Gabapentinoids The Lyrica (Pregabalin) Mega Thread v 2.0

[cannibalsnail]

god i'm so sick of reading all about how your all prescribed Lyrica!!!!!!!!! my Dr would never ever give me it or benzos they stick to government guidelines SPINELESS GIMPS!!
i would love to punch my Dr through the neck pull out his spine show it to him and say"oh so you do have a backbone after all!" they hide behind red tape where i live.
pisses me off as Lyrica makes me feel normal and not depressed. But funny thing is my Dr would shower me with any ssri or snri you choose to name THE PRICK.

Because Benzos/Lyrica are a terrible solution for depression and maybe if you had the training and education your doctor does you would know that.

 

[scripto]

Because Benzos/Lyrica are a terrible solution for depression and maybe if you had the training and education your doctor does you would know that.

well i suppose 20 years of drug use/abuse/addiction & owning most copies of the British National Formulary and also attending(which is mostly owned by the share holders who happen to be the Doctors who work there) my local surgery's annual meetings where the work ethics are discussed etc with questions & answers being allowed i do have a grasp on prescribing habits, and you would be naive to think otherwise that all the Dr's there are not deliberately pushing SSRI/SNRI drugs with an agenda (share holders perhaps!) also the spineless Dr's don't like you having excellent information about the drug that works for you and the ensuring argument that arises as the Dr realizes that he will either have to concede and accept there may be a valid point to my argument but they dare not prescribe said drugs for fear of been called to task by the other staff at this tightly knit surgery they decline and offer the standard government stance & guideline drug even though it is unsuitable for the patient (ME) It has become a tedious and predictive practice going to my GP or any GP in the UK where these "surgery's" spring up !

If you have the old school Dr with his own practice they are much better as there not bound by the constraints put upon them by the likes of these surgery's where all the towns Doctors are placed in one building that has become nothing more than a "corporation". The conclusion i have come to is that it is one rule for one patient and another rule for the other!
This is how so many benzo's and GABA type drugs end up on the streets,I know cos i hear the story's of how folk get prescribed the drugs and they don't match the symptoms! what your saying is true to a point, yet there are exceptions where inappropriate prescribing is happening with these drugs.

 

[The Happy Wanderer]

Doesn't your health care system allow you to change to one of the old school doctors?
It's not that I'm really good right now, but lyrica helps me way more than the ssris/snris I tried.

Good luck and get well soon!

 

[scripto]

I wish it was that simple happy wanderer, But as i said it's a small town with all the Dr's having a share in the holdings of the "surgery" so they all stick to each others guidelines for prescribing and dare not step out from there comfort zone when it comes to giving out drugs they see as addictive/habit forming (NOW FORGET YOUR ON SSRI/SNRI FOR LIFE IN SOME CASES)and i cannot join another smaller practice where the staff do care about what the patient thinks as i'm not in the area designated to me for treatment.

Now add that my file has DO NOT PRESCRIBE (place any of the "desirable drugs here") TO THIS PATIENT cos i'm registered with COMPASS and you begin to see my predicament. God only knows what COMPASS and the GP they use has to do with my other Dr as compass wont prescribe the drugs on this ban list so i cannot win!

AND THEY WONDER WHY FOLK MEDICATE THEMSELVES WITH DRUGS BOUGHT OFF PATIENTS ON THE STREETS! it makes me mad. Thankyou for the well wish's

 

[Drench]

Scripto, I'm in the UK and in exactly the same position as you.

I have developed a few problems after a few years of drug use. I ended up taking downers and eventually I tapered off Diazepam with assistance of my doctor. I was very honest with my doctor and I told him all of my (drug) history - that probably was a bad idea.

I have found only 2 medications that truly help me with anxiety, depression etc - Pregabalin and Baclofen. They are both quite easy to get online but I don't want to self medicate any more. I have asked on several occasions to be prescribed Pregabalin/Baclofen to help me live my life normally and not crave other drugs but the doctors just say no.

I end up buying weed, benzos, opiates etc to try and deal with life but they are all expensive and addictive and they aren't the solution. It would clearly be much better if I was prescribed 300mg Pregabalin twice a day from my doc and not feel the need to take other drugs.

