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I think you're right. I've tapered over the past year from 60 mg prednisone down to 2, to treat GCA and PMR. As I have gotten below 10, I've had occasional days where I felt minor anxiety, fatigue, or depression. I've read it's common to feel some anxiety when tapering prednisone. I don't have any references other than Google. It sounds like your body wanted extra cortisol to deal with the stress of the exposures, but it didn't get it, so it responded with anxiety. It's like pressing your foot on the gas pedal of a car and not getting any response.
What is your taper plan going forward? It sounds like you might need a slower taper if you're feeling some pain and stiffness, plus the anxiety indicating that your adrenals are being nudged to become active again. Also, you really haven't been receiving treatment for very long. I think for most people it takes at least 1 - 2 years for the PMR to burn itself out.
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Good analogy with the gas pedal. My taper plan is to follow the most common one but we will see how that goes. Another 2-3 weeks on 10 mg will give me a month on it and then I will taper to 9 mg for a month and so on into the single digits. Hopefully I can do a mg per month. Time will tell. I am following the tapering plan that is considered the international protocal set in 2015 but as we all know that is highly variable. No flares as of yet for me but some soreness and stiffness at quite a low level is common according to folks on this chat room who have responded to my question of "just what constitutes a flare?" I pretty much have hurt in some fashion or location on my body my entire life. I have EDS (Ehlers Danlos Syndrome). Not a "bad" case of it but it has informed most of my pain quotient my entire life, I now realize. Currently my pain is not too much to worry about and is below a level one. I am just highly sensitive (aware) of what my body is doing at any given moment. I will remember fondly the first month of being on 15 mg (my start dose). Amazing! I have never felt that good in my life. I could do any amount of work or activity and not have a lick of soreness or stiffness during or after.