... on for around 2 months. I recently stopped taking Soma cold turkey unaware that I could be dependent upon it. I have been off of it for approximately 2 weeks and have been getting weird symptoms. It started as a fainting feeling. Now I am constantly buzzy/dizzy in my head, I feel like someone is choking me and the ground feels like it is moving under my feet. Has anyone experienced withdrawal symptoms like this?
I was recently on Soma 350 for back spasms. I would take 1-4 per day depending on my pain. This went
Question posted by jamcconnell on 31 March 2012
Last updated on 11 July 2023
The information on this page reflects personal experiences shared by our community members. It is not reviewed for medical accuracy and should not replace professional medical advice.
5 Answers
neferteri1
2 April 2012
My symptoms started as soon as I cut down one pill... I think it was within a day... I hope you see a Dr. to properly come off of this med... smiles to you! :)
neferteri1
1 April 2012
I was on 4 soma per day for 8 years due to two cervical fusions. I went off a pill a week at first and had similar withdrawal symptoms..my advice to you is to call your Dr. and have him give you a proper taper down off of this med. It is metabolized as a tranquelizer, so you will have a rebound affect. I am cutting down half a pill every three weeks now... but I was on them for a much longer time... good luck to you and glad you weren't on them for too long a time!
jamcconnell
1 April 2012
You had similar symptoms? Because I was beginning to think I was crazy. Were you dizzy/buzzy? And how long had you been off the soma before the symptoms started?
subzero58
1 April 2012
soma,was under the same DEA control category as methaquaalone or qualudes,a hypnotic or used for sleep.Soma was close but quite the same.it had a muscle relaxing and hypnotic affect.people on methadone would take them and so totally loose it we would call them Somatose,like comatose,no JoKe.any opiates and Soma are a deadly combo.there are a few others that are just as dangerous.mixing pills can and will kill you.the woman who calls herself hippie chick know all this all to well.cause if she has been around like me im sure she could tell you im not joking.subzero58
Buddy1971
1 April 2012
Sub that's exactly what I felt like! I made a phone call to the hospital & to this day don't remember what it was for,& they may not have the 1/2 life of most benzo's but they hit you so much harder & even the strong opiates I'm on don't get me goofy like that Soma did.
Buddy1971
1 April 2012
I wanted to share my experience with Soma because I figure the more people whe do you might run accross someone who has had your experience. Now this is the starange part,at least with me. I've had two C-1 to C-2 vertabre fussions,the 2nd because the first didn't take an although I'm not a suing person.
I've never sued anyone to be exact,but after the 1st attempt the surgeon who I now believe was a quack & how someone who has the ability to leave me paralized & is still practicing prescribed Diazapam which is a controlled substance & Soma not being a controlled substance for muscle spasms which I thought was strange just on that fact,but when I asked my doctor to prescribe it her words went something like this " Soma is a very habit forming drug & I'm unwilling to write it for you" which is REALLY STRANGE because at the same time I was being prescribed by my new doctor( I switched from the "Quack" in my opinion because after the first operation I kept telling him that something wasn't right,but he didn't seem to care espesially with something that if I'm lucky could be blowing in a tube to move a wheelchair & worse case I die! Well he had an M.R.I or possibly it was a Catscan,shoot it might have even been a common X-Ray,but anyway he told me that the screw(at this time there was only one screw) had moved a little,well I'm very mechanically inclined & I know if pull the screw out with a pliers it pulls out all the wood in front of the threads like a snowplow & all the threads pull all m& actully makes more dangerous then before because if you imagine even something like a wooden quarter,then put a screw through it & then pull,not use a srewdriver to just take it out the right way your not going to pull out all the wood,but like I said if use a screwdriver the threads will stay in tact for the most part,but back to the wooden quarter,now not only do you have hole in it,you have a larger hole with a less area to break. Sorry to go off on a tangit,but I felt I had to explain how at least with my doctor she'd rather write a prescription for a controlled substance rather then Soma,so she must know something about it then I do. Also at the same time she was writing me 2 100mg M.S Contin & 6 4mg Dilaudid which are 10X as addicting as Soma. I tried some Soma from a friend(yeah,yeah he wasn't supposted to do it but I wanted to see if they helped with the muscle spasms,& they did but boy I'll tell you they get you really loopy & that's compared to all the medications I mentioned earlier! I just took one,I forget the mg's but it was only a single pill & it had me doing & thinking some crazy things! Sorry,like I said I haven't been on them consistently but they sure have some strange side effects. I'm sure someone else will answer who has been on them for awhile. Good luck.