I have the same situation with the local surgeries, the same doctors move between the 3-4 local ones that I am able to use. I can't use a different surgery (with different doctors) for the same reason, I'm not in their designated area.

Until my doctor truly understands my situation it looks like I'll be taking a cocktail of stuff, that I shouldn't be taking, just to feel like a semi-normal person. I've even started drinking more lately, alcohol has never been my thing but it hits those GABA receptors and helps me relax...

Are you self-prescribing atm Scripto?

 

[anonsufflk]

Hello all. Just found this thread after i started one in the'other drugs' forum. I am currently using lyrica to try and quit a 50ml/day methadone habit(8 years off use on and off with smack). I am now on day 3, with no methadone...feeling fine with just a few shivers down my back.....no sickness, no restless legs(god I hate that), no sleeplessness or stomach cramps etc,etc. I have had about 1050mg spread over the three days in 300mg doses and I think a 150mg dose. I can't quite beleive it and I am waiting for the sickness to hit....but so far no sign! Has anybody else tried to detox using Lyrica? Will keep posting to let you know any developments.
Thanks all, anon

 

[xxxyyy]

Does Lyrica mix well with Mirtazapine ? I have about 20 15mg pills left and was thinking of doing done thing with them instead of chucking them.

i was co-prescribed them for the longest time, however, recreationally (and in my case also as an antidepressant) mirtazapine is useless. makes an excellent sleeping pill though, so i'd keep them around just for that, but then i'm prone to insomnia.

 

[xxxyyy]

Now that you mention it that may very well be the raising of my benzo tolerance. I'm prescribed Klonopin for anxiety and 1mg would usually do the trick, then I went up to 3 & 4mg after taking the Lyrica for a bit and am feeling virtually nothing from the benzos. Naturally I ran outta the script now. Hmm..

this is bullshit. pregabalin's mode of action is distinct from all other gabaergics save for gabapentin and that is the only drug it shares a cross-tolerance with. GABAa agonists (e.g. alcohol, benzos, barbiturates etc.) share cross-tolerance as do GABAb agonists (GHB, baclofen, phenibut). in my rather extensive experience with all these substances, i can safely say that if anything it lowers the tolerance i.e. potentiates other gabaergics.

 

[pharma-sutra]

Lyrica is great for anxiety, and is effective at 300mg dosages.
Recreation wise, it isn't really suitable as 'party drug'. It potentiates opiates by ten fold. 1.8g of kratom + 300mg Lyrica had me nodding off and extensively hampers motor skills.

It also potentiates alcohol, but not as much (compared to benzo+booze combos).

Tolerance builds quite quickly, for instance if you down 300mg on day 1, on day 3 you will need at least 600mg to get the same desired effects. However, if you give it a break for 3-7 days, you will be able to recover the "magic".

My advice is not take it with heroic dosages like what I'm reading...anything above 600mg is way too excessive. And as mentioned before, the onset period takes about 2-3 hours to kick in (even if you're on an empty stomach). The cognitive and motor skill impairment can be resolved with some green tea or if you prefer...take some amps.

 

[ganeal]

I have heard that Lyrica can really help the symptoms of Methadone withdrawels but to what extent I am not sure but am about to find out myself. I would think it would take a lot of lyrica because methadone wd's last forever like weeks!! I am about to find out myself but I have a 3 months supply at 900/mg's a day for nerve damage. I will probably go through that in 6 weeks because 2 weeks from now I will be done at my clinic as I can't afford to pay them anymore and Im at 80mg a day. Luckily I get Lyrica free from the paitent assistance program. I wish you luck because I hear methadone withdrawels are hell!

 

[mydrugbuddy]

Very expensive drug (like new car payment). I'm on the patient assistance program otherwise I couldn't afford it. I had to get an MRI to get it prescribed to me.

Dead cheap indian generic versions are available. I have never tried the very expensive version so cant compare the two.

The cheap 'unpatented' version seems to work just fine, and in the same manner that everyone else describes.

 

[Freek12]

Hi All, lyrica definately works against opiate withdrawals, but it can also prevent much of a benzo WD like i found out its just that its impossible to keep dosing guided by tolerance, because in two weeks you have to take 3 grams or so a day so that wont happen.

