Hello. The shakiness of my head started at around February last year. From ~November of 2018 I was consuming alcohol every evening, not going to sleep till late or not going to sleep at all at some nights, having negative thoughts, flashbacks of bad events from some early days of my life, quit my job (and haven’t worked since) basically it was kind of a rough period in my life back then and it continued for about 5 months. I don’t even know if this is the root cause of my problem, just wanted to point that out. The first time that I’ve really noticed it was at a group job interview, as it began I was so freaking tense and anxious that I could barely breathe I thought I was going to pass out, we had to do some tasks and I imitated that I was but most of my efforts were put to just stay composed and not passing out. Honestly I get tense in loads of places, like the barber shop where I have to keep my head straight, I do try to fight it but it doesn’t go away. Happens even when I’m driving and stop at a crossroad, I shift my head to look at something and it shakes a bit, basically it happens almost all day, just the intensity differs on the situation. It’s really annoying because I’ve finished studies in my past, was living in other countries for quite some time and never had anything like this. It’s normal to be tense in tense situations and I’ve felt it before but not to a level where physical things start to happen. Anyway right now I am super positive, healthy, reading books before bedtime as well as light meditation, sleeping well, not consuming alcohol or anything else of that sort but the shivers of my head just wont go away. They did get a bit milder than it was before but now my hands started shaking as well and overall I feel very tense. Yesterday I was out with few of my friends playing pool, and it was really uncomfortable cause every time one of the balls hit the other one and there’s a collision with a bang my whole body trembles, well as if a person gets scared of a loud sound and shivers, but I do expect the sound and still cant do anything about it, this also happens with fireworks etc.. Went to a psychiatrist last summer, he prescribed me “Sertraline”, used it for about two weeks before getting weird sides, like the colour of the night sky changing and also had a panic attack in that period. He basically didn’t knew what to do but gave me a sheet of pills called “Tranxene”. Now these do actually help, but just for the time being, so I’m not using them everyday. I think that it’s just some nerve system imbalance or something like that. The only two things that I could blame is smoking (not heavily) and going to sleep kind of late. But I used to smoke before this happened so I don’t think that is the cause. If any of you could help me or had this, whatever this is and could point me in the right direction of what should I do I would be grateful for the rest of my life because honestly it is ruining it. Thank you for your time.
have you had a complete physical check up recently? That might be the place to start. If everything is OK there then you could get some support through a therapist for what’s going on now. This is difficult to do alone and it’s great to vent to somebody else who can help. A therapist is completely different than a psychiatrist . they can help you deal with the issues you are going through. You may have some severe anxiety and even possibly depression going on. I know that long-term anxiety can cause hundreds of symptoms including the sensations you get in your head. The only way to find out is to start with a physical check up. hope you feel better soon
I am very sorry about your not feeling well. I think you should think about seeing a therapist to talk your problems out. Seems like you abused alcohol and its caught up with you. But a qualified therapist will be better suited to helping you than we are on this forum. Withdrawal effects from alcohol can be very rough and very traumatic and you are not alone. Sounds like you are still going through some type of withdrawal and i dont know if you are drinking still or substituting the drinking with something else, but something is causing your tremors and i dont know what it is except withdrawal effects. i am sure its causing you much anxiety but we cant address the anxiety until we know for sure you are off the bottle and maybe other things. Its one step at a time and if you didnt join an AA support group and address your alcohol problem theres no way i can address your anxiety problem until thats no longer an issue. I can tell you to relax and everythings going to be fine, but that would be deceiving. At least go to your GP and find out if you have any liver or kidney damage caused from the alcohol abuse, address the physical first and then the mental side of things. Get yourself a therapist that deals in dependency issues. There are s lot of them out there and ho from there.
Well I did have some sort of physical check up like half a year ago, my family doctor checked me with the sthetoscope, checked my thyroid (well some thingy in my neck I think that’s what it’s called). I also asked to do a full blood test (with vitamin d etc.). The only thing wrong was that the vitamin D was super low, it was around 9, when it should be ~20-30. But now it’s normal. What else does the check up include? And talking about depression, I really don’t think I have it, because I’m super positive and stimulated now.
