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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

What if pregabalin is the only thing that takes me out of depression

sonicwhite

sonicwhite

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 8, 2012
Messages
2,433
Ok, on Prozac. On lyrica on Effexor and risperdal. Remeron and klonopin.

The only drug that has a profound effect on my self esteem and depression is lyrica but it has to be taken in large doses which causes me to run out. I've been through the med go round for ten years. I have not found something that works so well.


I get it in my head that I'm abusing it. Therefore not doing as the doc says. Which makes me feel extremely guilty.

So how do I come to terms with this. Do I need to lock myself up for three months until we figure what the heck is going on. What do I have to lose. I have my whole life ahead of me. I'm just extremely worn out of having great days than sucky days. Kratom works for the pain but only for a short while. I have no clue what to do in my life.
 
^The Gabapentinoids, including Pregabalin (Lyrica), Gabapentin (Neurontin) and Phenibut, I all hold in pretty high esteem. To me and to a lot of other people, they're a panacea of sorts, like how some people use Cannabis. For instance, if I take Gabapentin/Pregabalin in the morning it generally will give me lots of energy, motivation and ambition. We're not talking Amphetamine-esque here by any stretch, but some real, powerful and most of all useful stimulation. It relieves tension and relaxes me physically as well. Funny thing as well, is that with all of this stimulation, if I lay down to go to bed and smoke a joint, I'll be out like a light. It's like a win-win in every sense.

Don't even get me started on how great these drugs are for medicating Opioid withdrawal. They are beginning to get more attention, especially in the underground amongst users, but I still feel that they are entirely underutilized for the purpose. The issues of RLS and Akathisia, that to me are some of the worst symptoms of withdrawal are mitigated pretty well by these drugs. I feel Gabapentin shoud be placed firmly alongside drugs like Clonidine for the treatment of withdrawal. In fact, I would literally take Gabapentin/Pregabalin over a similarly potent dose of Benzodiazepines for the same indication.

The drawback? Tolerance. Tolerance, in my opinion, is the major detracting factor from the usefulness of this class. Tolerance is an issue for essentially all drugs in existence, but Gabapentinoids produce tolerance at an exponentially faster rate. If I take a strong dose, say 6g Gabapentin on day 1 and continue taking the same dose, by approximately day 4, I'll be experiencing barely perceptible effects and by day 5, none. It's that quick. This leads to the obvious; escalation of dosage. With a prescription, you can really only go so far, but for those who choose to indulge in Phenibut for instance, the sky is the limit as you can practically by it by the kilo.

If it weren't for the issue of tolerance, these would be up there with Heroin and other Opioids for me. I still get a great deal of benefit from them, but I've found that the only way I can maintain maximum benefit is by not exceeding 2 - 2.5 times per week. I've taken up to 45g of Gabapentin in a single day and only experienced minimal effect if that gives the readers an idea of how tolerance works with this shit. That was only a week or so after starting from a naive state.

My point is, you can incorporate Gabapentinoids into your life and receive their benefit, but you just can't use them all the time or the law of diminishing returns will come into effect. Hopefully they will synthesize a substance in the near future than can capitalize on the benefits of the class but without the issue of tolerance.
 
Yes make a substance like it. Horizont I heard was a extended release version of gabapentin. But gabapentin hardly does anything for me anymore. I get prescribed by one doc 600 mg three times a day of gabapentin. And then from my psych I get 100 mg of lyrica. Unfortunately this month I ran low on klonopin and I had to use 90 lyrica in four days just to keep the withdrawals away.


The Friday before I got my script my truck got stolen. So I was paranoid that someone was after me while going through kpin withdrawal. So I know it has its purpose but I wished they created something that was sedating yet stimulating at the same time like pregabalin. By far it beats phenibut and gabapentin. Baclofen hardly did anything. But I'm all ears.
 
Yea man, I think we're on a similar page as far as our feelings about these drugs go. Pregabalin (Lyrica) is definitely the superior drug; potency, onset, reliability are all improved over Gabapentin (Neurontin). Horizant isn't actually a different drug per se, it's more like a pro drug for the delivery of Gabapentin and according to both the manufacturer and Wikipedia, that's the whole reason why the drug was originally created. Gabapentin's bioavailability can fluctuate by literally 100% from one dose to another (27% - 60%).

The enacarbil form is allegedly twice as potent by weight and provides a sort of extended-release effect, which I imagine could push the efficacy to close to 24 hours, as I find Gabapentin to already be a very long-lasting drug. Phenibut is just the weakest of the 3 and it's not really good enough for me to mess around with. I'm experienced with Baclofen as well and although it's chemically related to the aforementioned 3, it appears to have a completely different effects profile. I found it to be useless.

Sorry to hear that you're Benzo sick man. What's your status and is a detox out of the question for some reason, even a hospital detox?
 
