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BUSPAR AND VIVID DREAMS. PLEASE HELP.

Hi,

Does anyone taking Buspar have vivid dreams or wake up a few times in the middle of the night?  I just want to know if its the medication that is causing this.  If so, what should I suggest to make it stop?  I don't really want to go on a new medication in fear of getting dependent on it.  thanks!
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Avatar universal
Hi,

I was taking Buspirone for several months because I heard that it would take 6 - 8 weeks for some people feel the effect. The medicine had little effect on me and I also noticed it made me very drowsy about half an hour after taking it. I was given 5 MG, two times a day. I took one at 6.30 am and the other at 5.00 pm. I started having very vivid and constant unpleasant dreams after I was on Buspirone. It worsened my anxiety disorder and woke me up with panic attacks. I tried to stay on it because I wanted to wait until it became effective. I talked to doctor and he pumped it to 5 mg, 3 times a day because he thought the dose might not be sufficient. Right on that night, unpleasant dreams turned into nightmares. I stayed on for several days but the dreams were too frightening so I went to the initial dose. I talked to the doctor again he told me to try to stay on it longer. I did again and the nightmares returned. I finally decided to taper it down and stopped taking it. It’s been 5 months since I stopped, I have still had very vivid and bizarre dreams constantly every night and throughout my sleep. I woke up feeling very tired like I didn’t sleep at all. I wish I had stop right away after the first day I was on it, after it gave me those vivid and unpleasant dreams.
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Avatar universal
Yes! Vivid visions of the realm of hell! Bizarre sexual experiences, demonic activity, etc.! Been off Buspirone for over a week and things are finally getting back to normal!
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1 Comments
Well, that's good to hear.!  The getting back to normal part as your dreams sound pretty disturbing!  Did you start a different med or what is the situation?  
Avatar universal
I've been taking buspirone along with alprazolam for anxiety attacks and generalized anxiety for a little over 2 weeks now. My buspirone was initially prescribed as follows: (5mg) Take 1/2 to 1 pill, 1 to 3 times daily as needed for anxiety. Take 1 to 2 pills at night. The alprazolam was prescribed as follows: (.5mg) Take 1 to 3 pills daily as needed for anxiety. I would normally take the buspirone throughout the day without taking them at night for a few days and the one day that I took one before bed, it literally made my night terrible. I couldn't sleep more than an hour and it was not restful at all...It was like my sub-conscious was assaulting me with negative dreams...so I stopped taking it at night. I did a follow-up with my doctor a week after starting the meds said that she had not heard of it causing bad dreams (which I find odd because it's all over the internet and it's a documented possible side-effect) and she thought that it may be me just adjusting to the medicine. She upped my buspirone dose to 10mg, 2 to 3 times a day and I've been adjusting okay...when I'm awake...I took one 5mg pill before bed and couldn't fall asleep even though I was tired, but when I fell "asleep" it was an absolute nightmare. I would have terrible dreams of relatives and constantly being in bad and frightening situations that seemed incredibly real, even when I'd regularly awake from these bad dreams, it was as if I was in a wakeful nightmare...I finally had my last nightmare in the morning and it sent me into a panic attack which mad the situation 10x worse. I felt like killing myself just to be able to get away from this wakeful nightmarish feeling...I'm going to talk to my doctor about this, but the ONLY relief I've had from anxiety that has had zero side-effects is the alprazolam. It brings me back to being a normal person. I understand that it is not meant to be taken long-term, but if it's the only thing that ACTUALLY WORKS, why would I continue with a medicine that affects me so negatively like buspirone. I'm literally taking the alprazolam in order to counter the side-effects of the buspirone...
