Hi all, I've posted a lot on this board the past 5 months, so feel free to track my progress through the thread.


Doing pretty good, weening off Trazadone (what I ended up taking to curb the effects, 3months into severe lyrical withdrawal depression and insomnia, etc.) It has now been 5 months since my last dose of Lyrica. I was at 50mg of Trazadone to start and have gone down to 12.5mg. It's unbelievable that some of the side effects of Lyrica are winding down, I was so accustomed to them and stunned for so long. I still can't sleep like I used to but I'm beginning to feel like myself again. I do not take any other drugs. I exercise one hour everyday. I eat well, do not drink, meditate a few times a week. I decided to table my back surgery for now, for ruptured discs (I've already had one surgery, four years ago) because, though still in pain , I am making progress in my recovery, very slowly. I have been working on this pain issue for about 15 months, and was crawling during the worst of it when I broke down and went on Lyrica. I was on lyrica and Tramadol about 2.5 months--I was taking 150mg of Lyrical 3 times per day. Take care everyone and stay away from drugs. I've done them all and they are all bad news. If you must take painkillers, go for the opiates, the withdrawal is only 3days and then done, no matter how long you've taken the drugs--I speak of this from experience. Lyrica is a different animal, do not take your Doc's word on Lyrica or Tramadol, they don't know what these drugs do to us.

I also want to put in a plug for physical strengthening, as I was the last one to believe I could help myself without surgery or meds, It has taken a huge amount of patience and time but I have recovered to the point I'm at today largely in part to the core and overall physical strengthening I have done. I am also kind of indebted to the vicious effects of Lyrica cessation in a way--the inner turmoil I experienced left me with only one option, to get out of bed and move and since i was so freaked out about people, judgmental about myself and others, and in hiding, the only thing I could do was work out, run, and lift weights. I started very slow.

What a nightmare, I remember telling myself, I'm not going to waste this terrible hardship, I am going to make stuff happen while in the agony and when the dark cloud of physical pain and psychological depression (from the Lyrica) pass I will feel stronger than I ever have.

I think this might actually be true in the end, I'm not there yet, but I just might be one day.

Please love, and vote for Obama.