Why Do Antidepressants Cause Brain Zaps?

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I remember trying to describe this sensation to my doctor about 10 years ago. To this day, I think she thought I was full of crap.

"All roads lead to tuberculosis." I will turn this car around right now, Mister.

Another important side-effect of SSRI discontinuation syndrome is potentially wild/dangerous mood swings and/or anhedonia (the feeling that nothing will ever make you happy ever again). Patients taking these medications *need* to be warned about these potential consequences of missing too many doses in a row, or suddenly discontinuing the SSRI/SNRI.

"Antidepressant Discontinuation Syndrome" is just a fancy way of saying "drug withdrawal". My dad explained these symptoms of "withdrawal" to his shrink like a decade ago and the dude said he wasn't going through withdrawal, and my dad retorted with "well why the hell does it feel like I am?!" and he had no response.

When I've stopped my SSRI I've always ended up being able to HEAR my eyeballs move laterally.

The wierdest part of the zaps for me were the perspective changes, like I was walking into a different room

I never knew this was a common thing.. I always described it as a "TV static", like someone was changing the channel in my head. I could practically hear the "Psst" sound it would make.

One side effect I didn't see mentioned for SSRIs is the effect on libido/anorgasmia. I know it's kind of awkward to bring up but that's why so many people (including my past self) quit taking their meds and many doctors will either not mention it at all or brush off concerns about it. It would be interesting to understand the biology behind it.

I was literally trying to explain this to a psychologist this morning and I was describing it like "someone just touched a 9-volt battery to my brain for 6 months every time I adjusted my eyes." I was at work walking from my desk to the bathroom and decided to count and I know it was over 100 times in the 2 minute walk. Thank you for this video!

I’m on venlafaxine. If I forget a single day to take it I get the zaps. I’d be happy to serve as an observation test subject for the docs lol.

I will never stop talking about how little we know about psychiatric meds. My prescriber was shocked that my WD symptoms lasted so long and were as bad as they were. I felt like I had the flu for a month.

As someone who has tried more than a couple antidepressants… It’s amazing how a pill that seemingly does nothing for you can certainly do something awful when you try to stop taking them 😅

Can confirm: ran out of Paroxetine on a long weekend and had to ration. Got brain zaps. Best way I can describe them is that it's kind of like that feeling when you're trying to fall asleep and you jerk awake (hypnic jerk, IIRC there's a SciShow episode on it), plus that feeling when you're zoning out and your attention snaps back, plus a sneeze, plus a jump scare, all kind of at once. "Zap" really does describe it well, though. It is not a fun experience.

I have found both lateral eye movement and lateral head movement make the zaps worse. Moving too quickly in general seems to aggravate it. Love the leaf sheep shirt by the way!

It's worth noting that ""antidepressant discontinuation syndrome"" is just a pharmaceutical term for withdrawal. Corporations are reluctant to admit that their drugs cause withdrawal for some reason.

Psychedelics are just an exceptional mental health breakthrough. It's quite fascinating how effective they are against depression and anxiety. Saved my life.

My sparkles! I feel seen

SciShow: a survey found that lots of patients said brain zaps were brought on by specific bevahiors like lateral eye movement. Me, who uses paroxetine: ...Ohhh, so that's what that thing is whenever l make my eyes go left and right quickly. For me, it feels more like the clicking of a lightswitch when it happens, but if said lightswitch is somewhere in-between the back of both eye sockets; it's not really painful per se, it just feels particularly overwhelming, especially with the nausea and dizziness on top -- like if my entire sensory system became hypersensitive or something.

Good to see people finally talking about this. Whenever I'd tell doctors I was feeling "electricity in my brain" when stopping venlafaxine, they'd give me a confused look.