ok I'm starting

[skymaid]

ok going up to 50mg three times a day after talking to the dr. she said 75 twice wouldnt make much difference.

then in a week 100mg twice a day. then see how I am in a week or so after that

[hanshan]

Good luck with the new doses.

[skymaid]

50mg x 3 didn't seem much different at all tbh. No noticeable improvement in anything and no side effects either. I'm still on a puny dose after all.

Starting on 50mg in the morning then 100mg then 50mg in the evening today.

Bit nervous taking the red coloured 100mg tablet but hopefully i'll be ok, had nothing too nasty yet.

100mg x 2 next week or in a few days if this goes ok. I'm kinda keen to get on with it a bit now and get into the 300-400 range where hopefully the "magic" starts to happen.

[skymaid]

im doing 50 in the morning then 100 mid afternoon then another 50 before bed in fact.

slightly unsteady for a day or two but pretty mild

planning on going to 50 in the morning 100 and 100 in the evening very soon.

I think its helping. feels like im on a little diazepam all day. just taking the edge off. not really helping my sleep tho. I have to drink more or I get a really dry throat.

hopefully some starting this finds it useful

[skymaid]

ok after a few days on 250 I think im starting to notice it working. I went out for a 15 walk which would normally make me quite anxious. It didn't really increase my anxiety much. I just felt a bit dopey. I guess thats an improvement.

Maybe im starting to hit that the therapeutic range at around 300mg.

going up to that in a couple of days

[skymaid]

up to 100 x 3 now. I had a great sleep and felt almost normal until about 6pm then anxiety came on and wouldnt leave me alone.

i'll stay on this dose for a week or so now.

still no noticeable side effects. bit drowsy maybe.

plenty of random symptoms when my anxiety came on but I dont think theyre relevant to pregabalin since I had them before starting it

[skymaid]

i feel like im really starting to get some benefits now.

my weight is almost back to what it was before my "breakdown" and i have periods where i'm pretty calm throughout the day. I still feeling a bit jittery/shakey/twitchy between doses i think but maybe thats imagination.

The shrink said i can keep increaseing by 50mg a week up to 600mg a day.

If i get to a dose say.. 450mg a day and feel great i guess i can just stop there? I mean i don't HAVE to go to 600mg do i? he didn't really say. I guess i could ask. just wondered what fellow pregabaliners think.

[SmilingAlbert]

Glad to hear it Skymaid.

Remember, the half-life of Preg is, while much shorter than the SSRIs, is very long compared to valium etc.

It doesn't 'wear out' anything like as quickly, and because it doesn't it enables the body to get a better rhythm going, and means that taking in a manner a la valium is not always correct: it takes longer to spool up, but the delay pays off further out.

Everyone is different, I am fine on 150 to 225/day. As with all such drugs, it should be kept to the lowest dose where it actually works. If I were you, I'd stay a while at the dose you are for a while and see how you get on; occasional anxiety will come, but sadly this is part of life which no medicine can do much about. Just knowing it's anxiety - rather than some greater force you can do nothing about - can be useful in observing and ultimately ignoring it.

That way, you will still have 'headroom' with this. Going to 600mg per day is the top limit here, which you can have if you really need it. And be happy you are in the UK - in the US, this would cost you £200-300 per month, rather than £9!

Good luck,

Albert

[skymaid]

thanks albert. Im thinking I might tweak my afternoin dose up a bit because I always seems to get some weird anxiety for no particular reason in the evening.

I dont think i'll go as high as 600mg that sounds like a lot of anything. we'll see I guess

[hanshan]

This is a very interesting situation.

Although the half-life of diazepam is quite long, the half-life of pregabalin is quite short.

Nevertheless, people often take diazepam for short-term problems, and pregabalin for long-term ones.

The only rationale that I can think of is that benzodiazepines are both fast-acting and intense, whereas pregabalin is neither.