Yes, 9 months. It has gotten better than it was in the first few months. Daily activities are getting easier to do, but it took me a good 6-7 months before I felt I got to that point. There doesn't seem to be a specific amount of time it lasts, I think it differs from person to person. But it doesn't seem uncommon for it to last ~6+ months. Aah! That just seems like a crazy amount of time to adjust but apparently lyrica was really destructive to my body and it is taking a long time for me to adjust.
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everybody around me, all my friends, family say, that I need to get up, and do stuff. even though I feel really rough and beaten up, i feel I'm aching from the inside, and I'm exhausted... should I really go out and meet friends and stuff? will this make it better? should I try and drink alcohol? should I force myself to do things, or is it better to stay at home. will it make it worse? I always feel that mentally it helps to try and live my life normally, but physically I don't have the energy, and everything in my body hurts real bad. I don't want to stay at home all the time, because that will lead to depression, and I'm very impatient. Everybody around me is saying that I should do stuff, but I feel really harsh pain. I know with my mind what I want to do, I just feel really really sick physically for it.
It feels ****** hopeless that nobody really know what kind of condition this is.
Because I never know where it leads. If I go out for like 2 hours, and do stuff in the city, I get really worn out, and feel exhausted to the point where I have to rest. But what if I didn't rest? what if I forced it from that point? would I eventually die? or end up in hospital? what can this condition REALLY do to me? can it do real harm, or its just symptoms? Because I never force myself over THAT point, where I feel, it's better for me to lay down and rest. Should I do that? I mean i don't have any kind of difference in my blood tests, no real illness, what if I just forced myself to do everything normally? would I end up in hospital?

These are the things that are bothering me, and I don't really know the answers to them. If I stay home, and don't do anything I will get ****ing depressed, and angry at myself, but If I go out I get exhausted and my symptoms get worse.

I try to fight my way out of this, but it seems like everything I try fails.
Please help if you experienced anything like this!

Oh I really feel for you. I know exactly what you're going through. I battled the same decisions too. For me, I could not drink alcohol while on lyrica, and even since I've been off the lyrica I have not been able to drink it. It makes me deathly sick, even if it's only a few sips of beer. It will make me feel like I need to go to the hospital. I never had that problem before lyrica. As far as going out and being social.... lyrica withdrawal caused me to have horrible anxiety, which was only amplified by socializing. That on top of the exhaustion, and how sick the withdrawal made me feel, caused me to avoid going out. Sometimes I force myself to go out bc I'm worried depression is going to set in if I only stay in my house. I would only stay out for a short amount of time tho, as long as my body would physically allow. I'm fighting the depression as much as possible but after so long it's trying to set in. The exhaustion is horrible and has been really bad for me this week. I was literally falling asleep at work and felt so sick. At times I just want to cry. No one around me understands, not even my family. They just think I should be over this by now. As far as feeling like you're going to die, or will it kill you... I don't think it will, I think it's just miserable. I found doing things that are really distracting, like for me..swimming in the ocean or bike riding, helped to take my mind off of how badly I was feeling, even if it was for a moment. The first few weeks, and months were the worst and felt never ending. It does get better. Although I'm nowhere near back to normal, I am better than I was in the very beginning. The month of January was great actually, but for some reason February/march has been really rough. It's like I've relapsed. Ohh I'm so ready to feel like myself again!!! I feel like lyrica took part of me that I don't know if I'm going to get back :-(
you could not pay me to ever take that medicine again!!! It is the worst!! In spite of how horrible it has been, I know coming off of it was the right decision. I'm glad I didn't wait any longer.

i have read that the withdrawal in the first phases (as in my situation) is gettin worse and worse, and it gets to the worst point and then there's a plateau. when it's not getting worse but not getting better either, and then slowly it starts getting better.

Was it like that for you?

And also another question:

Yesterday I went out for a 2 and a half hour period of showing around foreign people by car in the city (it's my job), and I felt really harsh throughout, but since then it's been a lot worse. So I got really really exhausted from that activity, and I had bad pain (chest, arms and back, and overall feeling of exhaustion, low energy), and I couldn't sleep well because of the pain, and now today has been pure hell so far. Probably the worst day ever of my withdrawal. The pain is almost unbearable, I drink incredibly lots of water, try to eat a lot, fruits and veggies, but I really feel that I should be going to the hospital.. I don't really know what they could do with it.
Now i took ibuprofen, because I really had no idea, what to do with this unbelievably harsh pain.
Did this ever happened to you, when you over forced yourself, did a lot more, than you felt like you can cope, and then got real exhausted for days because of the extra energy?
Should I be afraid?
I really regret now that I took that job yesterday, because this whole pain wasn't worth the money.
thanks for helping me out with all my questions and agonizing! thanks mate!

No problem, I'm happy to help out. It actually helps me out too by being able to talk about all this with someone who knows what I've been going through.

