[QUOTE=pdk2026;1050044]Hi there. Just reading through some of your posts and I think what you are doing for people going through this is wonderful. I am about a month and a half off Lyrica after tapering off 600mg at my highest dose. Your post on GABA and how it helped you to feel better really helped to connect the dots. You see, I was put on benzodiazepines back in 2008 for mild generalized anxiety.
I was feeling ill about 6-8 months later and didn't know it was that little pill making me sick. Long story short it took about another year to realize I wasn't dying from some odd disease (all work ups were 100 percent normal) and no doctor caught it was the clonazepam and Lorazipam causing such ill effects. Little did I know that the real horror would be when I went cold turkey and the nearly 15 months of relentless withdrawal that makes my Lyrica withdrawal feel like a walk in the park!!
What I'm getting at and what we need to spread to these folks out here is that Lyrica is thought to act on the same receptors that Benzodiazepines do. This is why many of the symptoms are similar when withdrawal hits! These receptors take months (and for some years) to "reset" and regain affinity to attract GABA and cause the nervous system to calm down and the odd symptoms people feel to dissipate.
I did a LOT of research while in benzodiazepine withdrawal and have educated myself FAR beyond what your run of the mill physician will tell people. I was told I was crazy, that NO DRUG can cause withdrawal months after cessation. What they don't know is that it's the ADAPTION AND CHANGE in the brain that is causing the problem, not the actual drug which had left the body months ago. Same holds true with Lyrica.
If you have any questions or would like me to help anyone on here (I am new on here) please let me know. Like I said, I am only a month and a half off Lyrica and am experiencing about half of the symptoms you have listed but compared to what I have been through, this is something that can be tolerated and put up with because it does get better it's just that people are quite surprised to find that these class of drugs can create such a long and painful withdrawal syndrome. No other class of drugs, even opiates, cause such a long drawn out withdrawal.
If anyone needs help or questions answered let me know. I'm not a doctor, just someone that has been severely injured by big pharm and a medical community that is completely unaware of what the drugs they so freely dispense can do to people.
Hi Pdk
Can I ask you what kind of symptoms you were having that made you feel sick from the little pill? "I need help with questions I have about Lyrica and Clonazepam". What is your diagnoses, what did you take Klonopin for? I am so overwhelmed with pain, side effects , anxiety and fear . I suffer from Idiopathic Small fiber neuropathy, and the symptoms for this horrid illness are horrible. (all my tests results suggest I am otherwise "healthy") I get Severe buzzing throughout my body that has caused bad tinnitus (I never had it before), I feel the buzzing through my body and I hear it in my ears. Along with burning on my legs, arms, torso, face and feet. Tightening and squeezing pain in my thighs and calves. the list goes on. I take 325 mgs Lyrica for 16 mos, I feel it is not helping. I take 2 mgs of Klonopin for anxiety. ( I used to take Xanax for a generalized anxiety disorder too, but my psychiatrist changed it to Klonopin.) I need it now more, for this chronic pain.
I would like to go off the lyrica , but I am afraid of the withdrawal, plus I do not know what else I could take for this buzzing, burning and pain. I tried cymbalta, neurotin, elavil for a few days and could not tolerate the SE.
How are doing since your Lyrica withdrawal? What do you suffer from, and what do you take now in place of the Lyrica? I am beside myself. I'm in alot pain, depressed and don't know what to do. Pain management doesn't know what to for me either and like you said Doctors are not aware of the side effects and withdrawal of these medications. I believe I will be on Klonopin for the rest of my life. I wonder if any of these two pills are contributing to my symptoms? I would like too know how your doing. Maybe we can talk in private. Any advice or suggestions you can give would be greatly appreciated!!
In pain and depressed...
