With my increased use over the past two weeks, I've begun having increasingly intense anxiety attacks culiminating yesterday in being just short of a panic attack.  This morning, I started out feeling perfectly fine, but by my second cup of decaf, I again started feeling the onset of a panic attack. Since I had only eaten a few crackers and hadn't drank anything, except a Splenda soft drink first thing in the morning, I put the two together and concluded that my increased intake of Splenda has also created an increased level of nervous anxiety.

I'm going to have to VASTLY decrease my intake of Splenda, if not cut back altogether."

On 5 July 2005, we received an update from S.M.:

"When I left the first message, I hadn't read any of the other stories from others that have been affected by Splenda.  Now that I know it's part of a larger problem, I thought it might be helpful for me to explain my exact symtpoms to clarify for anyone else who may be suffering.

In the days before I quit Splenda, I would wake up to a Splenda soft drink (non-caffeinated).  Then I would wash the soda down with two cups of decaf coffee, each sweetened with a full packet of Splenda. Within an hour of my second cup, I would feel the anxiety start. All of a sudden, I would be overwhelmed with the notion that something was wrong, but would be unable to pinpoint exactly what it was.

Because I was at work, I would force myself to remain as calm as possible, but even so, I found that it was impossible to stay in my chair. Pacing between the break room and my cubicle, I would look for anyone to talk to--sort of to reassure myself that things would be okay. The feeling that something was wrong was oppressive. My heart would pound quickly and my muscles were jittery.  It was almost like a severe coffee buzz, but it was worse to to extreme paranoia.

Within 6-8 hours, I would start to "come down" from this nervous anxiety and I would begin to wonder if it had been as bad as all that. However, every morning, the cycle would start again.  At the very end (the last two days before I stopped Splenda), the anxiety was so bad that I began to wonder if I was descending into a full-blown panic attack. Mercifully, the anxiety stopped just short of that. I've had panic attacks triggered by Zyban for smoking cessation in the past, so I know what they are like. Thankfully, I noticed the time-frame correlation between the Splenda and the anxiety attacks, so I decided to quit Splenda.

I'm glad to say that I've been off Splenda for almost a week and the symptoms have decreased significantly, although they haven't gone away altogether. I suspect that a certain amount of the stuff has built up in my system and I will have to work it out naturally. Also, the anxiety was very traumatic for me and I've developed a sort of apprehension that I'm going to have another anxiety attack which keeps me on edge. I hope this feeling will improve with time, as well."

Thank you S.M. for sharing your story with our visitors. We look forward to updating this story.

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