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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Why do I get psychotic when trying to jump off of gabapentin

I hated when my old psychiatrist started me on gabapentin and seroquel, telling me that their not addictive etc, my new psychiatrist has me on klonopin and adderall which helps me tremendously even though i don't abuse them, however i'm still on the shitty seroquel and gabapentin too. But before i ramble away, i read about gabapentin withdrawals i was on 400mg 3x a day (1200mg) i reduced that to 600 in two days and never had any withdrawals. Now i just take them every other day with my anxiety medicine, and i rarely take the seroquel either, no withdrawal from either one I consider myself lucky, i'm getting homoepathic medicine mixed with high alcohol and valerian root, and a bunch of other herbs that gets you real tired and intoxicated by simple as 10 little drops for incase i do have trouble sleeping from cutting both these meds out my next appointment.
 
I was on 600mg seroquel and the taper was easy as fuck. From 600mg/day to 300/day for a week then to 0. I just started 0mg and honestly I didn't have any discomfort.. Idk what gabapentin is like tho.
 
I honestly cannot understand why any psychiatrist would prescribe any benzo for long term use. Are they trying to hurt people? I too have started and stopped gabapentin without any incident. I was prescribed gabapentin for pain after a cervical spine surger and for sleep at one point. It didn't work for me. Never knew it was a big deal, but that was before learned about benzos and gaba first hand.
 
This may be stating the obvious, but I just read the packet insert for gabapentin and it clearly states that abrupt withdraw is not recommended and can result in a similar withdraw syndrome as benzodiazepines or alcohol.
 
It didn't for me luckily i just abruptly dropped my dose from 1200mg to 600mg because the spaciness was getting to be a bit too much for me, unlike with benzos with gabapentin that spacy feeling sometimes never goes away or do you get used to it, atleast with me. And i laugh because my old psychiatrist is extremely against prescribing benzos despite of my constant complaint of panic attacks and feeling nervous but yet thought gabapentin was real effective and not "addicting". I'm glad i got lucky and didn't have any withdrawal symptoms as i only take it sometimes now.
 
Intenselife - Glad to hear that your Dr. doesn't want to prescribe benzos. They are not worth it. They are great when you are on them, but try to quit after an addiction and you'll learn the true meaning of hell...the more I read about gabapentin, it is starting to seem like it isn't worth the trouble either. For me, no matter what happens, I will never take any drug that acts on the gaba system unless it is an emergency. Unfortunately the drugs used for anesthesia these days all do. Hard to find a Dr. that uses good old Sodium Pentothal anymore. I recently had a procedure where they used Propofol and while technically it's not a benzo..it took me a week or so to come out of the fog. Best sleep I ever had though, Wow.
 
I have experienced so much trauma from my drug addiction, from prisons, to jails, to rehabs, to overdoses, sometimes I wonder if I really did overdose and die that night where I IVed too much coke...and I constantly wonder if my afterlife is just continuing on from waking up from an overdose that killed me indeed. but iknow its my messed up perception...I get more irrational when withdrawling from psychiatric drugs..
 
^Good stuff, man. It can only get better. Hang in there.
 
remember, u cant do this alone, u have our support through any means of staying clean and changing your life here at BL, for me atleast, it's an outlet for recovery, the dark side, I feel more of a connection as were all addicts and think the same, act the same, classicaly were all a mess in our own way ;-/
 
NOT prescribing benzos was probably the worst thing my old psychiatrist did, and it wasn't only benzos that she is against, she is against prescribing adhd medications, and opiates, anything that is deemed abusable. That is not following her rules as a psychiatrist which is to treat the patients issue and in some cases she should have to prescribe something that is "abusable". I gained nothing from her bullshit gabapentin and seroquel that she prescribed, but my life vastly improved when i got a new psychiatrist and even he doesn't just prescribe anything.

Also a low dose of benzos when someone really needs it, is not all too bad. It's when you abuse them, or keep upping the dose over and over where it gets nasty.
 
Let's try and keep things on topic. If you have a problem with a poster, take it to PM or better yet use the ignore function.
 
One issue with Gabapentin is the tendency for some patients to take several times the prescribed dose in order to feel the (gaba?) intoxication effects.
Some doctors will also prescribe pretty high doses as well(although usually not in the ballpark of recreational use).

I don't remember exact dosages, but for example IIRC I was prescribed a low dose of 300mg 1x per day(i've seen people be prescribed 1800mg/day - usually prescribed to be split into 3 dosages). A recreational dose to cross the threshold, IIRC may be something like 2400mg? (8 pills in one dosage). Tolerance also seems to rise relatively fast so someone taking more than prescribed to feel intoxication could end up taking 10-15x300mg pills at once.

It seems logical that taking these high doses of gabapentin could lead to some uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms.
 
Abuse isn't the problem anymore. When I could it wouldn't make me feel like I was on a boat in a storm.....Also I got tired of splitting already divided pills just to make it to the doc to get a refill. If I abuse now it makes me very depressed not like the euphoria I used to get. I just know there is a better life out there. I know what I need to say to my doc about what the deal is and I wished I absorbed the warnings about withdrawals before I took these med's. But when I was going the Pure O pure hell I was willing to try anything that would stop the obsessive thought's. I mean like is so dull now. Black and white. I used to work 50 hour's a week and now the desire for a job is not there. Oh well I'll talk to my doc about what we need to do.
 
This is a new beginning. Managing anxiety is hard, but GABAergics are not the solution.

See this as a liberation. Like every liberation, there are multitudes of new possibilities and situations to get acclimatised to, but you will ultimately come to terms with them, and then partake of it all, unfettered.
 
Since 2013 I?ve been wishing this drug was out of my system. Now I?m pulling it out!
 
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