I had (and still continue occassionally, even three months after being off the drug) horrible, horrible, experiences whilst on Pregabalin that mainly occured at night time. I was on 100mg two times a day, prescribed by a psychiatrist for my intense anxiety. I couldn't understand for the life of me why anyone would volunteer for this but it really sounds like quite a few people have better experiences on it.
It's weird because most of the time I would be ok during the day (though I also had a selection of varying mildish other effects- tiredness, lethargy, urinary incontinence, very dry mouth, tight jaw) but during the night I would experience things that I was convinced (in my distress) were going to finish me off.
A typical account would start with myself feeling a nasty unsettled jumpiness towards the late evening, where it felt unbearable to be startled, & I would be startled very easily. Even footsteps past my window would jolt my insides horribly, and make me jerk my body very violently in response- I'd feel like whatever noise it was, was almost hurting my organs. I'd get into bed but even the mattress would feel like it was bruising me, the sheets would feel horrible against my skin- I just generally had a very increased physical sensitivity. My boyfriend would simply turn around in bed & the movement & noise would be so uncomfortable for me I'd be trying not to cry. My muscles felt extremely tight. I would feel feverish, incredibly thirsty, my hands would be prickly and bone dry. My limbs would ocassionally go numb as well.
Then the even worse part would start, where I'd be drifting off, and just as my body registered what was happening properly- BANG- I'd wake straight up again with more of that horrible jumpy feeling. This would be combined with deafening sleep audio hallucinations- crashes, shrill screams, or like nails down a blackboard, and it felt like a sinister plan to rob me of my hearing. Sometimes I'd hear a woman bellow something like "You did this" or "You know what's next" and the noise would again go right into my insides as I jolted awake. I'd also see neon or otherwise very very bright and blinding images of horrible scenes of torture and depravity flashing before my eyes, or close ups of faces contorted in agony, and they'd almost felt like they were merging into me and affecting me in many ways that were beyond my comprehension. Other days I'd get sleep paralysis- I've had this whilst off drugs but this was even more intense and with a different slant.
For the rare times when I could stay asleep feeling this ill without being jolted awake I would have the most horrible intrusive and vivid dreams. One of them was that I'd introduced my little brother to acid and he never came back from a trip, and I sort of went through the grief process in my sleep. I woke up sobbing, shaking and told my previously sleeping boyfriend what I thought I'd done, whilst wandering around blindly in the dark. I still believed something must have happened to my brother for about 2 days.
I felt like all this was going to kill me. I jut knew it was going to get worse and all this stuff felt like it had the most alarming power. Never again!
I also find it strange that something that is commonly used to treat fybromyalgia would have an effect on me that seemed in part to be similar to fybromyalgia symptoms.
