hi everyone, im new here and im new to ad's too....so i hope to gain a lot from everyones knowledge and experience....anyways so i dont know if it even matters but heres some background on me....im 24...i was with my boyfriend who i thought i was going to marry, for 5 years up untill he just got up and left me and our four month old daughter last july....he got up and left out of no where for no reason, i still have not been able to get an answer out of him or closure but im pretty accepting and used to things now, but anyways that drove me into a relapse with substance abuse....i used it for 6 years then stopped a year before and of course during my pregnancy with my daughter....but anyways i have been clean now for about a month and a half, and i am suprised to be familier to what people are calling "brain zapps" and "brain shivvers".....i am so happy to find a community of people that understands!! i know that those of you who were using those terms were using them to describe the withdrawls from the perscriptions that you all were trying to get off of, but those symptoms are the same exact ones i would experience when i tried to stop self medicating! even when i went to rehab i could never find anyone who experienced the physical withdrawls like i had.....it felt like the life had been sucked out of me when i would stop using....i couldnt even get out of bed.....anyways, so thanks to a lot of help from my friend and also from my faith in god i was able to stop using before i went to my first ever appointment with a psychiatrist .....i at that point had been clean five days....and he put me on lexapro....i noticed a slight improvement but then i started to see these ad's on TV for Pristiq and thought I would suggest to my doctor that I take those instead, since im sure my neurotransmitters in my brain are pretty fried from the meth abuse, and im sure my brain chemicals are also pretty depleted....so i figured that what pristiq had to offer would be more helpful to me....anyways, i was on lexapro for 2 weeks and now i am on pristiq 50mg and have been since last thursday....i have noticed that i wake up in the morning and my jaw feels worn out, like i was clenching my jaw or grinding my teeth all night long.....i dont notice it when im awake but when i wake up its noticeable.....also, i do seem to have a harder time falling asleep at night, even when im really sleepy.....and i also kinda notice that i wake up a lot during the night......anywyas, i was just sharing and thought i would ask if anyone thinks a higher dosage worked better for them? i was told by a nurse that pristiq goes all the way up to 400mg, and i think i may handle a 100mg dose better, but i guess its sorta too early to even tell yet.....


elaina