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The LYRICA (pregabalin) Mega Thread

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shit, the confusion and weight gain sound pretty shitty. also it seems tolerance is inevitable. nothing a week break cant fix though.

4 days until i see the dr.


anyone in the US get this prescribed off label for anxiety????

whats the best way to get this scripted if not. thanks.
 
IME lyrica is recreationally awesome, but the side-effects seemed to me like they were too detrimental to make the drug useful for most people. in extreme situations i'm sure it's one of the best choices, however, for things like anxiety, mild to moderate pain, insomnia, etc. it should not be the first-line choice (in my opinion/experience, of course... i could be wrong!)
 
shit, the confusion and weight gain sound pretty shitty. also it seems tolerance is inevitable. nothing a week break cant fix though.

4 days until i see the dr.


anyone in the US get this prescribed off label for anxiety????

whats the best way to get this scripted if not. thanks.

Dont bother woth weight gain to much , i actually lost 28 pounds since i started taking lyrica, mainly because it makes me a lot more active in general.

if you feel like getting hungry which happens on lyrica yust take some fruits or nuts.

as a regular speed user (not meth) i can say lyrica makes the comedown less troublesome and takes away the sharpness of the anxiety that can happen.

lyrica seems to help with comedowns on must drugs.

mayor downside after months: your concentration gets bad at times and confusion can happen at the end of the day.i
it also seems hard sometimes to say the right words i was planning to use when communicating with other people.

plus side : sleeping problems are a thing of the past ,getting into sleep almost happens on comment and waking up in the morning with pain isn't hellish anymore lyrica wants you to come out of bed and become active.

general mood improved, more active and energetic.
Eating healthy feels good.
 
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fuck. i just spoke with my shrink/suboxone dr and she said she doesnt like lyrica for anxiety, claims it actually PRODUCES anxiety. wtf. im trying to figure out how to present it to her that i want to try it at least. buspar is garbage, vistaril is a placebo(IME), and i cant take benzos without abusing them.

the gayest thing is she mentioned neurontin. i was like um lyrica is just more potent and has less side effects and she argued they were different drugs. this is why i have a hard time with drs. i know i know more than them. call it grandiosity but its a reality for me. why the fuck would i take neurontin and NOT try lyrica? i pay this cunt 100 bucks a month out of pocket and she wont script me something that can potentially be a panacea!????? i can try my PCP on the 1st...hopefully better luck there. i cant claim to have fibro pain, so how do i get it for anxiety? i think ill just print out some articles and throw my knowledge of it and other peoples experience in so that i can at least TRY it. christ.
 
i cant afford an online source. i have medicaid.

all i want is to try it and see if it helps. it seems it would be overwhelmingly useful if it does. even if i just take it on a prn basis when i dont feel so hot it would be fucking awesome.

neurontin? i dont get how she thinks that would be better than lyrica. she is probably going off what experience she has with like 4 dif patients whereas im going off of what several hundred people have experienced via the internet. cock shit balls.
 
I'v had chronic depression and anxiety for the last 8 years, and lyrica is the only drug thats worked on the anxiety. I also take mirtazapine and effexor and a beta blocker when I work.

I hate being on so many drugs, and effexor withdrawal is, in my experience, much much worse than any other withdrawal from drugs - opiates, alcohol, benzos and gbl, altough the first gbl experience was a total mindfuck. Even if I take all the other drugs, and forget effexor, my head starts zapping like electric shocks, and my mood nosedives after only 6 hours missed dose.

I get a box of 84 200mg tabs and the doc put me on the biggest dose which is 600mg per day. I usually do 1200 straight off and another 1200 every 6 hours and spend about 3 days in a state of bliss, and energy, and stoned all at the same time. Then I try to ration it out for the month, but always end up binging and running out of them after two weeks.

I really like lyrica and would like to take only this.
 
im going to get this shit if its the last thing i do. i simply have to see if it works on me. ive heard so many good reviews its absurd. case closed.
 
Yes, considering it can rid you of opiate WD, which is considered practically impossible, I would say it's a MIRACLE drug. Practically no side effects too. Almost seems cruel, really, that so many have to suffer so much needlessly. And most people's ignorance is so bad they just laugh at the idea it could touch their opiate WD, without ever having experience with it.

I guess it can be if they take really small doses, like a few 75 mgs a day, but if you take 600 mg you're bound to feel it. But then of course there is the market factor, half of opiate consumption is to stave of withdrawal. I just hope this will help some people suffering from WD, from other drugs too - just remember to stock up on emergency Gabapentin first. I'm still in a miserable state one week into WD.
 
