Side effects of Pristiq

After trying numerous antidepressants which did quell overwhelming anxiety and depression but also made me too numb (just sat in front of TV with food) I went to 50mg of Pristiq with Xanax back up. That has worked better than anything. After 12 years and many life/family changes I am determined to be drug free again, for reasons outlined elsewhere. These posts have been very helpful and I am working diligently and slowly towards psilocybin therapy as well with experienced professional. Need to have Pristiq out of system for psilocybin to work as intended.

I wanted to post this to help anyone withdrawing or considering withdrawl from pristiq.I was taking 50 mg's per day for 2 years. I didn't want to take any drugs anymore. I wanted to "battle" on my own. No judgement - I hated my side effects from the drug. I experienced a signifigant lack of intrests in all things creative, sex, music (i am a life long musician) Also I felt it deadened my ability to be passionate about anything? I never actually "felt" anything while taking the drug? Before I started it I felt absolutely hopeless, if not for my animals I don't know what I may have done. ok - I decided 6 weeks ago I was getting off this drug. I spoke with my doctor and started to taper. 50 mg everyother day for 10 days, than I cut the pills in half(yes I know NOW there was a time release coating) for 10 days, than cut into quarters (12.5 mg's for 5 days, now 3 days completely off. IT HAS BEEN VERY DIFFICULT. This drug is a beast. Side effects have included horrible VIVID nightmares of betrayl, weird taste in my mouth, weird smells, weight all over the map, feeling like constant out of body experience, mood swings, despair, insomnia. But - it is getting better every day. There is life after pristiq... I have focussed through all of my symptoms on knowing - it is the withdrawl! NOT ME! Hard to do. But do able. Just know in your core it is the drug NOT YOU losing it. For me - it seems like this drug surpressed my emotions/feelings/issues the moment it got in my system and now i'm dealing with these issues again as I coming off the drug. I admit I am way better suited Now compared to 2 years ago to deal with these things and not everybody will be as "LUCKY" as I am, so just know that. Also, I let everyone close to me know what I was doing for support reasons. If anyone has any questions I would humbly lend advice and support. MY DOCTOR IS COMPLETELY INEPT AND INCOMPETENT RE: PRISTIQ AND ALL MATTERS RELATING TO PRISTIQ! Remember - you are NOT alone. Just reach out...

I'm feeling the same. Not to mention, high blood pressure runs in my family. Well,...I now have high BP since starting this a year ago. I had a bone marrow transplant 2 years ago so I need to keep a better eye in my heart and other organs due to all of the chemo I had back then. Idk. I'm just keep on doing the one day on and one day off thing and see what happens.

I wanted to post this to help anyone withdrawing or considering withdrawl from pristiq.I was taking 50 mg's per day for 2 years. I didn't want to take any drugs anymore. I wanted to "battle" on my own. No judgement - I hated my side effects from the drug. I experienced a signifigant lack of intrests in all things creative, sex, music (i am a life long musician) Also I felt it deadened my ability to be passionate about anything? I never actually "felt" anything while taking the drug? Before I started it I felt absolutely hopeless, if not for my animals I don't know what I may have done. ok - I decided 6 weeks ago I was getting off this drug. I spoke with my doctor and started to taper. 50 mg everyother day for 10 days, than I cut the pills in half(yes I know NOW there was a time release coating) for 10 days, than cut into quarters (12.5 mg's for 5 days, now 3 days completely off. IT HAS BEEN VERY DIFFICULT. This drug is a beast. Side effects have included horrible VIVID nightmares of betrayl, weird taste in my mouth, weird smells, weight all over the map, feeling like constant out of body experience, mood swings, despair, insomnia. But - it is getting better every day. There is life after pristiq... I have focussed through all of my symptoms on knowing - it is the withdrawl! NOT ME! Hard to do. But do able. Just know in your core it is the drug NOT YOU losing it. For me - it seems like this drug surpressed my emotions/feelings/issues the moment it got in my system and now i'm dealing with these issues again as I coming off the drug. I admit I am way better suited Now compared to 2 years ago to deal with these things and not everybody will be as "LUCKY" as I am, so just know that. Also, I let everyone close to me know what I was doing for support reasons. If anyone has any questions I would humbly lend advice and support. MY DOCTOR IS COMPLETELY INEPT AND INCOMPETENT RE: PRISTIQ AND ALL MATTERS RELATING TO PRISTIQ! Remember - you are NOT alone. Just reach out...

