drugs? This would be something I had to get used to. No one would take me seriously and this made my whole situation a thousand times worse. I just had to stay determined to find answers myself and get back to full health as quick as I could. In the following weeks and months after the bad reaction, I was left with most of the same symptoms that started when I first took the clarithromycin, which were:
- Headaches
- Stomach issues
- Back pain
- Dizziness
- Tinnitus
- Constant fatigue
- Anxiety
- Muscle pain
The severe chest pain and stabbing pains in my side passed after a few months, but the other symptoms have continued until this day, a few years now after it happened. And as I write this, the stabbing pains in my side have started to come back again, seems to be my liver causing this.
Whatever the clarithromycin did to me, one of the worst symptoms to come out of it was the constant back pain. Like I said at the start, I was a fit and health guy, in the best shape of my life and used to train at least 4 times a week doing a combination of weights, running and various other cardio routines. I was never injured, apart from the occasional pulled muscle, but never anything major. Now I’m nearly always in constant agony with my back because of whatever the antibiotic did to me. I have no history of back pain or bad injury that would have caused this. The other constant symptoms are awful, but this back pain is probably the worst of them.
Searching for Answers
I’ve tried to go to see a couple of different physio’s to see if the can provide some relief from the back pain, but I just end up feeling sicker. Whatever is wrong with my body since the antibiotic reaction, whenever I try and get some treatment, say from a physio or try some acupuncture, my body will react to it and I get really sick as if I had a really bad flu, I feel like I’ve been run over by a bus. My body doesn’t like to be touched in any way now. The same thing happens if I try to take most vitamin supplements too, I’ll get the same reaction and it’s like all my symptoms intensify. I’ve been told this problem sounds like a nervous system condition called “Central Sensitization”, where my nervous system is in constant fight mode. This is something I need to look into further, but again, finding someone to listen to me and properly diagnose this is another thing.
The physio treatments never worked, and they even made me worse off. The last physio I went to see back in August 2017 did something to my neck and has left me with loud tinnitus in one of my ears. That is another problem I didn’t need. I did have tinnitus from the clarithromycin in both ears and I was learning to live with it, but whatever the physio did to me triggered it off again with a vengeance and it is worse than ever and just isolated to my left ear now. I discovered later on that clarithromycin is known as an “Ototoxic” drug, meaning it can cause tinnitus and permanent hearing loss in some people. Another thing I wish I’d found out before I’d taken it.
Another problem that the antibiotic created was it totally destroyed my gut microbiome, making my original stomach issues far worse than when they originally started. Not only did it make them worse, I discovered through tests that I developed something called SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) too. This is usually caused by antibiotics wiping out your healthy gut bacteria when you take them, which can then cause the bad bacteria to take over and overgrow. This is an issue I’ve been trying to treat for the last couple of years, but it’s a tricky thing to properly get rid of. I’ve spent a lot of time and money trying to fix this issue and I still don’t think my gut microbiome is in good shape. The clarithromycin was like a nuclear bomb going off in my stomach with all the damage it caused.
So with my stomach issues, my dizziness that appeared after I stopped taking Effexor and then all the other issues that started after I took the clarithromycin, I have been to countless doctors and had tons of scans and tests to see what is going on. All my tests are coming back normal and they deny that these symptoms were caused by the medications. According to them, it’s highly unlikely that I had a bad reaction to the antibiotic, and Effexor doesn’t cause withdrawal symptoms.
Finding Others Like Me
There is tons of information out there about others who had awful experiences with these antidepressants and it’s the same with antibiotics too. From my own research, I found two websites full of stories from people around the world of all ages that have had the same terrible experiences as I did from antidepressants and antibiotics: Floxie Hope and Surviving Antidepressants.
As bad as my experience is, a living nightmare, reading what other people went through because of these medications was such an eye opener for me. I realized I wasn’t alone in this, that I’m not some lunatic who’s making this all up. I know what happened, my body knows what happened, this is real. It’s just a constant struggle to have to deal with being constantly sick every single day from the time you wake up, till the time you go to sleep at night, and then trying to get people to believe you about what’s been going on, why you’re sick. That’s the worst part in all this.
There’s over 1200 reviews of clarithromycin on askapatient.com, and a lot of them are negative. There are some good ones too, of course, not everyone has a bad reaction to these antibiotics. I just wish that people weren’t so ignorant to what can actually happen when you take these antibiotics, that they can be so dangerous. Here is the link to the reviews.
