Tell me good experiences of pregabalin please

[OCDpanic]

I have had a crap year last year. I want this year to be so much better.

I was prescribed pregabalin a few months ago but been afraid to take it and the thread I posted on here while I'm grateful to respondents didn't help matters.

So please can you tell me positive experiences especially with OCD or other anxiety disorders.

I need to do something

I was prescribed it on a HUGE dose for Trigeminal Neualgia.
It literally saved my life as I was near suicidal with pain.
It did make me very spaced out and fuzzy initially, but as I got used it it that wore off. I didn't put on weight ( some people say it causes weight gain but if you keep an eye on what you are eating it won't) I imagine it would definitely relax you!

I didn't know it was used for OCD though. My son has severe OCD and is on Sertraline at 150mg a day which works really well for him. Has that been tried?

I would give it a go personally, for my circumstances it was a wonder drug and OCD is such an awful condition :(

I took it for nerve damage, really was amazing I literally couldn't walk for weeks, then could the next day. I took it for nearly a year and didnt really notice any side effects. I would give it a go, my sister who is a dr was really against it, but worked well for me.

I use it for nerve pain too and it has made a massive difference to my life and also reduced anxiety for me too. I haven't had any bad side effects, no weight gain etc.
It is definitely worth a try!

I took it for nerve pain and it was a life saver. I was v chilled out on it so I imagine it does work well for anxiety. I did gain some weight and you do need to increase the dose the longer you are on it as you develop tolerance to it. When coming off it you need do it v gradually or you will end up v. Anxious. I came off it cold turkey once and felt horrendous.

Finding the correct dose is trial error. Too little and it doesn't work, too much and you will be off your face.

Good luck and I hope it helps.

While I appreciate the comments on nerve pain as I also suffer my cpns argument for why not to pay attention to the negative responses I got was 'they might not have similar medical history to you'

So I'm really wanting to know about how it works with serious anxiety especially OCD

Because the responses I got before were often 'made me way worse'

I take it for generalised anxiety disorder and it's the best thing I've taken. It doesn't get rid completely but does take some edge off. I'd tried a few different things before this. Only issue is that your tolerance can increase over time so they've had to put my dose up a couple of times. Side effects seemed much less than other meds I've tried.

Just had a quick look again at previous thread it's mainly withdrawal that's the issue which worries me as my memory isn't great and being late taking can be a problem. I set reminders on phone but if I'm not near phone when reminder goes I forget.

I'm also on mirtazipine 30mg which I can't decide if I like or not.

Other antidepressants I've taken in the past have also had a good effect on the OCD, reasons I'm not on them now are they stopped working, I became allergic/had serious reaction or major side effects issues.

I'm seeing cpn next week and want to go over all this with her but then I've been saying for months I think I need to try something else.

But I also know the mirtazipine is murder to come off and I have a sneaking suspicion they want me on the pregabalin to be able to ease me off the mirtazipine.

The mirtazipine has helped A BIT with the depression, sleep and appetite but anxiety still sky high.

Absolutely can not continue as I am barely leaving my bed, but only getting 4-5 hours sleep in a 24 hr period but about once a fortnight no sleep at all for 36+ hours, only eating one meal a day and not always a meal sometimes just a bowl of cereal or crackers and cheese.

And yes I know the lack of sleep and poor nutrition will also be impacting the mental health but it's a vicious cycle.

Anxious can't eat can't sleep more anxious less sleep less appetite...

I'm sure those of you with anxiety understand

Snowangel thank you if I may ask (pm if you prefer) how bad is your anxiety and what other meds have you tried?

I feel like I've tried bloody loads and sometimes just feel hopeless and that I'll never get better it's been over a decade

I take it for nerve pain and it works really well. It did make me feel odd when I first took it so we started on a low dose and then built it up gradually. I have no adverse effects from it now.

I've tried various anti depressants (sertraline, mirtazapine, citalopram), an anti psychotic called Quetiapine and propranolol which was great at stopping physical symptoms but gave me chest pain.
I'm really sorry to hear about your situation. My anxiety is reasonably well managed at the moment with a combination of the meds, therapy and mindfulness.
At it's worst it has previously turned into psychotic episodes.
It's so tough to find things that work and when you think you've find something bam, it suddenly strikes again. And yes totally understand, it's the hardest thing to do all the things you know in theory help with anxiety when the anxiety is crippling.