CONGRATULATIONS!! SO great to find someone (finally) who has been successful in tapering off (and getting off) Pristiq!!!
I have been on Pristiq since 3/11 - my doctor switched me from Lexapro (my first antidepressant that I started on in 2005 after my divorce).
I started on 50mg Pristiq - felt pretty good the first month or two and then started having various symptoms - tired - weight gain - "brain fog"...SO - my doctor then screened me for ADD and I was put on adderall 40mg per day. Then I started having trouble sleeping - and was put on a low dose of xanax to help me sleep. About 6 months later I was increased to 100mg of Pristiq. Last summer (2 years later), I was completely burned out, gained 30 lbs, and I can honestly say my personality has changed. I used to be outgoing, very social and active. By last summer, I was having trouble just getting through my day - constant feeling of overwhelm and really just wanted to be "left alone". I resigned from a 6 figure job last October to take a few months off to deal with my health. I have been doing all kinds of research to get off Pristiq - have tried to switching to another antidepressant, tapering down to 50 and both times the discontinuation symptoms were so severe that I had to stop and go back to the 100mg.
thankfully I have been off the xanax for 6 months - found a natural supplement to help me sleep at night. I have been seeing a holistic MD who has put me on various supplements. Overall, I am feeling a little better - but know without a doubt that I want - and need to get off of Pristiq - and hopefully the adderall. I am still out of work and am now having some major financial stresses (completely exhausted my 401K). I am pretty much resigned to the fact that I will need to continue on these meds - at least till I am able to get myself back to work and on my feet again financially. I am not able to function during the day without the adderall - and last week I missed a dose of Pristiq (a full 24hours+) as I didn't have the funds to buy the medication (very expensive without insurance!!)... the symptoms were the worst I have experienced so far. Felt like my head was "swimming" - lightheaded, dizzy and felt like I had the flu. Spent the WHOLE day in bed sleeping and had some of the most vivid dreams and nightmares I have ever had in my life. Thankfully I was able to borrow some money from a friend and get the medicine in me - took another day or so for me to feel somewhat "normal" again. REALLY SCARY that this drug has such an impact on the brain chemistry - I did not have that experience at all with Lexapro - could miss a few days and then remember - oh yeah, I better go ahead and take it...
The manufacturers of Pristiq should have some type of warning label advising people of the discontinuation symptoms. I know all antidepressants/anti-anxiety meds will have this to some degree - but this one is a doozy. Not to mention the fact that it only comes in 2 dosages and is time released which makes it very difficult to taper down (and the compound pharmacy's wont touch it).
So again, congratulations to you for taking this on - and being successful in getting off Pristiq!! You have inspired me and given me hope that one day I might be able to as well! It would be great to "feel good" again (or even just feel) - not to mention how wonderful it would be to lose the 30+ lbs. I have gained!

Take care and God Bless!

Karen

I'm so sorry for what you are dealing with Karen. It shouldn't be this difficult. I for one am spreading the word about pristiq. I definitely needed to go on antidepressants when I did, I had been suffering from postpartum depression for 9 months. I was first put on Effexor, which worked for the depression, but I didn't feel great , so my physician switched me cold turkey to pristiq! Withdrawal from Effexor is similar but not nearly as intense. I recently switched doctors and they have been supportive of the decision but it shocks me how little doctors know or understand about the side effects. I've heard everything from, "there's no such thing as withdrawal from antidepressants" to "you'll feel like you have the flu". Wrong, wrong, wrong! You feel like dying for days, but it does get better, you just need to push through those first few days. It's been 21 days since my last dose and the brain zaps are still frequent but less intense. Within a week, I could start to tolerate normal life again.
I had been on Effexor when I was younger and it worked well. When I came off, my doctor at the time added prosaic, then tapered the Effexor. Once I was off the Effexor, I remained on prosaic for 2 weeks before coming off antidepressants completely. I mentioned this to a couple doctors while on my more recent course of antidepressants, but they looked at me like I had a third eye. This may be something you could try? If you start to taper again, when you're ready to miss doses and you have crazy side effects, keep going, stay strong and know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It'll keep getting worse each day for about three days, and then it will slowly start to improve. It doesn't feel like it will ever end, but it will. Just keep telling yourself that. I can tell by your posts that you are a strong woman and I know you can do this!

Thank you SO much for your reply!! This is BY FAR the best website that I have found in regards to help in getting off of Pristiq. And yes, I don't think the doctors or the pharmacists are able to understand the withdrawal/discontinuation symptoms. It is MUCH much different to read about something vs. actual experiencing it!! The pharmaceutical reps prance in to the doctors office telling them about this latest and greatest new drug - and the doctors hand them out to their patients. WE end up getting to be the guinea pigs!! I also learned recently that the testing done prior to release of a drug is usually sponsored and done through the manufacturers... I am not a conspiracist by any means, but I am starting to feel like there is a major "racket" going on (in our Country in particular) when it comes to pharmaceutical drugs. Just look at the lines at the pharmacies ...and all of the TV ADS for new drugs - not to mention the HUGE contributions this industry makes to our national elections. Probably not the smartest thing for me to post this - but at this point, my goal/intention/desire is just to help in waking people up - to be their own health advocates and learn to question something before blindly trusting the advice of a doctor. NOT to say that the antidepressants (and other drugs) do not have their place - they do. I know that the Lexapro helped me get through a very rough patch of time in my life - but I don't want to have to be on something for the rest of my life! I most definitely feel like a slave to Pristiq! Unfortunately, my oldest son (who is only 18) was put on Pristiq at the same time that I was...he was dealing with some anxiety/depression issues (from the divorce). SO both he and I are in this position... he was going to his girlfriends house last night and had to come back by to make sure he had his dosage - since he knows how awful it is to even miss one dose. My hope and prayer is that once I get myself established again financially - that I will be able to take the time needed to help BOTH of us become Pristiq FREE!!
Thanks again for your post and encouragement! It is SO helpful for me to know that I am not alone in this - and that someone else understand.
Just so I am clear - are you recommending that I try a switch to Effexor (with the Prozac) or to add Prozac while I am tapering off Pristiq? I have heard that idea mentioned before. So great to hear that you were SUCCESSFUL in coming off Pristiq - CONGRATULATIONS to you too!! 🙂 Do you mind if I ask if you are now completely off antidepressants? And how you are feeling? If you were able to lose weight (if you had gained it)? I am the heaviest I have ever been and I feel like the weight won't budge. Took my size 6, 8's and 10's to the consignment shop yesterday. I am barely fitting in my size 12's but I refuse to buy anything bigger! But the weight is only part of it - I just want to feel like myself again and will continue pushing trough till I do...
Take care and God Bless!