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7 Comments
Some more detail might be helpful.  Were you put on both drugs at the same time?  if you were on the alprazolam already, why was the buspar added?  Does your doctor know that buspar doesn't actually work very well in clinical trials and mostly it's used nowadays when an antidepressant doesn't work well enough and needs some more of a boost?  As for taking a benzo every day the way you're doing, yeah, it's probably going to make it very hard to quit.  Eventually you might find you keep needing to take more and more of it for it to continue working -- this happens when you get addicted to it (not everyone gets addicted to addictive drugs).  Antidepressants are also very hard to stop taking, but when they work, they work all the time.  Therapy is very hard to get to work, but when it does, your problem is fixed and you don't need drugs at all anymore.  If the alzaprolam is working for you and that's what you feel is your best option, again, why did you add the second drug?  
And if the buspar is giving you such bad side effects, why did the doctor double down on it?  Are you seeing a psychiatrist or a general doc?  If a drug is just too hard to tolerate usually you try something else, but if you are having bad side effects and the doctor's take is that with more time you'll get used to it, it just seems odd to increase the dose until that happens -- it would seem to just invite more of the bad effects.
I'm doctor who practices in family medicine so a general doctor. Her idea was that my body was getting used to the medication, but I'm going to tell her that it's not working for me. I was put on both the alprazolam and buspirone at the same time, but the only thing that's really worked thus far is the alprazolam. I've not been on xanax for more than 3 weeks. I've had one CBT session for an assessment and have CBT scheduled a little over a week from now, which I'll be attending weekly. I've had addiction problems in the past, but I have someone administering the alprazolam as prescribed so I'm not over-doing it. At most, I'm taking 1.5mg per day. I've also heard that the buspirone is not very effective from my cognitive behavioral therapist when she did my initial assessment. I've been very hesitant to take this drug or ssri's because of the risk factors they have, unlike alprazolam. Just because I almost will inherently become physically dependant on alprazolam, doesn't mean they can't just ween me off it when my anxiety is at a more manageable state.
She's a doctor*
At some point, if you're going to continue using meds, try finding a psychiatrist.  I've been at this a long time, unfortunately, and can't tell you psychiatrists are all great at what they do, they're not.  But a good one just knows more about these drugs and how to use them because that's all they do, whereas a general doc knows a little about a lot and a lot about nothing.  I can't tell you a psychiatrist wouldn't have increased the dosage of a drug that has a spotty record or doing anything and that was bothering you a lot, but it's more likely they wouldn't.  Not sure what you mean that antidepressants have risk factors -- benzos are actually very risky drugs.  If you stop them too quickly they can cause seizures.  They are addictive.  They are very hard to stop taking.  They have to be taken over and over if you have continual anxiety because their effects wear off, and when they do they can make us very tired.  What I'm saying is, all drugs are risky.  I'm not sure that antidepressants are riskier than benzos -- it depends on how a drug affects you personally.  Now, that's not the main point here -- if a drug is working well for you there's really no reason to stop it unless you feel you can make it without meds.  So that's not what I'm saying, just that you might not have an accurate risk appraisal.  They're all risky, and the amount of risk depends on the individual's reactions to a particular one.  By the way, BusPar is kind of an odd drug, as it affects serotonin to some extent -- not as much as an ssri or snri, but it does have some affect.  Just doesn't seem to be enough of an effect on anything to be all that useful for most people.  As for weaning off, again, psychiatrists are going to much more knowledgeable about that than a regular doc, as that's what they do every day, all day, if you find a good one.  You don't want someone who will set some arbitrary schedule for you when the time comes -- you want a schedule that suits you.  Just make sure they do it carefully.  Best of luck with the CBT -- it's not easy to do but seems to have the best track record for anxiety.  Work hard at it, it will require that.  
