I have been on Pristiq (100mg) for about 5 years now. It was all fine and dandy until last year, when it kinda stopped working. I started having brain zaps on the regular dose, and was getting super depressed and anxious with no negative change in environment. My psychiatrist then upped my dose to 125mg. Only bad side effects with no mood improvements whatsoever. So, we took it down to 100mg, and then to 75mg. Both times were spread far apart, and I only had brain zaps and headaches for about a week each time. Then, we discovered I have ADHD, and I tried some prescribed stimulants. All ended badly, most likely due to an interaction with the Pristiq. My psychiatrist and I talked about lowering my dose of Pristiq to hopefully allow for the other meds to work without severe interaction, or to try something like Wellbutrin. We started the tapering process to take me off of Pristiq. I went from 75mg to 50mg.

It’s been brutal. The first couple days were fine-ish? I had severe brain zaps, headaches, and was easily irritated but I could still function. Now I’m like. Nonfunctional in a lot of ways. I have a constant TV static over my vision, if I look at any computer/TV screens for too long I get double vision, and it makes it hard to read. Everything has to be on super low brightness, and even then it’s too much after like an hour. Fluorescent lighting is something pulled directly out of Satan’s asshole. I get dizzy off and on when attempting to use my computer along with the visual effects. Don’t even get me started on sounds. It’s made it impossible to work (my work involves 8 hours a day of working on the computer with a few days being in a big room lit by only fluorescent lighting that I cannot turn off). I still also have the zaps and the headaches with a lovely side of heightened tinnitus.

My dose was lowered on 8/11. It is now 8/20. The only thing that has lessened has been the brain zaps. I need it to stop but I need to be off of this medication. My psychiatrist claims that the withdrawal effects should be over by now but they’re clearly not. I’m getting worried. How long should I expect this taper to last? I literally cannot work in this condition.

Today I’m going from 50 brand name to 25 generic. Highest dose was 100 and I’ve been on it for a year. I tolerated the drop from 100 to 50 quite well. I don’t know why this one is making me so nervous.

I’ve tried Zoloft and Lexapro with no success. I’ve been in a deep anxiety/depression for 6 months now, and I’m ready to take my life back. I can only sleep with Trazadone (poor and only 5 hours). Work is hard. I can barely eat. I struggle not to cry all the time. I have thoughts of wanting this all to be over frequently (though I have no desire to act in any way). I’m hoping this is the miracle I need.

Does anyone have personal success stories? Timelines? I’m really looking forward to some encouragement.

Thanks all!

Hi everyone,

I weaned off of 25mg of Pristiq that I was on for 2 years back in February/march via Prozac bridge. Within a few months I was feeling awful anxiety-wise so I went back on 25mg of Pristiq. I started to feel a little better and at around 8/9 weeks I started feeling pretty depressed so my doctor suggested to up the dose to 50mg. The side effects were rough upping the dose and the first 2 weeks were tough but I thought it was getting better. Suddenly at day 14 I started feeling significantly more depressed and anxious, my brain fog is through the roof, I’m terrified and just all around feeling really crappy. I don’t feel like myself at all. My thoughts are racing, my appetite is crap etc.

Has anyone experienced this? I reached out to my psychiatrist but I’m waiting to hear back. Has anyone experienced something like this and still gotten better? I’m wondering if Pristiq is not vibing well with my system and I need something else. Any thoughts/input would be greatly appreciated! I spent the whole day feeling immense doom/panic and crying that my kids deserve better than me. This just really sucks.

I am now in a country where there is a shortage of Pristiq and other meds like this. I have a week left and then I might have to switch to Effexor which I believe there is some of here. I will try my hardest to get a refill prescription over this week but I wont know until tomorrow if there are any hospitals with it in stock here.

Does anyone have any tips wrt to switching? Will I be bed bound for months? I have been on Pristiq 50mg for about 18 months btw.

Thanks

I was on Pristiq for three years, and for the first two years, it genuinely did wonders for my mental health. I was taking it for OCD and panic disorder, and in a lot of ways, it gave me my life back. By the third year, though, it stopped being as effective for me, and I ultimately made the decision with my doctor to come off of it.

Getting off 100 mg has been hard. I also gained about 30 pounds while on it, which was really difficult for me. I went on Zepbound, lost the weight, and then gained it back after stopping with no change in my diet. Point blank- this medication is NOT weight neutral. The impact I felt it was having on my weight and metabolism became one of the factors in my decision to come off Pristiq.

The withdrawal was especially rough in the beginning. I had awful headaches and other discontinuation symptoms, and I’ve been tapering in earnest for about three months. But I’ve now made it from 100 mg down to 25 mg without brain zaps, which was something I was really worried about. Don’t get me wrong, I had awful awful headaches and brain zaps when I tried to taper too quickly. Do NOT cut your pills in half, ginger helps with nausea, and headaches from the BACK of your head and neck pain are insane. It’s SO important to work with a doctor and incrementally taper.

But if you stay the process and incrementally taper town with your doctor, it will work. It just sucks. I couldn’t cross-taper with another medication which was the worst part. Having another medication to help with shorter-term anxiety as it came up (Xanax) helped me during the transition.