Well after what you’ve said I’ll add alcohol to my tally of root causes of this problem. But somehow I don’t think it is. Some of my friends use it to this day and have no problems that I have although I understand that each person is different in the way of how he responds to certain substances. Since around May of last year I quit drinking for good. Well I do drink few shots or few beers now and then when it’s a birthday or something but that’s it (kind of funny but now when on that rare occasion I do drink I become so relaxed and so composed, don’t have any tremors whatsoever). Even back then, in that dark period of my life I understood that the road I was going with alcohol wasn’t the one for me. To be real those sleepless or lack there of nights in my mind did more damage to my body than alcohol but again I’m not a doctor. One more thing that I didn’t mention was that after my studies abroad, I started to smoke weed (not heavily) and this was before like a year of these tremors starting to happen. When I went to the psychiatrist last summer he immediately asked me if I did any narcotics and I told him that I smoked weed. Although I have quit smoking for like 10 months before his appointment. The doctor put the whole blame on it and told me that was the cause of my problems, he told me that I wouldn’t believe how many young people like me comes in with the same problems and It’s the fault of weed. To be honest I didn’t really believe him because it was quite long since I’ve quit. But he did say that it does long term damage to the brain or something like that so I don’t know what to think really. Anyway to sum up I’m not smoking weed for about 2 years now and I’m not using alcohol for around a year (only on occasions around once in 3-4 months (lightly)).
The doctor was right, THC does have withdrawal effects that include anxiety, so that could have set the wheels in motion, so to speak. But you also mentioned that when you drink the shakes go away, so that still makes me think its withdrawal. But its been a long time. So I have no other alternative but to think you really screwed something up with the drinking. Your body obviously wants more, you can tell just by the way it responds to alcohol, you said it yourself, the shakes go away. I think you abused your body with the alcohol and weed and your brain is now paying the price. Alcohol kills brain cells. Weed screws up your serotonin levels as well as dopamine levels in your brain and effects your central nervous system causing shakes, among other things. I think you have a combination of those to things. I think you need to see a therapist to talk your problems out, and I think you need a psychiatrist to give you medication to put the chemicals in your brain back into check. Look we all have our experiences with alcohol and weed, its just that you may have over did it, more than your brain could handle anyway. So I would work on getting a good therapist who deals in dependency issues and a good psychiatrist so you can get some really good medication to heal your brain. Make sense ?
Yeah that does make sense. Come to think of it I did quit the weed because I was getting really weird when I smoked. I remember one time, when I was just standing in my room for like 20 minutes and listening to what was going on outside really paranoid, well that paranoid type of stuff happened almost every time I smoked. I’ll have to find a good psychiatrist to get meds and get everything straight. Although with the last one I didn’t have much success as he prescribed me seratonin and the sides were horrible (loss of apetite, loss of emotions, weird tingle sensations in the body, changing colours). Anyway, thanks David, you helped me a lot mate. When the situation will get better I’ll post here again, hopefully this theme of mine won’t get deleted. Again thanks a lot!
Dont settle for meds that make you feel funny. Good meds wont make you feel funny and there are a lot of good meds out their. Its as simple as saying “i want something else, this isnt working for me”. A lot of psychiatrists and doctors try to promote what pharmacy companies vend to them because the doctor gets a kick back from promoting certain meds. Not to say they dont work, but they force it on you when there could be something better for you out there. So its up to you to speak up and tell him the med isnt working for you and you want try something else. There are dozens to choose from and they all are a little different in the way they make you feel. A good medication will have no effects, you wont feel funny, you will be completely functional and happy. If the medication doesnt make you feel that way, its not the right medication for you. So dont hesitate after the break in period (the 2 - 6 weeks it takes for the medication to get fully in your system and effective), if you feel funny, hazzy, dizzy, shaky, nervous, mind racing, tired, etc, then you need to speak up and make the doctor give you something else. I have been through this process about 5 times and finally found the right meds for me. You have to be proactive and you cant give up.
Hey guys. Just a follow up. Been to a private clinic this Monday and the doctor basically said that the whole thing is from smoking weed. I told her that I’ve been on Sertraline before and it didn’t work out so well with the side effects and all so she prescribed me Trintellix(Vortioxedine) 5mg and Quetiapine 25mg (for better sleep) and some vitamins as well as getting a blood test this month. Well for first few days I have to take third then half and then full pill of Trintellix and half pill of Quitiapine for the whole term so it’s 12.5 mg. Wasn’t too keen on Quetiapine since I fall asleep pretty fast but found out that I don’t get that deep relaxing sleep since I have 2-3 practically every night and it shouldn’t be that way (and I did develop some serious lines under my eyes since all of the physical symptoms started happening). Anyway since I’ve started the medication I feel worse, more shaky, more tense and nervous and the sleep is kinda the same still getting quite a bit of dreams. Don’t know if it’s normal that it’s worse before it gets better. The doctor did say that I will feel better but only by about 30%, so it’s only the beginning of my treatment. Well if any of you guys know anything about this Trintellex medication or have any advice on the whole situation I’ll be glad to read your replies. Thanks for reading.