Pregabalin is a med what should be respected if you abuse it and doing so too often, whenever 'too often', then you will end up with problems to say the last, because where pregabalin works against opiate/benzo withdrawals certainly doesn't mean that benzo's and/or opiates can make you feel better in case of lyrica withdrawal its only lyrica what helps when its needed or the weaker version of lyric being gabapentin can also be used to reduce the dose.

I see all these stories about lyrica withdrawal with some people already claiming withdrawals after using lyrica for only 3 month in high doses though like 900-1200 mg, but i already take 900 mg lyrica everyday for about a year and a half, that is the dose i am allowed to take in the beginning i abused lyrica for it feels so good, but if i like to feel that feeling again atleast a week without lyrica would be needed.
Anyway my point is that withdrawals from lyrica can occur fast, in time or else as good as never so for me not taking lyrica then i dont feel too great, but its not to much from lacking lyrica the real reason is thatmy substances dont get potentiated anymore.

Something else what should be watched for is the fact that lyrica has this tendency to 'poop out' fast like in some months whereas at first it worked fine against anxiety, but somebody with anxiety problems who use a med what helps that problem then if the med is stopped to be taken then anxiety can go trough the roof so i like to advise you to have say 50 lyrica's of say 150 mg in case of emergency so exactly for that reason i managed to get a decent stash of 100 capsules 300 mg each.

For me its no problem if lyrica poops out, because anxiety is not a problem i just liked to try this substance, but for anybody else with anxiety taking lyrica it can work like a charm and not in two weeks or so no straight away basically and if not the dose could go a bit higher, but if that also doesn't work then its useless to bother with lyrica, because you dont react onto the substance.

If you have lyrica and want to abuse it then dont take more then 300 mg at first that may sound low, but believe me when i tell you that the effect will not be low more so not if you would add say 5 mg diazepam it would feel like you took five times those 5 mg, but doing this is ofcourse risky so for whomever who wants to abuse lyrica start low and if possible dont use a benzo at first you can always add more.
Lyrica's strong potentiating of benzo's does not mean that the other way around pregabalin can substituted by benzo'sthis is not the case and i believe i already mentioned this, excuse me i will shut up now.

Let me give you some numbers i read about so what docs and shrinks know, i hope, is that when somebody starts lyrica then chances are 50% or higher that it will work in some days once you hit the proper dose, secondly the remaining 50% of people feel better then before, but not better compared to the first group, but i think any relief would feel like a god gift, and last but not least there is an amount of people, or percentage if you like, who dont react on lyrica at all.

Oh yeah before i forget in Europe lyrica is approved for generalised anxiety disorder so its used heavily for this matter and if lyrica wouldn't work so well people wont take it.

What lyrica does for me is removing the depression i had a year and a half ago so lyrica does work against depression and still works behind 1.5 year, but initially i chased that buzz luckily i realised fast that lyrica is bad news if you keep chasing the buzz so i started to respect this med as should and therefore it only advantages me when i take 900 mg a day as prescribed to me. It took about a week for me to find out that you cant fight lyrica tolerance, except if you up the dose almost daily, but ofcourse my month script was gone so since i still had this shrink i called him for more meds his reply was that i get nothing and that it was my choice to take more.
Well that was a bummer, but the good thing was that i could not take lyrica then when i had it again i 'only' dropped 900 mg in one go and i cannot remember to feel better being buzzed o9n a way i cannot compare with other CNS meds, but they give lyrica all kinds of phantasy names. So far.

 

[mygreenbic]

Someone please answer this quick. I am on neurontin 600 the times a day and i gave my friend a sub for a sample bottle of 75s. I took them all but one and felt great. If i shoot 75 what would it be equal to roughly add an oral dose? And will taking some neurontin bring me back up /?
Twenty minutes later : fuck man I just banged my last pill and i didn't even miss and two minutes later my leg is burning like hell. I didn't get an initial rush like you do with dope. I might feel one creeping on now but it could be placebo. Someone tell me how these drugs fair with lyrica because it's what i have a. Gabapentin b. Lager c. Clonazepam d. Suboxone and also remeron. Someone advice!
Love you guys
@sp0r412

 

[Freek12]

One thing i can tell you straight away and that is that shooting pregabalin does not deliver extra effect, except for a faster onset, but can you wait for about an hour being the time to reach a max bloodlevel for oral pregabalin? Also oral pregabalin has a bio availability of 90% and it will be excreted unchanged by your kidneys this made some geniusses think that you can drink your piss.

