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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Lyrica Withdrawal

to ninae

you are right on about lyrica withdrawals. i once stopped roxicodone, lyrica and valium at the same time. it was absolutely horrible. it wasn't until i withdrew from roxicodone again that i realised the bad suicidal depression part from before was mostly from the lyrica withdrawal (600mg a day).
this was back in'07. the depression lingered for over a month and i thought it was all due to the roxicodone (75mg a day) since i really wasn't on the valium very long and only 10mg a day.
i didn't think i'd ever be able to live with myself again. you're right about the strange scary feeling that something serious is wrong physically on top of the pit of your stomach unrelenting dark depression. and, yes, each day seemed like a month. I was also bombarded with hopeless thoughts about things from years in the past and felt sooo inferior to everyone else. it was all i could do to get through a work day and got reall paranoid questioning my abilities.
thanks again for that post regarding lyrica because it confirms what i suspected about it all along.
 
Lyrica

Ninae said:
I've wanted to make a thread on Lyrica withdrawal for some time after living through this horror twice this summer. There are some mentions of in it in the mega thead but just as many claims it doesn't cause withdrawals and it seems like many just choose to believe the best. So considering how bad it is, I think it needs a thread of its own and would appreciate any input from others who have gone throuh the same thing.

For me Lyrica withdrawal is the worst withdrawal I have ever gone through. I have gone through all kinds of opiate withdrawal, and as bad as that is, Lyrica withdrawals is somehow even worse, both mentally and physically. I have heard it described as a combined opiate/benzo withdrawal and this migth be correct. I have never been through benzo withdrawal myself.

To describe it a bit more in detail, mentally the feelings of anxiety, psychosis, and suicidal depression are worse (than opiate withdrawal). Never felt so depressed and miserable in my life, it tops everything I have gone through, and that's saying something. But it was really the physical effects that scared me the most. It feels like there is something seriously wrong with your body and it feels very dangerous. Like you're in a constant state of alarm and can't relax. When you go through opiate withdrawal it's like a bad flu, and as bad as it is it is somehow bearable. The physical symptoms of Lyrica withdrawal are much scarier. I truly felt like I was going to die. Suffered fron extreme hypertension, rapid heartbeat and problems with breathing, in addition to the nausea and flulike symptoms. It feels like a lot of liquid is suddenly relased in your body, filling your lungs making it difficult to breathe, also making it difficult to see or making your sight blurry. Constantly feeling like I was at the verge of a seizure, though this never happened. I think there are many reactions that are dangerous, like the electrolyte balance in your body is seriously screwed up, and more that I can't understand.

This I experienced from quitting cold turkey after using very large doses (like 1500-3000 mg a day), first time after 3 months, and the second time after 5 months. But I have read about people going through the same after using 300 mg a day and not abusing it. The professional advice is to cut out 25 mg every week, or even every third week, in other words a very slow taper.

After my first withdrawal, which lasted 3 days but was pure hell, I was completely apathethic and inconsolabe, not even the fact that another dose was on its way could console me, I was so broken down by the experience. Then when I took my usual dose I just passed out and feel asleep for a few hours, with none of the usual high, like my body really needed the substance. The other time it was after 5 months of addiction and now I had to live through it to the bitter end as all my suppliers failed me. My usual supplier suddenly stopped delivering it without any previous notice.

The worst part of it is that unlike opiate withdrawals where there is a noticable improvement from day to day, with Lyrica there seems to be no improvement. I didn't notice any relief until 10 days, and after 14 days the withdrawal was basically over, but leaving you with bad PAWS and cravings forthe drug. I have also seen some say it lasted longer for them, one that mentioned 9 weeks, but I wouldn't have been able to survive that long. Every day is excrutiatingly long, with no end in sight, I can't find the words to describe the horror of it.

I would STRONGLY encourage anyone who has gotten themselves addicted to Lyrica to invest in an emergency supply that will allow them to maintain or taper safely if they suddenly find themselves running out. And don't be tempted to use this stash to get high with because it will just not be worth it. It will be a lifesaver in that situation and be worth much more to you than a few good times. So if you know you can get it within a week, make sure you have a weeks supply. I guess gabapentin would also work here, and you can invest in some cheap, generic gabapentin.

