Lipitor Long Term use

[suzanne]

My husband had been taking Lipitor since 2001 and over the last four years he has undergone a personality change. He had become more reclusive, more aggressive, has a very cluttered mind and unable to concentrate and very confused when he was trying to explain things to me. Matters reached a head last year when I found out he had not been keeping up to date with our accounting records and he had also developed a need to collect all sorts of clutter then not throw anything away. So much so, we are currently separated as he has become someone I don't know anymore. Has anyone else experienced this with their partners/spouse? I thought I was going mad. I have also wondered whether he has the signs of early dementia. He gets very depressed, has a morbid jealousy and has almost become my stalker. I don't know if anyone else in the United Kingdom has thought about this drug but I have a strong suspicion that this have exacerbated any underlying mental health problems he may have had and brought them to the surface. He is 62, but walks sometimes like a man of 80, he has also become unsteady on his feet and has fallen over a few times for no apparent reason. I begged him to stop taking this drug when Trevor MacDonald (a newcaster here in the UK) did a story on Lipitor and I could recognise some of the symptons my husband had. He also drinks a fair bit, (two/three glasses of whisky to help him relax), usually between 12pm and 3am as he cannot sleep. He is either severely depressed or hyperactive and over the top. His whole body clock is out of sinc. Is it about time we in the UK started an action group or can I join you in your crusade to get some sort of recognition for the families of Lipitor takers. This may, just may have ruined our lives coping with these side effects.

[Cat Mom2]

Sound like typical statin drug side effects, all of them. Read up on the stories here and search on You Tube, see this mans story there (if this link works) *http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7KD7omFDAKo
Watch the whole thing and see how this man's behavior fits your husbands....

[Allen1]

Hi there suzanne,

your husband sounds a lot like myself, my poison was zocor for between 10 and 11 years usage. I was married for 18 years minus 2 days and the last year my wife was put through so much crap from me that I am embarrassed to think that the person who was a loving and caring husband could turn into that nasty unkind and uncaring man that I became. A lot of the time I was aware that I was being obnoxious but I really did not care, this was not the way that I had ever acted before in my life.

My now ex-wife and I still get along fine, she is happily married to a guy who treats her the way I used to prior to statin therapy. Six years later and from reading information from sites like this one, I now know what caused the mood swings and all those other problems. It is not too late for your husband to come to terms with the cause and to do something positive to help himself and you to stop this poison from robbing you both of your lives.

I think your husband will find that after the first glass of whisky, the second and third etc will not make a great deal of difference, statins also kill off any escape from reality that alcohol may have brought a brief relief for, from this misery that statins create.

I was never violent towards my wife, I did get angry over stupid little things (and still do), I have been off statins for a year now and a lot of things have improved but not gone away, I hope you managed to talk some sense into your husband and got him to stop taking that rubbish.

Good luck with sorting things out, and at least you know now that it is the medication that causes the madness to the victim and their loved ones alike.

Allen. :-)

[suzanne]

Hi Allen, thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I will indeed show my husband your reply. When you are in this situation, from my point of view, it is so very hard to understand the changes that can happen. The fear I have is that he became so easily a monster in my eyes that I cannot believe he will change. I'm sure you have had moments of regret too but there are no winners in this and I ask myself if I could have been a bigger person and looked deeper in to the causes, but when you are on your knees financially and emotionally you either sink or swim. I decided to swim and that meant the only way to get my husband to acknowledge what he had become was to throw him out. Seeing someone self destruct is soul destroying to watch, if Statins are the reason for his behaviour, together with alcohol then together or apart I have to support him in his fight to become the person I knew once more. How readily we accepted this form of treatment for his cholestrol and yet how blind we were to the side effects. Did you ever become suicidal at all? Become jealously possessive? Why is the medical professionals not listening to those of us who have watched the monumental changes in behaviour in those taking these Statins? Where is the duty of care? Thank you so much for your posting - they create information and understanding that will help us all who visit this site.

