Hi Y'all,
I am just coming off of Lyrica & this is the first hit on a sight this morning w/ key words Lyrica - withdrawal - sweating.

Thanks for posting your experiences - my sweating issues just went nuclear, despite my windows being open & my bedroom being 61 degrees. I am having some tummy upset too, but since I carry my emergency bag w/ me I have chewable Bonine to help me through that this morning (oddly when I was on Lyrica - needed it to combat the extreme vertigo.

I recently came off of Cymbalta also. Both had passed the point of being helpful to hurtful. I have had 95%+ of the Lyrica side effects to include the rare & severe and were getting worse each week - not acceptible for me.

I do have a history of working in the medical field as well as degrees & I have had to fight my way to just get someone to recognize that I was not psycho or lazy & really did have CFS - what a serious pain.

I have also studied herbal remedies/supplements...for many years and am using them to help clear my body of the bad stuff. Hoping the sweats are going to quickly quell themselves - even the cats got out of bed last night.

I am now using Boswellia by Ayureceutics(standardized to 85%) for the pain, Ashwaghanda by Ayureceutics as a non-stimulating adaptogen (while there are many adaptogens for the sake of my very stressed adrenals I really needed a non-stimulating one), Fibro-Response by Source Naturals - just got this one off of Amazon (I have a few cites that are my "norm" shopping sites) - would encourage you to read the reviews on this - very very good, just started & hoping it is going to do well for me.

Hope you all find what you need to help you out.

If I had it to do over again, I would not go on Lyrica. I had the major w/d symptoms in spite of the fact that I am on a low dose. As far as I am concerned, I am on it for the rest of my life as I don't even want to try a taper. I have had less trouble with major reductions in sched II meds after a major spinal surgery. Heck, a number of years ago, a psychiatrist talked me into going off ALL sched IIs because he said my pain was rebound pain from the meds. He took me off cold turkey and that was not as bad as the Lyrica. BTW, the psychiatrist was WRONG!!!!! Have a good day.

Hi Spine,

There must have been an article or study in a medical journal around that time, because I had 2 neuros and one other doctor try to ram that one down my throat all within a year. It's like it was the fad of the month or something.

I've experienced rebound pain - several times - so I know the phenomenon is real - unquestionably - but I've never had any problem distinguishing it from chronic pain (CP) - it feels different. When I told that to the last guy, he dismissed (disbelieved) me and asked, "How do you know it's not rebound?" My response was, "How do you know it is?" When I related this to my PCP, he got a real chuckle (and agreed with me).

I can't speak for other patients; I don't know how common or uncommon it is for CP patients to be able to distinguish the difference between CP and rebound pain (and I'm not aware of any statistics or studies about this) but I sincerely doubt I'm the only one. IME, the two types of pain are so different that it's difficult for me to imagine that others cannot tell the difference, but I'm not so arrogant (like some doctors) as to dismiss/disbelieve someone who says they cannot differentiate.

Out of curiosity, can you tell the difference?

Doc

I experienced two completely different sensations between rebound and chronic pain. While I have numerous pain producing conditions, the worst is the never ending sciatica. It doesn't respond to conventional treatments anymore. Nerve pain is just that and feels different from rebound. I agreed to go off the pain meds as an act of desperation.....the way one might agree to a surgery that their "gut" tells them is a bad choice. This took place about ten years ago and it was deffinately a trend around here. Most of the neuropsychiatrists were doing their best to talk their pain patients, who had been referred by their pain docs, into discontinuing their sched. IIs as they felt the sched. IIs caused rebound pain. They had far more training in addiction than chronic pain and felt that most of us had been turned into addicts. They were on a mission!!!! Have a great day.

Hi to all, new to this, I took This hell of a Lyrica since 2 moths, firstly had good balance in mental mood and was very happy to find my < self > back and being no more depressed and moody but I realized after some weeks it had side effects so, after a party Sat. nite and the terrible consequences like total block of my mind, stucked on the sofa for entire DAYS without being even able to listen music, watch tv, or read or do anything but just waiting and suffering strong terrible depression, I stopped taking the pills and now very slowly recovering with strong abstinence symptoms, depression , paranoia, anxiety, etc. This forum helped me understand what it was and I keep resisting , not taking anymore it.
Thanks God I was just on 75/100mg per day I cannot immaging how much can suffer someone who takes this pill for longer period and with stronger dosage. Absolutely terrible and scary.

Welcome Ethan IT.

