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Pregabalin for anxiety - anyone have experience of it?

(7 Posts)
vampirequeen Thu 21-Aug-14 07:36:14

I know someone who is on it. She described the same side effects. Give it a few more days to see if it settles. If not, chat to your GP. Perhaps you can be given a smaller dose initially and gradually increase it. This may help.

The cutting off of therapy is common these days. MH units have targets to reach. Unfortunately we with mh issues don't always fit into the little boxes they get assessed on. Dumping us leaves us in limbo but allows them to appear to succeed and thereby protect their funding.

tcherry Wed 20-Aug-14 22:04:43

Hello Trevor have you tried meditation for your anxiety, it has worked for me!!

Also Vitamin B is amazing for the nervous system, it was used in the war to calm troops.

Best wishes

Trevor47 Thu 24-Jul-14 16:40:46

rowantree,
I wish I could offer you the right advice but unfortunately I also suffer from anxiety and keep trying different drugs in the hope that one will finally make me feel relaxed and at ease for once.
All I can suggest is that you should keep going to your Gp and hopefully he/she will finally give you the right tablets.
It's so comforting but in a sad way of course to see a fellow anxiety sufferer posting on here.
I Send my very best wishes To You
from Trevor Hugs.

Galen Sun 20-Jul-14 17:33:03

I know it as a very powerful painkiller which seems to be the 'in' drug at the moment along with gabapentin

Coolgran65 Sun 20-Jul-14 17:29:20

I am aware of this medication although I have not used it. I believe that it is an anti-seizure medication. I'm aware of it being used for RLS disease, and neuropathy and fibromyalgia. From reading about its use for these conditions, it seems that the groggy side effect takes about a week to settle. Good luck

tcherry Sun 20-Jul-14 16:38:00

Hi Rowantree When I am anxious the only thing that works is Meditation, it is extremely powerful because it takes you away from that moment.

You don't need a matt, you don't need to be in a Buddhist camp, you just need to be able to stop and just be concious of your breathing in and out and JUST that.

Me time and happy time is also very important, to do one thing every day if poss that you like is so important to good mental health

I can be an anxious person and it has worked for me, it must be worth a try.

Then there is other things you can do that help and they are, avoid sugar and heavy sugary food, orange juice is also bad for the nervous system as are eggs. I take vitamin B on a regular basis because it helps the nervous system to stay healthy, I do have gaps were I don't take it because too much of anything isn't good

I speak from experience and trials that I have done smile

Rowantree Wed 18-Jun-14 14:11:40

I went back to my psychiatrist on Monday and he suggested Pregabalin for my awful anxiety. The plan is to get me settled on that before trying to reduce the antidepressants, which was a failure a few weeks ago (I had to step up the dose again because I felt so low). He assured me they wouldn't make me feel drowsy but encouraged me to 'stick with it' through any side-effects for a week or so.
The morning after my first dose I woke feeling as if my head was full of either lead or cotton wool - not sure which. I felt like a zombie with a bad hangover. DD2 and baby were staying over, so I had to be on the ball and I dragged myself out of bed and got on with it, despite the very unpleasant feeling. Later in the day I got a horrible headache. This morning it's more of the same but the headache's worse, so I've been taking paracetamol and codeine for that. I think the zombie feeling is going slightly earlier because I took the drug earlier in the evening and I will do the same tonight.
I'd been refused further therapy because I've already had two courses and they haven't helped, but the psychiatrist is going to write a strongly worded letter to CIPTS to appeal, which is a relief.

Has anyone any experience of Pregabalin? Other name is Lyrica, I think. I want to know whether it's worth the pain of persevering with the side-effects and whether I'll just have to live with feeling drugged and drowsy....