I've been on Lyrica for 5 years, my does is 400mg per day. I took more or less depending on how bad or good I felt or if I needed superhuman powers to sit in a car a few hours or do some gardening. I gained 50 pounds in 2 years! As of last week I was still up 30 pounds and decided to get off of it, mainly because it's going to cost me $217 to refill it! Lyrica has given me a serious sweating problem, even mores so since I started tapering off. Night is so bad that my husband changes beds if I don't wake up and do it first! I read that Benadryl helps with that and didn't believe it much but wow! I'm dry! I'm down to less than 100mgs a day and I've lost 8 pounds this last week. That amazes me. The withdrawals have been bad, anxiety and agitation get to the point where I could scream and I have a very short temper. I told my husband it's withdrawals but he thinks I'm in control of this rage inside me. I'm a low key person and this is not me! Everything ****** me off! Getting out of the shower, drying off and becoming soaked with sweat instantly was driving me mad enough, now the anxiety, depression, and shakiness inside are there too.
I'm scheduled to start suboxone in a week for the oxy and morphine. My doctor won't be around till then and he wants to monitor me closely. I didn't have enough lyrica to wait for that day and don't know if it'd help with that anyway. Lyrica worked well for me. I didn't hurt as bad and my anxiety attacks stopped the day I went on it. I have fibromyalgia which they say was caused by trauma following an accident. I've had back surgery and many procedures and I have arthritis. I didn't realize that arthritis was as painful as it is. My joints are getting damaged as well. I don't know how I'll live off of pain medicine, but I don't know how I can live on it. I'm in my 40s, I could have 30 more years and how many times can they raise my dose? It will kill me eventually. My body spits it out as fast as I put it in. My life revolves around doctor appointments and trips to the pharmacy. I'm an hour away from the closest doctor and pharmacy so it's a pain! I take too much on the bad days then break them all in half so I don't run out...I have a lot of bad days! I have dreams of hiking, camping, traveling, spontaneous things. I doubt that I'll ever feel I'm up to all that lol! I get into big denial over my health issues...
So, just how long will this last??? Withdrawal while still on meds seems so, so wrong! I think my symptoms are better than day 3 of tapering though. I'm on about day 7 or 8.
BENADRYL YEAH!

Hi,
I have newly joined this site and have the information very informative, especially those who continued to post through this withdrawal period.

I had a car accident in 2003 with spinal injuries and was put on Lyrica which seemed to really help. I was never told of the seriousness of withdrawal and as I always do, I checked on line on several medication sites, including Lyrica's and found no information about these withdrawal symptoms.

Then in 2008 I contracted a virus from helping a sick woman on a flight and became very ill, very quickly requiring an urgent liver transplant. I was taken off all medications for the 3 weeks leading up to my transplant. I don't remember any withdrawal symptoms, but I was so ill and confused from a liver which was barely working.

I actually did very well through that huge surgery. I had been off the Lyrica for 3 weeks by the time I had my surgery, but once I had my surgery I was not experiencing any withdrawal symptoms. But a year or so later I continued to suffer from pain from the car accident, so was put on back on Lyrica.

But the medication is no longer covered by my plan and I could not afford to continue it. I started tapering the drug Aug 22nd of this year and finally went off of it Sept 18th. I had been taking 300mg once a day.
since Sept 8th, which was about 17 days after I started tapering the drug I began to experience"
no appetite (have lost 9 pounds so far)
freezing cold
tremors and shaking
feel like I may fall
utter exhaustion
severe constipation
insomnia
blurry vision
I am not experiencing the anxiety which some people are reporting, and have been struggling with depression for some time, probably due to all of the things that have happened to me in the last few years.
I just feel really sick.

I too will NEVER go back on this drug, and I am quite angry that people (including myself) have never been told of the powerful side effects, and withdrawal symptoms. So far I have not found any references to say what the incidence of withdrawal symptoms are.

Today I forced myself to get out and do some errands. I am going to follow along with those people who tried to be as active as possible during their withdrawal period.

I will try and keep you posted how this journey goes for me, so that it may be helpful for others coming along.

Thanks so much to all of you who have posted here.

D.

It's been a week since I posted last and although things are no worse, I am also no better.

I saw a pharmacist last week. I know him, and he is a really nice guy. He had never heard of Lyrica withdrawal symptoms and went through some of his pharmacy web data and could find no information.

My Dr. is concerned, she is open to it being Lyrica withdrawal or also a non specific virus. She is concerned that I have had such a lweight loss in a month. Secretly I am happy for that.

My Dr also put me on Welbutrin. I have been on it nearly 3 weeks and so far I don't notice any difference, but the pharmacist told me it would be about 3 weeks before I began noticing a difference and probably 6 weeks to feel the full effect of the drug.

I am hoping that everyone else who is going through this is beginning to feel better.

Take good care

D.

I've been off lyrica about 1 year and 6 months. I am pretty sure it caused damage that still lingers to this day. My sleep and happiness levels haven't returned to normal, i'm less patient, feel trapped and I worry about stuff a lot more, experience anxiety, etc. I have kept busy though and positive life experiences and incremental successes seem to be helping me rewire back to a pre-lyrica self, or maybe even better--a more experienced and gracious post-lyrica self.

I'm not a doctor by any means, but for myself, I would have taken a surgery over gaba drugs such as lyrica any day. I still have not yet had surgery, my sciatica inflammation comes and goes, and I can easily throw out my back as I did yesterday which is why I'm here writing this, obviously I haven't learned to sneeze correctly yet. I am looking forward to a possible surgery over the holiday. I've had symptoms for about 2.5 years and I had a first microdiscectomy in 2008, which was a total success, except I went back to doing labor work which ruptured the same disc more.

feel free to read my other posts as I was going through the severe withdrawal--they date back to the beginning. It's the biggest struggle I've ever faced, but it gets better. It just takes a while for some of us. I remember how it was one minute at a time at first, and a week, year, month seemed impossible. but time moves on and recovery happens when we let it i guess.

wish you all well.