Lyrica, I sometimes jokingly say, should be renamed Miracula. I mean, it truly IS a miraculous compound, in my experience. I am scripted it for anxiety (GAD, minor social phobia) and insurance will not cover it for these indications. Therefore, I pay anywhere from 250-300 USD/month. But it's well worth it.

In my life, I have been on an absolute myriad of psychoactive medications, the average person would not believe me if I listed them all. WELL over 40 SSRI's, SNRI's, TCA's, atypical and old-fashioned antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, epileptics, benzodiazepines, barbiturates. It's sick.

And then I discovered Lyrica.

It dissolves, within two hours of dosing, my irritability, insomnia, amotivation, anxiety, depression and AD(H)D symptoms. I now need one medication instead of six or seven. And that feels pretty darn good. The insurance companies can kiss my ass; Europe has their shit together, as it is approved for GAD in the EU, but not the US (where I'm at). I believe Pfizer's patent finishes its 7-year course in 2011, so hopefully we will see some generic forms entering the market by this time next year. That would be a godsend as far as finances go; it its a terrible economic time to have to pay a month's rent for a prescription medication, but if it makes my life this much more fulfilling, I'll have to feed the Pfizer fat cats until other companies can offer the same chemical compound at a more affordable price. Fingers crossed!

Best of luck to all those out there who are attempting to try it for their condition(s). It is absolutely worth the struggle - I had a hell of a time obtaining a legitimate prescription myself.

Namaste.

~ vaya
 
I honestly don't get a high from it but then again I have had a strange last few years and basically have been using something prescribed or not since 2006 so maybe that is why.

I have serious nerve damage from a surgery when I was 14 (&15) and I had a stroke that resulted in an infection around my spinal cord at C7 or C2 can't remember off hand, the one that is responsible for the left arm anyway I was paralyzed for a long time and then nerve pain on top of physical and I should think I can recognize it.

At first my insurance wouldn't cover it but later it does and caps out at $40 (I was paying upwards of $300 for a 450/day supply at one point). Just took a break from it and am now trying to quit methadone for pain for good (I abused oxies ironically earlier in the summer but didn't test for them and later when I supplemented my percocet with oxycontin ofc I didn't have to worry about a test).

Have taken almost 1500 mgs before but the 'high' is strange and really discoordinating at times for lack of a better word. Now I'm feeling it and that I'm on lower doses (actually wding from methadone right now so bad I have a chemo antiemetic, zofran/ondandestron, and hydroxizine (usually just to poteniate on the x'z'ne)). I was at one point on 70 mgs oxycodone (prescribed as 14 5 mgs tabs, 10mg every 3 hours) simultaneously on 4mg klonopin and actually overdosed once when I mixed with ambien and now I'm like blacklisted but I guess at least I did it with a friend there and apparently I was at 84% oxygen which is bad I dunno if life threatening but I just went crazy that night with :
Irish Whiskey
Extra klonopin 6mgs or 8 maybe
later I went nuts for some reason and decided to add 40mgs methadone and 70mgs zolpidem