Wulp, I had to wait four days because the pharmacy knew what day I picked it up. So I got my lyrica seven days early so I just down those like crazy..


I felt no anxiety and almost like a meth induced legs. But my paranoia was bad. I've had my klonopin since last week and my paranoia has subsided about. It's still there tho.
 
I agree with everything Keif' has stated. I have had a limited experience with pregabalin, but enough to know that it is similar to gabapentin, which is the drug that has had the most profound effect on my mood, energy, personality, and thus my full "identity" somehow. I felt like a completely different person when a friend started giving it to me, and felt like I had wasted years, or all, of my previous life as an anxiety-ridden, depressed antisocial. I wasn't aware that a drug could do such a thing. Marijuana, LSD, MDMA, or psilocybin do not hold up to gabapentin (ime).

Gabapentin, phenibut and amphetamine have served as the best antidepressants with which I have undergone therapy (in that order).

As stated above, tolerance is the main downside to consider with these, especially with phenibut. I have been taking gabapentin for 8 years, and I am finally tapering off of it.

Another major drawback is the withdrawal syndrome from gabapentin, which includes (for me) extreme and debilitating vertigo and vomiting. I had to endure this for about a day recently when I ran out too early, having raised my dosage for a benzo withdrawal. The withdrawal also mimics that of the benzos in some respects: There was one brief moment when I thought I may had already died, before all the nausea started. I am not 100% certain that you can equate pregabalin with gabapentin in terms of withdrawal, but it is possible and in fact very likely.

Aside from these two issues, gabapentin is very therapeutic for years of daily use (ime). And most say that pregabalin is even better and more refined. I am only tapering off of it, very slowly I might add, because its effects are now a shadow of what they once were, offering only anxiety relief, which is better than that of benzos, and a lesser mood lift. The amphetamine-style stimulation/focus/bliss and especially the incredible mind-expanding effects are no longer present.
 
Lyrica is the only thing, besides opiates, that help me. It gives me a true motivation, not like stimulants as someone said above, but I feel good getting things done. That is obviously useful for work, because I'm not high, just in a good mood with motivation and less anxiety. No other antidepressant or anything helps me like that. And opiates on a daily basis are not an option for me.
 
I have been an experienced drug user 16 years. I have tried and done it all. I to myself find Neurontin so very precious of a drug to always keep on hand it has so many useful purposes ranging from anxiety pain also I would have it handy to prevent seizures if I am using drugs that lower the threshold also I like to keep it handy for withdrawal situations like opiates or benzos or even if I am coming down off of amphetamines. Its a drug I always keep in stock , and will always have it
 
Just wanted to share my experience... I took lyrica for awhile for pain and insomnia. It worked amazingly, and I thought I had found my magic pill that alleviates all of my symptoms. It synergized amazingly with opioids to boot. As soon as tolerance set in, which happened rapidly like keif mentioned, all the benefits pretty much disappeared. Increasing my dose did not give me more of the positives... Only the negatives. It made me nearly psychotic, and I felt completely energy sapped all of the time.... Lyrica had an shitty effect on me.

All that said, it is truly a miracle cure for opioid WD. Minor--moderate opioid WD at least. I will take it occasionally if I'm wanting to lower my opioid tolerance. If I have a weekend free, I can take plenty of lyrica and pretty painlessly go through WD sleeping and playing video games. I found it awesome for that purpose.

I wish the panacea effect lasted for me :( tolerance is way to rapid for me to use more than once in a long while.
 
opiatekrzy said:
I have been an experienced drug user 16 years. I have tried and done it all. I to myself find Neurontin so very precious of a drug to always keep on hand it has so many useful purposes ranging from anxiety pain also I would have it handy to prevent seizures if I am using drugs that lower the threshold also I like to keep it handy for withdrawal situations like opiates or benzos or even if I am coming down off of amphetamines. Its a drug I always keep in stock , and will always have it
Click to expand...

If only I could be succint like Krzy. You always express my exact thoughts in a few sentences, while it seems to take me paragraphs :).
 
I took 4200 mg of gabapentin today from 9:15 to 1:25. Staggering 600 mg. It's now 6:00. Does anyone know if it's safe to take one of my oxymorphone 5 mg tabs?
 
Wait on the Oxy. Res Depessiom is real, Once you get a craving for something, anything can happen.. Really with Opanas.
 
Today is fine. How do you take it. Whole or shave off the outer end of the pill to get the good stuff inside?
 
Djsuzymac said:
I took 4200 mg of gabapentin today from 9:15 to 1:25. Staggering 600 mg. It's now 6:00. Does anyone know if it's safe to take one of my oxymorphone 5 mg tabs?
Click to expand...

