trigeminal neuralgia (face pain, nerve pain) type symptoms in withdrawal?

Hi everyone, I am posting on behalf of my husband. Wondering if anyone has had trigeminal neuralgia type symptoms while in withdrawl, and if so, did it resolve?

 

My husband was on Celexa for four years, and did a fast taper. This left him very ill, and the doctors prescribed him xanax, ativan, buspar and zoloft which he took for 6 weeks, including two of those to taper off of them.  After that he was very very sick. Extreme anxiety, insomnia, body aches, extreme fatigue, feet pain, brain fog, etc. Then 6 months after tapering off of all meds, he started having left eye pain constantly, which he felt deep behind his eye and on his upper cheek.

 

It went away for a while, and now it is back. Symptoms of withdrawal come and go it seems every few weeks, of what I explained above. Whenever he touches his lip it sends pain to the eye/upper cheek. He doesn't experience lightning pains, stabbing, shocking, or anything like that. But it is always there, as a dull sore ache.

 

He will see a neurologist soon. His pcp seems to think it may be trigeminal neuralgia.

 

I did some digging and saw that celexa can cause neuralgia. I also came across several posts of people who had these type of symptoms for months to years after quitting SSRI or Benzo medications, and eventually it went away. With all of my heart I am hoping this is the case.

 

Would love to hear from anyone please, if they went through this? Thank you so much.

I had severe sharp stabbing pains when i was rapidly withdrawn from antidepressants and benzos. So severe it required opiates 24/7 which i took for years .I got off the drugs and it went away. This does go away it is not permanent.

Ty so much for the reply! Was the pain on one side of your face?

During the height of my misery during my rapid taper, just before I jumped, and during a period of work related stress, I suddenly got a blast of pain down the right side of my face extending from my ear to the corner of my mouth / chin. The best way I could describe it was if someone took a wooden paint stick stirrer and slapped me across the face with it. After the first day the pain faded into what felt like a sunburn. About a week the sunburn feeling faded and I've been left 7 months later with an occasional numb / tingling feeling near the corner of my mouth and chin on the right side. I'll be undergoing a MRI of the brain this week and anxious (to say the least) about the outcome of that.

 

I offer this detail not because my symptoms match those of your husband's identically, but because these medication do tend to aggravate that nerve in strange ways.

Thank you so much for the reply! I am sorry to hear about your struggles with these crappy symptoms! At the height of my withdrawal hell I suffered with weird nerve issues as well. ( None exactly like my husband, so I was reaching out here to see if others had things more like him)

 

But so much tingling and random numb sensations on my arm, wrist and hand. Had a nerve study done, showed nothing.

 

Then I was having these sensations where it felt like my brain would literally jump around in my skull. Like it would shake, followed by tingling on my scalp. Then I would get a weird random numb patch on my leg. I had an MRI done, and it was clear. I bet yours will be the same! Most of that has gone away now, though I am having some tingling/pain in my right wrist and hand lately.

Following

 

I had a dull, achy feeling deep in the eyeball(left eye is the one this symptom lasted the longest), and I also had(still do but less frequent) lightening speed, sharp, needle like stabbing sensations in both eyes. Usually an unusual amount of stress is the trigger for the latter symptom. Sometimes the stabbing pain is unbearable and feels like eye damage could result.

 

Also, early on during this ordeal, I had a rash appear that was mainly located at the bottom of my lip and ran down my chin like dribble. I went to ER and was told it was shingles. Was put on an antibiotic and it did clear up. Only other face issue was and still is, although not as intense, burning skin. Lastly, during the acute phase of this ordeal, my face easily became red....guaranteed symptom when under intense stress. These drugs seem to have a knack for leaving no stone unturned.