u/throwaway412869

Hello everyone. I am making this post in a very dark and desperate place. I am a 24-year-old male who, a little over a week ago, received an IV infusion of Compazine (prochlorperazine) while in the ER for an intense headache. I have a history of Tourette's disorder and restless legs syndrome, but neither of them were particularly severe or disabling at the time. As most of you can imagine, I very quickly developed intense symptoms of what I now know to be akathisia. The most immediate symptom was restless legs, very intense, but also an intense and overwhelming feeling of dysphoria. Now I have actually experienced something like this before (nowhere near the intensity), over a decade ago when I was given Zoloft (sertraline) as a child. I ceased taking that medication and was back to normal before too long (but not immediately). Although the sensation was intensely negative I was not too concerned about it because I thought it was a temporary effect of the medication. I asked the nurse to disconnect the IV before it finished (it was a drip) and discharged myself. I went home and fell asleep; I don't know how, I was probably just exhausted. I woke up the next day back to normal. There was nothing wrong with me and I was relieved the experience was over. I then went to bed that night as normal. I woke up the next morning. I immediately knew something was wrong. The dysphoria was back, even more intense and so were the restless legs. In addition I was sweating all over and I had the sensation of bugs crawling up and down my arms, all over my skin. I won't bother describing it in more detail since if you are browsing this subreddit you likely have first-hand experience. Suffice to say it is by far the worst feeling I have ever experienced in my life. I paced all that day and night and did not sleep. I paced the following day and rocked back and forth in bed that night. It got so intense I decided I would admit myself to a mental hospital in order to stop me harming myself, but all of a sudden, as it reached its maximum intensity, the restlessness subsided. I was able to lie down and sleep. However, at no point did the mental dysphoria subside, only the physical agitation. The restlessness came back the next day. The following day it was better, the day after worse. As I am typing this, 9 days since the infusion, the restlessness and sweating have subsided greatly, but the mental distress has not. I have been spending time while I can reading others' experiences on this subreddit and elsewhere. I am very concerned about my prognosis. I have read countless experiences of people who have had bad acute reactions similar to mine, but those have mostly subsided after 48 hours, once the medication has left the body. Of those people who have persistent symptoms, a frightening degree of them appear to have them permanently. As it currently stands I have complete anhedonia. I cannot enjoy anything, food, music, television, surfing the internet, anything. The actual restlessness has subsided slightly but there is just an emptiness in its place. I am looking for any reassurance or hope from anyone who has had a similar experience, particularly if you:

• had akathisia and extreme restless legs with dysphoria after a single infusion of an anti-emetic
• particularly if you received Compazine because I have read recovery stories, but they are mostly from drugs such as Reglan and Droperidol which I understand are less intense antipsychotics
• had akathisia come on or come back after an initial period of relief (as in the medication wore off and then the akathisia came back)
• had anhedonia that lessened after the physical symptoms lessened
• has sweating or the sensation of bugs crawling (formication)
• had a "windows and waves" pattern
• had any kind of "depersonalization" (I have the sensation that I am a changed person in some way and it is unpleasant, although it is not as intense as some accounts I have read)

Thank you so much in advance to anyone who chooses to reply, no matter what you have to say.