How long did you stay with Pristiq? It might be possible that the headache side effect could dissipate with some time.

I would say to definitely take cymbalta in the morning, it has a norepinephrine kick that would severely disturb your sleep ... unless you just actually get sedated on it.

I took Cymbalta for a week and quit due to extremely worrisome twitches most involving my legs jerking (at one point I involuntarily make a click with my tongue ... damn, I panicked.). Effexor did this to me too, so I quit it after my first try on Effexor but agreed to try it again almost a year later ... twitching was minimal and faded away, but it never stopped at increasing my heart palpitations. Obviously SNRI's are probably a bad match to my anxiety and not just short term.

What is it about SSRI's that you can't take them?