Pregabalin for anxiety- share experiences?

[greatbigbushybeard]

Just that really. It’s been mentioned as an add on to what I am currently taking to combat anxiety. I am also suffering with depression too so on ads for that.

I am on escitalopram....I was having lots of leg and arm nerve pain so my doctor suggested Pregabalin and said it would also help with my anxiety.
I wasn't sure, but she prescribed the lowest dose to be taken twice a day and said we would increase it a week or two later.
I took it for 4 days and felt bloody awful! I read the leaflet and the list of side effects was horrendous. I also found a support group on line on Facebook, Lyrics survivors (another name for Pregabalin)
The effect this drug has had on people is awful. People can't get off it and it's left them with bigger problems than they had before. Most had been prescribed it for pain.
I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.....I felt ill for weeks after I stopped taking it.

Lyrica survivors, Sorry,... not Lyrics.

I was on it and found it to be amazing and didn't have any side effects

This is the only drug that helped my anxiety. Take it alongside escitalopram. It also helps my nerve pain. No side effects. I have to take lots of drugs for various conditions, but pregabalin is the one that has had the most positive effect on my life. It is brilliant!

I'm glad if it helps some, but try coming off it.....

I was on 600mg two years for anxiety. It really helped but I gained loads of weight. I was little bit dopey too. I came of it quite quickly, in two weeks. Only withdrawal was hangover feeling that lasted a week. I am fine now because I don't really have too many things to be anxious about.

I took it for something completely unrelated and had no side effects only positive outcomes on pretty high doses, higher than used in mental health prescribing.

Good luck x

Thank you all. It’s so difficult when you read very negative experiences alongside positive ones. It shows they all affect people differently. It does scare me adding something else into the mix and it’s precisely stories about withdrawal horror & negative experiences that put me off. That’s interesting that you came off it easily bansuwamsku. Is it known for piling on weight?

@42greatbigbushybeard I have read that a lot of people pile on weight with it but also others who haven't. It must affect people differently like most drugs.
I have found that cbt, counselling and Thai Chi have helped enormously alongside escitalopram (which I'm now weaning off)

I was also on propanolol for a while, which helped my physical symptoms but have come off that now.
I'm on escitalopram and apparently a lot of people complain about gaining weight on that but I've found the opposite personally.
As you say, it's difficult getting conflicting opinions.
I said earlier I found it to be an awful drug but I don't like any drug that has a big effect on brain activity so that may affect my experience on many drugs.

From what I have witnessed, it is a bad drug, my brother was prescribed this drug and I have noticed a huge deterioration in his mental health, he has tried coming off it several times but he says is impossible because of the withdrawal symptoms. Everyone is different but honestly I would try something else. X