Weaning off of Pristiq

How are you now? I’m going through this right now

Hi @amandakw75, I'm tagging @dollardylan1 @debdrama @kpprice @jmgrn65 @liladee who know what it is like to taper of Pristiq and who can share their experiences and tips.

Amanda, did you decide to take 25 mg every other day for a while? Have you stopped? How are you doing?

I am so grateful to find this website discussion. I come from a long legacy of depression and suicide in my family. The men successfully ended their lives while the women in my family lineage suffered from chronic depression. I joined this discussion because I am weaning myself off of Pristiq (generic form), 100mg plus 100mg Lamictal daily that I have taken for 10 years. Prior to that, I had taken Prozac for 10 years until it no longer worked.

First, I thank God that these drugs saved me from a life of misery. I mourn for my father who never missed a day of work in his life unless hospitalized for his bipolar illness. He was limited to tricyclics and lithium for managing his illness until those drugs caused terrible physical ailments. He ended his life with a shotgun. Thank God we have chemicals to save many of us from that fate. I feel like Prozac saved my life...until it no longer worked. I thank God for finding doctors who understood the complexities of treating an individual with a cocktail rather than 1 drug for all. Though Prozac was a lifesaver, I learned after experiencing the benefits of Pristiq that Prozac altered my personality to the extent that I aggressively overtalked folks, interrupted them and acted out more loudly than I am naturally. But it was a lifesaver from the debilitating effects of depression.

Then, after 10 years on Prozac, I found myself crippled by depression - not suicidal or even sad, but unable to function to the point where I could not touch a keyboard. Even so, I could still get out and run 4 miles and work outside. I am a long term beneficiary of the effects of endorphins. But now, after 10 years of Pristiq, I started feeling incapable of functioning normally again and while Pristiq gave me my authentic self for so many years, I found myself becoming tearful over little non-events. It is odd since one issue I have had with these chemicals is that they leave your emotions somewhat numbed .
So, having retired and no longer working non-stop, I cut the dose to 50mg for about 9 months, then cut to 25mg . I experienced noticeable discomfort, of course, but not unbearable. Exercise is the best means for me to tolerate the effects of withdrawal. All was well until an inexplicable gloom overcame me. So I jumped back up to 50mg. , fearing that horrible threat of deep depression. That was about 9 months ago. Now I have decided to try getting off the drugs again and have resumed the 25mg dosage. It's tough, but again with daily exercise, I am trudging through this. This discussion group is a Godsend. I have experienced much of the effects that many of you have described...brain zaps, issues with vision, dreams, head/brain feelings that I really can't explain. So thank all of you for sharing because you are helping me to continue. Definitely exercise, hydrate, get out of the house. I have found that taking a Dayquil type capsule helps me. It is sort of a head clearing, coffee buzz that provides some clarity though I don't take more than 1 capsule a day and not everyday.

I will be ending this drug soon and here's what I hope to pursue if gloom begins to creep into my head. I am looking for your insights. If despair and depression creep up on me, I will pursue therapy with ketamine and augment with possibly Delta 8 and/or 9. I want to know if anyone is pursuing these methods for managing depression. Or if you have another method using healthy alternatives. Thanks for any advice.

my personal experience is that I have been taking it for about 2 years, started on 50mg's. Not realizing over the first couple of months my skin would be itchy when I got out the shower. I hadn't changed anything that I use for shampoo or soap, nor did I change my laundry detergent. this went on for a few months but wasn't everyday. I thought and was scared I had shingles, so I went and got the shot just in case. a few more months go by and the itchiness (more like pins and needles on my arms and back), it was awful, it would stop after my body cooled down so still not thinking it was the medication. keep going forward, I was put on 100mg's because of some depression. About a month or so after that, I noticed my itchiness/pins and needles were happening most days. I started thinking I was allergic but still also thinking it could be dry and irritated skin because of the weather (I tend to have dry skin and have had eczema). Keep taking the 100mg's. A few more months go by, now I can't even take a shower and the pins and needles/itchiness start happening in the shower and I notice a red dry patch on my arm with white in the middle, oh boy, now I think I have ringworm. I couldn't go to the Dr., I was in between jobs with no insurance. So I try treating it myself with Lotrimin and cortisone, no avail, still getting worse. Now I know it is allergic reaction, so I go back down to the 50mgs for about a week, then every other day for a week, still not feeling better, even trying to put burn lotion on it. I have had enough so stop taking it (again I still have no insurance so no dr visit, just research on-line). This was 3 days ago. The first 2 days were fine, today not so much, I have become aggressive, weird dreams, bad dizziness and can't sleep. Well here I am trying to get thru work. Thank goodness my insurance kicks in in 8 days and I can go back to the doctor. Good luck and I will never use it again. PS, today was the first day with no itchiness so I KNOW it was the medication.