There are also over 2100 reviews of Effexor on askapatient.com too, you can read what others have gone through while taking it and also when trying to get off it.
The Laundry List of Specialists, Tests, and Failed Treatments
Thinking back as I finish writing this, I’ve spent many years trying to get myself better, but the reality is, I’m not anywhere near to getting better. I’ve tried almost everything under the sun to see if it’d help me get back on track, but I’ve had no luck in all the years of trying. To sum it all up, I’ve seen and tried:
- Physiotherapists
- Acupuncture
- Massage therapist
- Nutritional therapists
- Balance physiotherapist
- Chiropractor
- Somatic training
And then all the various tests and scans consisting of:
- MRI
- CT scan
- X-Ray
- Ultrasound
- Echocardiogram
- Bloods
- Endoscopy
- Urea Breath Test
- Food Intolerance Test
- SIBO Breath Test
- Stool Tests
- Organic Acids Test
I could list all the supplements I’ve tried over the last four years, but I’d be here all day. None have really worked. I’ve spent thousands of euro on them since this mess began and the majority of them are at home collecting dust. No treatment has worked for me so far, they all just made me feel sicker. No test has really been able to pinpoint what is going on with me either. It probably would be easier trying to find a needle in a haystack. It has really just been a wild goose chase since all this started. The health system in my country is a joke, you’ve to wait anywhere between 6 – 18 months to see a specialist and if you don’t have a glaring issue or limb hanging off, you’re told there’s nothing they can do for you. If I’d just found a doctor from the beginning that would admit I was taken off Effexor too quickly and treated me for the withdrawals my body was going through, none of this mess would have happened. As I finish writing this now, my current symptoms include:
- Digestive issues
- Tinnitus
- Headaches
- Constant fatigue
- Brain fog
- Back pain
- Nystagmus
- Joint pain
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Low mood
I wanted to get my story out there and see if there are other people around the world going through the same thing as I am. It has been over four years since I became ill after coming off the antidepressant and over three years since I had the bad reaction to the antibiotic. My life hasn’t been the same since then. I really can’t see myself ever getting back to good health, this has been going on for way too long now with no improvements.
I didn’t ask for this mess, and agreeing to take these medications was the worst decision I’ve ever made during my whole life. I wish I’d stood my ground back in 2009 and never agreed to take those antidepressants. They destroyed my life rather than benefiting it. And who knows, if I had not taken the antidepressants, chances are I likely would not have taken the clarithromycin further down the road either. I only took it because of the symptoms that started when I stopped taking Effexor.
Where I Stand Now
What I do know now, I will stand my ground and never take any more of these horrible prescription drugs ever again. I’m possibly left like this for the rest of my life now because of doctor ignorance and stupidity. I’m also left in this weird limbo now, not knowing what drug did the most damage and what one is causing my current symptoms? Would I still be sick now from Effexor withdrawals if I hadn’t taken the antibiotic? Am I over Effexor withdrawals and just left damaged because of the antibiotic? I’ll never know and it will be such a challenge to figure this out. Any of the other accounts I’ve read over the years from people who’ve had similar bad experiences with antidepressants and antibiotics have just been affected by either one, they’ve not taken both like I did. All I do know is I was sick before I took the antibiotic and then got a thousand times worse after I took it. I’m still searching for that specialist who can properly treat me and get my life back on track.
This is my story, but it doesn’t end here, it will be continued. I will try to continue on my own road to recovery. This has been over four years of my journey that really began nine years ago. I’ll hopefully be able to come back and share some positive updates in the future. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Image by Deedee86 from Pixabay.
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This story was published originally on April 1o, 2019.
BeyondMeds.com and survivingantidepressants.com are 2 absolutely phenomenal resources for all questions. They’ll show you other places to go for help, including Youtube accounts, FB groups, and Instagram accounts that are all full of validation.
I wouldn’t wish Psychotropic medication (Tranquilizers ie: “Anti-Psychotic”s, SSRI’s, SNRI’s, Anti-Convulsants ie: “Mood Stabilizers”, Gabapentin/Lyrica, Benzos, etc) taper/discontinuation symptoms and long-term syndrome on anybody on the face of this god-forsaken Earth.