Another thing is that while Lyrica can get completely get rid of any opiate withdrawals it doesn't work the other way around. Although it definitely helps in that situation and can rid of maybe 50% of the symptomps, and especially help some with the depression, so it is valuable to have going through that experience. But it also tends to make you more sick and can be difficult to hold down when you're already so sick from Lyrica withdrawals, which is the problem with using opiates here. I didn't have benzos but assume they would help. Soma didn't help at all. What did help me was a combination of Hops capsules, Sun-theanine, and Magnesium. Not sure if it was one or all of those substances that helped, but it gave noticable relief. The Magnesium migth have helped with the mineral balance, the Theanine is supposed to increase Gaba, and Hops is meant to have a calming effect on the nervous system. Also sleeping pills will be of great help if you ever find yourself in withdrawal as it will be impossible to sleep. At least that way you will get some sleep, and that will be the only time you will have any peace because your waking time will be hell.

I now hope everyone have now been sufficiently warned and will think twice before getting yourself addicted to this substance. Keeping it to once a week, or less, to avoid addiction would be a good idea. I know it might seem hard to believe as it seems so gentle and with so few side effects, but believe me it was the WORST withdrawal I have ever been through, and the worst time of my life so far, so consider yourselves thoroughly warned. You can find also find hundreds of threads about Lyrica withdrawal if you google the net, all very consistent and describing the very same symptoms.
Click to expand...

Ninae, you are right on about lyrica withdrawals. i once stopped roxicodone, lyrica and valium at the same time. it was absolutely horrible. it wasn't until i withdrew from roxicodone again that i realised the bad suicidal depression part from before was mostly from the lyrica withdrawal (600mg a day).
this was back in'07. the depression lingered for over a month and i thought it was all due to the roxicodone (75mg a day) since i really wasn't on the valium very long and only 10mg a day.
i didn't think i'd ever be able to live with myself again. you're right about the strange scary feeling that something serious is wrong physically on top of the pit of your stomach unrelenting dark depression. and, yes, each day seemed like a month. I was also bombarded with hopeless thoughts about things from years in the past and felt sooo inferior to everyone else. it was all i could do to get through a work day and got reall paranoid questioning my abilities.
thanks again for that post regarding lyrica because it confirms what i suspected about it all along.
 
I stopped cold turkey from 1200~1500 mgs a day of Lyrica and never felt anything. I used it for over 3 years.
There's something but it's a party compared to benzos or opiates withdrawals.
 
I stopped cold turkey several times from 1200~1500 mgs a day of Lyrica and never felt anything. I used it for over 3 years.
There's something but it's a fucking party compared to benzos or opiates withdrawals.
 
I stopped cold turkey several times from 1200~1500 mgs a day of Lyrica and never felt anything. I used it for over 3 years.
There's something but it's a fucking party compared to benzos or opiates withdrawals.
 
Ninae said:
It might amaze you, but I certainly didn't imagine it. I well know what opiate withdrawals feel like, and it was worse than even coming off the hardest opiates. But keep in mind I took incredeibly high doses, like 1500-3000 mg every other day for months. It might just be dangerous to abuse this drug. I only wanted to warn you, but if you'd rather not believe it there's not much I can do about that. I just hope you never have to go through what I went through.
Click to expand...

i did the same, at least 5 300mg pils a day forlike 9 months for me, i went into a catonic state. trust me the this is a awful drug i felt everything that u felt, right now im coming down from 450mg once every 2 days and i am having awful nausua but nothing like it was when i was taking grams
 
The only significant withdrawals I get from Lyrica is anxiety/depression and muscle tension and that is without tapering. A walk in the park compared to benzodiazepine/barbiturate withdrawals. You won't go into seizures unless your an epileptic. It doesn't directly effect the GABA receptors, it just mimics the effects.
 
lyrica w/d's for me are sort of like pot w/d's ....trouble sleeping, a little anxiety, but nothing to serious. it only lasted 2-3days for me. but i had been smoking 4years daily and took lyrica for 1year straight and i stopped both at the same time. it wasn't that bad
 
Interesting, I would have kept one going a bit longer to help relieve the WD symptoms of the other (although I believe cannabis doesn't have a "true" WD syndrome - you're free to disagree with me there).
 
i wish i could have, but i ran into some money issues so i couldn't afford either, it was kind of sad :(... and i could have just been feeling the lyrica w/d? idk i thought it was going to be worse from the weed though. never really experienced boredom or lost any interest to food. the first night i wasn't able to go to sleep, but maybe that was because of my adderall? but it was only `10mgs and i took it at 9am... i sort of liked the break, because i got reaaly reaaally high after a week of soberness
 
I run out of lyrica all the time in between scripts, and the only thing I notice is my increase in lost libido, increasing cognition, the same anxiety I was already used to coming back (No new levels)...

I become skeptical...

