Beta blocker/Bisoprolol withdrawal and breathlessness

I was taking low-dose metoprolol, 25 mg twice a day that I cut down to 12.5 mg twice a day for about a week and then I just stopped. maybe I should have stretched out withdrawl more, so don't follow my example. I felt terrible while I was taking that drug for about one year for PVCs after a divorce. The wild swings in my heart rate and my blood pressure after stopping were pretty scary. So I am about two weeks out now and I’m still experiencing tachycardia with minimal activity and wild blood pressure swings, but I think its getting better. I felt pretty bad for about five days after stopping, and then started to feel better. I had very noticeable shortness of breath, tremors, and slight headache. The wild swings in my heart rate and in my blood pressure were pretty scary and I hope they stop soon. It seems to me that my vision has improved, not fuzzy any more. I still have SOB but maybe a little better. I will never take that medication again!!

one more thing... I had terrible face flushing while on the beta blocker. Thought I had developed rosacia but seems to be resolving. Had ridiculous fatigue while taking now seem to be returning to my usual active self. I should note I had breast cancer a year ago right after the divorce was final so was very stressful time for me. Am taking an aromatase inhibitor which has side effects too but at least I wont have the added side effects from the beta blocker.

im having problems with my heart rate going up to 135 to 140 when i stand up but it go down to 115 to 105 after walking around a little also everything is so fuzzy to me feel like i just woke up and can't get my head right.

guys I need help. I'm finally off the metoprolol for about 6 months. I'm having tachacardia again. every night I wake up with a heart rate of about 150. I dont know why. but since I cant take the beta blocker and I'm allergic to calcium channel blockers, I dont know what to do. does anyone know of anything natural to help. im freaking out. im sick of going through this every night. im afraid to go to sleep

just found out today i may have P.O.T.S and i think beta blockers cause it . i feel. like my life is over.

just found out today i may have P.O.T.S and i think beta blockers cause it . i feel. like my life is over.

just found out today i may have P.O.T.S and i think beta blockers cause it . i feel. like my life is over.

Hi All....just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's posted to this discussion as its been really helpful to know that withdrawal symptoms from Beta Blockers is a very real thing.

I was put on Bisoprolol (2.5mg) 3 weeks ago by my GP as my pulse rate "was a little on the high side" (87) when I got a routine checkup. I actually have "white coat syndrome" which causes my blood pressure and pulse to rise when in the GP's office. But on the day I went it, it wasn't my regular GP. The fill-in just gave me the prescription for Biso for 14 days. I now realize this was a poor clinical decision and I never even questioned it. Big mistake. I took them as ordered and after about 3 to 4 days started to struggle to do stuff (exercise etc...) I didn't initially make the connection until I found and read this forum. I stuck with them for another 5 days and then quit. 9 days in total. That was 7 days ago. The last 7 days have been hellish to say the least and the first 3 days were the worst. I haven't been able to do much. First couple of days I could hardly move. Spent a lot of it in bed. I'm feeling a lot more like myself now, but haven't been able to do any exercise just yet. I'm going to give myself a few more days before trying to get back into my routine. One step at a time as they say. I can relate totally to the withdrawal symptoms that people are going through. The weird thing was that I felt great before I started on the Biso. Its crazy that a small pill can be so destructive. I've been doing Keto for 2.5 years now and at 50, I can say I've never felt better. Lost loads of weight etc...I rue the day I started on the BB.

If you are struggling with withdrawal, here's a couple of things I can now reflect on based on my experience.

1. I drank bottles and bottles of water for the first few days. Don't quite understand what's the reason for it, but looking at many posts it seems to be a part of the withdrawal. If you are going through protracted withdrawal, you may need to guzzle the water.
2. Hardly ate anything...just getting off the couch / out of bed was almost too much. You may have a reduced appetite until you start to get over the worst of the symptoms.
3. Had the dreaded palpitations. This was very scary but is a reaction to the blocked adrenaline receptors suddenly becoming unblocked. I had read up on this so knew it was coming. The only way and most successful way to deal with this is deep and slow breathing as soon as you feel the "panic" coming on. That's how I got through it. It was either that or give in and pop a Biso. I was absolutely determined I was coming off them as I felt really bad on them. Probably you'll need to maintain a deep breathing maintenance regime even after the worst of the symptoms settle down. For most people on this forum, I can see people have been on them much longer than me, so you may find deep / slow breathing is necessary for months until you are completely free of the withdrawal symptoms.
4. I strongly recommend you put away your Fitbit / blood pressure monitor (unless there's a medical reason you need to check them for) as it will ramp up your anxiety levels everytime the readings change. All this will do is prolong your withdrawal and keep you anxious. In my head I told myself that the numbers were just numbers. Measuring them during BB withdrawal didn't make any sense. Your body isn't normal during this time.
5. Sleep when you can as the anxiety levels will likely keep you awake and you'll probably won't sleep easily due to them. If you wake up in the middle of the night with panic or palpitations, lie on your back and take deep and slow breaths to stay calm. When the panic attack passes, have a laptop and a few bottles of water beside your bed and distract yourself on the laptop. This will keep you in bed and allow the body to calm down a bit more. You might nod off again.

Additionally...if I can offer any comfort to anyone else going through this, I firmly believe that the withdrawal symptoms are directly related to the drug suppressing your adrenal system, and the huge "release" of all that when you quit. I was stressed out following my GP visit and a bit freaked out that I walked away with a BB tablet. Instead of allowing my body to get over the stress in the normal way I always do (a couple of days pass by / do some exercise etc...), I blindly started popping the Biso pills.

On a side note; I've also leaned a really valuable lesson in terms of blindly following the doctors advice when it comes to popping pills. I'm not saying you shouldn't, but I didn't challenge / question the doc or do any research myself before starting on them. It was only when I started to feel bad after a few days that I started to search for some answers, and then found all these posts.

I also believe that the action of the drug in terms of shutting down your breathing, results in hyperventilation (shallow breathing). This causes you to start breathing high up in your chest instead of deep down in your stomach. This is what causes the build of stress in the body. You actually don't notice this because the BB has the affect of dumbing down your autonomic systems. You just can't "feel" what's going on. All you notice is that you are "breathless". I only noticed this once the biso started to get out of my system after a couple of days. It was then that I was able to feel my breathing was all wrong, too much in the chest muscles and not enough the diaphragm. The only way to correct this is either through time (eventually it will correct itself), or better still to do your deep and slow breathing exercises. The problem if you leave it is you'll still be hyperventilating (shallow breathing) which will leave you still will panic, and on it goes. Try to get your breathing to calm down.

Lastly on the subject of quitting cold turkey or gradually; its interesting to read some peoples posts where their cardiologist told than to just quit...no big deal, whereas the leaflet that comes with the BB says it dangerous to just stop. Hard to know who is right. My decision to just tough it out was based on the fact that I'd only been on it for 9 days, and I figured out that "weaning" was only filling me up with more of the stuff. But if you've been on them for a long time, maybe weaning works better.

Cheers...Tom