Hi! I’ve been on Pristiq for a year and three months now and I take the 25mg Mainly for my anxiety but I just ran out of my medication last week and “suddenly stopped” without getting weaned or anything and it’s been tough because I’m 21 dealing with some horrible withdrawals like massive headaches, vertigo, dizziness every once in a while, nausea, or flu like symptoms I’ll get the shakes but I know that’s my anxiety it’s currently been 6 days without it and I’ve been feeling like crap since the second day of not having my meds I didn’t stop them I just needed a new refill but my Dr told me I couldn’t get anything until I see her and that’s in a week or so and it’s been a horrible week already I’ll get hot flashes and chills every once in a while and I’ve never missed my meds maybe once but not this long and I’ve got to wait until I see my Dr for anything and it’s been rough because I’m scared. I never went through something like this before in my life. I do, do things around the house just to take my mind off it more I think more I freak out but every once in a while I’ll get sick to my stomach and want to lay down because of it. I’ve got my family helping me while I’m going through all this just I never went through something like this in my life and it’s scary to me. Not being able to sleep much or have an appetite. And it scares me because I don’t know how long the withdrawals are gonna last or stay for. I already want them to stop because I feel so sick. Tomorrow will be a week since I last had my medication in my system or last took it and I’ve been waiting for my Dr to just give me a week worth until I seen her next but that wasn’t an option and it made me go in tears because I don’t like being or feeling sick I mean nobody does and it’s scary going through something you’ve never went through before but I know I’m not alone a lot of others deal with it or go through it as well. I’ve got put on Pristiq because I’ve taken every medication she had or recommended me like Effexor, Zoloft, Mirtazapine (Remeron), Citalopram in the last two years but thouse didn’t seem to help but my Dr thought Pristiq would help because she said it had “less withdrawal symptoms” after getting off it and thought it would help my anxiety but I’ve noticed more anxiety then just my depression. My depression isn’t as bad or horrible as my anxiety is I struggle with anxiety everyday more then I do with depression I have it just it’s not as severe as my anxiety. I know I’m not gonna die or anything it may feel like it but at the moment I’m dealing with a horrible nasty headache and every once in a while some nausea if I get up sometimes some weird smells that arnt there or like a taste in my mouth. I’ve noticed I’ve got a dry mouth after not having it sometimes burning eyes when I look at light or something bright. But I figured I’d reply even though this is 2023 and this was way back in 2012 but I’ve been reading some other stories from people dealing with withdrawals from Pristiq.

Hi @tiaanna757, I'm sorry that you are now dealing with high blood pressure. How are you doing with coming off Pristiq?

By the way, you may also be interested in following the Heart & Blood Health support group and getting encouragement and tips about lowering blood pressure. See here: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/heart-blood-vessel-conditions/

And, please join BMT members in the Transplants support group, and share your story here:
- My Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT/SCT) story: Will you share yours? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/my-bone-marrow-transplant-bmt-story-will-you-share-yours/

Do you think going from 50mg to 25mg and then combining it with prozac is a good idea?

@2112richard, others here have discussed using Prozac (fluoxetine) as a bridge medication while tapering. Have you developed this plan with your doctor? How is the taper going?

Hi, thanks for getting back with me. I do agree to an extent on the matter of a person developing a state of mind when life has been giving them sweets things to enjoy and from out of the blue unexpected a mental condition developes. I could share things with you from my childhood which would show just how disconnected my mental state was from the real world. I had alomst zero feeling and emotions, very little ability to think, and 99% of the time locked in my world.
Now what I have learned from spending time around people living with a mental condition from mild to severe had to do with them living with stress. Michael J. Fox while in India or one of those countries pointed out how relxed and at peace with everything had allowed him to feel calm without stress. That peaceful calm state helped him the same way his medication helped him.
I beleive a person's brain creates bad chemicals/damaging chemicals when they can't get rid of the stress, the stress chemicals eat up the cells in the brain the same way lad, acid and other bad drugs do.
When I was growing up my mental state didn't allow anything to create stress. I wasn't able to hold on to things from the past. For example, when I was 15 a friend and I went over to a have fun witha couple fo girls, when we left there wasn't anything popping up casuing tme to think something. The next day, nothing and she was nice and pretty and we had fun.
In 8th grade Robert P. walks up to me kicks me in the groin, I'm in pain, not crying, I'm looking at him as he backing up to walk away, as soon as the pain leaves, I go back to what I was going, again on the opposite end of the spectrum, there wasn't any remembering. It was back to what I was doing.
How many ways can you sharpen a knife? This works the same way in our routine, our daily living, a daily life, our repetitive life style. We moved a lot as a child, so, I got to try new foods, there were new smells, new people, new things to see, new sounds, and then six months or nine months later, moving again.
I beleive had we lived in the saem house, same smells and so on, I would be who I am today. We lived in the country and sometimes in a small town, I was always outside exploring new things and experiencing pain from falling out of a tree, a sting by watching a yellow stinging scorpion scrawl up to my little pinky and sting it, to smelling the air after a shower, I got to experience everything outdoor.
Find me a psychiatrist, psychologist, or therapist who takes clients outside to the wild or outdoors to explore things you can't find or do indoors. Repetition doesn't work for the brain. the brain is trained and developed based on the first few years of our life. Which means a person needs to be outside 80 to 90 percent of the day, doing things a child would do. Find a doctor doing this kind of therapy and you may find a doctor with success.
What I know is this, the brain is an organ, that needs the five senses to always be finding new things to explore, this stimulates the brain. Another thing I beleive we all have genes which can be triggered at any time, causing a person to develope a condition, created by a life style of repitition and stress.
Thus, How did I turn on my brain? How did I get my brain to start up my thinking? How did I get feelings I never had since birth? How am I able to live one day to the next without stress? These things started up in the last few years and I'm 50. Now from a professional point of view and experience, doctors, psychologists cant explain how I did it.
Don't get lost by spending your day listening to your mind tell you things, go outside and find something to do you would never in your life do. Make it fun, make special, make something like a child would go do, climb a tree, buy a toy and play with it at a park. Do anything, just stop being an adult for one day,can you do that? Sincerely R.

@2112richard, others here have discussed using Prozac (fluoxetine) as a bridge medication while tapering. Have you developed this plan with your doctor? How is the taper going?