I wonder howcome your leg burned as hell when you said you didn't even miss, but when you did draw up some blood was this lightred as opposed to almost dark brown reddish? If it was lightred then instead of a vein you hit an artery something i think you actually did when two minutes later your whole leg burned like hell so maybe adjusting your shooting technique is the first thing to consider provided you did hit that artery, but it surely sounds like that luckily though the fluid you injected did not block up the tiniest little veins better known as cappilaries else you could have lost a foot to start with so be careful man and dont shoot something what isn't meant to use as such.

I only have 300 mg lyrica capsules, but when i squeeze one it doesn't feel like there is much powder inside such a capsule so that's pregabalin with a few binders who to your luck are all watersolulable.
You mean you are on 600 mg neurontin three times a day? I dont know what it means when you say you gave a friend a sub' for a sample bottle of 75's, but this sample bottle was it lyrica or neurontin?

I will assume that these 75's are pregabalin i dont think neurontin goes that low per dosing unit so if you have a bottle of 75's being pregabalin then reasonable enough to assume there are 60 capsules in that bottle? That should be more or less correct, but if you like to feel how a lyrica buzz feels then to start with dont take more then 1/3 of your used to dose of clonazepam the subuxone can just be taken while we dont even have to talk about gabapentin or remeron.

You know what's a bit funny that is that taking say 300 mg orally then in an hour it reaches max bloodlevel, but from there you can easily add 2 hours more so 3 in total by then lyrica acts fully and if you took 1/3 of your clonaz, your sub and further nothing then about 3 hours after taking pregabalin it's effect becomes very pronounced only if that happened at 600 mg means that the day after you already need 1200 mg and the day there after no lyrica amount gets you buzzed, except if you would exceed taking 3 gram + a day the day after you might need 4 gram with barely any effect so respect pregabalin if you do it can be very helpful for many addicts, but abuse it and it will fuck you over.

Something else interesting when it comes to using pregabalin for quite some time and if it could cause dependence in such a case well i think if pregabalin was used for say a year at 900 mg a day then some people will have some extent of lyrica WD, but most people will not get problems in WD sense for lyrica i did find out that that for those people for whom it worked so well as anti anxiety aid then when lyrica gets stopped or is wanted to get stopped then even when people complain about lyrica that it 'poops out' against anxiety, but anxiety for people with the 'poop out' think can go trough the roof so its advisable to have a benzo ready to use when needed.

Lyrica potentiates benzo's and does that bigtime as never in 25 years of addiction i bounced into a med with such a strong effect when combined with benzo's, but where lyrica potentiates benzo's and if you stop lyrica and be pregabalin dependent then you will find out that benzo's barely work against pregabalin withdrawal i think gabapentin would do a better job here plus in case you use other substances then first find out how it makes you feel combined with the rest.
How pregabalin works is unknown sure there is this agonism to voltage dependent calcium channels and due to that action they think that pregabalin prevents too much presence of certain neurotransmitters like Substance P is one, Nor Adrenaline is one, Glutamate is one, but if 'they think' neurotransmitters like that need to be watched while at the same time its quite possible that a range of neurotransmitters whether get produced whether become less and some of them stop acting completely so by now i believe they discovered something like 45 neurotransmitters and pregabalin does possibly more then we know, not that this would stop me from taking it though.

I am a year and a half on lyrica at 900 mg daily, but a few weeks ago i decided to drop 300 mg expecting insomnia at the least only nothing bad happened more the opposite happened, because taking 600 mg instead of 900 mg always in one go should had given me withdrawal symptoms, but nothing its just a damned pity that its almost impossible to say upfront who will have to withdraw in time.

