Shakes and anxiety from prednisone taper?

[scotishcanadian]

Alright, so I had never experienced this until the last time I tried to taper off of prednisone. Whenever I would try to sleep at night, my body would get really restless. The only way I can describe it is you feel like there's this surge of energy welling up in you until it bursts and ends up making you do this twitch shake thing. It would get so bad that I would be left screaming because my body was so agitated and anxious. Weird thing is, I didn't notice it until I got down to 10 mg. I'm currently back up to 20 mg but am tapering again. I have 1 mg ativan on board this time, and am hoping that will help out because ativan knocks me on my butt [I take it broken up sublingual for nausea].

Anyone else experienced this?

 

[CLynn]

I have definately experienced the anxiety attack during a taper, especially if I don't do the tapering down by 5 mgs.

 

[Mark in Seattle]

The lower I go, the smaller the increments I must taper by. I start to have anxiety attacks if I'm an hour late on my dose when tapering. When I get in the 10-15mg range, I need to taper by about 1.5mg per 10 days. I bought a pill cutter at the pharmacy to help with this.

 

[Aura]

I get restless leg syndrome and that sounds similar to what you are describing

try this link
http://www.helpguide.org/life/restless_leg_syndrome_rls.htm

It may help, let me know if the link does not work. I find it really annoying with the restless legs cause you so want to sleep and your legs are going mental ika:

 

[scotishcanadian]

Hm, Aura I perused the article, and it seems like I have restless leg, but in my back when the agitation happens. I haven't had any for a couple of weeks because I'm back at 20 mg of prednisone, but this Tuesday my doctor is lowering my dosage, so I'm a bit leary. Btw, it's so good to read that I'm not the only one that experiences this.

 

[Aura]

Good luck when you drop your dose again, and I'm here if you want to chat - I so get the shaky, edgy, restlessness at bedtime feeling.

Take care

 

[archie]

Yes I felt I had to continually stretch my muscles it was bizarre, very annoying but not painful. It lasted about a fortnight and gradually disappeared it's def your body readjusting as it has to start producing cortisol again. Goodluck

 

[scotishcanadian]

Does anyone know roughly how long it takes your body to completely remember how to make steroids on its own again after you come completely off of prednisone?

 

[archie]

As far as I can remember your body produces roughly 5-25mgs of cortizol daily which fluctuates to adapt to certain stress eg trauma illness etc etc. Once you taper below this your body kicks into action straight away but prob takes a bit of time (week or two) to adjust hence the fact you taper off them gradually... (I think but I could be wrong - someone else might know better!!). If you stop steroids suddenly it will make you ill as your body hasn't had time to adjust.

 

[pat461]

i get the shaky feeling when i wake up it stops when i lay down to sleep but as soon as i get up it starts all over again on prednisone 40mg was on 60 mg but i hqve been told to cut back also on 800mg asacol 2x3 times per day
pat