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Meds Doc wants to prescribe Gabapentin to get off Klonopin: will I like it too much?

I found gabapentin to be infinitely easier to handle than clonazepam or pregabalin. Pregabalin being way more recreational than gabapentin and being easier to handle than clonazepam.
Gabapentin is nice, maybe more so than clonazepam, but it is not as habit-forming as it is nice.
I would compare it to ketamine in that sense. Comfy and chill, but not something I would lose my sleep over. Though some could. And rebound/WDs do not require as meticulous response.
 
BourbonMac said:
Maybe english isn't your first language, since I didn't suggest they were taking clonazepam. I was just surprised they were given clonazepam instead of diazepam because diazepam has a longer half life and is usually the one people use to get off stronger benzos. Getting a benzo for coming off gabapentin is something I haven't heard of much. Most people just end up tapering the gabapentin, but I guess I could see how a benzo could help be a bridge for coming off. Again the gabapentin dose must have been quite high, bad withdrawals seem to be the most prominent around 2000mg plus. Some people simply don't get any gabapentin withdrawal for some reason (I'm one of those people but I generally only take 600mg a day, sometimes 900), but to those who do often say it's on par with benzo withdrawal if not worse. Lyrica would be a lot worse.
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The first benzo ever created was librium, which has been kind of forgotten. My doc used a combination of valium and librium to taper me off of ativan and it worked. He was most likely an addict himself, so he knew exactly what he was doing. There are lots of doctors who have zero clue about benzo withdrawal.
 
Mycophile said:
So, I've been on Klonopin A LONG time, about 18 years, for social anxiety and generalized anxiety, and I have also been a heavy coffee drinker for just as long which honestly makes my anxiety so much worse and my sleep so much worse to the point that I firmly believe if I can quit coffee I can quit Klonopin and vice versa, but that it's necessary for me to be weaned off both to feel at my best. I am always in a cycle of too much klonopin at night makes it hard to wake up so I drink too much coffee which exacerbates my anxiety so i need more klonopin for that and also to put me to sleep while I have too much caffeine in my system. However, whenever I've managed to get down to low amounts of caffeine I find I can also cut down greatly on Klonopin.

So I take anywhere from 2.5-3mgs of Klonopin a day and was drinking 5 cups of coffee a day, and just asked my psychiatrist for help in a VERY slow tapering process, and we are starting with me moving for 2.5 kpins per day vs a little over 3, and 4 cups of coffee a day vs 5, and I don't care how long it takes, I'm determined to at the very least get entirely off klonopin and down to no more than 1 cup of coffee a day.

So, in discussing this with my doctor the other day, he said that since I often rely on Klonopin to put me to sleep, rather than just anxiety (I have adopted the bad habit of MOSTLY using Klonopin as a sleeping pill) that he thinks Gabapentin would be highly beneficial for me to help me wean off klonopin.

The main problem I see is:

I enjoy many different drugs, and if I were to use gabapentin to wean off klonopin I don't want to like it too much or I'm afraid i'd just get too dependent on that. Many people have actually said Gabapentin is their drug of choice, and I'm NOT looking for another drug to get me high. Klonopin does not get me high.

So, is for those who have used gabapentin, would you say there is a significant danger of my liking the feeling of gabapentin too much and then just using too much of that?

Or are there many people who don't actually feel that gabapentin "gets them high"?

Cause there's no point in replacing one drug that has side effects I don't like (Klonopin) with another that most likely will also have some unpleasant side effects and also be dependence forming.
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I've been prescribed gabapentin and it felt useless to me. It was prescribed to me by the rehab place after they ripped me off of klonopin cold turkey (which should be considered medical malpractice, imo). Btw, I never once abused benzos. I took them as prescribed for my anxiety disorder.

If you're anything like me, there's absolutely no danger of liking gabapentin too much. I never really noticed any kind of effects, good or bad, and I wasn't taking a small dose.

You can get high from gabapentin, but you have to take several doses spaced out over hours. It's an OK buzz but not necessarily worth it. I did it myself a few times, but it was never something that I truly craved. I was basically just extremely bored when I did it.

I took gabapentin daily for a long enough period of time to develop dependence, but I never ended up getting any withdrawal. All in all, it was pretty harmless for me.

Lastly, if you need a reference for tapering klonopin/ benzos, look up Dr Heather Ashton. Before she passed away, she was basically the preeminent authority on the subject of benzo dependence, withdrawal and tapering. It's called the Ashton Manual and it has tapering schedules. Good luck with everything!

 
good point, in addition to quality of gabapentin being different, max. effect is much more limited compared to clonazepam
 
I replaced lyrica with gabapentin; I don't feel much difference, as I was tolerant to lyrica so it didn't get me buzzed anymore.
My doctor has me tapering off clonazepam at .25mg less every six weeks. I'm down to .75 mgs a day, so far so good. Still I abuse it by taking more than prescribed, then have less during the back half of the prescription period. Probably why I am being taken off, that I don't have good control over my dosage. If I don't have bad withdrawals Ill be off in 4 months. If I do get them I can slow down the taper. My doctor is young, wants me off benzos, but at least he is being compassionate/responsible with my tapering off. I went once to him in awful withdrawals from 3mgs a day, no way I wish to be in that boat again
 
another effective option is to ask for librax....its a drug used for upset stomach that has chlordiazepoxide (Librium) and clindinium mixed together. The beauty is its not a controlled substance due to the low amount of chlordiazepoxide in it but you can still feel it and its godsend weening off benzos.
 
