# How to reduce tolerance to Lyrica



## Iwillovercomeanxiety1 (Aug 23, 2010)

So I'm on 375 mg of Lyrica per day. It doesn't seem to be calming me down nearly as much as it use to. I think I might have developed a tolerance to it from taking Ativan and Lyrica for a couple months. Does anyone know how I can reduce tolerance and get the good calming effects back?

Should I drop the dose for a little while? And how long would I have to take a smaller dose before I could go back up? Any other suggestions please let me know what I can do to get it's good effects back! Thank you
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## versikk (Nov 25, 2013)

Dunno why you have lyrica and ativan at the same time, but congrats, i'm jealous.

Yes, you could drop the dose, and it's not a bad idea. but the tolerance buildup with GABAergis is a beast to say the least. Could take months if not years to get your tolerance down again. This is life with GABAergics.


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## SFC01 (Feb 10, 2016)

Iwillovercomeanxiety1 said:


> So I'm on 375 mg of Lyrica per day. It doesn't seem to be calming me down nearly as much as it use to. I think I might have developed a tolerance to it from taking Ativan and Lyrica for a couple months. Does anyone know how I can reduce tolerance and get the good calming effects back?
> 
> Should I drop the dose for a little while? And how long would I have to take a smaller dose before I could go back up? Any other suggestions please let me know what I can do to get it's good effects back! Thank you
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


Well according to studies, tolerance to the therapeutic effects isn't an issue but having been on lyrica myself I know what you mean. Initially you can get that almost high / drunk feeling from lyrica which is great for anxiety but this effect is kind of listed as a side effect rather than anything else. The only way you can do it is taking breaks from it - so maybe to stay within your prescribed amount, take 600mg one day and zero the next - or even 2 days off. You could take the 600mg all in one go or if that is too much then maybe 300 twice a day or 450 am and 150 pm - you may have to play around to see what suits.

See how that goes but you could also drop your 375mg to 300mg every day and then save the remaining 75mg for a rainy day when you really need some help with anxiety - that way you get the regular lyrica dose to help in the background with anxiety and then the option for a higher, more effective dose if required.

As above, you will need to experiment a bit and it maybe worth asking if you can go up 450 or 600mg a day, not to take every day if you dont want to but to have more scope to find an effective long term plan.


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## SplendidBob (May 28, 2014)

@SFC01 toying with this myself. I find it a useful substance now but want to keep my tolerance from raising _at all_. 3 weeks on 1 week off good enough, or week on week off?

No idea how this this is with resetting tolerance.


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## SFC01 (Feb 10, 2016)

splendidbob said:


> @*SFC01* toying with this myself. I find it a useful substance now but want to keep my tolerance from raising _at all_. 3 weeks on 1 week off good enough, or week on week off?
> 
> No idea how this this is with resetting tolerance.


I found tolerance dropped pretty quickly with lyrica and I took some high dosages so either one of the above would be fine bob, even something like 3 days on / 3 days off should be ok based on my experience.

I should also mention to anyone reading this thread is that I stopped lyrica cold turkey after being on 600mg (officially) for over 2 years and I had little in the way of withdrawal symptoms, in fact, none that I can remember so when playing around with your dosages - dont worry too much about withdrawal's or as above to Bob's post about resetting tolerance.


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## SplendidBob (May 28, 2014)

@SFC01 thanks.


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## SFC01 (Feb 10, 2016)

splendidbob said:


> @*SFC01* thanks.


welcome mate - I'd like to see Karsten provide such detailed info !! as if.


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## SplendidBob (May 28, 2014)

SFC01 said:


> welcome mate - I'd like to see Karsten provide such detailed info !! as if.


:lol


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## Iwillovercomeanxiety1 (Aug 23, 2010)

SFC01 said:


> Well according to studies, tolerance to the therapeutic effects isn't an issue but having been on lyrica myself I know what you mean. Initially you can get that almost high / drunk feeling from lyrica which is great for anxiety but this effect is kind of listed as a side effect rather than anything else. The only way you can do it is taking breaks from it - so maybe to stay within your prescribed amount, take 600mg one day and zero the next - or even 2 days off. You could take the 600mg all in one go or if that is too much then maybe 300 twice a day or 450 am and 150 pm - you may have to play around to see what suits.
> 
> See how that goes but you could also drop your 375mg to 300mg every day and then save the remaining 75mg for a rainy day when you really need some help with anxiety - that way you get the regular lyrica dose to help in the background with anxiety and then the option for a higher, more effective dose if required.
> 
> As above, you will need to experiment a bit and it maybe worth asking if you can go up 450 or 600mg a day, not to take every day if you dont want to but to have more scope to find an effective long term plan.


