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From Bill N, published with his permission
Aspartame is a poison and withdrawal from Aspartame is real. I started consuming Aspartame when I became a diabetic about 15 years ago. I am an active 61 year old male (not overweight) , no other health issues. No other medications except insulin. After about 15 years of consuming Aspartame (not a lot, maybe a liter of pop a week and some other food stuff it may have been in) I started waking up at night (2 to 3 am ) with severe panic attacks. A feeling of loneliness, darkness, deep despair for no reason that I knew of at the time.
At first the panic attacks would last for 5 or 10 minutes, but as time went on the attacks would last 20 minutes to half an hour. This went on for about 5 years. Maybe once in 6 months maybe once in a year. Of course, the whole time I'm trying to figure out what could be causing these attacks. I'm eating fairly good because I'm a diabetic, taking no other drugs or medication that might cause the attacks. After the last attack in September of 2021, I started researching Aspartame. (drinking about 3 liters a week by now), and to my surprise Aspartame had to be the culprit. So I thought I would just stop all Aspartame and see if it was the cause of the panic attacks.
The first week off Aspartame was not bad, I thought, no problem quitting something that is not addictive. I was wrong. Aspartame is highly addictive. The next week it hit me like a ton of bricks. The extreme paranoia fear hit me, shaking like a leaf, extreme fear, could not sleep, no appetite, head pressure, my eyes felt like they were sinking back in my head. I maintained through the day with a lot of walking and staying busy. I dreaded night time and even rain and dark cloud cover, because I knew the fear and deep despair was worse then. Might of gotten an hour of sleep a night the first week, every time I closed my eyes it seemed like the paranoia fear would wake me. So back to walking and shaking. Sometimes freezing. But my head was hot, no fever. I used a cold rag and ice to try and feel better, I guess it helped some. With all the awake time I searched the web endlessly to find any information on Aspartame withdrawal. Did not find much that pertained to my situation, but it did help keep my mind off of the pure hell I was going through. I did read that Tylenol might. Help. I tried some for a few days but don't think it did much to help. After a month of this not much had changed. I knew it was Aspartame withdrawal , but sometimes trying to convince myself it may be something else , it was not. It was pure Aspartame withdrawal. I knew I was starting to get a little better very slowly. I was starting to get more sleep (maybe 2 hours a night ).the days were getting a little better, not as much fear. But the nights were just as bad. After 2 months of this I had to go to the doctor to try and get help. Was worried about sleep deprivation.
The doctor did not know anything about Aspartame withdrawal but did prescribe hydroxyzine. I took 5 mg a night for 3 nights. Don't like to take drugs so after 3 nights I only took it when I needed it. Also was getting a little better each day without hydroxyzine.
After getting a call from Dr. Grout from the Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine. (So kind of her to call ). She is the only one I found in all my research that had any expert advice on the effects of Aspartame. But she did assure me that the withdrawal would go away with no long term affects. I think that was the tipping point, just to hear it from an expert that has knowledge of the poison Aspartame was a great help. All the problems were getting less and less. The paranoia fear subsided a good bit after about 12 weeks. Still small bouts of fear now and then. But after 8 months off Aspartame I feel much better. A long battle. Will never eat or drink a drop of Aspartame again.