Weaning Off Pristiq For Good (Page 19)

I just wanted to tell all of you trying to get off pristiq, its possible. I was on pristiq for severe panic attacks for 6 months. It saved my life. It gave me a chance to slow down my career, gave me a huge wakeup call. This drug put a cloud over my brain. I was not my happy, fun loving self. I was like a step ford wife. You can't wean off this pill. I was on 50 mg. I did every other day for a month. Every third day for two weeks then cold turkey. It really was not so bad. I layer on my couch for three days, cried a bit and watched movies. I'm happily on all holistic medications, no longer a slave to Pristiq. If I can beat anxiety, anyone can. My biggest advice.. Exercise. Next, surround yourself with positive people. Three, talk out your problems. Good luck.

REPLY

REPORT

Hi Alex
Glad to hear ur doing well. I am ok. Day 10 today. I'm getting some anxiety on and off during the day. The ringing in my ears is what is bring on the anxiety. I get overwhelmed real easily. Going to a psychologist today for the first time. Hope he can give me some tools to cope. Did u experience any of this Alex.
Thanks

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

I have been taking 100 mg of Pristiq for 6 weeks. It took away my anxiety compleltely but now my blood pressure have been climbing for 2 weeks . Last week I dropped to 50 mg a day and now I'm taking 50 mg every second day. I will do this for a week and then wondering if I can go cold turkey. The side effects are headache and brain fog.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Why are the brain zaps so different for people? I consider mine severe. I recently didn't have my prescription filled before a long weekend & had to wait 3 days for my next dose, & I thought I was going to die. I've also experienced extremely loud explosive sounds when I waited too long to take a dose. I have taken 50mg for 2 1/2 years, but I want off this drug. I just don't think I can make it through the withdraws.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 1

Hi Tracy
Ask ur doctor about cutting the pill in half this is what did for a month then cold turkey now 13 days off of pristiq have some anxiety and ringing in the ears but all that really bad stuff is gone. It lasted about 4 days then everyday got better. Calculate 5 days of being out of commission. then it gets better follow a good diet and exercise exercise excersise as much as u can. B12 b complex vitamines lots of water Good luck.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 1

Hi Adri! So happy to hear you are doing better! I admire all of you that have beaten this drug and are here to help and encourage others. God bless!

REPLY

Was this helpful? 1

When I was tapering off prednisone after taking it for more than a year and got down to 1mg and was still having side effects when trying to stop altogether, I took the approach of gradually increasing the time between doses, for example starting at 24 hours, then 25 hours, then 26 hours and so on. The pain is that the time you take a dose changes every day, so I set up a spreadsheet for that purpose and put events with alerts in my computer calendar--it definitely helps being a somewhat OCD person in IT.

Rather than setting an alarm to wake up in the middle of the night to take a pill, if I woke up in the middle of the night for some other reason, I would take the pill then and record the time, or just take it when I woke up in the morning, then I would adjust the schedule accordingly. Taking Pristiq at night may interfere with sleep, which will suck, but might suck less than the withdrawal symptoms, and may work better for people with stomach symptoms from crushing pills.

Rather than trying to calculate the date with the time, I manually entered the date in one column and used MOD(hour+1, 24) for the time--putting in the date can be a bit of a pain because you will be "skipping" days in some cases so it requires some attention to detail. This was 5-6 years ago and I don't remember the exact details but may find the spreadsheet somewhere, although I was not expecting to use it again. At this point I have no idea what the optimal time increase would be, I'd keep a symptom journal and increase or decrease the interval as needed.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 1

I didn't find the original spreadsheet, but just tried recreating it from scratch and that reminded me of some things. The trick is to use DateTime e.g. 2/10/2015 7:00:00 then add fractions of days. For example, if I'm increasing the time between doses by 3 hours every day, then my next dose would be 27 hours from now or 27/24 = 1.125 days then just adding to 2/10/2015 7:00:00 gives 2/11/2015 10:00:00 and the spreadsheet works out the date as well as the time. If I "missed" a dose in the middle of the night, then I would just hand code the actual time I took the dose in that spot in the right DateTime format and the rest of the spreadsheet would update accordingly. It might be more effective if the interval increased in some other way than just increasing by the same number of hours every day, but this process is already pretty complicated, making it even more complicated could make it more likely to make mistakes. I did notice when I started with 7am and incremented by 4 hours, it tended to skip the middle of the night, so if that works for you it might be easier. Needless to say no warranty express or implied and talk to your doctor, who might say this is completely insane, just saying what worked for me personally.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 1

