The Pregabalin Diary (3 days in)

[Mindprison]

Hello all

As I said on my other thread I planned to make a diary detailing my experience with Pregabalin 75mg twice a day and Mirtazapine 30mg once at night combo.

Saturday 25th March

Took first Pregabalin at 11am and started feeling effects an hour later. Had an uncoordinated feeling and felt like my head and body were two seperate pieces and couldn't decide on where to go. Made worse by me travelling by train and feeling quite self conscious for the whole journey, i'm quite glad I don't drive because I think I would probably have been a danger to myself. The feeling was quite unpleasant and I was feeling pretty crappy on the train, quite out of breath and overly anxious. I imagine my anxiety about taking them made things ten times worse so it's not fair to make a judgement on it so soon. Effects faded at around 6 that night and was left feeling drained.

Took the second one at around 11pm and tried to sleep before the worst of it hit. Took the mirtazapine shortly after. Slept for about 2 hours before waking up with my heart pounding and feeling like I couldn't breathe. I've been having hypnic jerks on and off the past couple of months so I honestly can't say if it was the medication or not. Calmed down an hour later and tried to sleep again as I was feeling kinda out of it, uncoordinated and spaced out. Didn't wake up again but had pretty vivid dreams and could recall them to my girlfriend the next morning, which I normally can't do.

Sunday 26th March

After a pretty crappy night I took the pregabalin again at 11am and went out with my girlfriend and family as planned. Suffered similar effects to the previous day, feeling very spaced out and sick from the dizziness. Had to rest quite a lot during the day because it was quite warm and humid and was feeling extremely out of breath most of the day. Effects faded around dinner time with no noticable increase or decrease in my anxiety.

Felt anxious taking them at night but persevered. Took me 4 hours to get to sleep due to having hypnic jerks every time I was close to sleep. Girlfriend noticed and was concerned but brushed it off, feeling completely frustrated. Effects kicked in while I was trying to sleep and made it impossible, the whole room felt like it was moving and ended up sighing a lot because I felt like I couldn't breathe. Got up for a drink and eventually got tired enough to sleep.

Monday 27th March

Woke up feeling even worse than the day before, lack of sleep didn't do me any favours. Took pregabalin same time and thankfully spent most of the day indoors until I left for my train. Effects weren't any better and the lack of sleep gave me a tremendous headache to boot. The breathlessness is the worst side effect for me since it's what usually triggers my panic. Felt miserable for most of the day and could feel myself getting irritated by everything. Effects lessened on the train and almost had a panic attack, probably out of despair more than anything. Kept it under control and got back home, tried to keep myself calm.

Took nighttime dose at usual time and went to bed. Jerked awake a few times but went back to sleep because my body was too tired to even care.

Tuesday 28th March

Finally, took this morning's dose and felt the familiar effects of feeling like I wasn't even in the same room as my head, dizziness and breathlessness still as bad as ever. The effects have started to fade as i'm writing this but I still feel as anxious as ever.

So to summarise, i'm feeling pretty bad initially with no real effects on my anxiety or panic but it's honestly hard to say whether it's because i'm anxious about the medication and the side effects i'm having. They're extremely unpleasant and i've never had side effects like this on any other anxiety or depression medication which is why it's making me so anxious.

Anyone else who wants to add their own experiences starting can feel free to do so! :)

[Panicer]

Hi Mindprison

Thanks for the new diary I've subscribed. Feeling really anxious about starting my pregabalin tonight after reading your journey so far but like you say it could just be your anxiety at starting the new med playing up. Trying to remember I have also read some really good things about pregabalin as well as the bad

[Mindprison]

Absolutely Panicer, I think my general fear of new meds and side effects is amplifying things for me. Also not sure if I mentioned in there but the night problems I was getting before I started taking these so it could actually just be the side effects stacking on top of my already bad health anxiety.

Wishing you a smooth start up! I'll persevere on them for a while and see how it goes because my anxiety couldn't get any worse on them!

Don't worry about taking them, you never know you might not even have any side effects from them. Feel free to just join with this diary if you like, it'll be interesting to see how different our experiences are and it'll be nice to encourage each other I think :)

[Panicer]

Thanks Mindprison, I'll definitely take up the offer of joining in your diary :)

[hanshan]

Hi Mindprison,

Hypnic jerks are definitely a side effect of mirtazapine that don't get much attention. If I take a dose of mirtazapine and don't fall asleep fairly quickly, they start up after half-an-hour or so and last maybe thirty minutes. I feel tension building up in my body, then a jolt, then I feel relaxed, but tension slowly builds again and the whole process repeats itself about three times every minute.

Two ways around it that I have found are either to take it last thing before bedtime if I'm pretty sure I fall asleep quickly and sleep through it. The alternative is to take the mirtazapine earlier in the day when I am moving around, so hypnic jerks (or related restless legs) aren't so much of a problem.

For the moment, if pregabalin is making you feel spaced out, you might want to try taking it around bedtime, and mirtazapine at any time earlier in the day from morning on.

[Mindprison]

Hi Hanshan

Yeah I think i'll do that from now on, even though they make me tired i'm pretty sure it wouldn't hurt to take them a couple of hours earlier. It makes sense since I only really started getting them when I started on Mirt.

Wednesday 29th March

No major problems last night, jerked awake a few times but that's been happening even without the pregabalin. As Hanshan said, the Mirt is probably a cause for that.

Side effects were still there today but less noticeable. Only major hiccup was a heavy heart palp that almost triggered a panic attack, but managed to keep it under control. Side effects have mostly faded now so hopefully this is the beginning of the turning point.