Ya, I was just wondering if adding prosaic might help, definitely don't add Effexor! I am off antidepressants completely, and feel good. Because I still have some lingering withdrawal symptoms, I don't feel great yet. Sleep has been an issue, but its probably more situational then withdrawal. I lost a ton of weight when I first went on Effexor a year and a half ago, 5'8" and 105lb! I've been putting weight back on over the last 6 months or so but it's just kind of brought me back to pre-antidepressant weight.

My thoughts are with you and your son, I hope you can complete this journey soon. It nice that you have each other to support through this. Do you have any other children?

Hi there - yes - I have three boys total. 18, 16 and 12. I know all of this has had an impact on them as well - not to mention the financial difficulty that we are now experiencing since i have been out of work for 6 months. I am just getting started back to work but honestly feel like I am "limping along". Don't feel that great physically and kind of numb emotionally, I can honestly look back over the last 2+ years of being on Pristiq (and adderall which I was put on a couple months after being on pristiq due to feeling "foggy" and see/feel that this is not good for me. Of course you could say - well maybe it is just depression - but it would be so nice to know what my "real" normal state would be. I don't buy the idea of having to stay on an antidepressant for life! I am sure though that it changes the overall chemistry of the brain - just wondering how long it takes to readjust. Thank you for your suggestion and support! Would it be possible to email you directly with a couple other questions? Take care!!

Hi Karen...first of all I want to tell all of you how thankful I am to have discovered this discussion board! I felt so alone and scared and downright terrified as to what was going to happen to me because of this drug. I feel as you do that the doctors do not know how to really deal with this drug and will probably end up on TV with class action lawsuits. I am feeling so good again and it is so apparent that my husband and family has noticed it too. Without being able to connect with all of you, I don't know how I would have mustered up the courage to get off Pristiq. I have come to the conclusion that all of these meds are bad. What they do to your brain chemistry is OK for a short period of time but not for long term use. Here is one the things that you do not want to happen, Seratonin Syndrome. Check out this link
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004531/
It was hard to go off and I was scared knowing I would have withdrawal symptoms, but I am so glad I did it and the pain and headaches, brain zaps were worth it. I am free now and I hope you will be too. I did not agree with my doctors tapering advice and came up with my own after reading how others did it. Because of what it does to your brain the tapering off is so important. My doc recommended was 50mg for 7 days then go off. Well that scared me because it takes 2 - 4 weeks for the full benefit of the drug so 2 - 4 weeks for tapering right? So he decreased my dose to 50 and I then started adding 12 hours to the next dose. Example: 50mg every 36 hours for 1 week then every 48 hours for the next week then every 72 hours for the last week. It worked for me, and yes I did have symptoms but now they are gone. Keep in touch Karen and all of you out there too.
Bless you too Karen!
Ginger

Hi Ginger,

Just read the info on the link you provided above... I do have frequent muscle spasms (in my neck especially) -and have also noticed that when I lay down at night, I have involuntary leg movements (nothing crazy, just more like a twitching feeling in my legs)... this is all new - and of course agitation is almost always present. Do you think this could be from the Pristiq? My doctor also put me on adderall (after upping my Pristiq from 50-100mg I felt that I had constant brain fog) - the adderall is the only thing now that helps me be productive and focus. I can really see now the impact that this has had on my life - and overall health - and it just makes me so angry that doctors seem to prescribe these AD as a first response rather than a last resort! Anyways, enough venting - feel like it doesn't do any good and in some ways, I had just become resigned to having to be on this medication (wondering if maybe I really do need it).... but I didn't used to - and I don't think I could say my life is any better now because of it (actually worse as I resigned from a 6 figure job last October and have literally no income since then)... but my goal NOW is to at least start the process and go from 100mg to 50mg (realized that I have gained 35lbs in two years - and am the heaviest I have ever been)! Definitely having some "discontinuation symptoms" - but so far it has been tolerable. As I mentioned above, I have started cutting the 50mg in half and now taking 1 1/2 of the 50mg each day and will probably stay on this for two weeks - and then go to 50? SO frustrating that their is not any concrete information out there on how to get off this stuff! I plan on calling the manufacturer tomorrow to see if they have any suggestions...I will follow up to let you know.
Take care and have a happy Independence Day!!
Karen

Hi Karen,

I just wanted to let you know that I found this forum two weeks ago. I asked my psychiatrist to take me off the meds, but he wanted to do it over a longer timeframe than I was willing. After reading your post and the others, I chose to quit cold turkey. As of today, I've been pristiq free for two weeks. The withdrawal symptoms were not horrible for me. I found that drinking coffee helped take away the dizziness/brain zaps or at least made them less noticeable. I still have hot flashes but I don't care. I turned 31 yesterday and have now made it through I year since my mother passed. I will do my best to never take these kind of meds again. Good luck!