Please see the other thread that you posted this question in Dj. I answered it for you! Respiratory depression isn't a major factor when combining Gabapentinoids and Opioids, although there appears to be some kind of miniscule corellation.
 
Thx. For answering. I took it anyways about 6:30 last night and I have to say that I didn't feel anything. I've been taking 30mg of oxycodone and 30mg of MS Contin for about 4 years. I guess my tolerance is up to high. Ive never given gabapentin credit in the last 4 years. Im on day 4 of taking about 4200mg. And I have to let everyone know that it makes me completely pain free. Plus a little drunk feeling. I really don't take the hard drugs, but Im constantly looking for new ways to take the pain and misery away. In answer to your question sonic, I took it whole, with something on my stomach, it was shit, but it was only 5mg
 
i get 200 mg bid which i'm trying to get three times a day. Man makes me feel alive.
 
Keif' Richards said:
^The Gabapentinoids, including Pregabalin (Lyrica), Gabapentin (Neurontin) and Phenibut, I all hold in pretty high esteem. To me and to a lot of other people, they're a panacea of sorts, like how some people use Cannabis. For instance, if I take Gabapentin/Pregabalin in the morning it generally will give me lots of energy, motivation and ambition. We're not talking Amphetamine-esque here by any stretch, but some real, powerful and most of all useful stimulation. It relieves tension and relaxes me physically as well. Funny thing as well, is that with all of this stimulation, if I lay down to go to bed and smoke a joint, I'll be out like a light. It's like a win-win in every sense.

Don't even get me started on how great these drugs are for medicating Opioid withdrawal. They are beginning to get more attention, especially in the underground amongst users, but I still feel that they are entirely underutilized for the purpose. The issues of RLS and Akathisia, that to me are some of the worst symptoms of withdrawal are mitigated pretty well by these drugs. I feel Gabapentin shoud be placed firmly alongside drugs like Clonidine for the treatment of withdrawal. In fact, I would literally take Gabapentin/Pregabalin over a similarly potent dose of Benzodiazepines for the same indication.

The drawback? Tolerance. Tolerance, in my opinion, is the major detracting factor from the usefulness of this class. Tolerance is an issue for essentially all drugs in existence, but Gabapentinoids produce tolerance at an exponentially faster rate. If I take a strong dose, say 6g Gabapentin on day 1 and continue taking the same dose, by approximately day 4, I'll be experiencing barely perceptible effects and by day 5, none. It's that quick. This leads to the obvious; escalation of dosage. With a prescription, you can really only go so far, but for those who choose to indulge in Phenibut for instance, the sky is the limit as you can practically by it by the kilo.

If it weren't for the issue of tolerance, these would be up there with Heroin and other Opioids for me. I still get a great deal of benefit from them, but I've found that the only way I can maintain maximum benefit is by not exceeding 2 - 2.5 times per week. I've taken up to 45g of Gabapentin in a single day and only experienced minimal effect if that gives the readers an idea of how tolerance works with this shit. That was only a week or so after starting from a naive state.

My point is, you can incorporate Gabapentinoids into your life and receive their benefit, but you just can't use them all the time or the law of diminishing returns will come into effect. Hopefully they will synthesize a substance in the near future than can capitalize on the benefits of the class but without the issue of tolerance.
Click to expand...
you've never experienced any sort of rebound depression, anxiety or insomnia from 4-6g a day for 4 days on gabapentin?
 
sonicwhite said:
Ok, on Prozac. On lyrica on Effexor and risperdal. Remeron and klonopin.

The only drug that has a profound effect on my self esteem and depression is lyrica but it has to be taken in large doses which causes me to run out. I've been through the med go round for ten years. I have not found something that works so well.


I get it in my head that I'm abusing it. Therefore not doing as the doc says. Which makes me feel extremely guilty.

So how do I come to terms with this. Do I need to lock myself up for three months until we figure what the heck is going on. What do I have to lose. I have my whole life ahead of me. I'm just extremely worn out of having great days than sucky days. Kratom works for the pain but only for a short while. I have no clue what to do in my life.
Click to expand...
Yes, I think you should do exactly that. You need to go for an entire reevaluation of your psych medications.

You are on an SSRI, an SNRI, a second-gen tri-cyclic antipsychotic that is a major dopamine and serotonin antagonist/ inverse agonist, an atypical tetracyclic antipsychotic, a voltage gated calcium channel alpha 2. Delta subunit antagonist/inhibitor that has the action of increasing circulating gaba in the brain as well as potentially reducing peripheral norepinephrine, and a pretty strong moderately long acting benzodiazepine.

Out of all those drugs you say the voltage-gated calcium channel drug is the one that works the best for you. (Which is another way of saying the other medications aren't necessarily needed, if your subjective, assessment of yourself is correct.)

This does not make sense in any sane world, some of your medications actually act contradictory to each other, yes, you need to be reevaluated.
 
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