Been feeling quite tense, back of my neck is extremely tight to the point of feeling numb and my thoughts are all over the place. I've been here before though, the only way is up from here!

Hope you got on ok with your first doses Panicer!

[Mindprison]

Major hiccup tonight. Suffered a major panic attack 20 mins ago and I've not even taken tonight's pregabalin!

Noticing a pattern now. Anxiety is at its worst from the afternoon onwards and peaks at night. Trigger seems to be health related intrusive thoughts.

Hoping the pregabalin kicks in soon if it's going to work cause I can't deal with these panic attacks every other day.

[akb]

Hi mind prison

If keeping s diary helps you then all is well, but my own feeling about taking a medication new is to just take it and forget about it. Keeping the diary is bound to make you feel more anxious than normal.

Side effects for new meds usually disappear after a couple of weeks, the body gets used to them.

I had awful experience starting mirtazapine bit it doesn't mean everyone will.

Good luck

aka

[Mindprison]

Hi akb

I see your point, but i've always found keeping a record of my progress to be helpful. My memory isn't the best at the moment with how high the anxiety has been and I find that having something to look at and say "Ok, here's how I felt then and here's how I feel now" is a good way of gauging how it's working for me.

I also find that my experience may be useful to those unsure about starting or are looking for a detailed description of the effects they COULD feel but may not necessarily get.

Pregabalin isn't the worst medication i've been on by any stretch of the imagination, the fact i've been taking them and haven't backed out of it is a good testament to how someone with quite severe anxiety is able to manage the generic start up effects. The first few days were bad, but the effects are better than what they were and I don't feel as uncomfortable taking them now.

The panic attack would have happened whether I was on pregabalin or not. But that's my problem, not a problem with the medication.

Thursday 30th March

After last night's panic i'm feeling a little better about things, like someone pressed the reset button on me. The pregabalin effects have died down considerably now and while I do still feel a little dizzy, they're nowhere near as bad as they were at the weekend.

Got an appointment with my doctor next week to discuss my progress since I won't be seeing the psychiatrist for another 2 months. Will have been on them over a week by that point and will hopefully start feeling much better about things.

[akb]

Hi mind prison

Thanks for your courteous reply and I take your point.

akb

[Mindprison]

Realize it's been a long time since I updated this. I've been on pregabalin for a while now and while the panic attacks are down to 1 a week instead of 1 a day, I feel it's not quite enough. The side effects passed fairly quickly but i'm still finding myself with negative thought patterns and HA spirals.

Despite how foolish I know it is, I still dread severe side effects that haven't even happened and recently have been overly focused on my heart. Thankfully my psychiatrist was kind enough to fit me in for an appointment next Friday instead of having to wait until the end of May to see her.

I feel I have some pretty deep rooted anxiety issues and that medication just isn't going to be enough this time. Meds are masking and lessening the problem but I know the minute I try to stop them, i'll be back to square one. I have no problem being on medication for the rest of my life if need be, but I feel I need to supplement it with some kind of therapy.

I lost a close friend last year who was only in her 20s to cancer and I find myself wondering if this event has triggered my current problem. I'll need to bring it up at the appointment but there definitely seems to be a deep problem here i'm not seeing.

Sorry for the rant, despite how ridiculous I know i'm being it still feels good to get it out in the open sometimes and I know a lot of people on here struggle with similar things too.

Anyway, I did have a question. i'm finding the anxiety starts to creep in at around 6 and doesn't subside until i've taken my mirtazapine and pregabalin at night, which pretty much knock me out. Would it be more beneficial to take the doses in the morning and early evening instead?

[panic_down_under]

i'm finding the anxiety starts to creep in at around 6 and doesn't subside until i've taken my mirtazapine and pregabalin at night, which pretty much knock me out. Would it be more beneficial to take the doses in the morning and early evening instead?

Changing the time you take mirtazapine probably won't make much difference because it has a fairly long half-life, but pregabalin only has a short one so taking that earlier will probably make a difference.

[akb]

I had to admit defeat on pregabalin when I got up to 200 so am back on 150 and coming off slowly.

Yep there's a lot of self help stuff you can do with anxiety, this forum is full of advice.

[Mindprison]

Hey folks, saw the psychiatrist today so thought i'd give a quick update on how it went.

Had a discussion about how the pregabalin has been working for me, I explained that it has taken the edge off somewhat but I still have pretty bad spikes of it. Psychiatrist is positive that since it's had some kind of effect, the logical next step would be to try a dose increase to see how it goes. I've now to go up to 150mg twice a day, so that should be good.

Discussed the anxiety I had about severe side effects and such when I started taking them. Got a telling off for reading the leaflet but I think she expected me to do it despite telling me not to, we had a laugh about it! :D

Highlighted the ones that were giving me the most anxiety, such as heart problems being listed in the uncommon section which was triggering thoughts that I might be one of the unlucky ones. She explained to me that almost all of the patients who had severe heart and edema side effects were elderly patients with a history of cardio problems and that the chances of that happening to me were almost non existent.

It hit a few things home. The leaflet is there for the consumer yet it does such a good job of scaring people who have anxiety problems because they want to avoid a lawsuit. If only there were a way to see what the side effects for your age group were, maybe people wouldn't be so terrified of them. Most of the side effects listed there probably have nothing to do with the medication yet they have to list them anyway just because someone reported it. Psychiatrist made a very good point in saying that if everyone worried about the side effects to medication then nobody would take them, let alone people with health anxiety.

My psychiatrist agrees that the trigger for this relapse is related to one of my friends dying last year around the same age as me. It was recommended that I take some time to try and work through it while i'm on the higher dose pregabalin but i'm not really sure how to do that.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Hoping the higher dose will make me feel better about things.