Inactive
1 April 2012
My hubby has had two neck fusions, & when they took out his pituary tumour thru the nose they bent his neck back so far in surgery they broke one of the scres, & no one will fix it or take it out. He now has chrontic headaches because of it!
Inactive
1 April 2012
That was screws broke!
Buddy1971
1 April 2012
Yup I totally agree with you. That Quack with Dean put me in quite a bit a bit of danger for one because I used to bike a lot & by him telling me that my neck was "fine" & when I switched HMO's all the new surgeon did was take a simple X-Ray & looked at it for less then 10 seconds & say,nope it's has to go & when I asked him is the old screw going to have to come out? His response was if you didn't have skin covering it,it would fall out! Now as I said I was out biking quite a bit & one bad or maybe not so bad & I could have been paralyzed or dead!! And we have people who want to protect & keep it the same. I was waiting for a prescription & happened to look at an O.T.C drug,I think it was an allergy drug & it was 40$!! Now I know it doesn't cost them that much to make them but who could afford that?
Inactive
1 April 2012
I know what you mean too. My husband has a pacemaker now so no more MRI's, but it still shows broken on a CT scan & can't get anyone to fix it! Our neurosurgeon that put it in went off to Princton to teach. He was the best damn neurosurgeon we ever had too.
Buddy1971
1 April 2012
Yeah it's screwed up with doctors sometimes. IF the first doctor would have done the job right the first time I might not be in the situation I'm in now! Even thoughi had income continuation insurance pretty much the same as Aflac,I went back to work (voluntarily) because I loved working at the job I had which was running the shipping & mailing clerk at University of Wisconsin where I was pretty much my own boss & the only time I talked to my boss was when we talked about our dogs,speaking of which I probably have the worse breed you can have if you have a neck injury & that is a rescue Pit Bull that when I got when he was 10 months old & he was in such bad shape every rib,vertabre,& every other bone was visible.
The prior owner should be shot! He's 10 years old old now but still pulls like a Mack truck which hurts my neck even though he knows every command there is one thing that is true(about the only thing that is true about Pit Bulls that is true that isn't caused by irresponsible dog owners) is that they are stubborn! I've owned a lot of dogs in my 40 yrs. from Springer spaniels,Irish Settters,German Shepards,& plenty of mixed breeds(hate calling them mutts) & they were all adopted or saved. Sorry I got off the subject but it does have something to do with pain. Just to finish my dog story but I wouldn't get any other breed after owning Buddy. He's the sweetest,loving dog besides my shepard Duke but Shepards have a problem with there hips & I love my dogs so much it kills me when they die. My brother who I live with has a rescue Pit Bull,a female & they get along so good you'd think they lived together for ever but in reality they've only lived together since November & she's his girlfriend(of coarse there both fixed) which just proves they don't like fighting & I think people who do that should be shipped to Afghanistan with a there entire body tattoed with with the American flag(don't get me wrong I am very thankful for our brave men & women fighting & sacrificing for us) I dropped in the tribal area. Maybe then they would know what it means to have no control over what happens to them,THERE I GOT THAT OUT OF MY. SYSTEM!! But as I was saying about the first doctor screwing up the 1st operation,after the 2nd neurosurgeon did the operation to fix the 1st it took 4 screws & now I can't turn my head to the left at all & that's not the worst part! When he did the operation he found an infection in the vertabre that required me to have a pic line put in that was hooked up to this little box that had antibiotics in it & I had to use that for about a month which I could handle but what I want to know is how did the infection get in there if not from the first "quack" who did the operation? It caused me to have to resign from my awsome job because it changed how much I could lift,stand,& even sit upright! Like I said before I've never sued ANYONE but this guy deserved it because he cut my earnings in half if not more & since I was with the union I would have continued to get a raise every year. I don't like having to stay home lying on the couch with my head propped up so the pain doesnt get worse. Another thing I don't understand is I was going to P.T getting ultrasound & electrostimulation to try & keep the amount of narcotics to a minimum but after a month they said I'd reached my limit so up went the drugs,what kind of sense does that make? Anyway thanks for listening to me babble. ADOPT A DOG TO HELL WITH BREEDERS & PUPPY MILLS!!!