So perhaps now that I'm leaving the downers (tapered down to 2 mg kpin/day 2.5 mg methadone / day from 60 mg / 70 oxycodone) I can better experience it. The 150 pills come in a 90 supply bottle and the pharmacy I go to will give you the original bottle if you are prescribed the exact amount. My docs are basically greenlighting this indefinitely for me as well as pain cream with a total of 3000mgs of ketamine in it and yes there is a way to abuse cream yes it was amazing but now that I'm on lower methadone (best for nerve pain of all opioids) I am taking the tricyclics seriously and am on amitryptaline 100mgs/day which ironically I was forced to take after my surgery back before gabapentin was generic (Neurontin) and they put me on up to I think 175mgs a day and I hated/loved it back when I didn't do drugs etc. I honestly wasn't complaining of pain then either it was the significant loss of feeling in my arm wrist right pinky back of my elbow inexplicably I'm told its tendonitis or someshit but I don't believe that and the retiring surgeon told me that:
i. There was a muscle that was in no medical text books and he contacted top nerve docs in the US apparently that was probably responsible for the nerve conduction study showing a slow decline as every night my right ulnar nerve/funny bone would go numb entirely but I was obsessed with playing RTS video games and that could have a lot to do with it. That's all the first surgery was in the end, they cut the muscle and a nerve.
a. Couple things about gabapentin I wanted to mention:
- He was very much against it because of abuse potential (terrible 'high' imo) and because of theoretical constant neurotoxicity that some studies had shown with as much as 3000mgs and I was on 3600mgs / day before they switched me to lyrica. Scary. Also significant long term memory issues; he painted it as an experimental drug (back before anything was FDA approved for nerve pain) that really only should be used in extreme cases (laugh) BUT some studies showed it did help nerve growth but not conclusively or something.
- I didn't ever get it before it was generic and instead went to physical therapy at ungodly early morning hours before school that started at 730, I got it in 2008 Jan 2nd suddenly a huge new numbness 2 weeks later the pain.
ii. Lyrica is supposedly "super gabapentin" because of the improved efficacy with much more tolerable side effects however no one truly understands the role GABAoids work so in theory it may implicitly be dangerously neurotoxic in some sublime way, I wish I could remember what he told me exactly but it was in ways you didn't notice until you had an MRI or something unlike say the obvious-ness -- if you will -- of amphetamines or alcohol or nicotine.
a. There is something unsettling about really high doses and don't ever try sniffing the powder omg nasty
b. When I overdosed the sad truth is I took an unspecified huge amount of lyrica, don't remember, and everything else was at doses even combined that would probably, the alcohol could play a large role here conversely, not have got me so fucked up. I blacked out so hard, not as bad as the stroke but my friend came by 3 or 4 times and I remember him saying things that he was threatening to call 911 and the one time I moved that I recall I just laughed even though I was able to hear everything and even see in a way totally unlike the blackouts of (IME) alcohol. It was like 2000 mgs or smthg I think. I don't really know what happened to me that night but my body seemingly tells me that lyrica is not a wonder drug like it seems to be. Also does not help methadone withdrawal much but the increased appetite in combination with JWH-whatever spice from a local headshop is almost as effective as zofran which is less effective than pot but I'm not seeking medical mj. Just a friend keeps telling me to buy some when I see a pain doc Tuesday and can't afford to risk testing positive. I think part of the reason I gained 100 lbs was the increased appetite which remained a stronger side effect than the mild mild drowsiness that low doses give and it, in terms of months at a time here, rather quickly loses its magic at the 1000mgs mark or thereabouts and higher and higher amounts (maybe now you can see why I was at 2000 at least logically if not rationally). Something about it goes well with downers though.
iii. I learned from multiple sources that if you want to get from gabapentin to lyrica just complain about how sleepy the gabapentin makes you and be willing to at least buy so it looks like youre taking the tricyclics if you go the nerve pain angle. Also it's hard on your liver somehow and you aren't supposed to take more than 2800 mgs of acetaminophen while taking it at the standard 300mg/day dose. The alcohol interaction therefore might have something to do with the liver more so than the drug or more likely both. This was something explicit that an 'urgent care" nurse told me who also said they teach in med school now less than 4000mgs/day but lyrica especially made it even more precarious and this was not long after lyrica came out so I'm not really sure where she got her information but she knew a lot more about it than any of the other docs I've had did.
iv. Fibromyalgia literally can be translated as "nerve pain/inflammation" and technically without a capital F can also refer to nerve pain in general. At first my primary was against it but soon everyone was incredibly for it over almost anything else. I'm not trying to tell you to lie about your symptoms but just understand maybe what the drug is FDA approved for yet so easily can be prescribed for any other nerve pain related issue.

Oh and finally, the drug seems potentiated by the tricyclics which also implicitly makes sense but you have to give up anything serotogenic to use them. Amitryptaline is not a bad feeling in time but I don't like it much because of personal views on antidepressants in general a la "Prozac Nation" (good movie). I take it because I have serious pain though so maybe the reason it's hard to feel anything except right now, unless it was the cocktail of downers that masked the effect before, at anything below 900mgs. If you want to use the drug do so responsibly or you'll be taking so many pills for a very slight effect. I myself am done abusing but at 3x150s per day I take 600 mgs some days.

I really don't get the hype though.
 
I'll have to say it seems like abusing Lyrica does more SERIOUS DAMAGE to your body than what opiates does. With opiates there's the full crisis the first days, but you can notice a steady progress each day, and after you get out of that deep depression you seem to be essentially fine. With Lyrica it seems like it takes longer to heal and you don't feel any noticably better from one day to the next. Just feels like you're in poorer health and it harms your nervous system in a deeper way. But I guess that makes sense for something that can get rid of all WDs. Opiates are benign drugs, really.

Also, I've been trying Soma for WDs and it does NOT work. Just would seem to make sense as they work in a similar way and I have seen people say they feel similar, but I'm new to Soma. Also, I guess Lyrica is pretty unique in the way it works, stopping calcium influx and all.
 
fuck, so if a dr writes it to me they DO have to include a diagnostic code? if its off label im sure medicaid will not cover it. unless they write it for fibro or some nerve pain. shit.
 
fuck, so if a dr writes it to me they DO have to include a diagnostic code? if its off label im sure medicaid will not cover it. unless they write it for fibro or some nerve pain. shit.

