Viramune - Sustiva - TRIPPING

[Whereismymind]

I think I've heard before that some people trip on ALL NNRTI's regardless of whether it is Sustiva or Viramune.  I was on Sustiva for a while, and my young, troubled mind couldn't take it anymore, so I switched to Viramune.  I've been handling the Viramune a lot better, but I noticed I've been having even more vivid dreams than when on Sustiva, and some of the same psychological side effects (although less evil than Sustiva's).  That makes me wonder if I'm one of the lucky few who get to TRIP on all NNRTI's.  Has anyone esle had this issue?  Should I be concerned about it?  Does anyone have any crazy stories to share about Sustiva?  I am very interested.

[Whereismymind]

By the way, whereismymind has nothing to do with this post or my mind.  It's just a song I like by the Pixies.

[lucas clay]

someone on the forum wrote that the dreams from Sustiva are like a bad acid trip, i would like to thank them, as it put to light what is happing to me. so real sometimes, and downright terrifying at other times.
sometimes during the day i will look at something and it wont look quite right, like a acid trip just a little weird.a little off cant put my finger on what is different

[newt]

1-5% perhaps of people on Viramune experience similar trippy side effects to Sustiva.  Prop means the NNRTI class is not for you, if you want a clear hear/good night's sleep.

- matt

[Whereismymind]

Thanks for the note.  1-5% huh?  Well the good news is that the dreams I have aren't all that bad.
On SUSTIVA, the dreams I had were my worst nightmares coming true.  Everything seemed to go wrong.
On VIRAMUNE, (which ive been on about a month) the dreams I have seem to be problems being solved.
It's an interesting difference and definitely more manageable than the sustiva.  I think I'll stay on this for a while.

[jordan]

when I first started Sustiva/Truvada I experienced vivid dreams with Sustiva.  It's been more than 1 year now and they have dissipated

[ajm_ldn]

A week ago I ditched Sustiva because of side-effects (tiredness, difficulty with mental focus).  I've had the reverse of you with the dreams.  My dreams are a lot worse the first week of Viramune than they ever were on Sustiva.  They're really awful, nightmarish ones.  In one I was trying to console my mother because it was somehow pre-known that I was going to die in less then 12 hours, at a couple min before 9AM.  I kept trying to figure out how to avoid dying in the dream but came to the conclusion that whatever I did, I'd die anyway and that the effort trying to avoid dying would probably be what created the circumstances of my death.  Nice mind f*ck.   Even after I woke up, I had the lingering feeling that this was some kind of premonition and wondered if I was going to die that day (even though I knew this thought was ridiculous - I ain't crazy!)  I very irrationally felt better when I made it to 9:30AM and found myself still alive.  And I'm only kind of joking.  On the way to work I was actually more careful than usual to be sure I didn't get run over or something.  That's very not like me.  In another dream, my ex-boyfriend was doing badly and had failed to find a job and I woke up feeling just really, really sad and guilty (I had to break off that relationship six months ago).  Now I still feel guilty and worried about whether he is okay - to the extent that I'm gonna call him this weekend to make sure.  So, this is really not pleasant and I am not the type that usually has bad dreams very often.  What's weird is that usually I just forget my dreams pretty quickly, but these recent ones are memorable and have a lasting effect on my psyche.  Bizarre.

My doc is a big name UK HIV doc and he did said the Sustiva would take 3 weeks to completely leave my system, so maybe this is some freak madness induced by my little NNRTI combo/cocktail thing going on.  Who knows.

I'm gonna give it a while and see how it goes.  No other side-effects whatsoever, thankfully.

[Whereismymind]

Huh. Yea, there are obviously some psychological effects with Viramune, but its weird cause they're never listed, but I've been on this regimen about 3 weeks since Sustiva and still having weird, if not more vivid dreams.  Most of them are good in the end, but some are bad.  Usually they start out with some rediculously terrible event and end up successfully.  Here's an example of one of my dreams:

DREAM: So my family and I are driving to visit my Aunt Patricia.  We get there, and she invites us in for tea, but something very strange is going on.  There are a lot of visitors in her house and since my Aunt Patricia lives alone, it doesn't seem to make sense.  My parents say it's time to get going and leave, and I follow after them, but when I get in the car, I notice I'm the only one there.  I get scared so I go back into my Aunt's house to find the rest of my family and notice the visitors scurrrying restlessly around, but no Aunt and no rest of my family.  Instead my friend Tracy is standing there.  We hear gunshots outside and get scared.  I look at her and ask "What's going on?"  Suddenly a masked man grabs her screaming into a closet, and masked men come with guns and lead me into the direction of the basement.  I soon become hostage to an armed force of strange men in the basement of my Aunt's house with several other people.  After two days of living as a hostage in the basement I find my sister there and she seems pretty cool about everything.  She says she also don't know what happened but she was taken as hostage.  I asked her what happened to my friend Tracy and she tells me that they killed her.  I asked about my parents and she thinks they were in on it.  So I say we've got to find a way to escape.  We roam around the house and notice that the men don't do a good job of guarding it, but as we stare out a window, a man comes up with a gun and says, "You know if you try to leave, your head will explode".  We nervously retreat.  Over the next couple of days we make our way up into the first floor of the house gradually building a trusting and somewhat friendly relationship with the men keeping us hostage.  We notice a couple of times they leave us unattended to.  Finally, on one such occasion, my sister, asks, should we run for it?  I say yea, and we both take off out of the house and run down the street.  We need to hide immediately cause we know they'll be chasing us, so I stop two kids riding they're bikes and scream "We're hostages we need a place to hide!  Please help us!" but they just look like we're crazy and bike away.  Then I see the evil men come out of my Aunt's house and after us.  I look at my sister and tell her to jump off the cliff on the side of the road into the forest.  We do so and are concealed in the thick brush.  We run as fast as we can through the woods out onto another street and run into a stranger's house, where we are safe.
Two weeks later we make it safely back home, and find that my parents were in on it all along.  I yell at them for thinking that such experimental behavior was appropriate for their kids.  My mom just looks at me blankly and says "it was your dad's idea."  I yell at my dad.  "They held me at gunpoint!" I say.  He seems very sorry and says, "I thought it would be a good way to teach you principles."
WEIRD RIGHT???

[leatherman]

I had to drop the Sustiva because of the mental fuzziness more than the dreams. It's hard to have much of a life when you're walking into the walls of your own home. Been on Viramune for several yrs though, and haven't had any similar problems, thank goodness.
My Sustiva dreams were always about zombies. Everyone was infected except me and I was always on the run. Of course, even through the fuzziness, I understood that my poor subconscious was trying to deal with me be infected with HIV. I was always susceptible to having nightmares, but these were doozies. I told my doc, and now whenever he mentions Sustiva, I let my eyes glaze over, stick out my arms, and start mumbling "brains, brains" for a good chuckle out of both of us. LOL

[ajm_ldn]

Well, my possibly overly detailed dream account (above) has been followed by.... no more bad, intense dreams.  Maybe it helped to get the thing off my chest, or maybe the Sustiva has sufficiently left my system...  Who knows.  Anyway, my VL is undetectable and I'm now completely side effect free.  If I can just make it through the next month or so without a hypersensitivity reaction to the Viramune, I'll be so happy and relieved.