Sleep Paralysis W/ Hallucinations
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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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I started Viibryd about one year ago. I was initially taking it at bedtime and did experience the horror of sleep paralysis and nightmares. Since I started taking it in the morning with food, I have not had a single issue.

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Yes I have also had them
Very scary and can't move
I'm getting off this stuff

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Hey I've had this happen too. As long as I take the meds in the morning or afternoon, it does not happen.

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

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I am glad I'm not the only one having these side effects. I am up out of bed just because I can't handle the dreams and sleep paralysis that come with it.

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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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I would also like to know if a suit is filed. I've been experiencing all the terrifying effect of Viibryd for months!

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I'm scared and don't know what to do. I know after the dream tonight I am going off viibryd. But I don't think I will sleep again until I'm off of it. I'm too terrified to dream of demons laughing at me and spinning me again. I'm calling my dr first thing in the morning but right now I don't know what to do but cry.

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Thank you so much for posting this question! I've had sleep paralysis in the past many times, but now that I'm taking Viibryd it's an every night occurrence, and it's very different from the sleep paralysis I used to experience. It started almost immediately, with the feeling of falling inside of my body while drifting off to sleep and the sudden jolting awake of my brain accompanied by a loud sound in my head. Sometimes when I'm not even trying to sleep I'll get that weird, familiar feeling that I'm about to slip into sleep paralysis. My head and neck will suddenly have that dizzy/lightheaded sensation while I'm sitting on the couch or the bed wide awake. My dreams luckily haven't been terrifying, but they do make me feel uncomfortable, and this whole situation is getting to be too much for me which really sucks because this medicine has done wonders for my anxiety!

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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 had the most terrifying expeirence of my life last night! I had sleep paralysis and hallucinations and I am still setting on my couch afraid to go to sleep. It was the most awful thing. I tried to stay awake but I couldn't and I kept fighting to wake up but I could not move. I thought I was being attacked by the devil. That's the only way I can describe it. I talked to my doctor and she said not to miss any doses but I am terrified of everything right now. I don't know what to do.

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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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My story.

I'm thankful for this thread. My experience with Viibryd has been similar to others. At first, I was on cloud nine. I was less numb sexually, actually had a bit of a libido. I had more energy. I felt like I had gained some clarity. It was about 2 months into taking it when I had my first terrible night. I was trying to fall asleep when I experienced powerful brain shocks that would sometimes make my arm or leg jerk. I remember hearing the shocks. At some point there was loud buzzing as I felt my body sink into sleep but leaving me conscious. It feels like you're fading away with no control over it. I'd ending up gasping for air and coming out of the hole I was falling into. I felt like I also lost control over my breathing- like my brain stem took over while I was still conscious. But even though it was scary- I had enough control to try to fight my way back to normal. This happened several times over the next few hours. Somewhere in there I was experiencing the paralysis. In my lifetime I've had a few episodes of sleep paralysis to recognize what it was so it didn't totally terrify me (yet). I'd be laying there having a dream while totally conscious, and realize I'm paralyzed, then I'd actively work on trying to wiggle a finger or a toe until I brought myself out of it. It came to a head that night when I starting seeing and hearing things that weren't there. That was when it became frightening and I woke my husband. I heard a wolf howl, I saw things in my room that weren't there. I thought I saw a giant man in my room. It was messed up. So it wasn't the run of the mill sleep paralysis I'd had before. Throw in that body jerking and brain buzzing and shocks...it felt seizure like. I want to point out its not the normal brain zaps one gets with withdrawal. We all know what that is. Also I DID NOT MISS A DOSE!

