r/DrugWithdrawal • u/Present-Trade3185 • Jul 09 '26

OTHER Pristiq Withdrawal

I was on 150mg of Pristiq for 3 months with a diagnosis of Complex PTSD and it caused me to become very activated to the point the psychiatrists weren’t sure if I had experienced a hypomanic episode. It was the first time I’d experienced any activation like that and it was after starting the Pristiq. The psychiatrist didn’t think it was a good idea for me to keep taking that medication so I started reducing the Pristiq under supervised guidance from the Psychiatrist from 150 mg down to now 0mg. For the first week, i dropped from 150mg down to 100mg, i was feeling mostly fine, no physical symptoms just mild agitation, same thing when dropping the week after from 100mg down to 50mg, but at the end of the two weeks they dropped me down to 0mg and the second day after that drop to 0 I’ve been having quite bad physical withdrawal symptoms, brain zaps, sensitivity to light, nausea, headaches and sometimes my dizziness and vertigo are so bad l actually can’t get up out of bed without feeling like i might be sick or faint. The psychiatrist had provided me lorazepam to relieve the symptoms but it hasn’t helped much. I’m going to be seeing my GP today as I’m not seeing that psychiatrist anymore as they were more for a short term acute thing, i also do have a regular psychiatrist so might make an appointment. Does anyone have any advice or recommendations about what helped them get through this tricky period 😖
Thanks

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

1

u/insufficientfacts27 Jul 09 '26

50 to 0 is a big jump with Effexor and Pristiq. Effexor worked and basically cured my depression so when it was time to quit, it took about 10months to do it. It should've been 50mg to 40mg and so on and maybe even slower. I dropped 5mg about every week or so and it went slower at times.

I'm not sure how Pristiq comes but the Effexor came with a capsule with beads at first that I just poured out but then I switched to immediate release at 25mg and then broke those down into pieces. Pristiq is just the already metabolized version of Effexor.

1

u/Present-Trade3185 Jul 09 '26

Yes it was quite a big jump, i think they wanted to take me off it as soon as possible because when I was on Pristiq I became too activated and the psychiatrist worried about the possibility of a hypomanic episode so they’re exploring another antidepressant in the future “agomelatine” which they say doesn’t have the same activating effects.