I am permanently crippled from these Pharmaceuticals, especially over the last few years from a bizarre BiPolar#2 Dx with no assessment and more god-awful Pharmaceuticals being added. I’ve had serious health-issues since 2012 when I was 25. So many repeated bad experiences with these Pharmaceuticals. I never had a chance to have a typical life or health. I’m perfectly healthy otherwise.
There are hundreds of thousands upon thousands of us online speaking out against these Pharmaceuticals. None of us deserved this, and no one will take us seriously. The Medical Gas-Lighting is relentless and intense.
Getting the current world (not just American) medical establisment on your side about this is sadly a pipe dream. The evidence is abundantly clear- antidepressants are dangerous. Antibiotics save lives but they are a double-edged sword. But the world medical establishment will never admit that, at least probably not in our lifetimes. Billions of people worldwide feed the medical system with their laziness and unwillingness to change their bad lifestyle habits and instead ignorantly opt for quick fixes like pills, being lied to that no harm will come from it. The current world medical establishment will never change until enough people become their own doctors and give the establishment an ultimatum: change or go broke.
One necessary lifestyle change to heal antidepressant damage is increasing intake of high quality animal products such as meat, eggs, milk, and organ meats. Protein provides the building blocks for depleted neurotransmitters and hormones and the animal products contain many valuable nutrients that cant be found in plants or are in much lower amounts and much less bioavailable, nutrients that have been depleted and are required for the body to repair itself and recover from antidepressant damage. Digestion is one such area that needs to be repaired. Paradoxically, the body’s ability to digest animal products becomes impaired and consumption can cause various unpleasant symptoms, but the animal products contain the very things a person needs to restore digestive function over time. It can be a very frustrating, slow, uphill battle. It can be done though.
Im sorry. I have a aimilar story and have been ill for 10 years now after i stopped antidepressants. Took antibiotics in those 10 years. I am disabled at 34. This started when i was 23. Dizziness, stomach issues, visual distortions, i have 40+ symptoms on the daily. Feel free to reach out iwontgiveuphope@gmail.com
Millions are experiencing these symptoms and being told that it is “all in your head”. I am totally ashamed of the present state of American medicine. Surf Hormones Matter. Solutions have been repeated in many posts. If you are serious about getting an answer——read them!!
I am constantly appalled at these reports!!!!!!!!!!!! I am ashamed of my profession!!!!!!!!!!! The answers for each one of you are written and rewritten on this Hormones Matter Forum. Please read them because I am tired of saying the same thing——-ENERGY DEFICIENY.
I keep reading these health stories and I am disgusted with the doctors who seem collectively to “explain” the symptoms as psychological. They apparently fail to realize that a “symptom” is a sensory phenomenon in the brain and requires energy. It is distorted by energy failure which is the primary cause of the prolonged illness. I will go one step further and say that I believe that medical failure to recognize the cause of the symptoms MAY lead eventually to neurological chronic disease. Anyone suffering this way should surf hormones matter because the solution has been written in many posts.
I also went through horrible Effexor withdrawals and it’s an experience so horrible that I can’t come close to describing it. As it went so far beyond anxiety, the only terms that come close to describing it are terror and horror. A few years later, I’m happy to say that I’m doing much better.
I’ve been dealing with SIBO for 3 years now, and seem to have finally come out on top. What worked for me was two rounds of rifaximin/xifaxan ( which my GI doc helped me order from Canada due to high cost and not being covered by insurance). This antibiotic targets the gut only and will not mess up your whole system. Following that, I went on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which was created for crohn’s and ulcerative colitis sufferers. For the first time since I got sick, I now have steady energy, no brain fog, normal digestion and HOPE. Sharing this in case it helps anyone else.
How long did the sleep issues last
Hi there.
Your story interested me because I took a flourquinolone antibiotic the same month as you and was severely damaged and got worse with time. On top of all the disabilities i also have severe neurotoxicity. Even years later i was still getting injuries. Hope you find something that helps. im actually worse off now than i used to be. Would be interested to talk to you on messenger or something
Same here, even if I do need to take.. say, b12. I cant. But what I do seem to tolerate pretty well is magnesium, magnisumglycinate. I take it in the morning, midday and by night. Seems to calm the nerves down pretty well and shouldnt stimulate you at all. Perfect for us. Have you tried?
Ah yes.. I miss the gym aswell, being fit. Deadlift all your sorrows away! Kinda sad looking in the mirror now.. Its not that im unhappy now, its not so much in my head as in my body. I sure do get depressed everyday, but if I somehow would wake up healthy physically I wouldnt be depressed.. And then I could fight my anxiety by working out, have the strength to fight it in any way.
