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Gabapentinoids (Gabapentin) withdrawal, any advice?

Lino120

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
96
I really did not expect any withdrawals from this initially because it is supposed to be such a safe god damn medication with no withdrawals. I find that to be quite the contrary, I feel like shit. I've been through cold turkey methadone withdrawals with a benzo taper at the same time; those are obviously far different. But I do not really know what to expect from these current withdrawal. It's easy to see what withdrawals are from benzos and opiates. Anyone know anything that might help me? Or how long it really takes to withdrawal from gabapentin completly? Any advice, experience, anything really, would be much appreciated.

EDIT: Oh yea, I've been on gabapentin for over a year and a half. I'm on 800 MGs four times a day; 3200 MGs a day. For anxiety or as a mood stabilizer, whatever the fuck you want to call it.
 
given the halflife, if there's anything, it should come on quick and end shortly. No withdrawal syndrome has been noted in animals.
 
it started making me have muscle spasms and stutter/ have trouble speaking after being on it a couple years, so i stopped it cold turkey and those problems went away.
kind of like the opposite of benzos or booze.
 
Withdrawals will last no longer than 72 hours IME...If it's an option, you should go to your doctor and ask him to give you some so you can taper of...

Be prepared for anxiety, insomnia, depression, and suicidal thoughts...but please be smart and just tell yourself that it's withdrawal and you'll be fine in a couple of days...

Just tough it out...nothing will help unless you want to prolong the withdrawals...

May I ask why you want to stop taking this medication?
 
Ive gotten withdraals from gabapentin before. It's weird to say the least but not that bad granted im on clonazepam which maybe stopped the worst of it.

I had tremors, a weird feeling of being wired up and just a odd sense that things where off. This only lasted a few days and a slight increase in clonazepam stopped it.
 
Withdrawals will last no longer than 72 hours IME...If it's an option, you should go to your doctor and ask him to give you some so you can taper of...

Be prepared for anxiety, insomnia, depression, and suicidal thoughts...but please be smart and just tell yourself that it's withdrawal and you'll be fine in a couple of days...

Just tough it out...nothing will help unless you want to prolong the withdrawals...

May I ask why you want to stop taking this medication?


I'm sick of being on it. Or anything. I only want to take medication so I can sleep, as insomnia is a real bitch for me as it is. I recently overdosed and at the time I was seeing a doctor for suboxone. He found out about it, and said he wouldn't prescribe me suboxone anymore unless I went to inpatient treatment. I said that was fine, and I asked him if he could prescribe me my normal medication, as in, gabapentin and ambien. At first he was ok with it, then he changed his mind. He wanted me to go to, of course, HIS inpatient program. I basically told him to go fuck himself and that he was using the fact that I was an addict to discredit things I said, whenever it was convenient. I decided after this to just say, fuck it. To all of it. I just want to stop taking gabapentin. I could quite easily go to a new psychiatrist, or doctor, and get these meds prescribed. But I'd rather just stop.

I've been on methadone maintennance in the past, and cold turkey withdrew from that. I've been on a rapid taper from klonopin as well. I know what shitty withdrawals feel like. I just have no idea what this is, these are the strangest withdrawals I have ever had. I do not know what to expect or how long it will take. I'm in the process of getting a job and I want to be able to function, and right now I feel like that might be difficult but I've got to try. I'm just sick of the whole fucking mental health field. I seriously think most of it is bullshit, the other part is people like me, and I'm sure quite a few of you, just looking to get high. But at the same time wanting to treat some things. It doesn't work out too well.
 
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I know exactly how you feel in terms of the mental health field...I have more of an uter contempt towards the recovery/rehab jargon shit....

EXCEPT, some people need meds...I went over 150 days without any meds and my social anxiety was too unbearable to not be on something..Life is too short.
 
yeah its worse than benzos

ive bee tapering off gabapentin after taking it for a year and a half for klonopin tapering/anxiety at 1200mgs, since it was making me depressed. i tapered down to 600mgs over 2 weeks but ive been experiencing panic attacks, severe depression, phobias, complete insomnia, nausea, severe back pain and spasms, abnormal thinking, and all sorts of benzo/opiate/antidpressant wd symptoms and they occur very randomly and catch me off guard. has anyone been successful in getting off it/ tapering/substituting without having these inhuman side effects? benzos don't help. i cant find any real info or help about this. any info would be greatly appreciated.:!

@paranoid android - how much were you on and how long did you take it for? how long was your taper?
 
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72 hours??? Are you Nuts?

I had been taking Gabapentin (300mg 3x a day) for almost 2 years for facial nerve pain. It wasn't really working to alleviate the face pain all that well so another doctor, an Ear Nose & Throat doc, told me to just stop the gabapentin and go on something called Topamax (or something like that).

Almost immediately I started experiencing the gabapentin withdrawal symptoms: anxiety, fear, trembling, dizziness, insomnia, panic attacks, depression, ringing in my ears etc. I thought my symptoms were from 4 days of the topamax but after having taken myself off of the topamax I now realize what I am experiencing is from gabapentin withdrawal.