I appreciate the feedback. I've been doing some research and I am almost positive that I've got a GABA deficiency. I have nearly all of the symptoms and I'm sure it's due to prolonged alcohol use. I've been a heavy drinker for about 5 years and recently quit. I'm aware of post-acute withdrawal syndrome and the many effects it can cause. I was caught in a vicious cycle of only getting relief from drinking because the symptoms of the anxiety and everything else would hit me like a brick when I was sober. Thank God I'm out of that cycle and that I'm free from alcohol now, but it will take me a good while to get back to normal. I'm always going to opt for the homeopathic route rather than western medicine if I can so after some research, I think I'll talk to my doctor about passion flower and saint john's wart. I know you're not supposed to take things that affect your GABA or serotonin while on medications like benzodiazepines or SSRI's, but that's why I'm going to talk to my doctor first.
Well, you don't take St. John's Wort if you're on antidepressants, but you can if you're on benzos just as you can take an antidepressant along with benzos.  The danger is theoretical, as nobody actually knows how St. John's Wort works and I'm not sure anyone has reported a problem of serotonin overdose because of taking it, but it has other side effects that are much more common, such as sun sensitivity.  Passionflower affects serotonin a little perhaps and also affects GABA, so you wouldn't want to that that one probably if you were trying to be completely safe if you were taking either an antidepressant or a benzo, but then, you wouldn't be taking BuSpar either and docs give it to people on antidepressants all the time, so again, the dangers are more theoretical than reported.  I doubt you have a GABA shortage, but if you did, these meds won't fix that -- they don't increase it, they make it work differently that the brain does naturally.  There is a way to make more if you need more, and that's to take the substances the body uses to make them, which are mainly the pseudo-amino acid taurine and B6 (you don't want to overdo B6, you just need to have enough).  But you wouldn't take those if you're on a benzo again because of the theoretical risk.  Just as antidepressants that affect serotonin don't make any more of it, they just reuse it over and over whereas the body naturally would break it down and evacuate it as the natural brain prefers freshly made serotonin, not used stuff that keeps washing around in the brain because a drug prevents the enzyme from breaking it down.  If you were truly lacking serotonin, and almost nobody is, you'd again take what the body uses to make it, which is tryptophan and B6 along with Vitamin C.  I assume amounts can be tested, but never are because almost nobody lacks them, it's just known that if you alter how the brain uses them you can get some symptomatic relief but these things are not at all the cause of the problem.  Nobody knows the cause.  As for protracted withdrawal syndrome, that's also not common, though it's killed me.  What's more common is just some people have such difficulty stopping that it can be a major problem for them to keep functioning while doing it and sometimes get new mental illnesses while going through it.  But most people quit without long-term problems.
Avatar universal
Vivid Dreams, More Like Vivid Nightmares! I wasn’t on any other medication other than Amlodipine for prehypertension and I’ve been on Buspar for one week now. The past two nights I’ve had really bad nightmares that woke me up. I don’t usually dream or remember dreaming when I’m sleep and I certainly don’t have nightmares but now I am having them. I take one 7.5mg Buspar in the morning and one at night and it seems to have helped with my anxiety some but I will be discontinuing my use.
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Avatar universal
Ive been on buspar for headaches after a concussion. Its been 4 months now. Since our car accident. The headaches remain. Nothing gets rid of them. The Dr. Upped my dosage of buspar and now I am unable to sleep. I am having very vivid grotesque dreams. Monster and demons type stuff. The most sleep I get is roughly an hour at a time due to them. As I write this I have been up for almost 40 hours as the pain in my head is so bad. Most of my dreams start with these demon things and end in me being electrocuted or burned alive.    I thought these pills were supposed to help.   Oh and lets not forget the fact that they make you so light headed you have to lay down for a half hour after taking them. I dont have many options on meds as I refuae to take anything addicting.
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1 Comments
First, Buspar doesn't have much of a record of helping with much of anything, so there's that.  It does help some people, and maybe it's been found to help those with post-concussion problems, but any drug that makes you feel worse is just the wrong drug to be taking.  As for your addiction concern, even drugs that aren't technically labeled as addictive can be just as hard to take and stop taking as drugs labeled addictive.  Antidepressants are just as bad as benzos to stop taking for most people, for example, even though they're not labeled as addictive and the benzos are.  That shouldn't be your main concern -- either you're going to try medication or you're going to try something else -- there is a whole field of medicine, natural medicine, that might help you, including acupuncture, meditation, etc.  But if you're going to use medication for anything that affects brain neurotransmitters, it's going to be like taking addictive drugs anyway.  Can't tell you what to do, only the reality of these types of medication.  