If i had the amount of subscanes you mention then the lager has to go i dont like beer, but looking at the substances you have and what i would do with the same amount of substances to get a buzz then the bupe will be dropped so that would be pregabalin and not gabapentin then if it was my firsttime i would not take more then 1/3 of the usual clonaz amount and the remeron well if you take this med to treat depression then know that mirtazapine (remeron) is considered as the most effective anti depressants from them all.
Ah now i get it you gave your a friend a 'sub' and you meant subuxone sorry man i should had known this.
Drinking lager while you also swallowed pregabalin it can be done, but not when you want to go out, because pregabalin potentiates alcohol strongly so even behind two normal sized glasses of beer drank within half an hour you may feel close to being drunk.

When you felt lyrica creeping up then this was only the effect of your cardiovascular system getting back to normal like when you missed a shot then you still get the buzz in most cases, but you in case i am right about using the artery without you knowing plus what you swallowed before then an amount of pregabalin was in your system.
Damn i wished you would ask straight questions insteadof having to leave me with guessing what you mean, but i see one straight question being 75 mg pregabalin and what that dose would become if you inject it compared to orally, but the difference is truly minimal and should be disencouraged to do. Based on 90% biovavailability orally gives you 800 mg inside you taken by mouth, but if you inject the capsules then if everything is is theoretically okay you would looks at 800 mg extra for the price of more pokes in your arms. Well i think i better shut up by now if there are questions i hope i see them.

 

[newbie76]

Hi! I´m new here on BL, but this thread is really interesting. First I must say that I´ve never used drugs to get high and never had an addiction to anything. But a couple of weeks ago my doctor prescribed me Lyrica 150 mg for my neckpain and pain in the hipjoint and lower back. I have never taken this before and reading this thread scares the hell out of me!!! First; I don´t want to get "high" and I don´t want to experience any side effects. I also suffer from agoraphobia (both with and without panic attacks) and anxiety. One of the side effects described is vomitting...... That is one of my greatest fears in the world and I´d do anything to prevent it. Have any of you had that experience?
My doctor told me to take 1x 150 mg 1- 2 times a day, but after what I´ve read in here I´m not so sure I dare to take them at all...... The package just lies in the cabinet unopened..... Please help a nervewreck from Norway on what to do?

 

[The Happy Wanderer]

I never had the urge to vomit from lyrica. Plus, it'll most likely help with your anxiety, as it helps me.
I think you'll be fine.
Maybe start at home to see what will happen, as is started with 75 mg and it interfered (slightly) with my ability to walk at first. Though not when i took only 75 mg, but when I took 150 mg. Anyway, that passed by after some days and wasn't that bad at all (I worked as a waiter when I started taking it).

 

[newbie76]

Thank you for answering! But I can´t help wonder; am I still able to drive when on this? I drop the kids off at school every morning before work.

 

[The Happy Wanderer]

I'm on 200 mg twice a day and I think I can still drive.
Though I'd be cautious to do so in the first days. I think you'll see yourself, if you can still drive.
Maybe try it on a weekend, start friday evening and you'll see.
If you feel you can't drive while on lyrica on sunday, you'll still have the option to stop taking it and be sober on monday morning.

You wrote your doctors said 1-2 times a day, so another option would be: Take 150 mg in the evening and it'll be out of your system in the morning.

I suppose you're sitting a lot at work? Also, have you had any injuries causing your pain?

 

[newbie76]

That sounds like a good advice. Thank you.

Yes, the doctor said 1-2 times a day; 1 in the morning and the next at night if the pain was still there or had gotten worse. I also sit a lot at work talking in the phone an registering patients.

I have prolapse in my neck (since december) and lower back (since 2005) and on top of that bursitis in my right hip and the pain is almost unbearable at times....
Since he prescribed it for my pain I´m a bit scared of getting "addicted" after reading this thread if I start using it. Seems like a lot of people in here like it a lot as a drug, but that´s not what I want. I just want to get some painrelief and maybe a bonus for my anxiety as well.

 

[The Happy Wanderer]

Judging from your first post you don't seem to be an addictive personality.
While some here say that Lyrica is addictive for them, officially it's not. Maybe everyone sold out to the pharmaceutical industry, but I'd guess that it is addictive for some people, while It's not for most.

As far as I can tell from what you told me I'd guess (from my similar experience) that your pain problems are strongly to your anxiety and your stance of body (I hope that's the right term) at your workplace. While Lyrica will possibly help you with both: Have you tried workout? Helped me a lot.