Mental Health What advice can you give me for potential Lyrica withdrawal symptoms?

[Transcendence]

What was your dose, length of treatment, and experience stopping Lyrica?

It seems that if you talk to 5 different psychiatrists about Lyrica they'll have 6 different opinions on it. I've heard everything from "this drug can't possibly be used for anxiety" to "My mentor during my residency hails it as a miracle drug for GAD".

About 3 years ago I was trying to keep my head above water and struggling to get a grip on my anxiety without raising my benzo dose if I could help it. I know how difficult benzo withdrawal is, and if it's this difficult at 1.5mg clonazepam a day, I can not ever imagine having the strength to taper off a habit of > 4mg. After having not much luck with Remeron and a few more SSRIs, my doctor thought that Lyrica was worth a shot. I was prescribed a low dose for two weeks and then quickly increased to 600mg a day.

At first it was more effective than clonazepam or any of the other benzos I had tried at reasonable doses. And while I noticed maybe a slight increase in forgetfulness, I didn't feel tired or gain weight or any of the side effects people often complain about with Lyrica. It worked fine for over a year, better than nothing for maybe another year, and now recently I honestly can't tell if it's doing anything.

I had an appointment with a couple of psychiatrists today at a teaching hospital and they seemed confused as to why I was on Lyrica to begin with....They decided to keep me on clonazepam and replace the phase out the Lyrica in favor of the SSRI Luvox. I asked about possible withdrawal symptoms, but they didn't seem concerned at all. Nonetheless, they are letting me wean off of it if I want.

At this point I can't tell if my anxiety is worse because of stress, benzo tolerance, stopping Lyrica, starting Luvox, or a combination. So is it worth weaning myself off of Lyrica? I'm interested in the experiences particularly of people who took a comparable dose for a comparable amount of time.

Thanks

 

[jammin83]

Yes. Absolutely. You need to taper down from that type of dosage. Lots of people have had terrible reactions from stopping both lyrica and gabapentin too fast. It will take you probably at least a year to do it safely unfortunately. People have gotten sick for very long periods of time because it has messed with their nervous system so badly. Most docs aren't aware of the dependency involved with lyrica but it can get really nasty and you really don't want to clean up that aftermath because it can take a very lone time sometimes to recover; like years depending on how sensitive you are. I recommended guideline is a 10% reduction a month. The next month will be 10% of the last dosage not from the original dosage. At some point you will need to jump off but that dosage is really low. Usually people will utilize volumetric dosing and/or mg scales (20 bucks on amazon) to accomplish the minuscule cuts.

In october, it will mark one year for me withdrawing from zyprexa. In that period of time I have learned a lot about drug withdrawal as I didn't know drug withdrawals could last that long. I completely destabilized my CNS in the process and it wasn't pretty and I am still messed up from going too fast. You really don't want to experience that. For certain people, depending on how sensitive you are, almost any psych drug has that potential including SSRIs. Lyrica and gabapentin have the ability to totally destroy your nervous system if you stop them too quickly. If you experience withdrawal don't mess with it. It's not something you can push through that will clear up in a few weeks. Do it smart and do it gently. I feel your pain, as soon as I stabilize from this year long withdrawal I have to start weening down off of gabapentin. I am not excited about it as I have already had a taste abd been in withdrawal for almost a year. It's miserable. If you do it slow enough you can do it almost painlessly but it takes time. Many doctors could shrug you off about it but it can totally mess with you if you don't do it right.

PM me if you need anything and I will gladly try to help in any way that I can.

 

[paranoid android]

Taper taper taper. With gabapentin or pregabalin the withdrawal can really suck for a long time. However with a proper taper ya would be ok. The withdrawal feels almost like a combination of benzo and opiate withdrawal so yeah it sucks bad.

 

[Transcendence]

Thank you guys for the support. I have another appointment with the psychiatrist in a couple days. Although I was impressed with how thorough the doctors were compared to other psychiatrists I've had in the past, I have the sense that they don't really have any experience with pregabalin. One of them seemed to think that it worked on serotonin and that the Luvox would be redundant with it. I know that's not correct but I kept my mouth shut because I didn't feel like arguing. However, I'm about to start a new career that's very important to me and a year long benzo-opiate type withdrawal doesn't seem like it would be...conducive to my mental health at this point.

Oh boy.

 

[jammin83]

You may be able to get away with a more aggressive taper just listen to your body. Certain people are going to be more sensitive than others, how long you've been on it, etc. I'm not sure about lyrica but with gabapentin they prescribe it way above saturation point. I didn't have too much difficulty going from 3200 day to 800 day. I think it will be difficult when I get lower but you could save yourself a few months if you can drop some of the upper portion a little faster. If it gets uncomfortable slow down and go slow because you can do it slow enough it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Good luck.

 

[MilzyWilzy]

I'm echoing what the others have said, TAPER.

This is a vicious drug to withdraw from and can have detrimental effects to your health.

Steady and safe is the way forward with this one. I'm just planning a taper from 400+mg daily. Definitely not one to stop cold turkey I'm afraid.

I I wish you good luck, you can do it!

 

[Transcendence]

I felt like I had arthritis for a week. I'm feeling better now. I'm mostly stable. I'm optimistic. Tapering now and my thoughts aren't as scattered. For about a week I was scared of my own shadow. I think I'll be ok.