Inactive
2 April 2012
AMEN! Buddy have you ever gone to the site Causes.com? It's a rescue site too, plus all others like the rain forest, breast cancer & on & on, but I got the purple paw jewelry, & a tee shirt. They have everything,(very reasonable) & fed 42 bowls of dog food to the rescue dogs. We have a rescue dog too only she's a Bichon. (I m allergic to dogs, cats & such)The rescue site is so cool. I don't buy a lot, but it is so resonable. Check it out... Mary
Buddy1971
2 April 2012
Yes,sign alot of petitions & read Care2causes.
Inactive
3 April 2012
Will do, & already do sign petitions all the time! Can I add you name to the one for the FDA where they are going to make blood pressure & diabetes drugs OTC? Can you believe that??
Buddy1971
3 April 2012
Sure. I'm always willing to help &(now this is just my opinion but republicans & the "tea party nuts" are all about big busisness & giving money to people who already have far more then they need but feel they need more) my uncle owns what I concider a small business(he has one employee) & I don't see them giving him any breaks that's just for G.E subsidizing big oil who make record profits every year. I got some bad news or I believe it's going to be. My younger brother was feeling very weak & could hear his heartbeat in one ear to start then both & his urine was very dark & thick.
Well he finally went to the hospital & they told him he had 1/2 the blood he was supposed to & some how his blood was " eating itself" ? Wouldn't you know two days after he went to the hospital he got a letter saying his insurance had lapsed! Our wonderful governor(Scott Walker)for now,we got far more signatures to recall him & most of his cronies in congress,the guy is a college drop out who took away collective bargaining & my mom & myself before my neck injury were/are U.W employees.) they haven't been able to even tell us what is wrong with my brother yet but my dad got a call from him today & he mentioned something about surgery & radiation which is never good,but if it's surgery it at least sounds like they can treat him. Hope everyone is well.
Inactive
6 April 2012
OMG! Buddy, I hope your brother is going to be ok! Sorry I didn't see this sooner. Do they think it's from a bleed somewhere or maybe a type of leukemia or what? Do you know anything yet. He will be in my thoughts for sure, & you & your family too. Let us know what is going on, please? ... Mary
Buddy1971
6 April 2012
Yeah,they said it was non-hochkins Lymphoma or leukemia,it might be treatable we'll just have to wait & see. Thanks for caring.
Inactive
1 April 2012
jam,
the only symptoms i have ever experiened other than expected muscle relaxation, are restless leg syndrome. i had been on soma for years, but wheni started havng rls... i quit cold tukey. i did not have any untoward reactions that i could tell. although, the reason that somas are controlled is that they metabolize through first pass thru the liver into something similar to quaaludes (from back in the 70's) a major tranquilizer. go figure. anyway, that might be the probe you are experiencing... so wait until all the metabolites are gone and you will be fine.
good luck and peace out,
the sweet hippie
DzooBaby
2 April 2012
Soma breaks down into Meprobamate which is the same chemical that was in Miltown which was a popular sleeping/antianxiety pill in the 60's and 70's. It was taken off the market because it was so addictive.
Inactive
3 April 2012
Dzoo,
Couldn't remember which bad boy it was... seems I need to bone up on my medications ... a lot has changed since 2002!
Thanks,
The Forgetful Hippie
Sunny Beach 223
11 July 2023
i know this is old but how long did it take to get through the withdrawal from stopping?
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Further information
- Soma uses and safety info
- Soma prescribing info & package insert (for Health Professionals)
- Side effects of Soma (detailed)
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