I experienced this for a few days in a row- decided it was the medicine and I would not tolerate these side effects, so I called my doctor. He didn't believe me. Did you read that? HE SAID IT WASNT THE MEDICINE. HE SAID THIS WAS A NOT A SIDE EFFECT OF VIIBRYD AND NONE OF HIS PATIENTS HAD EVER REPORTED IT BEFORE SO I NEEDED A NEUROLOGIST. I was super angry. I told him I found report after report of people experiencing this with Viibryd and he said it was coincidence and could absolutely not be the Viibryd. I told him I wanted off anyway and he'd either tell me how to do it safely or I was gonna wing it. He told me. I did a quick taper down and felt like living hell. I was so angry and tearful. My husband and I talked, and decided to give Viibryd another chance. So I went back on 20mg, instead of the 40 which I was at before. I had decided that I had so many benefits from it, that perhaps the sleep issues would be infrequent and the positives would outweigh the negatives. I found out 2 days later that it might have actually been the worst case of PMS, and not being off Viibryd that caused me to feel so bad since it was my first cycle post partum. Still- I wanted to give Viibryd another shot.

So I'm going along on 20mg for a couple weeks. But- When I really think about it, my anger might have been relieved- but my libido had gone away again, I still had anxiety (maybe a bit lessened). I think the initial honeymoon period with it faded and it really was not giving me the help it initially had. I still stayed on.

Then the sleep paralysis and brain shocks happened again one night. I looked at my calendar and thought to myself that I was due for another cycle in about a week and I was starting to correlate the symptoms with the brain chemicals dipping due to pms perhaps. Some people need more ssri around the time of their period, so I went back up to 40mg. I had sleep issues for a couple more days and I had hope, that when pms week ended, so might the sleep problems. I was wrong.

They've continued with no correlation to a damn thing. I don't miss doses so it's not withdrawal. This sleep hell hits even at naps. When I lay down and my body relaxes, I know it's going to be awful when the first brain shock hits. I might as well said screw it and get up. Cause if I stay down I will just be fighting the awfulness for a few hours. Not only will the paralysis happen- at times I've been able to have lucid dreaming where I can control aspects of my dream. Sometimes it was neat- but not worth the rest of the symptoms. I've had brain shocks happen several times in a row where my eyes are even ticking back or to the side- if that's not a seizure I'm not sure what to call it then. Like I've stated before I will have breathing issues where i will have to gasp, sometimes 8-10 times an hour (that's my best guess). My dreams will sometimes be so real that I think I'm awake and doing things in my house, when in reality I never left my bed. I can feel the carpet under my feet as I navigate my house and think I'm awake only to wake up enough to see I'm in bed.

I generally do not have pleasant dreams. They are dreams that could sometimes make Stephen King frightened. Sometimes they are just flat out weird- but not scary. I will say I've always been a dreamer. A vivid dreamer actually- but NOTHING compares to these Viibryd dreams.

My experience the other night is what made me decide to stop Viibryd completely. I was having the "normal" issues falling asleep but I ended up having a realistic dream in which I saw my baby sitting up but holding very still in her pack and play which is next to my bed. It looked so creepy. It was dark in my room so I could only see her silhouette. I told my husband to wake up cause our daughter was sitting up (which she should not be, she's not old enough). I was reaching for my lamp to turn on the light. I got the light on and saw a ghost next to my bed that jumped into my body. It was so scary and I was fighting so hard to get this ghost out of me that I started screaming in my dream. It actually made me moan very loudly to the point of screaming that it woke my husband up. He shook me until I was awake but it did take me a little bit because I was paralyzed.

I have had enough.

Ps- side note- I've gained 15-20 lbs on this med.

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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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Please everyone...report this drug to the FDA

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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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Side effects I experienced:

