Sleep Paralysis W/ Hallucinations (Page 12) (Top voted first)

Has anyone else experienced sleep paralysis accompanied by hallucinations since starting viibryd? I have been on the medicine for about 4 months now and for the last 2 1/2 months have had several very scary episodes of sleep paralysis... I have never been on a anti-depressant before and never experienced sleep paralysis until i started this medicine. I am a 23 year old female and i take no other meds except a daily multi-vitamin. Ive noticed that if i accidentally miss a viibryd pill i have sleep paralysis... but have also had it on occasions of not missing a pill. It occurs about once a week... its to the point where i dread going to sleep at night in fear of sleep paralysis, but the hallucinations that come along with it are what I dread the most. Has anyone else had a similar experience with this medicine?

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Thanks for the heads up Marie!

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Oh wow...and you're still on Vii? (lol) You are very brave or tolerant of fear. Would you stay on it if you were raped by a demon & could feel the pain? Or had the grim reaper type demon standing next to your bed? I wish I could get all those horrific images out of my head, including the demon that swatted my feet & laughed as he vanished out of the room. This was my final terror episode, when I had made a plan to tell them demon to GET OUT and it pulled & tugged inside my body, pulling my soul---and I was stronger & the little gray green f***** had to slap at my feet with joy. My husbands too, but he didn't feel it. Whew. So just curious what it would take for you to give up Vii?

Keep us all posted! :)

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I used to miss doses w/o a problem, just so I could figure out the best time to take it. But then one nite, the SP hit. It was horrific. Up until that night...maybe 3 mos. on the (40mg) med, I had some frightful dreams while napping & some auditory hallucinations at times.

I've been off of Vii since Spring of '12.

I had to wean off Viii w/ Prozac. It saved me. I've been off the Pro. & on Cymbalta for a few mos. I've had 2 very strange auditory hallucinations while experimenting w/ Wellbutrin w/ the Cym. Funny ones (?!) though....imagine sleeping & an atomic bomb goes off in your brain & you see orange & red. Then the other times its a strong male voice out of nowhere shouting my name or something unintelligible straight into my ears, while napping. I ran out of the lower dose Wellbutrin & not going to take it on Cym. because I badly need Cym. to cover anxiety & WB causes anx.

That could be why so many have problems w/ Vii. But if they were to change the formula, then they've lost their perfect AD. I wonder if I am pre-disposed to auditory hallucin. now after surviving the horrible Vii weaning process.

Sweet dreams everyone! :)

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agree.

been off viibryd 4 months. psych doc weaned me off w/klonopin to basically sedate me so I didn't have to suffer through any more hallucinations/horrific nightmares.

on Zoloft now and feel so much better

please don't wait. hallucinations are not normal and if viibryd is causing it, they won't just get better.

good luck, hang in there

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I would ask for some sort of sedative or sleep aid. Or even Xanex can help.

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I haven't been on Viibryd for a month yet and have the dreams and paralysis. I wish the dr would at least warned me about this. It is so scary I haven't slept for almost 2 days.

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Mine got worse and worse until I was up to 5 nights of nearly no sleep. I stayed home from work and had my husband help me call my doctor who weaned me off but it took weeks. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.

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oh, and also add to this my constant craving for sugary items...which obviously caused a bit of weight gain

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as this medication is an SSRI and cannot be abruptly stopped without even worse side effects, my doctor appointment was today, and we worked together to get a taper off schedule. I also handed him my printout of my open, honest experiences while taking it. Your Doctor needs to know what this medication does, especially for reporting purposes. They are the ones who can best report the percentages to the FDA, as this is a pretty newer medication.

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I am riding the Viibryd nightmare train as well. I had been having problems with sleep paralysis a little since I started this med but last Monday topped me off. I thought I had died in my sleep and was screaming for my father . ( he passed away last year) That was it for me but my Dr didn't suggest tapering, she said stop immediately! I disagreed but have no choice due to my I'm out of the med. Now I am scared to sleep and I'm manic! I'm itching over and easily agitated to a point of nobody can deal with me. I'm on day six of nothing and I do take seroquel and Xanax and gabapentin at night (still not sleeping) but my morning moods are fine but by evening ready or not.... Agitation is horrible! But no sleep paralysis since Monday. I feel demonic at times!

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I weaned myself off, like a half for 3 or 4 days. I still had a few episodes as I was weaning but I did it. I suffer from occasional depression and I began taking 1200mg of fish oil twice a day, it has really helped me. It does however, act as a blood thinner so you have to go off every so often. Please report this to the FDA

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I, too, have just experienced a horrifying episode of sleep paralysis. I am 29 and have tried several different antidepressants over the past decade or so, none of which have effected me in this way. It's too late in the evening to reach my doctors office, and a Friday to boot, and I don't know if I should trouble the oncall Doctor. Just describing it too my husband makes me feel like I've lost my mind, explaining all of this over the phone just feels embarrassing.
I've read over other posts before coming to this one, others that describe how they push through these types of experiences and continue with the medicine. I can't imagine doing that. No judgment to them, but I'm scared to go to sleep again out of fear that it will happen again. Once was more than enough.

To be thorough on the details, in case others share this experience, I've only been on the medicine for a week and a half. And intend to discontinue it immediately.

My sympathies to those that also go through this, this has been truly terrifying, and not something I think I'll be quick to forget.