[Allen1]

Hi there Suzanne,

in my case the separation was a good thing, it gave me and my wife a chance to get our heads sorted or at least some space to think. I would have only become more uncaring if she kept putting up with my attitude and cruelness. A lot of the times I didn't even realize what a terrible thing I had said or the way I had said it, on the other hand there were times I really went all the way to hurt her feelings and I didn't care or I may have even enjoyed doing it because of the cruel and sadistic way my mind had grown.


The vivid dreams that occur are so bad that sometimes you can't distinguish what happened in them from real life, I have on many occasions mentioned to people about something in a conversation that we have had, that conversation never ever took place in the real world! The dreams were always of a negative nature and you would get out of bed in the morning just as tired as you were the night before.

I would be lying if I said that suicide had not crossed my mind, like many other statin users it has, but thinking about my granddaughter overcomes that moment of despair and keeps me going. The amount of emotional conflicts that this poison creates is obscene, the jealousy, rage, suicidal thoughts and paranoia together with brain fog and everything else makes you wonder why this stuff is still in use today!


Suzanne,
I hope you mange to get your husband off the booze and of course the Statins. As you will have read in various posts, his reactions are quite common and now you are aware of the Statin problem, you can help to stop it getting worse by stopping them. Once your husband knows what has turned him and many others into monsters like I was and still am at times, then he can turn his frustration towards the cause and try to turn his life around.

It does take time and maybe you two will work things out, your decision to swim was realistically the only way you could go as staying together by the sounds of it would have killed any chance of normality for both of you. I hope you two become stronger together as you face this problem head on, at least now you know the demon that changed everything in your life, and having a name for it makes one hell of a difference.

I wish both of you the very best, the first step has already been taken as you are now aware of the cause.

Bye for now,

Allen.

[rockingrammy]

My husband had similar problems. He got very depressed. He did nothing but sleep. I often wondered how he managed at work. He lost all interest in the things he enjoyed doing. His temper got very short and the smallest thing would set him off. He cried over sad things on tv or in a movie, something he never did before. He was on lipitor for about 8 years. It wasn't until recently I was able to get through to him that the lipitor was causing his colitis. I got him to humor me by not taking just one night. That's all it took. He felt better, had less pain in his knees and legs, slept better. I thought I had convinced him to skip it every other night. After missing one night and then taking it the next night he saw the difference. He stopped taking it all together. Now the man I knew is back. He's happy, playful, alert, enjoys the things he used to like. His pain is less and his strength is returning very quickly. The depression is gone and the anger went with it.

He now says he will never take another statin or statin related drug. He's also glad that I hung in there and kept nagging until I got his attention. I see much better days ahead. I owe his success to this forum. Without it I would never have had the knowledge to back up my statements.

I hope you can get through to your hubby.

[cjbrooksjc]

rockingrammy: Always GREAT to hear GREAT NEWS. Congratulations to both of you. This sort of success really is "a rising tide that lifts all ships". Thanks for sharing.

Brooks

[Allen1]

Hi there rockingrammy,

that's good news about your husband getting better and returning to his former self. As I mentioned in a previous post it was Zocor - Simvastatin that done it for me. Although I have stopped taking them for just over a year now, I still get mood swings (especially with trivial things) fortunately they don't last long but I sometimes surprise myself at how fast they appear.

Everyone is different and Lipitor and Zocor may work in a different way on individuals, but I would watch out for any signs of depression as statins can and in my case have messed up my mind. Although I am not a complete head case (I had my apendix removed) , my reactions to some things are not what would be classed as expected at times.

Have you ever watched Pimp my ride (UK) or Dog the bounty hunter? they are so up there own backsides that I just can't help criticising them for being so totally crass. In the past I would have just laughed and said what a bunch of idiots hehe, but now they actually make me angry!

I hope these sort of reaction will fade away completely in time but as long as I don't watch programs like the above and keep away from silly paperwork, I should be ok

Good luck with your husbands progress and the same for you Suzanne,

All the very best,

Allen.