Healing From the Psychological Effects of Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics

While there is much information about the physical problems associated with the damaging effects of the Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics, there  has been little time spent on the Psychological Effects of Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics. This article is part one of a two part series, with the second part being Nine Tips to Help You Heal from the Psychological Damage of Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics, is intended to give hope to those afflicted with symptoms like anxiety, depression, insomnia and suicidal ideation post Fluoroquinolone Toxicity. If you are new to this information about the damaging effects of these antibiotics, be sure to read our Fluoroquinolone Introduction Here.

It is my belief that most floxies (what people who have been damaged by the Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics call themselves) heal with time, but the psychological symptoms of an adverse reaction to a fluoroquinolone can be so devastating that suicide may seem like the only option. People are dying by their own hand who very likely would have healed, quite possibly to see 100% of their former quality of life restored. But they didn’t see that day of healing.

They needed help to be able to hang on just a little bit longer. If you are hanging on by a thread, if your symptoms seem intolerable, please keep reading. Believe me when I say that I was where you are, but today I am very close to 100% healed. I am living a completely normal life and am in many ways healthier physically, emotionally and spiritually than I was before I got floxed. I see now all I would have missed out on had I given up back when things were terrible beyond the telling of it. My life now is filled with joy and wonder.

How Damaging Are the Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics?

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics harm human bodies in a variety of ways. There are some floxies who have Tendon Damage from the Fluoroquinolones, but never experience the horrifying, relentless insomnia, terrifying hallucinations, crushing anxiety, unbearable agitation and the black well of depression that so many of us are stricken with after being poisoned by drugs like Cipro, Avelox or Levaquin. Some people have only the psychological reaction, while others see Connective Tissue Damage like Aortic Aneurysm along with autonomic nervous system disruption.

To me, that is what the psychological reactions really boil down to– an over activation of the sympathetic nervous system (fight, flight or freeze) and an under activation of the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest.) Both of these nervous systems are actually branches of what is known as our autonomic nervous system. Autonomic means it is not under our conscious control.

Why People Get Psychological Effects of Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics

People get Psychological Effects of Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics because the fluoroquinolones affect our autonomic nervous system and we are quite likely to feel fear when we can find no reason to be afraid and to experience anxiety when we are not actually feeling anxious about anything. These emotions occur apart from any psychological basis. Normal emotions may seem blunted or absent. This was my experience and I have to say that the fear I experienced post flox was worse than any fear I have ever known. Normally, I can talk myself out of being afraid and I can control my emotions pretty well. But with the post flox fear the more I would try to calm myself the worse it would get and since I was not actually afraid of anything it was impossible to confront and deal with the nameless fear.

It usually happened when I was most relaxed or trying to fall asleep. The anxiety I felt post flox was strange in that I almost was reluctant to call it anxiety. I was not feeling anxious, and yet half my face felt numb and there would be a strange pressure in my face or in my head. I would have difficulty taking a deep breath. I might even be trembling or have a feeling like I was vibrating. These symptoms happened when I should have been relaxed. Attempting to relax made them worse.

First off I am going to say that at nearly three years out I rarely get that post flox fear anymore. I have some very mild anxiety symptoms if I have been overdoing it but they are pretty easily ignored, and unlike in the early days, if I relax they go away. I am always able to relax, whenever I want to. I waited a long time for that. There was a time that attempting to relax or sleep caused me to experience a roaring tinnitus, pounding heart beat, overwhelming fear, cramping muscles and burning skin everywhere. Every single time I tried to fall asleep I would bolt upright in pain and terror. This would sometimes continue for two or three nights in a row. But it stopped happening. I sleep normally almost every night now. I think I sleep a little better than I did prior to Cipro.

There are many unpleasant symptoms that occur when your autonomic nervous system is compromised. There is not room to list everything I went through. If your symptoms are not identical to mine, that does not mean that yours will not also resolve 100%. A lot of things can go haywire in a body when “fight/flight/freeze” and “rest and digest” are not balanced. I prefer to think of our nervous systems as being out of balance as opposed to damaged. Our body wants to put our autonomic nervous system back into balance and it will work at doing just that. We have neural plasticity. That means our brains and nervous systems can adapt after being harmed with the psychological effects of Fluoroquinolone antibiotics.

These Psychological Problems are Not In Your Head

There are theories as to why the autonomic nervous system gets thrown out of whack for many floxies. The most likely, I feel, is because our receptors for gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) are compromised. They don’t respond to GABA as they should and GABA is the main neurotransmitter of the “rest and digest” branch of our autonomic nervous system. GABA calms everything down. When it is not present (or present but our nerves cannot respond to it) we cannot calm down. We may even get a paradoxical response to things that should help us calm down. Initially, magnesium could cause my heart to race and my blood pressure to sky rocket– the exact opposite effect magnesium usually has on the human body.

Our body wants to put our autonomic nervous
system back into balance and it will work at doing
just that. We have neural plasticity.
That means our brains and nervous systems
can adapt after being harmed with the psychological
effects of Fluoroquinolone antibiotics.

When my body could not give me relaxation it gave the opposite: stimulation. The good news is that there is absolutely no evidence that GABA receptors do not upgrade, or return to normal or very near normal functioning, with time. The bad news is we have them literally all over our bodies and when they heal we feel it. I have found the benzo withdrawal support sites to be helpful in explaining how downgraded GABA receptors heal. People who took benzodiazepines may also have damage to their GABA system, so they and floxies share many symptoms.

Keep reading for Part Two: Nine Tips to Help You Heal from the Psychological Effects of the Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics.

If you are suffering from any of the symptoms of Fluoroquinolone Toxicity, we highly recommend following the protocol in the Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Solution book. With a money-back guarantee, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by the information you’ll learn.