I think gabapentinoids are not dangerous for you @Mycophile though, it can be, specially if you add opies. This is my point of view.
I tried gaba and prega and neither got me high. Little buzz if you want but nothing special. By the other hand they enhance opies and other drugs with good sinergy.
I have my stash of pregabalin and I can handle it, one thing that I cant do with benzos.
And coffes can change it for teas like Painful Ones said. But be careful with tea, Green and Black, they have theine so its similar to Coffee. But they are lots of combinations of plants.
Another thing you can try if you cant sleep is melatonin. Talk about with your doc.
Stay safe.

Sending love to all drug users
❤️❤️💜💜💯💯💯💊
 
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the withdrawal from gabapentin is either horrible and/or i have horribly damaged my nerves.
 
Hot cocoa, as is sleepy time original tea 🫖 are my go to’s in the afternoon…helps a lot
 
JustferFun said:
librium
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yes i remember that one back inda day. didnt help matters much in my situation so i thing we moved to aprazolam and some other shit (barbs) decades ago and glad to be out of that at 90% anyway. better than no gound, imo. lol
just a coupla words
 
bro, gabepentin is nothing but a potentiator. Get Lyrica - a better stronger Gabapentin. Why kick the kpins, ive been on em 18 years (large dose) along with alcoholism and others. I kicked the rest but Im staying on klonopin for life. There is a line you cross...No turning back.
Soma is also a good replacemnt claiming chronic back paion with muscle spasms
 
Hex13 said:
bro, gabepentin is nothing but a potentiator. Get Lyrica - a better stronger Gabapentin. Why kick the kpins, ive been on em 18 years (large dose) along with alcoholism and others. I kicked the rest but Im staying on klonopin for life. There is a line you cross...No turning back.
Soma is also a good replacemnt claiming chronic back paion with muscle spasms
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You have some good advice this morning ( noticed you are all over the place commenting ) but some of your suggestions aren't that easy to do.

Lyrica and especially Soma are very hard to get nowadays ( they may not be where you live ) and telling people to " get booze " on several threads might be what you would do but maybe it's not such a good idea for others.

Don't want to discourage you from posting but we like to keep Basic/Other drugs for harm reduction as much as we can. Booze, lyrica and soma are fine if one has them already and on another thread you told bourbon mac that his benzo WD was all in his head. While you may use these remedies for yourself, for some of these people that will do more harm than good.

And the dark side sub forum is never a good place to suggest these things. Thanks for considering that.
 
You gotta find the rigt doctor and in the beginning if you dont have proof of being on them you'll likely have to try other meds first and strart at low doses. Doctor changes will be necessay until you find one that is on the same page.
 
Hex13 said:
bro, gabepentin is nothing but a potentiator. Get Lyrica - a better stronger Gabapentin. Why kick the kpins, ive been on em 18 years (large dose) along with alcoholism and others. I kicked the rest but Im staying on klonopin for life. There is a line you cross...No turning back.
Soma is also a good replacemnt claiming chronic back paion with muscle spasms
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Gabapentin is more than just a potentiator. I trust my psychiatrist over you who says it would help and has helped him wean patients. Or do you think you know more about this than a psychiatrist who's been to medical school?

However, we are only trying it if we need to as a last resort, and so far things are going well with me already somewhat reducing my dose without it.

Why get off the Klonopin?

Because it makes me exhausted and need 12 hours of sleep and capable of accomplishing far less in life and working fewer hours at my job. Obviously I must have a reason to want to get off of it if I'm trying so why try to tell me not to?

You aren't very helpful here, and whatever "line you have crossed" that you think there's "no turning back for", well even if we have been on Kpins the same amount of time, you're there and I'm not. Frankly, that's bullshit. My doctor said he's already weaned people off who have been on it longer than I have, and it's just not true that you get to a point with it where it's impossible to get off. It can get much harder, but it's still possible.

I'm fine with the plan my doctor and I have.
 
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Hex13 said:
You gotta find the rigt doctor and in the beginning if you dont have proof of being on them you'll likely have to try other meds first and strart at low doses. Doctor changes will be necessay until you find one that is on the same page.
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I have the right doctor.

Why are you so convinced I don't?

I talked to him the other day, and we are progressively weaning me off Klonopin, now down to 2mgs a day vs 3.5.

Hex13 said:
Why kick if it works. If it dont , up The dose
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Has it possibly occurred to you that the problem could be side effects from TOO MUCH?

That's the problem.
 
Never experienced too much benzos. so I cant relate. Cheers
 
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