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01-18-2013 at 10:55 AM
danielleac...
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danielleacole is not online. Last active: 04-24-2013, 5:45 PMNewbie

Any Pristiq or other anti-anxiety/depressant users?

Help! I am 7 weeks along and thrilled, as it has been a 3 year journey of trying. About 3 months ago I developed severe anxiety (likey from the stress of not getting pregnant!) and was put on Pristiq. Upon finding out I am pregnant (hooray!), I am of course weaning off the Pristiq and it is awful! Has anyone ever had to wean off this or similar drug? This is my first pregnancy, and first time weaing off a med, so I'm unsure what symptoms are caused by what, but the nausea and the lightheadedness are awful. Very severe. If anyone has had any experience in this area, please share how long the withdrawal symptoms lasted :(

 
01-18-2013 at 11:03 AM
bmqcmg
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bmqcmg is not online. Last active: 05-23-2013, 8:36 PMSilver
I have tried to wean off my anti-depressant before and it didn't go so good. I experienced the shakes, dizziness, racing heart, and I was very irritable. But we switched around the way I am weaning off this time and so far so good. Just need to do it in baby steps.

DD - Juliana Joan - Born October 27, 2010 - My Little Princess

BFP 1/14/13 - M/C 1/22/13 @ 5 weeks

BFP 3/20/13 - EDD 11/11/13

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01-18-2013 at 1:11 PM
Bethany102...
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Bethany1026 is not online. Last active: 05-14-2013, 9:02 AMBronze
Ugh I just cold turkey'd my celexa last Sunday.... Starting to finally feel better.  I read somewhere it takes 7-9 days to fully leave your system.  I was only on the lowest dose too!  GL!  It gets better.

Anniversary
TTC #1 since 3/10:
DX: Me-PCOS, retroverted/ tilted ute - DH- MFI, DH-4 mo of Clomid therapy= no improvement. Weekly HCG injections.
Me-34, DH-33
HSG- unsuccessful, SHSG (dialated)-no blockages
7/11-Clomid (unmonitored) BFN,
#1 Fresh IVF 9/11: w/ ICSI & AH (only option): (1 transfered, 8BF) = BFN!!
#2 FET: 2 transferred (2 6BF) 12/11 = BFFN!!
Surprise + HPT on break! 2/12 Beta 1: 6 Beta 2: <5 = c/p ( RE had given me provera... So pretty sure this ruined everything)
#3 Fresh IVF 3/12: w/ ICSI & AH (2 transfered 8BF & 7BF, 1 to freeze) = BFMFN!
New RE 5/12
6/14 Hysteroscopy
#4 Fresh IVF 8/12: 5dt of 2 5AB blasts = BFN!... what else is new?!?
New RE insists its a transfer issue, immunology checked & good
#5 IVF FET 1/13 under anesthesia : Two 5 day blasts transferred
+ HPT!! Beta1: 2315 Beta2: 6442 Beta3: 31,061
First u/s 1/30/13: Shows 1 healthy heartbeat!!

Was he was right? I wasted 4 IVF's and the doctors were not getting the catheter in?!?
~~ Bump Bestie/ IRL Lynn0926 ~~
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01-18-2013 at 4:03 PM
TurtleMomm...
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TurtleMomma is not online. Last active: 05-24-2013, 7:54 PMBronze

I was on Effexor for years, from which Pristiq is a derivative.

For the love of god, GO SLOW. The risks of going too fast are enormous. I understand the detrimental effect of the drug on an embryo, but if you go too fast you put your mental health at risk. I weaned off a dose of 150mg daily in 6 weeks. It was a horrible experience. Shocks, nausea, dizziness. The works.

Pristiq and Effexor work hard core on your neurotransmitters (serotonin and norepinephrine). Depending on whether you were on the extended release or not, the drug clears the system pretty fast. That does not mean your body is fine and dandy fast, too. Your body has to re-learn to make those chemicals in the proper amounts, which can take time.

I'm sorry if this is scary, but please please please go slow. This is a serious medication to get off of. Listen to your body. Your mental health is extremely important in terms of your ability to manage your pregnancy and take care of yourself. 

PM me if you need help or support. I had a terrible experience and nobody to help me through it. I really don't want anyone else to have to endure that by themselves.