I started taking antidepressants (prozac) in 1995 and over the years have taken a combination of zoloft, wellburtrin, trintellix and was prescribed pristiq about four years ago. I also take Vyvanse for ADHD and I felt like the combnation was putting me in a manic state. I decided to stop taking Pristiq in January 2024, was told to take 5 days at 25 mg and then stop.No other medication, replacement, etc was prescribed. So I found myself withdrawing from Pristiq hich i later learned was a very very hard drug to withdraw from and I was also without an antidepressant for the first time in 30 years. After seeing four different mental health providers and medcal doctors it is clear I am in acute withdrawal and it's horrible. The worse part for me is that my brain won't shut up with its negative messages. Telling myself I'm worthless is not a new thing but the intensity and consistency and frequency of that message -- you are bad -- is new. I'have a provider that I trust, I think, now -- the one that took me off Pristiq basically cold turkey is out of the picture now -- but as far as I can remember it's been about 5 weeks with no pristiq and about three weeks my new doctor prescribed prozac (40 mg) which I am taking now. I also am taking ativan (generic). I feel really really horrible and trying not to despair and tell myself that this is a medical situation, an acute withdrawal from pristiq, and it will go away, but it's like PMS, it's hard to believe when you are in the middle of it. I wish everyone out there deaing with this progress and succcess with fnding a solution to whatever mental illness you have been diagosed/born with. Can't say much more right now.

your words -- All was well until an inexplicable gloom overcame me. So I jumped back up to 50mg. , fearing that horrible threat of deep depression -- really hit home. I have had depression my whole liefe, treated it with various antidepressants and managed okay, but the pristiq did not suit me and I am now withdrawing from it and the sadness is almost unbearable. I guess it is bc my depression isn't being treated any more although my doctor did start me on 20 mg prozac (not the same doctor who took me off pristq and didn't prescribe a replacement andi-depressant) -- I don't know how long it will take the prozac to help with the depression but so far it's not. I just have to keep telling myself that the negative, self-hating thorughts are part fo the withdrawal and yes, suicidal ideation, but bc my mom tried to kill herself when i was 16, i know i would never to do to the people who would be left behind. So this has been going on for about two months now, starting with one mental health NP who took me off cold turkey, then me trying to do and couldn't and then trying again and then fnally finding a doc who seems to appreciate the severity of the situation. My biggst fear is it is never going to end. My symptoms were the brain zaps and sloshing brain and hard to focus, concentrate or thnk, and being extremely jittery at the beginning and now the brain zaps are about gone but i'm stil having hot flashes (i'm 74), my top of my head still feels like it's just going to separate abd fkiat awat leaving my brain just exposed. Hard to describe really but it's not good. My coordiantion is off, my vision is blured, and im getting the shimmering in frojnt of my eyes that i understand sometime come with a certain type of migraine but i dojn't have a migraine headache, just pressure on both sides of my head like it's being squeezed. Not a very cheerful note, but i imagine people going through this want to hear the good bad and ugly. I should add that my doctor suspects that I am bipolar and should have been diagnosed as that from the beginning, instead of just chronic depression. She said that antidepressants like the Pritiq family and wellbutrin can actually increase pump up the mania, if you are bipolar. otherwise they act as antidepressants. So I guess I am bipolar, and she is going to prescribe lacimal (sp?) for that. Ai Yi yi yi yi - hang in there, y'all. I don't cry easily but feel like i'm on the verge of tears all the time. and then i worry that I'm making it all up and I'm just a drama queen or a bad girl. . Have to keep telling myself and my doctor has to keep telling me it's real. and it will get better.

I was initially placed on Prestiq due to a seizure disorder. Move forward 2024 I no longer take seizure medication it's been 5 years and I a ready to be rid of Prestiq. The issue is I been on this medicine for since 2011 @150 mg my doctor told me to drop to an 100 for a week well still on an 100mg 4 weeks later. It was a little rough but I really want taper off to 50 or maybe 75mg I want to be done with this any advice

It is so hard to describe the sensations in your brain when the meds aren't working or weaning off them. What you described is the closest to what I would describe...even though it still doesn't do it justice. Hope something works for you. I started taking Pristiq again on April 1. I guess I am resigned to taking meds for the rest of my life. After getting past all the withdrawal symptoms and feeling great for about 2 months, these brain issues returned hard and fast. I am living an internal hell until the meds get up to speed. I hate the effects on my vision since I am very active and also love to read. Hang in there. Thanks for sharing

I took Pristiq for a few years in 2012-2014. My psychiatrist felt it was a very good drug with few side effects. However, due to it being an extended release tablet that can't be cut, they did not give a good exit plan. It is also not available in very low doses that would make a taper easier. He gave me low doses of Prozac, which is much easier to taper off. As I would decrease the Pristiq, I would take a little Prozac. I would alternate days. It was an easy off that way.

After I started pristq I started to feel itchy at night. I never connected the two Pristiq wasn’t a good med for me. I’m almost done and the itching is almost gone