[QUOTE=pdk2026;1050044]Hi there. Just reading through some of your posts and I think what you are doing for people going through this is wonderful. I am about a month and a half off Lyrica after tapering off 600mg at my highest dose. Your post on GABA and how it helped you to feel better really helped to connect the dots. You see, I was put on benzodiazepines back in 2008 for mild generalized anxiety.
I was feeling ill about 6-8 months later and didn't know it was that little pill making me sick. Long story short it took about another year to realize I wasn't dying from some odd disease (all work ups were 100 percent normal) and no doctor caught it was the clonazepam and Lorazipam causing such ill effects. Little did I know that the real horror would be when I went cold turkey and the nearly 15 months of relentless withdrawal that makes my Lyrica withdrawal feel like a walk in the park!!

What I'm getting at and what we need to spread to these folks out here is that Lyrica is thought to act on the same receptors that Benzodiazepines do. This is why many of the symptoms are similar when withdrawal hits! These receptors take months (and for some years) to "reset" and regain affinity to attract GABA and cause the nervous system to calm down and the odd symptoms people feel to dissipate.

I did a LOT of research while in benzodiazepine withdrawal and have educated myself FAR beyond what your run of the mill physician will tell people. I was told I was crazy, that NO DRUG can cause withdrawal months after cessation. What they don't know is that it's the ADAPTION AND CHANGE in the brain that is causing the problem, not the actual drug which had left the body months ago. Same holds true with Lyrica.

If you have any questions or would like me to help anyone on here (I am new on here) please let me know. Like I said, I am only a month and a half off Lyrica and am experiencing about half of the symptoms you have listed but compared to what I have been through, this is something that can be tolerated and put up with because it does get better it's just that people are quite surprised to find that these class of drugs can create such a long and painful withdrawal syndrome. No other class of drugs, even opiates, cause such a long drawn out withdrawal.

If anyone needs help or questions answered let me know. I'm not a doctor, just someone that has been severely injured by big pharm and a medical community that is completely unaware of what the drugs they so freely dispense can do to people.

Hi Pdk
Can I ask you what kind of symptoms you were having that made you feel sick from the little pill? "I need help with questions I have about Lyrica and Clonazepam". What is your diagnoses, what did you take Klonopin for? I am so overwhelmed with pain, side effects , anxiety and fear . I suffer from Idiopathic Small fiber neuropathy, and the symptoms for this horrid illness are horrible. (all my tests results suggest I am otherwise "healthy") I get Severe buzzing throughout my body that has caused bad tinnitus (I never had it before), I feel the buzzing through my body and I hear it in my ears. Along with burning on my legs, arms, torso, face and feet. Tightening and squeezing pain in my thighs and calves. the list goes on. I take 325 mgs Lyrica for 16 mos, I feel it is not helping. I take 2 mgs of Klonopin for anxiety. ( I used to take Xanax for a generalized anxiety disorder too, but my psychiatrist changed it to Klonopin.) I need it now more, for this chronic pain.
I would like to go off the lyrica , but I am afraid of the withdrawal, plus I do not know what else I could take for this buzzing, burning and pain. I tried cymbalta, neurotin, elavil for a few days and could not tolerate the SE.
How are doing since your Lyrica withdrawal? What do you suffer from, and what do you take now in place of the Lyrica? I am beside myself. I'm in alot pain, depressed and don't know what to do. Pain management doesn't know what to for me either and like you said Doctors are not aware of the side effects and withdrawal of these medications. I believe I will be on Klonopin for the rest of my life. I wonder if any of these two pills are contributing to my symptoms? I would like too know how your doing. Maybe we can talk in private. Any advice or suggestions you can give would be greatly appreciated!!
In pain and depressed...

Hi Marie,

Pdk only posted here that one time, and has not logged on again since then (2/9/14).

I hope other members may be able to answer your questions.

If Lyrica truly is of no benefit to you, then IMO it might be best for you to discontinue it with the help of your doctor. Folks here will also help you do this in any way we can.

I understand your apprehension about discontinuation syndrome. Despite the fact that it is wider-spread than most doctors are aware of, I believe—from what I have read about it—that most people are able to discontinue it successfully within a reasonable time. We do not hear/read those success stories because those patients have no reason to post to groups like this—they are getting on with their lives.

Unfortunately there are no crystal balls; there is no way to know ahead of time if there will be any problem without trying. Discontinuing—or tapering down—may also help dispel the uncertainty of whether the Lyrica is of any benefit to you or not. Please don't let fear rule you, or get in the way of helping yourself. This group is here to help you with that as well.

This is unfortunate—but true—in some cases. I believe doctors generally mean well, and are sincerely trying to help even though they know that they don't know/have all the answers.

I admire everyone—patients and doctors alike—for not giving up hope and continuing to try to find help for us all.

Best wishes,

Doc

I'm just so heartbroken for all of you having to go thru this nightmare with Lyrica.

I've never been able to take Lyrica because it is in the same family as Gabapentin (Neurontin). I went LITERALLY psychotic on Neurontin. It wasn't until I was calling people in the middle of the night telling them, "I know where "they" take you when you go to sleep. DON'T FALL ASLEEP!" that anyone knew there was a problem. I was hearing music that wasn't there. Then I wasn't sure if dreaming was reality or if reality was dreaming.