Hello everyone or anyone I don't know if anybody reads this anymore. I am 6 weeks without pristiq. I'm doing great. Just want you all to know that it is very doable I had some hipnotherapy with absolutely wonderful psychologist. He's more of a life coach in my opinion. He taught me to just stop th negative thinking. He also interprets my dreams to help me find the true sources of anxiety. Acupuncture occasionally and vitamines. It can be fine people. Oh yeah. I excersise 5 days a week.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 5

I am so happy for you, Adri! I just looked back and read some of your old posts. You've did it! What an inspiration to others!

Gray, you have a great method of tracking. You're ideas will help others very much!

Good job!

REPLY

Was this helpful? 2

Hey there. I took Pristiq for 6 years because my gf (at the time) said I was moody. Pretty much killed my libido, stopped being able to process emotions. Two years or so ago I cut down to one every two days because I wanted to see if it bothered me, and it didn't. About 20 days back I forgot to take it on the second day and only remembered to take it on the third day, this kickstarted some thinking. I vowed to take it again in another 3 days, and when that day came I didn't crave it so I took a tiny bite out a pill, and in 3 days I did the same. Then stopped. It's been about 2 weeks clean. I've cried, I've felt happier than I've felt in a long time. Libido has been amazing. I truly think the key is to keep busy, stay positive and don't over think everything. Life can be great without it and you don't need Pristiq.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 3

Thank you so much for your story. I feel the same way. I've recently had serious issues with my heart...thank you side effects of Pristine and Adderrall. I have PTSD and had a crisis a few years back. Having been on medication for PTSD as a teenager, I was very hesitant to go back on medication as an adult. The Pristiq has packed on an incredible amount of weight, in addition to making me a zombie. I've had enough. This morning the nurse suggested adding a beta blocker to this regimen. Nope. I've had just about enough of the medication roller coaster. Being a fun loving, super creative person I've become a grumpy zombie who coasts through life not really enjoying anything. The doctor said she'd remove the Adderrall cold turkey because of my blood pressure. This would cause extreme brain fog leaving only the Pristiq in my system. I'm an executive with a holistic company that makes some of the best supplements, if not the best, on the market. After being in "blah" "zombie" mode, I've decided again life is too short to be in outer space. I'd much rather spend the money on holistic treatments such as supplements, gym memberships, and tanning sessions *yeah vitamin D!* than be a slave to these scumbag doctors. My husband is an attorney for a pharmaceutical company and has said time and time again drugs are manufactured and marketed to make money in the short term. They have horrible side effects. Doctors and drug companies get rich quickly, pocket the money, and throw the dice to see how many legal cases they need to settle.

Will be weaning off by cutting the pills in half for a week, then quarters, and then finally done. Thankfully I've been taking supplements religiously, hopefully they help my body acclimate to the difference in medication.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 2

Well done! I have found Prstiq to be the most effective treatment for my generalised anxiety disorder. I've put on 13kgs....but who cares?! I am enjoying life & have no plans of going off it.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Your post was in 2021; how long did it take for withdrawal to end?

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Yes, I wish my Dr would of explained how hard it was going to be to get off this drug. I have heard nothing good regarding coming off this hard drug! Lexapro worked great for me but after several years on it, its effectiveness wore off & that's why I switched. I wish I would of done my homework first!! I am so nervous about what is come with these withdraw symptoms! I missed my pill one day & YIKES I felt like crap & crazy!! Pfizer needs to be able to tell their customers how to come off!

REPLY

Was this helpful? 2

It varies with the individual. Please look back at all the posts, even though it is from 2012, the comments/suggestions are still valid. My daughter is free from pristiq for two years now. I do know that exercise and acupuncture helped her during they withdrawal. Good luck!

