Coming off Provigil, what experiences?

    • Anonymous
      July 16, 2007 at 11:01 pm

      Hello family,

      I went to see my GP for a general ‘how do you feel’ chat around the 7th June. I told him i wanted to try and go off the Provigil as I didnt want to be on 3 meds, not to mention the cost since our insurance has run out on the medication side. He said fine, but prescribed a few months of 100mg (instead of the 200mg), just in case. I went off the med until we left for Europe on the 22nd June, decided to start taking the lower dose as I seemed to really be crashing, fatigue wise and general stability. Been on the 100mg ever since then, but feel that i have taken a huge step backward and am honestly starting to worry about my emotional state.

      So my question is ….. Has anyone been on Provigil for longer than a year and tried to stop. If so, did you find that things went back to the way they were before you started? Please let me know of any experiences you had.

    • Anonymous
      July 17, 2007 at 11:23 pm

      What is Provigil and was it doing what it was supposed to? Why did your doctor put you on it in the first place? Just wondering. Maybe if it was working, that is more important than the number of drugs you are taking. However, please don’t get me wrong, I totally understand not wanting to be on more drugs than needed. I really understand. But maybe you have to weigh the pros and cons. Let us know. Good luck
      Linda

    • Anonymous
      July 18, 2007 at 7:36 pm

      Alison,
      I have been on Provigil for about six months. I take it once a day during the week and then skip it on week ends. I have noticed any side effect except for being my unusual tired self on the week ends. Yes, I can feel the difference. During the work week I need my mind in high gear. On the week end I can tell that my mind has slipped out of gear.

      There is a generic for provigil.

    • Anonymous
      July 18, 2007 at 11:05 pm

      Linda,

      This is an article, written by someone, I found while doing research when my doctor put me on Provigil. However, it definitely works for me and I am going to call my doc and get him to up the dosage to 200mg again. I alsmost didnt want to take it, however I did find it changed my life along with Cymbalta.
      [quote]
      [FONT=Arial][FONT=Arial]Provigil (modafinil). Provigil is one weird drug. Its primary function is to promote wakefulness in people with narcolepsy, but it is being prescribed off-label for just about everything. It is approaching [/FONT][URL=”http://www.crazymeds.org/neurontin.html”%5D%5BFONT=Arial%5D%5BCOLOR=#0000ff%5DNeurontin%5B/COLOR%5D%5B/FONT%5D%5B/URL%5D%5BFONT=Arial%5D (gabapentin) in the snake oil sweepstakes. At least the people at Pfizer know how Neurontin works and what it does. Provigil is a true mystery. Other than binding to a few dopamine sites in the brain, but not releasing any more dopamine like amphetamines do, the good folks at Cephalon haven’t published (for the 2002 edition of the PDR) just how the hell Provigil does its magic, because they didn’t know! They do know that monkeys like it as much as cocaine. The IAAF still doesn’t know if it’s stimulating enough to affect an athlete’s performance, and who better to know about drugs than a sports federation, right? They plan on banning it next year. The World Anti-Doping Association has just banned it. Even though it doesn’t do jack **** for an athlete’s performance, except maybe in the biathlon. Anyway, Kelli White mentions how it helped her with narcolepsy in [/FONT][URL=”http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/08/30/sports0708EDT0247.DTL”%5D%5BFONT=Arial%5D%5BCOLOR=#0000ff%5Dthis article[/COLOR][/FONT][/URL][FONT=Arial]. I found it to be moderately useful for ADD and to counter the lethargy induced by my [/FONT][URL=”http://www.crazymeds.org/topamax.html”][FONT=Arial][COLOR=#0000ff]Topamax[/COLOR][/FONT][/URL][FONT=Arial]-[/FONT][URL=”http://www.crazymeds.org/neurontin.html”][FONT=Arial][COLOR=#0000ff]Neurontin[/COLOR][/FONT][/URL][FONT=Arial]-[/FONT][URL=”http://www.crazymeds.org/risperdal.html”][FONT=Arial][COLOR=#0000ff]Risperdal[/COLOR][/FONT][/URL][FONT=Arial]-[/FONT][URL=”http://www.crazymeds.org/ativan.html”][FONT=Arial][COLOR=#0000ff]lorazepam[/COLOR][/FONT][/URL][FONT=Arial] cocktail. I’d have enough concentration, focus and wakefulness to have a bit of a life until about 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. Then it was time to just watch Buffy and eat a reheated supper until the meds caught up with me and he fell asleep in front of the TV around 8:00 p.m. Believe me, it was a vast improvement. At least the food got made, the bills got paid and the dishes got washed. I was most grateful for having that much of a life every day thanks to Provigil. Through experimentation I found that 200 mg first thing in the morning worked best. Any more got me wired and vaguely hypomanic, and hypomania is a potential side effect for the bipolar.[/FONT]
      [/FONT][/quote]

    • Anonymous
      July 18, 2007 at 11:09 pm

      Jim,

      The doctor started me on Provigil around May last year, and it really has helped me a great deal. However, I thought maybe I could do without it, or at least see how things were if I was to decrease the dose, or go off it completely. I should learn that if things work for me, I should let them be and be thankful that they help.

      What is the generic for Provigil, is it the Modofinil that they mention?