I was taking the Neurontin for neuropathic pain. So since I couldn't take it or Lyrica, the went with Zonegran - an old school anti-seizure med. Very low-dose that had nothing to do with me currently being diagnosed with Epilepsy (wasn't even high enough dose to be therapeutic for that). The Zonegran was used in conjunction with Hydrocodone 10/325. I'm currently weaning off the Zonegran as I was diagnosed with Epilepsy last week (I had seizures way before I ever took any of this stuff, we just never realized they were seizures before now) and will be taking 1000mg a day of Kepra.

I just want you to be careful with Lyrica or anything in that family - including Neurontin. I can tell you of at least 10 people I know or have met thru my internet talks about what happened with me, who went psychotic on the medication. One woman started beating her husband in his sleep and she was this tiny, frail, girlie girl.

The best thing you can do is be your own advocate. This thread is fantastic - it gives people a place to see that they are not alone and that there are ways to handle things. This entire website is a huge blessing to me.

I hope all are as pain-free as possible, can withdraw easily and can live as normally as you want. That's not asking much, is it? (says the girl with 7 diseases).

This is a known side effect of gabapentin.
I wouldn't necessarily assume the same for pregabalin (lyrica) as it's allegedly better-tolerated, but I do find a similar warning:
http://doublecheckmd.com/EffectsDeta...67412&eid=1192

Good to know.

I GOTTA ask—the curiosity is killing me.... Where DO they take you?

Doc

I stopped taking Lyrica 10 days ago and I feel horrible-I was on lyrica for over 5 years following a car accident with left me with back issues and nerve damage. I am feeling so unwell. I did not taper off I went cold turkey which is indescribable.
The feeling of unease, flu like symptoms, and sleeplessness are the worst symptoms. Going to work is a nightmare because I can't concentrate and I want to lie down all the time.
I am flying out of state for work today and I am dreading feeling so ill

Kgardner, can you take some Lyrica? You can't go cold turkey, friend. You've probably read a bunch of the horror stories here, but cold turkey just makes it worse. Don't try to go cold turkey, ESPECIALLY when you are flying out on business. Just stay on it til you get back and can see your dr and come up with a plan to taper down. Saying a prayer for you, friend.

According to my psychosis (at the time...which differs from my normal weird), when my brother would go to sleep, he'd wake up in this tower where I never saw who "they" were, I just knew "they" had him and were experimenting on him.

The old tv show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" had an episode where Buffy was in the hospital but when she'd go to sleep she was in another world where she was awake. She couldn't tell which one was the real world. That's what it was like for me.

I hate Gabapentin, but Doc you actually made me laugh about it. Gotta love a smart *****.

Have you read any/much H.P. Lovecraft? Dream worlds (and dream argument) are very old literary plot devices. The (dream worlds) article doesn't mention it specifically, but I suspect the concept has origins in recurring dreams.

I've never had a psychotic episode (I think after forty-mumble years together, my wife would have mentioned something... ) and I've never gotten into dream interpretation, but I've had my share of recurring dreams (and hence, dream worlds), and I'm (quite often) a lucid dreamer.

Gotta love "normal weird" too...

Doc

I've not read much Lovecraft but am aware of the concept of dream worlds.

I, too, am a lucid dreamer. I actually had to learn to be one to deal with recurring nightmares that ended up playing out a scenario of something tragic that happened to me as a very young child. My family never got help for me and never spoke of it after it happened so I spent nearly 20 years having horrible "dreams". Finally I started therapy and was taught the theory of lucid dreaming and how to "take charge" in my dreams and how to wake myself, and completely move body positions so that I would not drop back into the terrifying dream when I went right back to sleep.

Finally, with lots of guidance from my counselor, the dream "played" itself out and the repressed memory came forward and was able to be dealt with. But since then I've been a lucid dreamer. Of course I talk about dreaming when I'm a World Class Insomniac, but when I AM capable of a few hours of sleep I can choose to be in charge after years of training.

Of course, none of this has to do with Lyrica, but I appreciate the questions Doc. I've read around the site a bit and you always crack me up AND educate me on different subjects.

First, I am beyond thankful to have found this sight.

I have had Fibromyalgia most of my life, I don't remember a time when I didn't have FM pain, fatigue began to take it's toll in 2000. I have been on a smorgasbord of medication and until I went on Neurontin nothing seemed to work. Neurontin lost it's effect after 2 yrs., I went off of it with no problem. Sometime around 2006/2007 I was in a trial program for Lyrica and figured it was an easy transition since Neurontin had worked. For roughly the last 4 years I started having a huge variety of problems but they were so sporatic my drs failed/refused to make the connection, until, my dentist told them that some mouth problems I was having had to be because of medication because my teeth were fine but beginning to decay due to severe dry mouth! Sooooo, I began titrating off of Lyrica and until this moment I had no idea there was even an issue trying to do so. I'm starting my forth week and I too am going through what Trivia and others are going through. The worst for me is nausea, a ringing in my head, severe muscle spasms, fatigue and insomnia. I had started taking SAMe (for Osteoarthritis) about 4 months prior to all this and I think that is why I am not having the anxiety & depression like others, it's there but nothing like the other issues I'm having. What a nightmare!