Cool so I might just take really big doses like 600 mg on some days and then try taking very low doses other days or see if I can take some time off.

It sounds like tolerance should reset relatively fast based on your experience.

I get withdrawals of more anxiety if I try to drop the dose too fast though.

I hope I can go down lower for a bit so that I can go back up to 300-375 mg and get a more calming effect like I use to from that.
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## Cassoulet94 (Apr 3, 2014)

Iwillovercomeanxiety1 said:


> SFC01 said:
> 
> 
> > Well according to studies, tolerance to the therapeutic effects isn't an issue but having been on lyrica myself I know what you mean. Initially you can get that almost high / drunk feeling from lyrica which is great for anxiety but this effect is kind of listed as a side effect rather than anything else. The only way you can do it is taking breaks from it - so maybe to stay within your prescribed amount, take 600mg one day and zero the next - or even 2 days off. You could take the 600mg all in one go or if that is too much then maybe 300 twice a day or 450 am and 150 pm - you may have to play around to see what suits.
> ...


I also found that tolerance was a problem with lyrica. If I take 600mg I have a significant increase in mood and reduced anxiety for like 2-3 days and then it become hardly noticable. If I want it to keep working real good 2/3 times a week is a maximum. That's why I don't use it very often anymore; I don't like my mood constantly having ups and downs. I kind of see it like a recreative drug.


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## SFC01 (Feb 10, 2016)

Cassoulet94 said:


> I kind of see it like a recreative drug.


yeah agree Cass, its more effective used in a recreational way, if thats what you enjoy doing of course - I did !!


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## Iwillovercomeanxiety1 (Aug 23, 2010)

SFC01 said:


> yeah agree Cass, its more effective used in a recreational way, if thats what you enjoy doing of course - I did !!


So I wonder if I can just take a larger dose a couple times a week? Take 375 mg normally but then maybe a couple times a week I can take like 600 mg to get the good drunk anxiety reducing feeling?
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## SFC01 (Feb 10, 2016)

Iwillovercomeanxiety1 said:


> So I wonder if I can just take a larger dose a couple times a week? Take 375 mg normally but then maybe a couple times a week I can take like 600 mg to get the good drunk anxiety reducing feeling?
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


Yeah, that would work no problem - you could probably get away with 3 times a week but see how it goes. You may even find that when you stop taking the 375mg every day, you'll notice how it was actually benefiting you.

Could you not get a higher daily dose from the docs ? maybe 450mg to start with, up to 600mg if that doesn't work? You will still get tolerant to the drunk effect but may find it really helps at a higher daily dose. Sure I read that for anxiety that you need 450mg to feel the benefit.

Anyways, if i was back on 600mg lyrica I would probably go with 450mg daily and then save the 150mg each day and get a little stash going for when i need it (or when I want to take it for recreational purposes -  )


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## sighsigh (Nov 9, 2010)

OP, you are taking less than 600 mg/day, which is apparently no better than placebo. At least two double-blind placebo-controlled studies claim pregabalin/Lyrica at a dose of at least 600 mg/day reduces SA over the long term and doesn't build tolerance. This makes it the only medication besides SRIs and MAOIs to do so.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21368587
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15206660

I haven't found any anecdotal reports backing up these studies, though. Most claim tolerance builds. I personally tried 600 mg/day for a week but found it made me so stupid (a common side effect) that it wasn't worth continuing with anyways.


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## Cassoulet94 (Apr 3, 2014)

I did too !The other day I went to a music festival by the sea, took 900mg and some booze on top of it, kept me going for quite some time, I was really hyper haha.

I don't do it often though because even without alcohol I tend to feel like **** the next day. It s back to reality and it's depressing.


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## Cassoulet94 (Apr 3, 2014)

sighsigh said:


> OP, you are taking less than 600 mg/day, which is apparently no better than placebo. At least two double-blind placebo-controlled studies claim pregabalin/Lyrica at a dose of at least 600 mg/day reduces SA over the long term and doesn't build tolerance. This makes it the only medication besides SRIs and MAOIs to do so.
> 
> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21368587
> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15206660
> ...


