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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Brain Damage from OD???

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elstongunn39

Bluelighter
Joined
May 30, 2014
Messages
174
So last night I took some tramadol (last dose around 10 pm) and couldn't sleep for awhile, even after I took 600 mg gabapentin (prescribed) and so after checking my breathing at 3:30 AM (about 20 breaths/minute) decided to take half a xanax bar to knock myself out. I woke up feeling soo sedated and loopy and i still feel dumb and slow. I can't find the words that are normally really really quick to come. I'm wondering how likely it is that I did brain damage that would be significant/permanent. are there any signs I could look for? or is it just the gabapentin in my system???

I know this was stupid. i don't normally ever combine opioids and benzos. I was just so desperate to fucking sleep
 
ANYONE? should i move this to other drugs?

Mainly worried about respiratory depression

/hypoxia
 
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Brain damage is kind of a relative term. Its certainly within the realm of possibility to change your brain for the worse from one drug experience even if no brain damage is found through diagnostic tests. I imagine you'll recover and will be fine. Being dumb, slow and loopy is an expected effect from what you took.
 
I think hypoxic brain damage is very unlikely. How much tramadol did your take? It's a very weak mu opioid agonist.

My feeling is that you just took too much of all three and you might still be feeling the effects. Are there any reason that you believe you ODed besides just waking up and feeling loopy? In the future you definitely shouldn't be combining tramadol, gabapentin, and xanax without careful doctor supervision.
 
i took 300 mg total that day with a slight tolerance as i had been on a three day binge sort of. but i took my last dose of 100 mg at 9:30 or so and took the xanax at 3:30 am.
 
you didn't od or do brain damage. you're hungover from taking too many depressants. don't do that. it becomes habit and your doses slip higher. eventually you could od and cause brain damage. or die.
 
Trouble ginding words is a form of aphasia and a sign of cognitive impairment. It is true that many people whos brains develop hypoxia get aphasia. It is also a common dose dependent effect of benzodiazepines esp when combined with gabapentin and opiates as well as anticholinergics. A clear example of aphasia that is not due to brain damage is if you type anesthesia on youtube youll find endless videos of people with acute trouble finding words speaking and forming complex rational thought
 
elstongunn39 said:
Mainly worried about respiratory depression
Click to expand...

Brain damages or the consequences of lacking oxygen to your brain can lead to severe ODs when people go through a coma and the lungs fall or tend to glue to your back as your body tries to breaze. Lack of speaking/understanding, or not being able to hear or talk are the more obvious signs.

It's not happening with you as we speak but be alerted and do avoid taking more than what you can handle as this may jeopardize your future by impairing your brain and by turning someone to a vegetal state in the worst cases. IMHO/E, I'd rather die than live my life without full capacity to understanding what's going on around me and as a consequence becoming dependent from others even to go to the bathroom or shower.
 
Don't worry OP, it's not stupid at all. I used to have a lot of anxiety surrounding my drug use when I was a teenager and wasn't very well informed. For instance, there was a period of time when I was taking ~40mg Amphetamine every day for a month. Being that I usually would take 20mg-30mg for a buzz, I assumed that I was doing something extreme. I really had no idea that what I was doing was essentially harmless, but there would be times when I would have like, a heart palpitation, which is normal, but I would assume that it was actually because I had done serious damage to my cardiovascular system.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that anxiety is a very real and powerful thing. It can convice us of almost anything. I think this is part of what lead me to get into the research of drug and pharmacology; the anxiety of not knowing.

Anyway, Gabapentin (Neurontin) has a very wide-range of effects and they tend to vary significantly from person to person. I often hear folks complaining of severe vertigo when they take Gabapentin. I've never experienced this. Given that there is an interference with your ability to walk properly, it doesn't seem like much of a reach to assume that the drug can make it difficult to properly form words and make sentences.

Also, just the fact that you're combining multiple drugs in this fashion is reason to expect some strange or new side effects. What I mean is that when you combine different drugs, you can often end up with effects that would be independent of if the drugs were taken by themselves. I really wouldn't waste your time worrying about it. I can almost guarantee that this episode did not cause brain damage or any damage to your body.
 
thanks Keif' . I do have a ton of anxiety and hypochondria. I mean I have an actual OCD diagnosis, which hopefully the gabapentin can treat, along with its use for "post-lyme syndrome" and insomnia.
so i tend to worry a lot whenever I take a little too much. brain damage is my worst fear, worse than death, because I don't want to be alive but in a really limited capacity
 
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