And you can't go to another doc and thell him/her that you got fibro? you seems very very in need of lyrica ^^
Did you try all others meds against anxiety ? for me it didn't help a lot against anxiety but lots more for nerve pain.

btw, tolerance come quite fast. I keep upping and upping my dosage. (daily usage and sometimes recreational)

Anybody else can talk about the tolerance ? and do you think 150mg is the higher amount pills or if I complain a little more, can I get higher medical dosage?
 
as far as i know, in the US, the highest supplied capsule is 150mg.

i would think that claiming to have fibro would require some documents to back it up. the best i can think of is claiming i have bad nerve pain in my back since i do have a compounded case of scoliosis (spine curves and inverts inwards). the nerve pain is supposed to be in the extremities and from diabetes though. i can try that and add that i have anxiety and have tried every meds in the book, benzos being the only that works but the tolerance rises to fast and they get me high (which i dont like).

hopefully the dr will write nerve pain as the reason for scripting and thus medicaid will cover it. im pretty sure if he writes it off label for anxiety the insurance wont cover it, that sound right?

i think by now people can see that i do have an anxious personality simply by how tenaciously i have posted in this thread. i take lexapro and while it does help i dont feel like it is an optimal treatment for anxiety. and im not depressed, the only reason i take it is for anxiety. i still feel held back in my life from my fear, as i call it. it isnt something that is specific. its more generalized. making eye contact and smiling, laughing are VERY hard for me. i feel trapped within myself. even ON an SSRI, so i know its not depression. it is the anxiety. i almost wish i had some xanax, but i just end up stealing cars and blacking out not remembering anything. i would like to be productive and not kill myself so benzos dont work for me in the long run, though they DO take the anxiety away for sure. that is why i am so fucking eager to try lyrica. ive heard so so many fucking brilliant reviews of it for anxiety. i simply have to at least try it and see if it works.

i suppose i can print out articles that show it has been approved in Europe for anxiety, but in reality im probably going to have to claim nerve pain so i can have it covered.
 
i still feel held back in my life from my fear, as i call it. it isnt something that is specific. its more generalized. making eye contact and smiling, laughing are VERY hard for me. i feel trapped within myself. even ON an SSRI, so i know its not depression. it is the anxiety. i almost wish i had some xanax, but i just end up stealing cars and blacking out not remembering anything. i would like to be productive and not kill myself so benzos dont work for me in the long run, though they DO take the anxiety away for sure.

doh... This sound's like me.
I've got these exact feelings. Try nerve pain, to get your lyrica, it's the only way. And they can't verify if you really got some. Tell them a fake little story about a bad sprain you got. and that you have some little "electrical shock" , spasm on your leg.
 
And you can't go to another doc and thell him/her that you got fibro? you seems very very in need of lyrica ^^
Did you try all others meds against anxiety ? for me it didn't help a lot against anxiety but lots more for nerve pain.

btw, tolerance come quite fast. I keep upping and upping my dosage. (daily usage and sometimes recreational)

Anybody else can talk about the tolerance ? and do you think 150mg is the higher amount pills or if I complain a little more, can I get higher medical dosage?

If you keep upping your dosage lyrica eventually will lose it effect and you will only need to take them to feel normal and not coming in withdrawal.

lucky you can get scale back your dosage, your tolerance will go down again in a couple of days.
 
yes, im going to cite nerve pain from my compounded scoliosis as an indication. i will also add that i have anxiety and ususually take klonopin 1mg BID and xanax PRN (true) but i dont like taking benzos. if he cant see how perfect lyrica would be for this then i need to get another dr.

im not sure medicaid will cover it though. firstly, the indication is for neuropathy FROM diabetes. i dont have diabetes. secondly, its expensive shit and they simply may not cover it. so i may try to get samples or have to submit to the demon neurontin. hopefully, this works out.

OH OH, i forgot - i had this idea last night that i will simply tell him I ALREADY take lyrica for nerve pain and anxiety. thats how i used to get benzos scripted. if they think you are already on something and it works they dont want to fuck around too much. SO DONE AND DONE! now i just pray that medicaid will fucking cover it. i will be so goddamn happy if this works out!!!!!!!!

on a side note i may tell him i want to cut the klonopin out and see if lyrica will do, but i will state that having some xanax for attacks is wise. this way it looks like im actually sacrificing one med instead of gaining one. i honestly DO hope lyrica supplants the need for lexapro and i can just take my suboxone and lyrica, with xanax for when things get really bad. we shall see.
 
Lyrica works wonders for anxiety, but just like with all good anxiolytics - the good effects eventually come to an end. It keeps me calm, and in a decent mood, but even 2.5g a day didn't work anymore after a while. Fucking bullshit.
 
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