2 weeks on pred and mood swings are awful.

[pastamaid]

Been on15mg of pred for 2 weeks today and although feeling better in body, it's screwing with my head. I'm either very high or sinking low. Does this settle after a while or should I drop the dose to make it better

[piglette]

Things improve as you drop the dose.

[SheffieldJane]

I don’t know if I just got used to it, or it wore off as my system adjusted. I know I went through a phase of deliberately (in my head) separating depression and anxiety from the medication and the disease from unpleasant moods because something was wrong in my life. I have also noticed that if I increase my dose for illness or a flare, I become aware of mood dips. The highs, not so much. I hope it sinks into the background for you, it is a big adjustment and you have a significant, systemic disease, cherish yourself, you are ill. Plenty of rest, an afternoon nap would help me, or even a little walk round the leafy lanes.

[Grammy80]

It sure does mess with us~! The forum is a wonderful sounding board and support....because it will even out. Sometimes it seems bleak but there is light down the road. It takes a while for our systems to absorb and adjust, but the do. We are always here for the times it seems like it won't. 💞

[Paulagcl]

For me it settled, though luckily I didn't hit the extremes. It helps to keep reminding yourself it's the medication -- so some deep breaths and, as they say in mindfulness circles, remember not to take the moods as literal truth about yourself. Chances are it'll even out.

[S4ndy]

I had this on the higher doses.Your body does adapt and your mind follows suite I found. As soon as you start lowering the dose the mood swings eased off. I had to double my antidepressants at the start but was able to go back to my usual dose after about 2 months. This too will pass xxx

[123-go]

Hello, pastamaid. Please know that you aren’t alone in experiencing these effects . Read this from ‘Related Posts’:

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

[random901]

Mood swings improve as you reduce pred. At 17.5 I am still prone to the weeps. As others have said, just remind yourself that this is not the real you, then you can somehow regard it objectively😠🥺😊

[diana1998]

Every time I did a drop, I was very bad tempered and snappy with poor OH for 5 days. After that I was my normal cheerful self. When I started on 30mg, I was totally wired and kept dropping things in the kitchen but this phase passed. Bear with it, things do get better.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to diana1998]

Snappy? Me too, always thought my steroid withdrawal were much like PMT - thought those days were long gone…. 😳

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Unfortunately it is a very common side effect of Pred, but it should diminish as 1. your body gets accustomed to the drug, and 2. as you reduce to dose.

And if you drop the dose prematurely, all that’s likely to happen is that your PMR will flare… then you’ll have to contend with as well.

As you can see, plenty of related posts.

[pastamaid in reply to DorsetLady]

Thank you everyone, it's nice to know it's normal. The only other thing that's strange is getting u to go to wee in the night. I feel like I've drunk gallons, but I guess this will sort itself too .

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to pastamaid]

Not sure I had that problem…. But many do.

[Tescohednesford in reply to pastamaid]

That's me....feel like I've worn a trough from my side of the bed to to loo.....Then when you get back in bed you think..... Do I need another wee????

That really helps with the insomnia.. 😂

[DogAgilityObsessed]

Stay on this forum. As you have read, people here understand. And they also know you are ill.

I was chatting to a very good friend yesterday. As well as telling me how he and his wife were (I did ask), he asked how my mother was doing (she has dementia, lives at home and I am her career) and my husband (he had sepsis last year following kidney stones, an anaphylactic shock from a hornet sting and a torn retina).

So apart from all the stress I have GCA but my friend never asked about my health. But of course I take drugs, I’m on a steroid high some of the time, I’m moving better than when I first got PMR. So my friend (and most other friends I think) assume I’m all ok now! Some days I do feel good. But my brain fog is bad and I have to be careful to listen to my husband and he tries to be careful and understanding with me.

[Tescohednesford in reply to DogAgilityObsessed]

I sympathise with ppl not asking how you are....and I think some of it is how you look....Another must be any long term illness they just get used to you being ill off and on....

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to DogAgilityObsessed]

I think it is so unthinking of people when they don't ask after the carer's state of health and mind. If you are upright and functioning they just don't think about the effort required in any respect. Caring for someone with dementia is very hard.

[Tescohednesford in reply to PMRpro]

It is awful... there's never any respite.And when it's someone you love to see them disappearing before your eyes is heartbreaking....

Looked after my Dad with my wonderful sister and we managed as long as we could..... So I genuinely know how you feel....

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Tescohednesford]

My husband didn't have dementia as such but he had a period where he wasn't eating and deteriorated quite badly - this brilliant research scientist couldn't even operate his computer. I asked and asked for something to be done and was looked at as if I was nuts. Eventually the palliative care nurse managed to swing a week or two in the main unit in the regional capital - where the first thing he was given was 4mg dexamethasone, He promptly started eating 3 (albeit small) meals a day! And turned into a human again - even HE said that to them. It only last a couple of months but at least I had that quite pleasant farewell. Would it have been any better if they'd done it earlier? It wouldn't have changed the end result but the journey there might have been less agonising.

[Tescohednesford in reply to PMRpro]

Horrid.....but I'm so glad he had a pleasant goodbye....

[rumandcoke]

Thankfully for me i'm not getting these symptoms with mood, which I was concerned about - I am peeved that I got struck down like this, which I suppose has led to a downturn, however I've been taking that more as a rain check on the overall life plan.

I'm 52 on the younger side of the average for this, so some of that comes with jokes that I don't want to be an older "ill" person of which I know we often have not control over - jokes come in about pulling the pension and doing bucket list ect.. alongside these times sign a light on who's who in support/friend networks.

I think the fact that this is apparently a condition that's far more treatable than say like Fibromyalgia which is the if its not this (PMR) and that people live with the struggles with pain management so much longer term

Hoping that "it will pass" advice which I think is most helpful in the midst of the actual mood stuck down moments and it sure seems its deffo a passing thing between the meds and the condition itself - hoping its already passed as a write this - and in the simples getting up and going for a walk, finding a film/podcast/music not be to underestimated as an intervention in not letting the shitty mood sit in and take over.

Wish you Good luck!

[pastamaid in reply to rumandcoke]

Thank you. I am trying to work through it and your comment about seeing it as a part of life and not it all really helped. xx

[PMRpro Ambassador]

It is common with pred - but it can happen with PMR alone. I had PMR for 5 years before I was given pred and experienced a lot of the things pred gets blamed for when it couldn;t possibly have been pred.

It usually improves the longer you are on pred and you body gets used to it and as the dose falls. Hold on.

[krillemy]

For me it get better, how ever for the "highs" and restlessnes, try to take 1/3 of you dose in the evening just before you sleep (with yougurt fx.). It really helped me and others