I think the withdrawal for me got worse for a few months, then hit a plateau, then had some good days and some bad days. But the past month it seems like it's been more bad days than good. Hopefully I'm in the phase of getting better.
I also had horrible chest pain, almost felt like I was having a panic attack or a heart attack. I went to the doctor for it, but they were unable to do anything. That pain in my chest lasted really badly for a few months, then slowly started to get better. Now I only have it once in a while.
Sometimes if I push myself too hard, it made the exhaustion worst. There were times I couldn't get out of bed for a week or two because I physically was unable. I would try to leave bed and would feel weak and dizzy and lighted headed.
There were a few times I felt so weak and light headed that I almost blacked out. That is really scary because I can't imagine if I had been driving when that happened. I try to rest on days when it's that bad.
I think I mentioned this before, but for me, taking diazepam and oxycodone helped with the anxiety and chest pain associated with the withdrawal. Sometimes doctors will prescribe diazepam (which is just the generic form of Valium) for lyrica withdrawal. So I'd suggest talking to your doctor about taking another medication to ease the symptoms.

What amount of lyrica did you take and for how long?
I think that must be also a contributing factor for the withdrawal. Even though they say there is no correlation between the WD and the amount/time, but I only took it for 2 months and only 150mg daily.

oh and actually ibuprofen miracleously helped a lot! I never expected that!
yeah, I definitely feel, that I forced myself over a point yesterday, and that's why it has gotten worse. If I just keel calm, and do chill walks, and smaller activities, it's a lot easier to cope with it.

I feel really bad for you, that it's actually lasting that long! but hang in there mate! You're definitely over the hardest part that for sure! :-)

Actually I'm pretty confident in filing a lawsuit against Pfizer, and I'm quite confident that I'm gonna win. so that thought helps me a lot. That I can hope for a compensation, when this is over.

I've read Quitlyricalive's posts, and he wrote that after 74 days he felt a lot better. I'm at about 52 days now, and I feel that I just hit the peak of WD. I hope now the plateau is coming, and then it will just get better.

I was on 150 mg daily for almost 3 years. I started to experience really bad side effects from the medicine and that's when I decided to go off it. I weaned down really slowly for two months. I thought weaning down for so long would help the withdrawal to not be so bad. But I guess I was wrong.
I'm glad the ibuprofen helped!!

Hey man! hold on! you'll be fine! (Y)
I had a great sleep and today is very good compared to yesterday. I really want to feel hope, and want to come uphill now! I just hate the up and down aspect of this hole shi t.. the part that you can never be sure in yourself, that "yes, now it's getting better".. cause after a few "good" days it can hit in again really strong. but whatevs, onetime it will be over, and we will never have to surf this thread again

The ups and downs are like a roller coaster. It's hard to know if you're getting better when you start to feel bad again. I think it's also really weird that I feel better, but then start to feel worse. You would think once you started feeling better you'd continue to go uphill. I guess the hill is staggered...
Oh well, I had a good day too and actually wasn't too sick to my stomach and had a pretty good appetite. Can't wait for all days to be good!!

GOT TO A MAJOR POINT IN UNDERSTANDING THE WHOLE LYRICA WITHDRAWAL MECHANISM!

I've seen a very good psychiatrist today, who helped me understand the whole deal, that we are going through during the Lyrica withdrawal.
And the main thing I needed to understand, were of course my symptoms. The symptoms of constant pain, aching, and exhaustion are indeed, the symptoms of DEPRESSION.

So clearly I am diagnosed with depression.
And oddly enough I feel happy about this diagnose.

Because it's not real. It's just the symptoms of it, but not really a deep depression.

Depression involves the feeling of inflammation, and aching, and fatigue, so these withdrawal effects should not be stated separately. Depression doesn't neccesarily mean that you're feeling down, or sad. You can actually have depression without feeling anxious or sad at all. !!!! (it happens to me!!)

So there shouldn't really be anymore said to this whole thread.

ANYTHING THAT HELPS RELIEVE DEPRESSION SYMPTOMS HELP RELIEVE LYRICA WITHDRAWAL.

you got to note though, that it is the brighter side of depression, because it's not caused by any real life events, traumas, or long-term anxiety. instead it's caused by the body's need of the drug "pregabalin". Due to the fact that the body has gotten completely addicted to it, and it can become addicted to it in a very short period of time.

My new doc told me that he would advise some anti-depressants, but I am going to refuse that. I don't want to mess up my brain even more, and Lyrica-withdrawal is a chemical thing, that will end by itself after a while, so I don't need to combat it that much, by risking that I will get addicted to a new substance. (which will cause withdrawal symptoms again and again..)

My best advice now is, to try everything that makes you happier.
Raise the serotonin levels!

The best non-pharmacy substance for this, in my opinion VegEpa. VegEpa is a highly purified omega 3 fish oil, with high levels of EPA, which help raise the serotonin levels of the brain, and help ease withdrawal symptoms. It acts as an SSRI anti-depressant, but it doesn't make you addicted, because it's just basically fish

Being outside in the sun helps a lot, walks help a lot, if you don't have the energy to go out and meet with friends, it helps to call them over, watch a movie together, or go for a walk. Just light tasks, that makes life more enjoyable.

Another really-really important factor is getting a good sleep. I noticed when I have a great sleep, I can reduce my symptoms dramatically. VegEpa helps with that too. You got to take a higher dose though. 3-4 capsules per day. It's a bit expensive, but after you're through with this shi t, you don't have to take it anymore, and it doesn't cause any withdrawal symptoms. it's all natural.

I think this new thing I found out today applies for me in a great deal, but probably would help also for you guys.