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can anyone tell me if I can take viibryd and seroquel. Are there any side effects

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Holly,

I have had sleep paralysis on and off for years, but with Vii I did experience dream craziness for several months and some sleep paralysis episodes and crazy ones (with halluciations) too. As the months went on the dreaming got easier and though I still have weird dreams it is nothing like sleep paralysis that I was having! Believe me I know, sleep paralysis is awful and scarey when a long with hallucinations!! Chipur also has a good article he wrote (you can google it). You can get through it!! I do understand though!!!

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Don't know if this topic is still hot or not but I wanted to share my experience with Viibryd. I started taking Viibryd probably about 10 - 12 months ago. I'm 27 years old and I never had any previous issues with depression or anxiety until I was 26. All of the sudden started having panic attacks. Dr. prescribed me Viibryd, the side effects of starting a new drug was not bad. I have never taken medication for anything until Viibryd. I did have many bad night terrors when first on the medication which made me want to stop but I was having zero panic attacks and the frustration that comes along with anxiety was diminishing fast. I haven't had a panic attack in about a year. Now I struggle with the fact that I don't want to be on the medication anymore but I am deathly afraid of the withdrawal symptoms. I have dizzy spells from time to time, not as often as I used to but they come in bunches the later in the day it gets. Almost like my brain is saying feed me more Viibryd. I have the crazy withdrawal symptoms as well. I've taken the medication long enough I know exactly when to take it to avoid the symptoms. Doesn't always happen that way though. Most of my sleep paralysis happens after I take my pill but I don't have the energy to stay awake for it to kick in. So I start to dose off and almost immediately the terror begins. I usually just start off with a random thought or dream that turns disturbing quickly. I'm so used to it I can basically decide if I want to wake up or not. If I don't that's when the more intense things start happening. While in paralysis I often feel as if I am being touched. Not gently, it's firm. I've been pinched and grabbed, sometimes it feels like body is floating or dragged to a completely different part of my room. Again as time went on I've grown accustomed to dealing with it and I know I'm still in the same spot in the same position as where I started but the things happening eventually become too overwhelming and I wake. It is not always easy to wake up because half the time the stuff is so real it feels like I am awake but I'm not. Sometimes I will hear crazy voices, children playing, if I have music on it will distort.it to sound evil. I've felt like people are in my room looking over me or even laying on top of me. I've had my entire body go into a seizure state that takes me a good 5 seconds to come out of it. I worry one day that I will just be stuck in that state and not snap out of . Now I want to get off it, I'd rather be an addict on xanex honestly dealing with whatever anxiety I have if I even have any at all than take this pill. I often have thoughts that somehow this pill will be the death of me . The way I plan to get off this is very slowly. I'm actually going to crush the pill up and taper down one week at a time taking only the smallest amount off every week. So I'll cut it up almost like I were to snort it, take a little bit off and mix rest in applesauce and eat it all while taking Benadryl to help me hopefully sleep through possible terrors or paralysis. I let you know how it goes. All in all great medication for my day to day life, but everything has a catch and I think there is a deep dark secret to this medication and people shouldn't have to be afraid of sleeping.

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No problem! Like I said, I believe the Viibryd has a great effect on these chemicals that indude atona. Perhaps if you already have an REM sleep disorder, it just made it much worse. Couple that with hallucinations due to partial dream state and you have a recipe for a lot of fear and panic.

Glad you're feeling better.

Good luck to you!

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I am in same boat as everyone else here. Have been on Viibryd for aprrox 4 months and my hellish nightmares started about six weeks ago. At first I laughted them off telling everyone about my silly scary dreams, but now I am seriously having scary scary scary nightmares
but unlike everyone else I cant wake up so I am literally kicking and screaming in my dreams
for help but I cant kick or scream! I am totally
paralyzed I guess until my rapid heartbeat
wakes me up with excruciating headache that
is pounding to my heartbeat! I ask my boyfriend if he ever hears or feels me and he doesn't. I see doc next week and will def share my horrifying story with him. Good luck toeveryone out there dealing with depression and having to try all these different drugs. It is not easy but we will prevail♥

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No, a class action suit is not necessary and a government conspiracy makes you sound like you need something MUCH stronger than Viibryd. This is a new drug and a modicum of research on anyone's part would reveal many other anti-depressant - anti-anxiety drugs caused majorly startling side effects in their infancy. If it doesn't work for you, that's great, but trying to freak people out and cause hysteria among people who are already dealing with depression and anxiety is nonsense. No, I am not a doctor, a pharmacist, a drug rep nor do I work for the manufacturer, I am just a patient using Viibryd with fantastic results other than the sleep paralysis. Which, I might mention is a VERY COMMON occurrence even among NON medicated individuals. Don't be so darn hysterical, I have read now 4 or 5 posts from people who are now going to stop a medication that is HELPING them, simply for fear they MAY experience sleep paralysis or brain shock.

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Apparently it is not just Viibryd. Everyone is different.....just saying....

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Marie,

I have been very nice and I am sorry if you thought I was being mean. We have a difference of opinion. You have been very disrespectful to me several times which I ignored. Not sure on your response to Mimi. I think you got the mgs mixed up. I think it is obvious that you are the one being disrespectful and rude. Please stop yelling at me. There is no need for anymore post to me from you.

Thanks for your cooperation ahead of time.

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