Just posting this to document that I too had severe withdrawal problems from Lyrica, even with tapering over about three weeks. The symptoms started gradually while tapering off, worsened when I was completely off the medication, and kept worsening for the 2-3 weeks I was off it. But I didn’t realize the connection until the symptoms got really bad. I felt so bad that I thought I would die, and at first my doctors and I didn’t know what was wrong. I restarted the Lyrica and sure enough, the problems immediately disappeared. A few years later I tried once again to stop it, this time with even a much slower taper. I started gradually feeling the same bad symptoms long before stopping and with just a fairly small dose reduction, so reluctantly will stay on Lyrica forever.

It’s true that the vast majority of people apparently do not have this type of reaction. But I’ve read many other reports of the same types of reactions from a small percentage of people. BTW I have many of the same symptoms, just much milder, if I am a few hours late with a dose. I felt considerably worse with this withdrawal than on chemo for breast cancer.

It’s hard to put into words all of the symptoms I got, but here are at least some. This is how they get when really bad, when off the med for several days. They start milder and come on gradually:

No appetite, Upset stomach and/or nausea. Forced myself to eat as much as I could during the last couple weeks when it was severe. Without trying, I lost about 15 pounds in the two weeks off the med plus 10 more pounds in the previous 3 weeks while tapering. Got to my lowest weight since my early 20s.

Bad Headache; Much more than my usual pain in my neck and shoulders (This is where my pain is usually worst and where I have the most problems with my spine)
Couldn’t think/plan; fuzzy thinking; Mind basically blank; Certainly couldn’t work at my job that required concentration, high executive functioning and problem-solving
No energy, Mental or physical
Irritable
No desire or ability to engage in any social interaction, Even just conversation with my family
No desire to engage in any physical activity or to do anything, even low energy activities like read, watch TV, Check my phone for contact from my children or spouse, shower
Felt disconnected from reality
Couldn’t drive
Difficult to even go to the doctor with the help of a family member
Fatigue
Couldn’t do any type of chores, Even line up people to drive my kids

———
F/50
Laminectomy c3-c7; fusion c3-t1 2007 Due to congenital narrow spinal column, syrinx & DDD. Symptoms since 1988.
Cervical syringohydromyelia; cervical, lumbar, and thoracic spondylosis with myelopathy and neuropathy; cervical and lumbar stenosis
Breast cancer survivor (triple negative) 2018; BARD1 genetic mutation
Basal cell skin cancer twice 2008
Central pain syndrome
ME/CFS
Excessive daytime sleepiness
Recurrent iritis
Joint hypermobility syndrome
Tachycardia, Occasional arrhythmia
Vulvodynia
FMS?
IBS
Intercystial cystitis
Possible Sjogren’s disease
Flicker vertigo
Rosacea

I feel like I am dying. I was taking 900 mg of Lyrica daily because I misunderstood the directions. A terrible fault I am suffering horridly for. I ran out so early that the pharmacists refuse to refill it even to taper off of. I'm on day 6 of detox and i'm in agonizing pain. A terrible smell haunts my nose, my stomach and lower abdomen feel like they're being squished, I'm always cold, but unbearably hot when under cover. I can't eat...I can't sleep. When I do fall asleep for maybe 30 mins I wake up in terrible pain and stay awake for the rest of the night with the smell, nausea, tremors, cold chills, hot flashes, head aches, and diarrhea never ending. NEVER. Someone...please...anyone..help me. I can't live like this. I thought it would be over or at least subsiding. My mom got back from her doctor at the family clinic and he told her that it was insane for them to let me detox like this. "Life threatening" were his words. I called poison control at day 3 and they said that no one has physical withdrawals from lyrica, that my symptoms are most likely coming from the oxycontin...but I was still taking the oxy when I started feeling this way..it's how I know that i'm suffering from quitting the lyrica. What do I do...

The reason for this may be that Lyrica is now a controlled substance, whereas gabapentin is not.

I don't understand this either, as quitting Lyrica cold-turkey can definitely cause withdrawal symptoms, including seizures in some people. This is clearly stated on the Lyrica website, NIH/Medline, and anyplace you Google: Lyrica withdrawal

Typically, the weaning-off process takes about a week, so hopefully you're past the worst of it.

The other thing I don't understand is why you haven't contacted your doctor directly, and why he hasn't advised/prescribed you help for getting through it, especially in light of his comments.

Doc

I am going to throw in my two cents. Twice, my Part D provider refused to pay for my Lyrica and I am on a small dose which is part of a pain cocktail. Both times, it took six weeks to get the dispute settled and I was in full blown withdrawl the entire time. For several years, we had a major problem with kids using Lyrica as a weekend party drug as it can cause some real loopy side effects for many when first start it. Around here, the kids called it the Big L. If only for that reason, I always thought it should be a schedule II.