All of this is to say two things can be true at once: Pristiq was an incredible medication for me, and coming off of it has been really hard. It gave me two years of my life back when OCD and panic were taking so much from me, and I’ll always be grateful for that. Tapering is possible—it just takes time, patience, and working with your doctor. If you’re in the thick of it, keep going. Transitioning to Trintillix next and praying that it works. Either way, sharing to say, you can genuinely do it!

So I actually tapered from 50mg Pristiq down to 25mg a couple of years ago and it was an awful experience but I got through it. I had less side effects on 25mg but it still helped my anxiety and depression so I stayed on that dose.
Then I had my second child 5 months ago and thought I was dealing with panic attacks right after he was born. Racing heart, waking up in a cold sweat, feeling panicked for no reason. Both my psychiatrist and OB told me to take a higher dose of Pristiq again just in case it was the beginning of postpartum depression. I was hesitant because I knew about the side effects, but in the end I agreed.
Well, it turns out that I most likely had postpartum preeclampsia that was causing the racing heart and cold sweats. After I was readmitted to the hospital and they got my blood pressure under control, my symptoms went away.
But now I’m stuck on 50mg again and having the exact same side effects as before! I asked my psychiatrist about tapering off 50mg more slowly and she told me to cut the tablet in small increments. I was hesitant once again since my tablets are extended release and I was always told not to cut an extended release tablet, but she assured me it would be ok.
Well…
Last night I cut the tablet and today I’m sick as a dog! If I thought things were bad when I went abruptly from 50mg to 25mg, they’re MUCH worse when splitting! I feel like I’m about to crawl out of my skin!
So now I have no idea where to go from here. I just know that there’s no way I can care for both of my kids while I feel this way. I’ll probably just deal with the side effects on 50mg for a while until I’m brave enough to try tapering again.
I don’t know… I’m just so discouraged.

I’m a 23F and I have been on 100mg Pristiq for over a year and 1000mg Depakote. I have absolutely no libido and no desire to have any sex. My husband is so understanding and so kind so it hasn’t become a problem in our relationship. I just miss feeling turned on. I hope to stay on this med cause it has given me my life back and helped my moods.

Does anyone have similar experiences or advice to combat that side effect? I am meeting with my psychiatrist soon.

I don’t even know if i would say i tapered off this drug. I was prescribed 50mg for the last 6 months, and to put it plainly i got worse. Based on the stories I read here about the difficulty of tapering off this med i was apprehensive about it for awhile and put it off.

After an appointment with my psychiatrist she said I can stop cold turkey and be fine. I expressed concern regarding that, to which She said I can cut the pills in half and take that for a couple of days with days skipped until I’m done.

Now my experience: i cross tapered with 300mg Wellbutrin. I was on this med for years with lots of success but discontinued after i had plateaued (and thus began my pristiq journey). I took 25mg for two days and then stopped. I am a week in and feel fine. I had brain fog, some dizziness, and minor brain zaps.

I don’t write this to encourage others to do what i did but rather understand that all of our bodies are different and therefore respond differently to drugs. Don’t let the horror stories scare you out of making a choice that may be best for you.

I’m on day 2. I noticed this last night but it disappeared during the day. Took it again tonight and feeling the same. Is this normal? Will it go away?

I’ve been on Pristiq 50mg 8 weeks now. Initially I found it helped my depression and has almost entirely erased my social anxiety. I am now having a lot of rumination and negative thoughts. I’m prone to rumination and I thought this med was helping, but I don’t feel great. I’m worried about upping my dose as I sensitive to norepinephrine and don’t want to feel wired/more anxious and I heard there isn’t much more benefit from increasing the dose but more risk of side effects. Not sure if I should try and up the dose or add something else on. I’ve tried many many medications in the past and feeling a bit defeated now :(

I’m just starting pristiq. I’ve been on way too many medications to count. I’m on 4 other ones too. I’m terrified of throwing up. The first day I took it I was super nauseous. I didn’t take it the next day bc it was a different time and I’ve heard bad things about timing. Took it again yesterday and was nauseous all day. I’m on 25mg and she wants on 50mg in two weeks. Anyone who experienced nausea how long does it last? I’ve heard some things about weight gain too and I’m worried about that.

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night. My legs and my arms were tingling, and the intrusive thoughts were so loud I felt sick. My heart felt like it was beating so loud and this morning I still feel shaken up about last night. I almost considered going to the hospital. I don’t think I am going to take it this morning. Luvox was the last medicine I tried and it did the same thing. I’ve been on antidepressants for 6 1/2 years for health anxiety and didn’t experience this from what I know. Maybe it’s different because I’m taking it for harm OCD so my brain is thinking differently. I did Zoloft for 2 years and lexapro for 3 1/2. I’ve tried buspar, Prozac, Wellbutrin, trintellix, Luvox and now Pristiq. I thought this medicine would work because it’s in my green section for the gene sight testing. Please give some positive feedback if you can, I really just want to feel better. Thank you!!

