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.
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.
Looking back, the fatal mistake was not tightening the chin strap properly. I was told later that my bloody helmet was found a little past the accident.
Yikes So the impact tore the helmet off your head, and your head got run over by a car? yeah I think you're a cat with nine lives. Glad you're still with us.
That's exactly what happened. I was wearing a half helmet anyways, so I was pretty much fucked already. When I saw her come thru the stop sign, I had exactly enough time to say "oh shit" and throw my right arm in front of my face. They dug 8 of my teeth out of my arm. She was driving a Pathfinder SUV which was tall enough that I somehow went under it and she drove over my head. I still vividly remember laying in the road for close to a half hour spitting blood so I wouldn't drown and thinking about my kids. I had my jaw wired shut for 6 months and learned with missing teeth, you can put a straw thru and suck Thanksgiving dinner out of a blender. Damn that. MF shot me in the back of the head with a .38 and that's been a whole new world of fun..
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...
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
if I pay attention I can feel my amygdala clicking
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 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.
That's completely normal; the sensations are caused by some energy you've stored inside of you being re-activated. If you can follow those sensations to the root, the thorn, and then gradually work at that thorn, you can do some serious mental cleansing. If you're able to remove all of the thorns, you will experience this zen-like peace for anything and everything that comes your direction.
This Michael Singer guy did a whole bunch of that kind of introspection, figured it all out, then wrote three different books on the process.
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:
- blood and fluid pressure
- electric discharges in your brain, kinda tingling
- placebo
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