Hello everyone! I have suffered from anxiety and panic attacks since the age of 4. I was medicated at a young age with Paxil and wish that I had been pushed more towards diet/exercise and a therapist. I don't think I really have depression but can't say I've never felt it before. Between the age of 12/13 and now (34), I don't remember ever being off of a med besides maybe a year or 2 in my late teens or early 20s. I do not remember what I was like off of meds but ended up back on them so clearly they were needed. I never was recommended to see a psychiatrist either by my PCP. In the past year, I started seeing one and I really like her. I have been on Paxil, prozac, and zoloft and all of them were for years at a time. I also tried wellbutrin in the past couple years and hated it. I tried Buspar twice - once was by itself and again while on pristiq (pretty recent) - didn't like it the first time and the second time went better but still not great. After years of going from one med to the next at the max dose and still feeling off, my psychiatrist said my brain needed a reset.
I started the tapering process about 3 or 4 weeks ago from 100mg. We have done a decrease of 25mg once a week and now am off for the 3rd day. As the dose has decreased I have had more intense withdrawal symptoms. It seems that every time there was a decrease, about 2 days later I would start to feel some symptoms. The most annoying symptom is this nervous muscle tremor that seems to effect me mostly at night and sometimes when I wake up in the morning. Sometimes I can ignore it and still fall asleep but other times it's pretty severe and my whole body is involved, teeth chattering, almost like electric shocks. Has anyone else experienced this with pristiq? Something else to note is whenever I am extremely high anxiety and close to a panic attack or already had one, I do get a nervous tremble. I have been like that for as long as I can remember having panic attacks. I of course have the typical dizziness, headaches, diarrhea, irritable feeling, etc.

Looking for feedback and how long these withdrawal symptoms lasted for others.

Thank you in advance!

Dana