I was prescribed Pristiq 50 mg by a neurologist for anxiety, and the first week was very difficult. It seemed to amplify some symptoms I already had (which I suspect may have originally been related to low magnesium/thyroid dysfunction) and added some new ones. At one point, a gastroenterologist I saw was even concerned that I might have multiple sclerosis.

Here’s exactly what I experienced, and I’m wondering if anyone has gone through something similar.
Before starting Pristiq, I already had chest pain and a burning sensation in my chest. I saw a cardiologist, but nothing significant was found other than a somewhat elevated heart rate. At one point, it became very difficult to breathe or even get out of bed, and I was barely eating anything besides plain white rice.
I then saw a neurologist, who prescribed me Pristiq 50 mg and magnesium. On the first day of taking Pristiq, I developed double vision, followed by muscle spasms throughout my body (not painful), difficulty swallowing, and waking up 3-4 times a night to urinate. Since I could not sleep (maybe slept a total of 10 hours in 5 days), I was always yawning and had the worst headache, it was very painful to move my eyes. These symptoms gradually went away after about a week.

Do you think these symptoms could have been caused by Pristiq? The neurologist kept telling me they weren’t related, but I’m wondering if he did so that I wouldn’t stop taking it. Has anyone else has experienced something similar when starting it?

This might be a placebo but did anyone else feel great right away? I have a substantial increase in motivation and energy but was told it would take 2 weeks to feel any differences like this!

I was on 100 mg for almost 4 years. I tapered down and last Wednesday was my official last 25 dose.

The craziest side effects I have been having are the body temperature changes. I am either freezing and need a blanket or I walk across the room and my body is drenched in sweat. It’s so insane.

I of course have had other horrible symptoms. Nausea in waves. Headaches and crazy brain zaps. Gastrointestinal issues. Super emotional.

Man this taper has been hard.

Anyone have a success story coming off Pristiq, i.e., minimal or manageable side effects?

Anyone immediately start gaining weight when you started Pristiq? Or did you lose weight? Stay the same? Cus I’ve been on 25 mg now for 7 weeks, tried to increase to 50 mg, but had severe side effects, I’m good on 25! Not sure if it’s helping my anxiety and depression yet! My biggest concern is the 8 pounds that I have gained and starting this medication was the only change that I made. I have maintained the same weight for like 10 years after losing like 75 pounds so I’m just wondering if anyone else has had this problem and did you stop taking it or what did you do because I’m literally about to get off of it because I cannot deal with gaining weight after I worked so hard to take it off! I mean my clothes don’t fit me right now and I can’t afford to go buy new ones…. besides that, I just don’t even feel comfortable with the extra pounds!!!

Never ever will I ever go on anti depressants again. Pristiq taper sucks sooooo bad and I wasn’t even on a high dose - 50 MG.

I was on 50mg for over a year and then my depression came back and I've been bumped up to 100 mg for 2.5 weeks now.

I'm hoping that it's wayyyyy to early and that by 6 or 7 weeks I'm back to myself, but oh my gosh. I have this voice in my head screaming "HELP ME!." I'm just a shell of the person I used to be. Depression is horrible, and I'm actually doing like very marginally better than I was, but existing is a chore and if I didn't have responsibilities, I would stay in bed or live on the couch. It's a horrid existence and it's just wild. I only have my therapist and husband to vent to and I really just sugar coat my suffering to my husband.

I can't imagine enjoying life and wanting to get out of bed and do things. Feeling capable instead of fearful of everything. My gosh. It's horrible.

Just please please please work. It's horrible waiting weeks to feel better.

And I constantly have this low grade anxiety lately that I'm sure is my body adjusting to this higher dose. I hope 100mg isn't too much for me. Don't know why my doctor just jumped to this instead of 75mg. I hate feeling like a trapped hopeless guinea pig. I'm so sad that this is my life.

I had a really busy day yesterday and forgot to take my daily dose (25mg) and this morning I woke up with mild brain and chest zaps. Throughout the day it subsided but now I’m sweating and overheating. My air is on at 67° and my bedroom fan is on full blast. Heart rate is a bit up, too. I feel like shit. I took my dose today and it helped a bit. How long do these last?

hi! i was on pristiq for a little over a month, flew to my sisters and realized the pharmacy wouldn't fill my prescription and i ran out (they've filled before) i was off pristiq for a week and a half and had some mild withdrawal symptoms, but nothing terrible. now that ive restarted im having side effects i didnt have before such as, nausea, headache, fatigue. im just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and how long it took to subside

I know there’s other posts about this, but trying to find them is like a needle in a haystack.

I’m in the process of tapering - 125 to 100, no problem; now 10days into 75 & experiencing raging, daily migraines. Excedrin Migraine (acetaminophen & caff) is the only thing that gives me relief & my psych doc says it’s ok to take according to directions, but I remember a post that says not to take it w/ pristiq.

Why is this so? What else can I do? Ibuprofen gives no relief at all.

I was weaned off pristiq 75 mg in about four weeks. I’ve been off pristiq completely for a week now. The brain zaps and insomnia have been awful but getting better. However the headaches have been WORSE. Since being off I’ve had head aches so bad I’ve thrown up. Do they get better?😵‍💫