Hi, I am 60 years old. I have only been on 4 HBP meds, 2 were repeated. I also reacted badly to them and one did nothing.
I stopped taking them almost 2 years ago because the last one I took (not the repeated ones) had the worse experience I have ever had in my life and after that I said never again.
The horror story was that one of them (I can't remember the name anymore) caused anxiety. One day I was in the laundry room and felt weird, it was a feeling of dejavu, I know it sounds weird but I don't know how else to explain how I felt. I said to myself, well I do come into the laundry room often so of course I feel like I've been here before. Not too many days later I was talking to my daughter about a dress. I had the same feeling but extremely intense. I had to stop talking to my daughter and went into the other room where my husband was sitting and started crying I was so frightened by what I was experiencing. Another feeling of been there done that.
Then I was alone watching some silly t.v. show and the feeling came again. This time I wasn't really caught by surprise. I recognized what was coming. It started in my stomach, like going down on a roller coaster, then it came up to my chest and my heart pounded. I really thought I was going to die. It happened again and I was able to sit with it while it happened but it was a horrible feeling.
Usually when something is wrong in my body, I think about what have I been doing that is different. The only thing I'd done was take HBP meds. I looked the specific brand up on the internet and looked at the side affects. ANXIETY was listed. I stopped taking them. I went to my doctor for a follow up. The follow up was to see if the meds were working. I told the nurse who was doing all the blood work, etc. that I had stopped taking them and why. She said oh no, there must be something wrong with me not the meds. I said no, and I told her that I looked it up on the net. She did too and at first she couldn't find anything. I asked her if she wanted me to go home and print out what I had found. Eventually she found it too.
Now 2 years later, from that day those anxiety attacks are still with me. Right now they are 98% less horrific but I can recognize the anxiety when it come. It has taken all this time to come down this far down from the anxiety. I compare it to a snail who leaves a trail of - snail stuff behind
I would like to know if you have had any similar experience? Having a reaction or side effect that kept on effecting you even when you were no longer taking it.
My other side effects from the other pills were coughing and exterme fatigue. Then there was one that did nothing in any way shape or form.
I haven't taken anything since. I try to find other things to bring down my blood pressure. Change my eating habits (hard to maintain), take magnesium, exercise in the form of walking. I am really so truly afraid of taking yet another med that's going to wipe me out. Now after reading your 13th+ attempt to find something I don't have any faith.
Why are we so hard to "cure"