I do know for a fact that concurrent usage of lyrica with gaba agonistic drugs will lead to terrible withdrawals if you stop the lyrica before the other drug... (Alcohol, benzos, etc...)

Now I know for a general fact that the people claiming horrible withdrawals have to be for a fact abusing gaba agonistic drugs at the same time.

There is no other way you could possibly have anything more than stated above in the first part of this post.
 
Thx Ninae for sharing your experiences! Took 150 mg Lyrica/d for 1y after getting off Benzos an Tramadol. Getting of Lyrica cold turkey after (not abusing it!) several month made a flu look desireable. Even with ambien (Z-Benzo) and Diazepam, the depression, nervousness, nausea, weird muscle-"thwitching" took a month. Having really bad PAWS after kicking it off a month ago made me spending my whole hollyday on getting off this nasty stuff.

Magnesium, lots of water, Diazepam and ambien (and little alcohol) made it bearable during the time i had to work. Never again will i take this nasty stuff, quitting cold turkey from benzos might be more dangerous - but the constant feeling of fight-or-flight-modus was the same. The stomach cramps from pregablin are worse than the cramps from benzos. Might sound weird - but as mentioned above I totaly experienced the same as Ninae. Never again...!
 
So glad I found this thread...sorry I know it's a little old,but I wanted to add my thoughts....It took me a few months to figure out I was actually going through Lyrica withdrawels because I take 100mg's of methadone a day. MY buddy told me lyrica was a miricle drug for methadone withdawel and arond that time my Dr Rx'd me some. So when I ran out of my methadone 2 days early(double up sometimes... I know, a no no)The lyrica completly took away any early symptoms...(light sweating and anxiousness) I JUSt took Lyrica when I ran out of methadone...well a few times I started taking my lyrica daily....like 1200mg's a day...for a week.then stopped when I ran out...I thought surely my 100 mg's of methdone would all but wipe out aany discomfort. WRONG!!! I was able to nod and all...but in between the nodding I was still sweating and had a heeadache and puking and diarrea from hell...lyrica is no joke!!! I really don't even like to take it anymore...I have no will power with it so I am going to tell my Dr just to forget rxing it for me...I have been down that road too many times...! Now I wanted to add that this withdrawel only lasted 3 days and it seemed to peak on the 3rd day...now I don't know about lyrica withdrawels when using no other meds...because I was already on 100mg's of methadone daily before I ever touched the stuff.
 
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Dotn think that if you have reason to fear lyrica withdrawals that a high enough opiate dose gives you relief, it wont happen. Pregabalin then is very effective against opiate withdrawals something i notice when i am still 2 hours away from taking my methadone and not feeling great then taking lyrica an hour before and i feel much better the sweating is gone also the weak feeling.
Then i do dose with my 160 mg methadone to find out that pregabalin strongly potentiates methadone so be careful with this action when it comes to every opiate.

Reason i started lyrica was for GAD, but the shrink who started me on lyrica doesn't mind 900 mg's a day i dont know what to expect with the next one yet. I dont have GAD, but i did want lyrica and faking gad maded me get it so the first day at 600 mg i didn't feel much then the day after at 900 mg i got hit by this strong euphoria pregabalin can induce, but currently still taking those 900 mg without feeling like at the start whereas taking no lyrica for 2 days can already make more pleasant effects show themselves. I am taking 900 mg lyrica for longer then a year so would there be much withdrawal behind this time?
Heavy anxiety is named as WD symptom, but anxiety never bothers me also not when in benzo WD i do get other symptoms though, but regarding benzo's and having a habit pregabalin strengthens benzo's heavily at the same time pregabalin can also suppress much of benzo WD like i experenced with the same for opiate withdrawal.
 
^

If I understand correctly are you saying you take 900mg's a day then stopping cold turkey?? In my experience yes you would feel the withdrawel even if you take 160mg's methadone...Everyone is different and Lyrica is kind of a new drug there is not as much research in this area. Like I stated I can still dose my 100 mg's methadone and run out of Lyrica and although I can feel the methadone work..I still have the physical symptoms of headache,nervousness,and diahreah and worst of all anxiety to the nth degree!!! but it only last a few days..I ended up just going back to Gabapentin and it works about the same...the worst thing about lyrica and gabapentin is the damn tolerance that builds so damn fast!! I try not to take it every day for that very reason...it's just one of those drugs that you can't tell after a few days it's working as good,but if you stop taking it you sure can tell you don't feel as well.!
 
hi everybody!