*Explosive diarrhea
*Headaches—intermittent pre-migraines
*Lack of libido—started on day 2
*Brain zaps— I could see them in my head too….they went from right to left, then left to right and were purple with a blue inside. Sometimes fast zaps, mostly slow ones…..they kinda hurt too.
*Body jerks
*Felling something sitting on me when I slept, pressing down on my body, and couldn’t move, or speak…even with attempts to call out to Will (my husband).
*Auditory hallucinations (hearing them as they are real and right beside me)---at night…mean things said to me, hearing the rumbling of someone else’s stomach, hearing frightening laughter.
*Sleep Paralysis
*Very vivid frightening dreams
seeing gory, bloody faces in the windows, TV, which was off. And text scrolling in the windows that I couldn’t read, but looked very old
*Seeing a stack of papers being lifted up
*Seeing picture frames on the walls being lifted up and placed back without sound.
*Visual Hallucinations---at night---
*Bloody, gory images in my dreams
*Seeing demons beside my bed staring at me
*Hearing Shouts, screams, yells and wails from unknown sources…sounded like people being tortured.
*Constant state of being afraid to go to sleep, because I didn’t want to experience any of this.
*Every time I closed my eyes, it was like a never ending swirling interactive optical illusion in many colors with bloody gory jump scare images.
*Seeing things out of the corner of my eye, turning to look…nothing there
*Photos on the walls ---the faces would turn in to what all looked like demons, then would turn back when I clicked on the light.

Called to schedule an appointment with my Doctor to get off this horrible medication as soon as I can get in. This is AWFUL....DON'T TAKE IT!!

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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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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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There is no such thing as sleep when it happens. For me, it started with dizziness I blamed on the Cymbalta but it turns out I was wrong. Let me state, I am and am known to be sensitive to drugs.

anyway, first it was dizziness and what I call white outs... which are where your eyes loose focus and it was like half your brain was trying to pass out while the other half was trying to keep you awake.

then I had the dream when we bumped it up. No, it was not a lucid dream. when I go to bed, im abnormal and take at least an hour to an hour 1/2 of having my eyes closed to fall asleep. So when within 3 minutes I was seeing a clear as day picture, I knew I was awake. I could move, but my curiousity kept me still. Then I was on a roller coaster and the feeling is the adrenaline when going down a roller coaster, but saturated. If you have this now, get off immediately. unless you want to progress to the 40 and have immense horror and sleepless WEEKS get off. (imho)

time went on, about 2 weeks until I had a panic attack leading to another dream, with the day following consisting of dizzy spells. now we are on 40. this lead to my living hell.

so I was going to bed feeling the electric shocks more frequent and powerful than usual. I closed my eyes. it started with a basic shape. this shape would then gain a movement like a gif you would find of an optical illusion. this would make a picture. then it would make a jumpscare. yes. like the ones In the movies.

the worst part was the auditory hallucinations. they were the worst. when the rag doll things head turned at me, that boom plus the ambience of tension was enough to shock me awake, and I knew something was wrong.

I wrote all my symptoms down. In the light I would see things move in the corner of my eyes and would have actual paranoia. paranoia that was so real, that monsters were real and it was possible they were here. I knew they were fake, but just the fact that im SEEING things was scary.

I decided to give it one more go, to make sure it wasn't me being dramatic. I tried to sleep again and found my the ambiance and boom repeatedly screaming in my ears. It was getting darker and darker and I couldn't move anything. Me, not knowing what seep paralysis was at the time, was convinced I was dying, and the only way to stop was to fling myself back into the waking world. So there I go.

i took the medicine at ten, had the sleep paralysis at 2, and had non stop sleep paralysis until it reeeeally wore of at 5:30 in the morning.

all fine right? NO.

so go next day, im still shaky, i go out, everythings okay, took nothing (because i wasn't gonna sign my own death certificate) fell asleep normal and it was good, minus the fact that the paranoia and fear of sleepingand the dark was still there.

Monday sucked. we were fine until we went to the doctor and he gave a new medicine. it was 5g of Brintellix at 3:00 pm. i go to take a nap at five and to my horror, my hell was back at it again. Im not saying the Brintellix is bad, im saying that you definitely need to give youself atleast a week of pure NO PILLS until you can try new, but i cant be sure. All i know is my symptoms are back and im crying again.

then later at 9 i fearfully try to sleep. the twitching from the shocks are back and i dont need to expiriece to torture again to know its coming. i knew it was gonna be a sleepless night and it still is. yes. i ended up trying. i was right, the symptoms were right back into play and i was once again dizzy, anxious, and electrified. the dizziness was a lot more prominent this time. so yeah. here i am. typing my viibryd horror story. the most scary part about this is my doctor had NO CLUE viibryd did this.

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