Are you able to work at all?
I live in Sweden, just turned the 30s corner.. going old ˆˆ At least I get to practice some english here with you.. its something!
Hi,
It really pains me to read your story. it makes me cry. Because i can relate so bad, its like youve written my story..
A year ago I tried a couple of ssri, non worked. I ended up trying Escitalopram as my last resort. I had a severe reaction after one month and had to stop taking it. That was now 7 months ago. I all went downhill from there. With all the sympthoms youve described.. I was on my floor, screaming in anxiety for the first 2 months in withdrawal. My DP was so severe i thought i had a psychosis for months in a row.
Month 4 i noticed my immunesystem was.. like.. almost gone. I got everything in the way. Including bad case of candida. My doc sent me home with a tablet of Diflucan. Didnt help. And then a tablet of Itraconazol. Didnt help. But what i got instead was.. i cant even.. I thought qutitting ssri was hell, nah. Hell was yet to come after those two pills.
Ive been in my bad most of the time the last 2 months, feeling sick. Cause after those candidapills it started to burn in my stomach, spreading to my legs/arms/torso/head.. and now, its like i rubbed ghostpepper all over my body, inside and out, im loosing touch in my left side of the body.. hand is feeling weird all the time now, its like breathing acid, my eyeballs are burning, im sick all the time, flu-like, low constant fever, everything hurts, my body is buzzing.. all tho i have this dizziness all the time, the buzzing is something else, its like, when i wake up in the morning, i sit up and my nerves are spinning, like riding a rollercoaster, round and round. Hard to explain. But its not nice. Dizzyspells, brainzaps. Needles and pins in hands/feet. Tingeling all over. And this fatigue, my god.. on and off thru the day i get this buzzing-feeling in my eyes, like i ned to sleep ASAP otherwise i will die-tired.
Also noticed, like you, that i cant tolarate anyting. From aspirin to cowmilk. And after eating i sometimes get this severe histaminereaction, turning red and burning in my face. But cant seem to locate it to any surtain types of food, yet. Have noticed tho i cant chew gums or use some tooghpaste, it makes my throat swollen for some reason.
And this constant brain fog and feel like im gonna die, several times a time. Just that doom-feeling, you know? And lack of air. Its all slowly killing me. How much longer? I dont believe in god, yet here i am, praying every single day now.
Have you had your B-vitamins checked? Ive read so many stories similar to our about the lack of thiamin. Or damage in mitochondria. Like you said, i also live where it takes ages to get to a specialist. Right now im waiting to go and see if its actually ALS or MS.. or maybe Borrelia. Everything else seems fine by the tests.
This all have really, well, fucked me up. I used to do everything! Dancing, working out in the gym.. like all the time, wotking hard with my job, having a stabile relationship and scoail life. I have nothing of that now. And noone to talk to.
Keep safe.
// S.
Hi Simone, that’s absolutely awful what you’ve been going through too.
You’re right, our stories are so similar. But getting doctors to listen to us and believe there’s others out there all over the world going through this is the hard part.
Everything you’re going through is the exact same stuff I’ve been going through since this all began, stomach issues, dizziness, fatigue, brain fog and my immune system is completely shot too. And it’s the same with the food allergies, I used to be able to eat anything under the sun, now I feel sick after eating most foods. I’ve tried certain diets and none made any difference at all, so I just gave up with them. I don’t know if my nervous system will ever get better, but if it does maybe the food allergies will calm down a bit, but no one knows or can give a proper answer.
I’ve had my b vitamins checked and they seem to be not super low. But the problem is my nervous system is sensitive to everything now and if I try to take even low doses of vitamins I get really sick. So it’s difficult to treat me.
And like you, regular tests are coming back ok. You need to look into some doctors that think outside of the box, like functional medicine doctors, to get any help at all. I’ve been wasting my time with regular doctors for years now, they’re absolutely useless.
Where are you from?
I’m missing the gym so much, I used to be so fit and healthy before all this mess started. Same with being able to go to a club and socialize with my friends, I can’t do any of it at all now. So if you feel like crap because you’re in the same boat, just think of me and others out there going through the same thing. And there’s probably hundreds of more people going through the same thing that we don’t even know about.
It’s awful for us, but I hope someday we can look back on this nightmare when we’re finally better and in good health again.
Stay strong!