One of my symptoms of Lyrica withdrawal has been a lot of digestion issues (or I should say indigestion). I've lost a lot of weight and haven't been able to gain it back despite the increase in calories. After meeting with a couple drs, the most recent a GI specialist, they think the Lyrica may have caused a malabsorption problem. I will have to have a small and large intestine biopsy.
Will anyone else share their similar experience with indigestion issues from Lyrica withdrawal? And what you did to help the symptoms?
Thanks!!

Just feeling it come through the window as it begins to set over the pacific.

I read all your posts. As a matter of fact, I decided to quit Lyrica right after I read your first couple of posts here. You helped me BIG TIME.. BIG TIME.. BIG TIME.

I am 1 month off Lyrica now, I can say that I've passed the most difficult stage, which is the first 10 days of REAL suffering.

Now after 30 days without Lyrica, I and everyone around me have noticed how I changed 360 degrees. I became more focused, more concentrated, my eyes look healthier and I became physically better. I also became more tolerant on people, i really can't believe it.

Even anxiety is gone, IT IS GONE. I now take it easy on my self and people. I sleep normally, no issues with sleeping at all. (At the beginning, I took some Panadol night but not anymore).

I can see tangible improvements and I do believe that I will become even better in the next 30 days.

Stay away from Redbull and tea, eat lots of almonds, drink lots of Sprite and water. Have lots of hot soups. Hot bathes didn't help me actually, I think while you're withdrawing Lyrica, you shouldn't do anything for "relaxation" as your body is fighting for "hyper energy".

One last thing to say: Despite the fact that Lyrica withdrawal is really bad, you will actually enjoy quitting it.

Hi. I've read the pages in this thread but I didn't find the answer I was looking for. So I registered to ask the question.

I been tapping down Lyrica for the past 4 months. I was taking a quite large dose, 750mg a day for 5 months.
A few weeks ago I was down at 100mg a day then started taking off 25mg each week instead of 50mg each week. I'm now at 25mg a day and will stop taking them completely on thursday.

Question, how long should it take to feel recovered once I'm down at 0mg?

My doctor says 12 hours but I highly disagree, as he even claimed that Lyrica was a peace a cake to come off if not noticeable at all..

Thanks!

In my case, I tapered down for 2 months, and have been off completely for a little over 3 months. I do not feel recovered yet. Some days are better than others, and I can only hope to feel better soon.

I would count on about 4-7 months. I am at about 7 now and doing pretty good, totally clean of everything, no sleep aid, etc... I messed around with lyrica tapering for about one month, first 450 to 300mg, then 150 daily for a week then 50 daily for a few days, then I just quit and dove face first into the withdrawal. sounds like you are doing pretty good though, so maybe it will be different for you. nice job tapering! what a nightmare, as I read through the posts I've made, in retrospect, it's hard to remember the degree of suffering i experienced, nice to be reminded of how far i've come--Dear lyrica diary, lol...

If it helps anybody...

I'm off Lyrica. As mentioned somewhere in this thread, I tapered down to 300mg/day, then did 300mg EOD and 150 EOD (slowly cutting the dose on an EOD scheme). Hung out at 150ED for a couple weeks, then just stopped, about 10 days ago.

Biggest problems every time I cut the dose: nerve pain increased, and I picked up what can be described as severe charlie horses in various muscle groups. Charlie horses to the point where visible bruising resulted. The nerve pain was/is annoying: not only the sciatic nerve, but I have a minor nerve impingement somewhere in my pec, causing pain in the base of my right thumb. Basically, any nerve pain at all was greatly exaggerated.

Mentally: not quite sure how to describe the brain stuff. Pretty tired? That's part of it. Another part is maybe detached? Just not too interested in anything, not motivated, not engaged. For example: no sex drive. Everything pretty much works physiologically (erection, orgasm, ejaculation), but I just don't care. Even when I'd try to have sex, or masturbate, my attention might wander, and I'd be done. This sense of detachment applied to everything: those things that normally really interest me, just didn't anymore.

