Metoprolol Withdrawal Symptoms

[CharlieJohnson]

HI Guys, wanted to share my experience, and get anyone else's experience with Metoprolol withdrawals.

I am a 54 male, worked out everyday, ate healthy, but had high stress. I had a heart attack 3 months back due to a blockage in one of my arteries.

Doctors did an awesome job, placed a stent into the artery, and all other arteries are good.

So, I was placed on metoprolol, didn't have a clue what it was, but 2 weeks in, I started having sleepless nights, anxiety from hell (never had any issues with anxiety), stress form hell, and then emotional breakouts, (crying like a little girl, for no reason).

Then one morning about week 3 I ended up in the ER, I had tingling from head to toe, no sleep that night, nonstop palpitations, and the shakes, they did every test under the sun, but could not find anything, EKG was normal, heart looked clear, troponin level was normal, they did plaque tests on my carotid arteries, all clear, brain scans were all clear. I know at that point it was the medication, and of course I mentioned this to the ER Doctor, he immediately told me no, no way. I tried to explain, but he would not listen, fast-forward, made an appointment with GP, told him I thought it was the med, he laughed and said he has never heard of this and that is could not be the med. And by the way my BP was 90/60 HR 50, but he didn't seem to be bothered. Fastforward again to a week later (still taking metoprolol) one night I stood up and collapsed, I was shaking violently, my wife sat with me, as it subsided, at that point, I we emailed the Cardiologist that enough is enough, I never had high blood pressure and did not want to be on this drug anymore. Fortunately, my Cardio was on vacation, so I got a different one, who surprisingly said, all the symptoms you have given me are form Metoprolol, you can stop it now. He said I could stop cold turkey since I was only on it about 4 weeks, however I tried to wean, for a couple of days, but the side effects were too much.

First day off of the med, elevated heart rate, elevated BP, very elevated anxiety, day 3 we went to a restaurant, I walked up the stairs when I got to the top, I thought my heart was going to jump out of my mouth, I got really dizzy and thought I was going to collapse right there. Fortunately I didn't.

ok so week 1 was rough, non stop palpitations, anxiety, stress

Week 2 was a little better, kind of little better week, still palpitations and stress

week 3 pretty much the same

week 4, felt great, less palpitations, no stress, felt good

week 5. like I went back to week 1, anxiety from hell again, increased palpitations headaches, ringing in my ears, and blurry eye sight.

week 6 feeling better, less palpitations, sleeping better 7 hours, still ringing in the ears, some stress

week 7 felt much better, less of everything was functioning better

week 8, well Monday morning ended up in the ER, I was sitting eating breakfast and out of nowhere my head pressure just started to build and was getting worse, I could feel my heart racing, took my blood pressure, 135/85 HR 99, 5 minutes later 149/100 HR 101, 2 minutes later 165/105 HR 110, I wasn't even moving, again all test at ER came out normal, DR said it must have been anxiety or stress coming on quickly.

It's been 5 days since, I have had 3 good days, today the stress and anxiety came on strong raised everything.

So, from reading several forums on withdrawal symptoms, I have found numerous people with the exact same timeline and symptoms, turns out Metoprolol crosses your blood brain barrier and practically shuts down everything, and now from what I have learned, your body and heart is trying to reset and relearn everything, so you have hormones going crazy with no control i.e. anxiety from hell, this in turn increases your blood pressure, feeling angry from nowhere, again increasing your stress level, and palpitations like never before. I see all different timelines, some people after 3 months are 98% better, with a few flair ups now and then, some a year into it and still getting awful side effects.

As for me, I thought on week 7, I had gone through the worst but turns out this drug has a lot of surprises, meaning yes, I feel better and the drug saying oh really, let's see how this feels.

I pray to God, that it will subside and be gone asap, but from what I have read, it's your body trying to reset, and learn how to control adrenaline and other hormones.

Please share your experiences, would be great to hear others experience, for me it's the anxiety and palpitations that make feel bad, and at times feel like there is no hope, but I have seen people with the same issues that have gotten better.

For anyone who shares, thanks and you will get better

[MummaSoap]

Hi CharlieJohnson

I was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy back in January 2021 and initially I was on metoprolol and enalapril.

The first few days on CCU were horrendous. Every time I started moving my heart was shooting well over 200. The metoprolol upset my tummy so that didn’t help matters and it also sent my blood pressure through the floor as well as bringing my heart rate down so of course, like you, I was feeling faint and shaky.

My last 3 days (7-10) I was feeling better in myself but other than pottering around my small cubicle or wandering to the loo, I wasn’t really doing anything. The fun began when I got home!! I had 2 small children and I was struggling with the feeling faint and drops in both BP and HR. I can remember taking readings in that first week at home and the top number was consistently 79 - I felt like a zombie.

I had some very vivid and disturbing dreams, I began sweating profusely at night and the fatigue had me feeling like I was carrying around a large boulder on my back!!

On the plus side, I now take empagliflozin and ivabradine. I still get days where the fatigue catches up with me but at least now it’s a bit more predictable and I’m learning to apportion my energy levels 😂 with greater success!

Sending you best wishes for positive results moving forward; I hope you find some medication that suits you better 🤞🏼

Take care

Soap 🧼

[PecanSandie]

My first experience with Metoprolol was about 10 years ago - I was taking it a long with another drug (maybe Valsartan) for high BP and it did it's job too well. It make me feel dizzy when I went on walks because my BP dropped too low. I went off it on my own by cutting the pill in half and then quarters. It took about a month to go off it. Of course, my BP went back up so I had to take another drug (don't remember which one). But the only bad reaction I ever had from Metoprolol was that dizziness. I am now back on it (after a long hiatus) and I take 100 mg a day (50 mg in am and 50 mg in pm). It's actually one of my favorite drugs to be honest because it helps take away inhibitions. I used to be very shy and found it difficult to speak at work meetings and the Metoprolol helped me get over that.