I am 25 years old. I took 150mg of lyrica for about one and a half months. I had anxiety issues, and psychosomatic pains, so that was what the psychiatrist prescribed for me. I was on and off on xanax before that, but I was very anxious which was causing me unbearable psychosomatic pains. It was because of a break up with a girl. I went to psychotherapy, I was there 9 times in the last 2 months and that helped me solving the problem behind my anxiety, and I broke up eventually with the girl, because the relationship problems started my anxiety issues.
Anyway, I took lyrica and it helped with my anxiety, but after 1 and a half months I started feeling like shit again, mainly chest pain, and weakness. I couldnt normally do work anymore. After I have dealt with my problems, and I am about to start a great new life, I figured, the only thing that can be the cause of my problems was Lyrica. Which I don't need anymore, due to the fact that I don't have any anxiety issues now.
So I felt like shit, and I talked to a doctor, whom I'm going to meet tomorrow, about my quitting of the drug.
I started to taper off on Thursday, and now it's Sunday. The pills are not possible to break in half, so I've doing it so far pretty fast, taking only 75mg one day, and the next 150 again, and then yesterday only 75mg again, and now again only 75mg. I can tell you, I feel like shit. Hard to explain my feelings, but it's kind of like ecstasy hangovers, if you guys ever had that, you know it's pretty harsh. I feel like something terrible is happening in my body, and I know, that the withdrawal has already started, and these are withdrawal symptons. I keep my cool, because I know, that this is a very hard procedure.

I'm just mainly writing to ask, what should I expect? is it going to be better day by day? Are there any tips of what I can do to make the withdrawal symptons easier? I don't want to take any kind of drug, I am thinking about stuff like, for example "drinking lots of water, trying to have atleast some short distance walks, instead of agonizing in the bed, or maybe hot showers etc..."
If you have any kind of natural remedies for this, I would be very happy to hear!

And also, dumb question, but still.... is this dangerous? Im planning to come of the drug in a short period of time, just one week. Because it was causing side effects, so I'm in like in the middle of two things - I can't and don't want and dont even need to stay on Lyrica anymore, but getting off of it is causing very bad symptons too.

The goal of my message is to get atleast some "I know what you're going through, it's gonna be better, and don't be afraid, even if you're feeling like shit, it's nothing really serious, only symptons".....
:)
thank you! I hope this is going to be over soon, because I can't do anything near my normal life in this condition.
 
^Pregabalin withdrawal for me is the most brutal of all withdrawals especially from a psychological stand point. Benzodiazepines do not affect it whatsoever aside from removing some of the intense anxiety.

I've found magnesium, gotu kola, phenobarbital, opioids and cannabis to be extremely helpful, just make sure not to substitute one addiction for another. Taper slowly over a period of 2 weeks to 1 month and make sure you do not consume benzodiazepines or GABAergics during your taper and only after it if needed.

Pregabalin withdrawals are extremely drawn out and the depression can last for months. The acute phase includes many physical symptoms resembling those of opioid withdrawal, and the post acute phase are psychological symptoms identical to those of acute benzodiazepine withdrawal.

Be careful with this one, I lived in a country where this substance was OTC. Believe me when I say it has a huge potential for addiction. Kidney failure and seizures are also present when abused in high doses of between 3000 milligrams and 10000 milligrams.
 
Yes it's a very prominent issue with lyrica that's not addressed. In fact it's used for GAD in Europe as there is belief that it produces no withdrawal effects. How horribly wrong they were - it was on par if not a little worse than benzo withdrawal and the smallest dose you can get is 25mg capsules! It's an outrage that its being sold as a non addictive, non withdrawal producing drug for anxiety. I was on 400mg daily for about 6 months, it took me another 6 to withdraw from it without going absolutely crazy. While I must say it is effective in treating anxiety, tolerance builds to the stuff so rapidly and coming off it is a nightmare.

It does however synergize very nicely with opiates at low doses (25-50mg) without added cns depression which is fab.
 
thank you for the fast answer! I'm pretty optimistic, because right now I feel a LOT better, than in the afternoon. And still haven't taken Lyrica since, and I'm not even going to take for tonight's sleep. I'm confident, I don't feel anxiety AT ALL, and no signs of depression either. Just a bit tired, and weak, but that's a LOT BETTER than the Lyrica side effects itself. I have consulted with my psychiatrist, and she said, I can taper fast if I want, just if I feel, that I can't cope, I can take a capsule. So I'm trying to manage without Lyrica maybe until tomorrow night. Hopefully tomorrow I'm gonna be doing well, and I'm gonna get some sleep tonight. I just hope it will not get worse. But so far it's nothing too serious. Felt like shit for most part of the day, but in the last 3-4 hours it's pretty good.
 
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