 BabyFetus Ticker 
01-18-2013 at 4:33 PM
msspeedyma...
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msspeedymarie is not online. Last active: 05-24-2013, 2:38 PMBronze
TurtleMomma:

I was on Effexor for years, from which Pristiq is a derivative.

For the love of god, GO SLOW. The risks of going too fast are enormous. I understand the detrimental effect of the drug on an embryo, but if you go too fast you put your mental health at risk. I weaned off a dose of 150mg daily in 6 weeks. It was a horrible experience. Shocks, nausea, dizziness. The works.

Pristiq and Effexor work hard core on your neurotransmitters (serotonin and norepinephrine). Depending on whether you were on the extended release or not, the drug clears the system pretty fast. That does not mean your body is fine and dandy fast, too. Your body has to re-learn to make those chemicals in the proper amounts, which can take time.

I'm sorry if this is scary, but please please please go slow. This is a serious medication to get off of. Listen to your body. Your mental health is extremely important in terms of your ability to manage your pregnancy and take care of yourself. 

PM me if you need help or support. I had a terrible experience and nobody to help me through it. I really don't want anyone else to have to endure that by themselves.

I just weaned off Effexor this summer in order to TTC. I found some advice online that I took, and it worked really well.

With Effexor, even the extended release, it clears your body really fast, so when you change dosages, doing something like alternating a 75mg pill and a 37.5mg pill doesn't work for weaning (for the reasons PP mentions above). And dropping abruptly from one dose to another is rough.

What I did was actually break open the extended release capsules. Inside are little "beads" of the meds. Each bead is 1mg. You can buy empty vitamin gel capsules at health food/vitamin stores. I controlled my dose decrease by slowly decreasing every few days by a milligram or two. I just dumped the beads into the vitamin capsule, and took out however many I didn't need. (So if it was a 75mg capsule, then I put 70 beads in the vitamin capsule for a few days, then went down to 68 for a few days, then 65, etc). This is a much slower decrease then going from 75 straight to 37.5 - when I did that when I first started trying to wean, I had a nervous breakdown.

It worked really well, and I had basically no withdrawal symptoms.



 
01-18-2013 at 7:52 PM
littlemama...
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littlemama1984 is not online. Last active: 02-25-2013, 11:25 AMNewbie

hi! 2 years after having my first born son I developed extreme anxiety and was put on 40 mg of ciltalopram and its worked great. ive been on it now for 4 years and now that im pregnant, ive been cutting them in half (now taking 20 mgs a day) and am feeling great :) my doctor told me to just cut down very slowly as this wont harm the babe!!! lets hope the anxiety doesn't come back! lol

good luck :)

 
01-18-2013 at 8:47 PM
danielleac...
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danielleacole is not online. Last active: 04-24-2013, 5:45 PMNewbie

Thank you so much for these words of advice and offer of help/encouragement. Never would have believed it could be this difficult. Have done a week of every other day, and now am doing every three days. But feel pretty crappy every day, regardless of when I've last taken it. First U/S is on Monday and I am counting down the minutes. So worried about effects of med, and also the effects of my body weaning off the med. scared I'm in a lose-lose situation, but hope I'm being overly pessimistic. Thank you again to all, and I hope to be in touch with only good news moving forward...

 
01-18-2013 at 10:37 PM
leahaustin
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leahaustin is not online. Last active: 05-24-2013, 3:44 PMBronze
Congrats on your BFP. I went off my meds for anxiety when I was 20 cold turkey. I had so many panic attacks at first and I was just super emotional.

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01-19-2013 at 10:39 AM
Luthy
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Luthy is not online. Last active: 05-24-2013, 5:19 PMSilver

Okay, I just want to make sure you've talked to your doctor about this. You should NEVER go off serious drugs like these without the supervision of a doctor. And you should follow the plan set up by your doctor for how fast/slow to go when weaning off. I've been on several different meds for depression and anxiety and things can get really serious when going off -- not just the miserable headaches and nausea but serious psychiatric symptoms. If you haven't, you should really call your psych right away.

Soapbox over! When I went off Pristiq I tapered off slowly, but once I was finally completely off the symptoms continued for 2-3 weeks. I was also being moved to another medication at the time, though, so it might not have been severe as it could have been as a result.


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