I m pretty skeptical about the supposed absence of tolerance given how quickly the effect decreases in my case. I read a lot of people describing similar patterns. It s really not like ssris and maois.

From 600mg I also become a little slower and my short term is pretty messed up but since sad also makes me dumb It does not make a big difference...


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## Iwillovercomeanxiety1 (Aug 23, 2010)

's weird because 300 mg per day use to really relax me. I had to take Ativan for a few months and now 375 mg of Lyrica doesn't seem to do much for me. I wonder if the Ativan screwed up my tolerance to Lyrica. Would dropping my dose of Lyrica for a while get tolerance to reset? Perhaps dropping down to like 225 mg for a while? How long would I have to be on a lower dose to reset tolerance?

Lyrica seemed to not have tolerance issues until I had to take the Ativan for a couple months
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## SplendidBob (May 28, 2014)

Well I found a mere 100mg when combined with a stimulant to work well for SA. 100mg put me on the edge of the weird drunken feeling, but reduced the physical sensations of anxiety, and a stimulant just notched up my motivation to socialise. I could well have been placeboing my way to victory however.


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## SFC01 (Feb 10, 2016)

splendidbob said:


> Well I found a mere 100mg when combined with a stimulant to work well for SA. 100mg put me on the edge of the weird drunken feeling, but reduced the physical sensations of anxiety, and a stimulant just notched up my motivation to socialise. I could well have been placeboing my way to victory however.


100mg ? You lightweight bob 

Lyrica is also useful for the come down from the more stronger of stimulants as well.


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## SplendidBob (May 28, 2014)

SFC01 said:


> 100mg ? You lightweight bob
> 
> Lyrica is also useful for the come down from the more stronger of stimulants as well.


Yeh, I got prescribed it for neck pain, so its low dose, but I find that there is a very fine line re anxiety cos if I get that spaced out feeling I start focusing too much on how I am behaving which makes me more anxious .


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## SFC01 (Feb 10, 2016)

splendidbob said:


> Yeh, I got prescribed it for neck pain, so its low dose, but I find that there is a very fine line re anxiety cos if I get that spaced out feeling I start focusing too much on how I am behaving which makes me more anxious .


How does it work for neck pain?

I ****ed my elbow up a while back after sleepwalking down some stairs and higher dose of lyrica worked well for the pain but I`m talking 900mg or so. Have you ever tried amitriptyline for it ? Thats what I take now and its really good for pain.


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## SplendidBob (May 28, 2014)

SFC01 said:


> How does it work for neck pain?


Its nerve related, so it should help. Doesn't really though. It's a useful med for anxiety though but I have to get my dosing right to avoid the disorientation and too much brain slowing[/quote]


SFC01 said:


> I ****ed my elbow up a while back after sleepwalking down some stairs and higher dose of lyrica worked well for the pain but I`m talking 900mg or so. Have you ever tried amitriptyline for it ? Thats what I take now and its really good for pain.


Well plan is to try a low dose of nortriptyline for the neck and ideally to give me a little mood boost, assuming its going to be ok to do with with my weirdy heart problem (right bundle branch block, which was probably caused by clomipramine a few years back).

I am hopeful I can resolve the neck problem anyway, but I do need something to boost my mood a little without wtf weight gain / limp dick / apathy (hence nortriptyline rather than amitriptyline). Am cool with pregabalin too, it seems to take the edge off re the anxiety.


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## SFC01 (Feb 10, 2016)

splendidbob said:


> Its nerve related, so it should help. Doesn't really though. It's a useful med for anxiety though but I have to get my dosing right to avoid the disorientation and too much brain slowing


Well plan is to try a low dose of nortriptyline for the neck and ideally to give me a little mood boost, assuming its going to be ok to do with with my weirdy heart problem (right bundle branch block, which was probably caused by clomipramine a few years back).

I am hopeful I can resolve the neck problem anyway, but I do need something to boost my mood a little without wtf weight gain / limp dick / apathy (hence nortriptyline rather than amitriptyline). Am cool with pregabalin too, it seems to take the edge off re the anxiety.[/QUOTE]

have you tried amitriptyline before ? I get no sides from it at all and even with nardil it helps boost my mood a little more. It seems good for apathy too and is more potent for pain. Anyway, just saying.


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