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

420 does help alot if u can manage to get a supply-- have to wait another month at least before the medical MJ comes thru..trying to get it around here is so tuff as i am older and dont have any contacts...SUX and this weaning off 100mg pristiq is a b**** so far..I get the electric sieze that smacks me in the head, major dizziness and then if i try to go longer than 40 hrs between pills (i'm only on my 1st week weaning down) i get terribly nauseous and dont even want to move. Taking a xanax helps a tiny bit, but i need the cannabis. ..good luck to everyone out there getting off this pill. I wish I never started taking it. Been on it for 6-7 years for depression. turns out i may just have adrenal issues that can be treated holistically. also just finished suboxone treatment for 2 mos. to get off oxycodone. that was a walk in the park next to trying to get off this damn Pristiq!

REPLY

Was this helpful? 2

Good luck! Seriously, try to find a reputable acupuncturist that deals with medicine withdrawal. It was an immediate help for my daughter who was going to give up going pristiq free...she was finding it unbearable to discontinue it.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

I have been trying to get off pristiq for a few years s and I finally have. It is possible! After reading countless threads of people's anguish I thought I'd let you know how I did it. Originally I was taking 100mg everyday and try to stop cold turkey (don't recommend!) but couldn't because of the 'brain zaps' and inability to concentrate at work. My doctor lowered my dosage to 50mg a day which I felt fine on. After a while she suggested I go down to 50mg every second day, after initial few days this was fine to continue for a year or so.. After that I bought a pill cutter and took half a dose every day and then slowly went to half every second day. I stopped taking the drug 3 weeks ago without further weening and after some light headedness and hot flushes in the first few days I have been fine. As a 'pill' substitute just for this initial period I have been taking Swisse Ultibite Mood vitamin once a day from the supermarket - it contains St Johns Wort extract which seems to be working for me! I hope this helps anyone out there struggling to come off Pristiq - it's not fun!!

REPLY

Was this helpful? 2

Yay!!! I'm off Pristiq. I did some research & found out that there is a 25mg dosage of it (my Dr didn't even know). I switched from 50mg & then 25mg for 7 days. The 2nd week I did 25mg everyday. Third week 25mg & no pill. 4th week I started with 25mg, skip 2 days, take a pill, skip 3 days, take a pill skip 4 days, took a pill & skipped 5 & then did no more. I could feel my sadness & short temper-ness come back, however overall I feel so much better & NO MORE CRAZY DREAMS & NIGHT SWEATS!!!!!!

REPLY

Was this helpful? 2

Hi, this is my situation :

I was on 50 mg for 4 years and I took 3/4 for about 3 1/2 months. That went fine. Then another 3 1/2 months I took a half. Also that went fine. (in both situations I needed some weeks with some side effects but not too bad). Now I started with a quarter and the side effects are huge. I have a lot of pain in my head specially in the evening and at night when my quarter has finished working. And I sweat a lot and feeling having no energy. (I know it's not good to cut the tablets but the first two steps were ok for me).

I get crazy from this because I don't know how long will go this on and will be there a moment anyway that my physical problems are over.

Is there anybody who can give me an idea how long it will take.

Thanks so much to anyone for responding to this.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

I have been on pristine for many years! My doc had said to go down to 50 mg for 3 weeks then none. I go in to see him in...

16 REPLIES

Hi, I am a female 44 years old, started taking pristiq about 4 1/2 years ago, decided to wean off at the beginning of De...

6 REPLIES

I was told that people who are addicted to Xanax can be weaned off of it with this Propranolol Hydrochloride 40 mg pill ...

10 REPLIES

Please also help, I need some help trying to get off percocets for good. I have had back surgery now and everytime I try...

11 REPLIES

I was told to get off Pristiq by a Neurologist and my GP. My doctor put me on Prozac to help with the symptoms of withdr...

3 REPLIES

I have been taking 8 mgs. of Dilaudid 4 times a day for the last 6 months for a chronic illness. 3 months ago I had surg...

79 REPLIES

how long does it take to be weaned off a medtronic pain pump with the med. dilaudid the pain management wants my daughte...

39 REPLIES

My Son went to the Dr. for anxiety and depression, pristiq created more problems for him, panic attacks, insomnia, loss ...

13 REPLIES

I have been on Fentanyl patch the 50 for about 3 years and kept telling the doctor I was having side effects. I am being...

7 REPLIES

Has anyone here had any experience weaning themselves off of zubsolv? I've been on it for almost a year now and I re...

5 REPLIES