Avatar universal
I have never taken any Benzo's and when I started buspar I had such terrible nightmares I had to start taking antidepressants because I started dreaming about past issues that troubled me and I thought I had been over. I cried almost every day and had to stop taking it. I just klonopin now at night at it usually lasts me through the next day unless I have a stressful situation then I will take it. Buspar helped the anxiety but the dreams were too much. I guess it's just up to you if the benefits outweigh the risks. In my case it did not.
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480448 tn?1426948538
This is a really old thread, if you want to start a new thread, you'll get more input.  I just wanted to say that some of what you're experiencing could be from the benzo taper.  How long were you taking benzos, which one(s), and how were you taking it?
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Avatar universal
This is exactly what is happening to me, I have been taking Benzo family scripts for years now, and with my new doctor I am being tapered off and switching to Buspar. Literally, every single night since I began taking Buspar daily, I have been having VERY vivid and almost always extremely unpleasant dreams, causing me to wake up usually a couple times in a night and am so disgusted by my nightmares that it's hard to fall asleep again. The odd thing about this is prior to beginning this medication, it was extremely rare for me to dream, and I would always sleep through the entire night undisturbed (heavy sleeper). I feel reassured knowing that I am not the only one experiencing this.
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Avatar universal
I have noticed that while taking BuSpar I have extremely vivid dreams, that are almost always unpleasant.  Its not an every once in a while thing either.  I just got back on BuSpar and the dreams have started again. These wild dreams are EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, and are so disturbing it takes me at least an hour to get back to sleep.  With so many people commenting about this same specific side effect it does make me feel better that I'm not the only one.
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Avatar universal
Yes Buspar made me have vivid dreams about the very thing I didnt want to think about - the husband who left me!!! Id have dreams where he would make me cry and say how much he didnt care about me...I couldnt sleep after that....I prefer xanax. I asked the Dr for xanax but they say benzos are additctive...i say: ALL DRUGS are addictive...And if Im prescribed Buspar 3x/day vs Xanax PRN, which is REALLY making you worse? Doctors are not God. You know your body ...fight for what works.had to goto a therapist, and 3 Drs before my therapist saw I was under hih stress and needed the xanax for my panic attacks. None of the other stuff is fast acting. Guess the saleforce doesnt psuh as much sincebenzos speak for themselves.THEY WORK FOR PANIC AND ANXIETY!!!!
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685562 tn?1447155231
Buspar is considered NON addictive in the sense that it wont kill you while going through "withdraws"
Its NOT addictive like Heroin, Benzos, Opiates, Coke, etc...
Its actually prefered to try for anxiety before a Doc puts a person on a Benzodiazapine.
Now, just like any other Physc med...they all have disountinuation syndrome, but Buspar is a non narcotic, so its not like if you take it for a week or so like your going to go through bad withdraws
It has been approved for long term use........but I myself dont trust the FDA
The Doc made a good choice trying you on that before he put you on a benzo."Benzos are highly addictive"

Ive noticed myself all Physc meds give me crazy dreams, sometimes I kinda like em, lol
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Avatar universal
Yes.  I was on Buspar for a couple of weeks and I had vivid dreams to the point that I couldn't get back to sleep.  I also had several other side effects that I just couldn't take so I quit taking it.
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Avatar universal
Yes, I was on Buspar for a few days, and it made me really groggy, so i started taking it at night to sleep through the side effects, and it made me have so very intense life like dreams that woke me up alot. Also, you need to be careful because you may become dependent on the Buspar. It had withdraw effects, and it's only supposed to be used short-term. Good luck!!!
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