Opinions - SSRI or Pregabalin as an alternative to benzodiazepines for anxiety?

[yaba]

Hi, Not sure if this is the wright form for it, Mod can move it.

Swim is on 3x5mg diazepam, 7.5 mg zopiclone (swim doesn't need zopiclone every day)

Anyway swims doctor offered him Escitalopram 5mg or Pregabalin not sure about the mg's. Instead of his 3x5mg diazepam daily.

Had a read up about all 3 and thinks 15mg diazepam daily is the best answer..

Swims is asking for opinions..

[welshmick]

Escitalopram or Cipralex is an SSRI.

I found they nearly killed me -


May just be me, but I will never use SSRI's again.

Tapering myself on Diazepan at the moment - very addictive substance, but at least it don't try to play with ya head.

Good luck Mate

[yaba]

Thanks swim was on venlafaxine (SNRI) before. And never again !!!

Swims doctor knows swims opinion about SSRI/SNRI, witch aren't good.

Not easy to get a repeat script for diazepam or any benzo in the UK, Very easy to get SSRI/SNRI.

[MadDawg]

Dude steer clear of the diazepam. If you were offered pregabalin I'd take that shit over diazepam anyday. If you use diazepam therapeutically you will develop tolerance and an awful, possibly the worst, withdrawal syndrome upon discontinuation/tapering. Unfortunately, pregabalin is marketed only for neuropathic pain in Australia, so I couldn't get that and had to settle for escitalopram 10mg a day which I've been taking for 9 days now (while tapering from a 4mg clonazepam a day habit). Please for your own sake don't go on the diazepam, go pregabalin. Plus, the dose the doctor suggested sucks ass. 15 mg wouldn't do shit for you.

[yaba]

Thanks Madawg
Swim is on diazepam but only takes it when he needs it, not every day !
Sometimes for his anxiety and sometimes as a recreational thing, but not to often ! The rest is given away to swims friends.

Appreciate what swiy is saying.

[luke99]

Hi
I have suffered from panic attacks for about 12 years since i was about 17/18, they have come and gone over the years and at points stopped me working for a year hear and there.
They got extremley servere about 5 years ago with awful insomnia aswell
I was put on 1 and half 7.5mg Zoplicone and 2 x 2mg of diazepam a day which i have been on since,
During this time I tried loads of SSRIs all of of which I found unbearable, and binned all of them after a week, absolutley terrifying side effects very dangerous I thought.
I left my job last june due to panic attacks remdering me useless, I was crippled by them and starting using the zoplicone and alcohol to numb me from them , i was in a very bad state.
This year I have been prescribed Pregablin 2x 100mg per day , and after a week I feel alot better already, my panic attacks led my body to spasm and go rigid making me look like a total maniac , this no longer happens , after a few days I went out to meet freinds in a bar I found I didnt need to drink 6 beers to relax , really didnt want to drink at all and still had a good time no social anxiety , very nice. Only bad side effects have been disorientation and waking up in the middle of the night with a panic attack (bit wierd)
I think this drug is good, feel spaced out and blurred vision ocassionally but if you ve been through panic attacks then its nothing, there is a danger my doc said that you think you are better too soon with this drug so I am aware of that.
It is a relief to find that this is something else out there other than SSRis, I feel no need to take much of my diazepam anymore , i really started to hate the way it made me feel , all apathethic and sluggish , but still take my zoplicone at night, I don't crave alcohol any more and am getting used to not getting smashed or having a quick drink with downers in order to cope with being ourside or going to meet poeple , - which was becoming a hellish brutal existance.
So yeah , recovery a little way there but very far off still , the drug is cleaner and more effective than diazpam , although I am interested in maybe combining it with an SSRi perhaps for depression as I think it could calm down the side effects of the SSRi ,anyone got any suggestions ?

Thanks for reading , I have found all your comments very interesting and informative , would like to hear more experiences with Pregablan

Reputation Comments on this post:

Interesting experience. Thanks for sharing

[RX420]

lyrica made swim very shaky. at higher doses it was very stimulating in swim opinion. It did help with swims migraines somewhat though. luckily swims doc hands him a bunch of free samples.

[NEUROROGUE]

SWIY has used this drug Pregablin. He/she took 500 milligrams with about 105 ounces of beer. The intake of beer made a big impact on the effects, but due to tolerance beer has little effect on SWIM. Furthermore, The Lyrica made SWIY feel happy and excited, comparable to a VERY low dossge of XTC. When Swim say 's comparable, Swim mean's there is no other contrast to use an example. The feelings of " everything is going to be ok", invaded my thought process displacing thoughts of fear and gloom. I will definetley suggest using this alone for its recreational use could be of some value to some. The feelings are not strong, but they are subtle and linger for hours. SWIM feelS happy AND DOES NOT SUGGEST USING THIS WITH OTHER CNS DEPRESSANTS. FROM SWIY'S EXPERIENCE THE COMBINATION WAS VERY RELAXING. The benzo and lyrica have no comparison . Its a different feeling and is up to the indivudual to decide wheter LYRICA has recreational value. A good experience with no ill effects [ 4 hhrs in]

[bob_arctor]

during the years SWIM has been on a variety of anti-depressants (SSRI, SNRI, tetracyclics, tricyclics) against depression and varying degrees of social phobia. Most of these have been given a trial time of 6 months up to more than a year. Some made things worse, others neutral, and some were useful for awhile but stopped having that effect after a couple of months. Never been on bensodiazepines for those problems.

14 months ago SWIM was prescribed lyrica (pregabalin) just as SWIM started working in a food store. The first weeks were pretty much just sheer terror, not a good place to be working in if you have social phobia but everyone needs money to eat... anyway, after two weeks SWIM started taking lyrica and it really did help - a lot!

Thoughts of fear of making a fool of SWIMself that usually started spiralling out of control into self-hatred and panic attacks were reined in sort of, much more stress is now required for SWIM to get to the point of this spiral starting and losing control.

SWIM has found that a tolerance develops, but not in a very serious way even after more than one year on it almost daily. After the first weeks SWIM went from 75 mg to 150 a day, and after a few months to 300 mg.

Now SWIM is on it 300 mg in the morning and 300 for the night and no need to raise it for several months. It still has the positive effect of making stress tolerance level higher and improving sleep.

If SWIM doesn't take pregabalin for a day or 2-3 the mood gets darker and it is much harder to control things, but it isn't worse than forgetting to take your venlafaxin (efexor). For SWIM, after just a day without pregabalin, taking it at the same dosage is felt much more than before.

Currently SWIM is unemployed (having to pay for a crisis created by the elite) and finds that pregabalin does not work very well for containing anxiety which isn't socially related, ie. the usual stress factors of being unemployed and poor, sitting at home and not really able to afford social activies with friends, growing passive etc. are not helped really in any way with pregabalin.

SWIM hopes this info can be of use.

[Ally420]

Has SWIM tried buspar for anxiety or is SWIM only interested in anxiolytics that have sedation potential?

With rare exception most SWIMMERs i know find it effective.

[chibi curmudgeon]

Sertraline has actually done a lot for my panic disorder. I still get anxious at times, but it all but prevents me from having a panic attack--it's as if there's a mental block of sorts preventing the panic from spiraling out of control.

I know a lot of people don't like SSRIs, but I'd say they're worth a try.

[malsat]

Pregabalin can produce a benzodiazepine-like withdrawal syndrome but I've seen several papers establishing that it can be as effective as the benzo's and more effective than SSRI's in treating anxiety.