It was pretty severe for about 10 days, tapered off for a few days and is now back. It's not as intense as it was at first but I'm concerned about it. How long is this going to take? I don't feel like myself and I wake up at night with anxiety and fear that this is never going to go away.

Can anyone help? I refuse to take any more drugs and am regretting the day I allowed my doctor to put me on this crap!
 
Another Sensitive Gaba patient

I have only been on 300mg of gabapentin HS (hour of sleep) for about 6 mos. I was prescribed this for back pain. It has been fairly effective for treating the pain of 2 ruptured disks but I wanted my sexual abilities back and DC'd this and Celexa at the same time. Got functioning back, along with increased back pain, but the dissociative feelings, dizziness, and RESTLESSNESS in my muscles started about 48 hrs later. I tried to titrate down by taking 100mg gabapentin HS but would wake the next morning with leg muscles twitching and full withdrawal anxiety and inability to focus. I took another 100 mg AM which alleviated the withdrawal symptoms about 2 hrs later and lasted most of the day. I tried putting some of the powder out of the caplet under my tongue for faster relief which did help in about 5 minutes but it was 2 hours for full resolution. This went on for about 10 days with no improvement. Like other posters here I thought it would never end! I then started feeling a reduction in the overall withdrawal syndrome and DC'd the AM dose on day 12 and stopped altogether the next day. I am grateful I was only on 300mg/day but my withdrawal apparently was as intense as others on much more.
 
i took 600 mg 3x a day for 5 months. I had extremely bad withdrawals that probably took a good month or two for me to feel somewhat normal again. Although I still felt a bit off after that but a year later i seem to be back to normal.
 
Gabapentin

I was taking 900mg a day for 45 days for pain management and 300mg on day 46. I stopped cold turkey on the 47th day. What I would like to know is if anyone else has had hypersensitive soft tissue pain after taking this medication?
 
My wife uses absurd amounts of gabapentin (5 different scripts) and still manages to run out. She seems moody and withdrawn when she doesn't have them, but nothing like opiate or benzo withdrawls.
 
I'm just sick of the whole fucking mental health field
same. my doc cut me off cuz he thinks i get high on kpin.. i use it for social anxiety. not much trust. he did it when i ran out early

he won't prescribe anything till next appt so i've had to tough out the benzo wd. idk if he'll even script lyrica. i'm hoping its schedule 5 status helps me out. he's probly gonna reccomend an ssri (no thx to those side effects and stimulation... many say they just make their anxiety worse)
 
lyrica is helping me qwe, hopefully you can get some. Of course it has withdrawals on it's own but my doc specializes in addction and has withdrawn people from both benzos and lyrica countless times and says getting people off lyrica is much easier. But yea I actually slept last night :eek: Ive realized i cant function without anything. Cant even sleep. Maybe I need lyrica
 
Question...

I know exactly how you feel in terms of the mental health field...I have more of an uter contempt towards the recovery/rehab jargon shit....

EXCEPT, some people need meds...I went over 150 days without any meds and my social anxiety was too unbearable to not be on something..Life is too short.

what are the symptoms of your SA? what meds are you on for your SA? How effective are they?
 
Neurontin addict

Yeah I've been terribly hooked on gabapentin for over 3 years now. When I try to quit I feel like I am on a dirty acid trip and I don't shower for 3 days I lie in bed in a fetal position. Plus it feels like someone is kicking me in the nuts over and over.

THE ONLY thing that makes it temporarily better is alcohol. Plus on a hot day I have goosebumps in the sun, on the way to the gas station for beer to temporarily stop the Gaba detox. Really dirty stuff. Real nasty.

Now my neuroscience doctor says I need to be on it for my MS and that it is the only thing that will help....blah blah...blah. So fuck it. I don't even try to quit Gabapentin anymore. I just go out and score more. It is a cheap and almost completely useless drug to be hooked on.

When I do try to take more than 4 800's at once for the happy effect, I get the almighty diarrhea. Drug companies are such sons of bitches all because they can't put a patent on a plant and make money off of THC in the states. They make us jump through unhealthy loopholes just to buy themselves an extra villa and a couple more masseratis and porsches for the kids. Makes me sick.

Hope you quit dude and get to feeling better.
 
there aren't gabapentin withdrawls are you serious....

i took it for like two years and abruptly stopped and didnt notice a damn thing.
 
†∆†;8953082 said:
there aren't gabapentin withdrawls are you serious....

i took it for like two years and abruptly stopped and didnt notice a damn thing.

You're right, if you didn't experience gabapentin withdrawals, no one else in the world ever will.

I guess the five days of not sleeping for one single second, horrid panic attacks, severe restlessness and depression that I felt when I quit gaba was all placebo.
 
I found gabapentin withdrawal very unpleasant. The insomnia was so severe that I found going cold-turkey impossible. Anxiety and physical discomfort were present for about a week. Weird, intense hot-flashes were noticed on days 2-4.
 
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