That's starting to change, however. I'm starting to feel some sparks of motivation again.

I might have tapered too fast for some, but I made a decision based on what I know about my mind and body. It was psychologically important for me to successfully put this drug behind me on this timetable.

I wish anybody going through getting off this drug - or any other drug - nothing but the best. Stay strong, stay focused, and stay determined.

I cut my lyrica from 300/day down to 150/day in 2 months, then switched to neurontin 300/day then down to 100/day in a month of taking neurontin. Then worked my way down to nothing a month after that. I was also cutting my opiates down, so I don't know what feelings were coming from what taper, but neither were terrible.

I've been on Lyrica off-and-on for years now. I had a herniated disc, for which I had a couple surgeries, eventually ending with a fusion. All that was successful, but the end result is that the sciatic nerve will probably continue to be irritated at times for the rest of my life.

I started in 2007, and its effect on my sciatica was nothing short of magical. I definitely had some of the foggy thinking side effects, and maybe a tiny bit of balance issues at the very beginning. But when I take only 200-300 mg/day, it's pretty reasonable. What I do notice (although it took me a while to figure it out) is the effect on my sleep. I sleep deeper than I used to, and if I ever forget my evening dose, I'll spend the entire night tossing and turning with the first withdrawal symptoms.

Anyway, I successfully weaned off it twice, in 2007 and 2008, and was symptom free for a while, and side-effect free as well - but eventually my symptoms returned, so I went back on the lyrica. I've been taking it ever since, but I kind of want to stop taking it again. I think lyrica is worth it, 100%, but I don't want to be on it forever. I'm hoping to try and manage my symptoms with occasional vicodin (since I've always had good weeks and bad weeks), but I have no idea if that will work.

So here are my thoughts, as someone who successfully weaned off it in the past. Go slow. Really slow. Change the dose by a small amount every couple days. But here's the real kicker - eventually you'll get down to only taking one small dose once a day. And if you're anything like me, you'll be stuck there a long time.

I had nasty anxiety when I first tried tapering the dose down, so I had to go slower than I had expected. But the real problem was that last dose - I could get down to 25 mg or 50 mg, just once a day, but I couldn't stop taking that last pill. I had insomnia, restless legs, and generally felt like crap. I think I continued taking that last pill once a day for several weeks at least, and then I think I tried taking it every other day, and eventually I was okay.

Here's a suggestion, that I wish I had tried at the time: talk to your doctor about a sleeping pill, or whatever you think you need to manage the side effects. I think maybe once you get down to that last tiny dose, you just need a little help to get through the last 10 days or so of withdrawal?

But here's another suggestion, which worked for me once, although I never really talked about it with a doctor. The first time I weaned off, I still had an old prescription for gabapentin. They have somewhat similar function in the body, and I knew from experience that it was possible to switch directly from gabapentin onto lyrica. So when I got down to a small pill of lyrica, I switched to a small dose of gabapentin instead. It helped combat the restless legs and sleep problems, and I seemed to be okay when I stopped taking it a week or two later.

Anyway, it can be done. I think it will take at least a few weeks for the side effects to clear up - someone else posted here they thought it was more like several months! I don't know about that, but I guess I'll find out - I've now been on it more than 4 years, so I expect it might be tougher this time...

Hi,
Just wanted to update everyone on my progress. It's been 6 months since I've been off lyrica completely. The month of December was horrible with withdrawal, but I had a few really good weeks in January with feeling almost back to normal. Unfortunately once February came I had a relapse of withdrawal. The worst of it is the nausea and upset stomach, and hot flashes. But I think I'm still getting better BC the anxiety has diminished and my hair is growing back. (I suffered hair loss as a result of going off lyrica). And my sleep is getting better, and my energy level is improving.
I'm glad I decided to get off lyrica. It's a horrible drug and I can't believe how impactful and devastating it has been on me the past 8 months (which is when I first started to taper down). You could not pay to ever take this drug again.
Word of advice: taper slowly and for a long time. I thought two months of tapering was long enough but it wasn't and I think it's been more difficult on my body to adjust to being without it.