tl;dr -&gt; Was taking pristiq for only about 3 1/2 weeks. Quit cold turkey. Today's day 4 of ongoing anxiety attacks, chills, sweats, inability to sit still. Would not wish this on my worst enemy.

(typing this after having typed the message): this is a rant that is all over the place. I apologize for that. Wrestling with the idea of just deleting it. 

Hey all. Just a rant/vent. Feel like it might help to type this all out.

About a month ago my doc (nurse practitioner) weaned me off of Venlafaxine/Effexor and onto Desvenlafaxine/Pristiq. I was supposed to do one 25mg tablet of Pristiq for a two weeks, then up it to two tablets.

In my infinite wisdom, I upped to 2 tablets after 1 week. And then I ran out.

Good news is that I was only taking it for about 3 weeks. And only 50mg at the most. Bad news is that I've gone cold turkey, which is reportedly bad.

About 3 days ago I had a really bad night. Couldn't sleep. Couldn't even stay in bed. Had to keep getting up and pacing the house. Finally fell asleep after a few hours due to being physically exhausted.

Just chalked it up to a random anxiety attack, but was bothered that I didn't know what triggered it.

Same thing happened the next night. It wasn't until the following day (yesterday) that I realized it was likely due to going cold turkey on the Pristiq.

Of course, it's a 3 day weekend, so I can't get a hold of my NP. I did leave a message but not too confident I'll get a call back.

To add to the mix, I had some propranolol. Took some yesterday (before realizing that the current situation was due to the Pristiq withdrawal). I want to say it helped, but I'm uncomfortable with the idea of going back to it. It was prescribed by a previous doc and I just don't want to be on a beta blocker.

So, I'm still pacing around the house. Enough that my legs are actually sore. Would love to lay down, but I just can't. Even sitting here long enough to type this out is a bit of a challenge.

The fact that I wasn't on a high dose of Pristiq coupled with the fact that I wasn't taking it for too long have me hoping that this ends soon. I was hoping it would already have ended, but alas.

I do still have Venlafaxine/Effexor. Thinking about popping one of those , thinking it might help my body out. I have 25mg tablets and 75mg extended release tabs. Considering popping a 25, but trying to hold out on seeing if my NP gets back to me so I can get a professional opinion.

This has all made me take a good hard look at where I'm at. Between having the Propranolol, the effexor, and the pristiq, I hate this. Why can't I just be normal and not have to keep trying different meds to help keep myself in check.

And how much longer will I have to deal with this withdrawal? 

I've read thru posts here about getting thru the anxiety by breathing in slowly and exhaling slowly. A lot of times when I try that I feel like I can't get a good deep breath in, which only just makes the anxiety worse. Not sure I can get thru this without additional meds, but really hesitating on that for fear of making it worse. Altho leaning towards trying a 25mg Effexor. 

Anyway, that's how my long weekend's starting off. Hope it's going better for everybody else. My heart goes out to all of us who have to deal with this on a daily basis.