How To Get Off Pristiq

Now I'm not a doctor, in fact, I don't even play one on TV, but I wanted to share a little about me and how I'm handling getting off of Pristiq.

I've been talking Pristiq for months and it doesn't seem to be doing much, but honestly, the withdrawal is so bad I didn't want to attempt getting off of it. As you might know, Pristiq is a metabolite of Effexor and Effexor is also a nightmare to get off of. If I would miss a Pristiq dose by even a few hours I would become suicidally depressed. Really. No joke.

So getting off of it wasn't on my short list. There is no taper strategy for this drug as it only comes in 50 and 100mg tablets and you cannot cut them. But I seem to be successfully getting off of it with minimal impact and withdrawal. Here's how:

1. I started taking half the Pristiq (I was on 2 - 50mg pills) later and later in the day, one hour at a time. This takes a long time, but the withdrawal was so bad I was prepared to take as long as necessary to try to reduce/get off safely.

2. I started taking some Welbutrin which is a similar type of antidepressant (a serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, SNRI).

3. Eventually, I was taking one tablet in the morning, and one at night, so I just stopped taking the one at night. This meant the worst of the withdrawal would happen at night, when I was asleep.

4. Now I'm taking the second pill later and later in the day until I can eventually get off that one too.

Now, no doctor suggested this to me, I simply used my knowledge of psychopharmacology to do it. This means, it is in no way recommended. You should talk to your doctor. But I wanted to share, for anyone who has lived the hell I did trying to get off of this medication before.

Good luck.