Gabapentin for benzo w/d

[devildog47]

2 questions ill keep it simple:

1. Will gabapentin take away any benzo withdrawal symtpoms? Such as teary eyes runny nose mental fog etc?

And

2. I was 3 1/2 days into opiate withdrawal, 8mg if not more of suboxone every day the past year but i tapered off and cut an 8mg piece into 5 different pieces and winged it and tapered, i took gabapentin for the withdrawals and it really did help but on the 3rd day i slipped and took about 3mg of suboxone, my question is will that set me back? I took it yesterday at 7AM and so far theres not extreme withdrawals and its been over 30 hours since i took it but im not sure if its gonna slap me out of no where and if the w/d are gonna hit me again?

Thank you

 

[THECATINTHEHAT]

1. Yes (but only because it will basically stop the wd process, so you won't actually be detoxing).

2. Probably not significantly.

 

[devildog47]

Thank you for the response and keeping it simple, and so if i take gabapentin do you mean im not letting my receptors heal so therefore no matter how long im off xanax and take gabapentin for wd ill withdraw still when i stop?

 

[THECATINTHEHAT]

Thank you for the response and keeping it simple, and so if i take gabapentin do you mean im not letting my receptors heal so therefore no matter how long im off xanax and take gabapentin for wd ill withdraw still when i stop?

Essentially yes. It's a bit more complicated than that because they don't affect the receptors in exactly the same way but you will still be stimulating the receptors that need to be resting for the withdrawl process to happen.

Moving to gabapentin and then detoxing from that might make the process easier. I've never used gabapentin personally but if your benzo habit is small enough that the worst you are worried about is runny nose etc then you will probably be able to switch to gabapentin almost without noticing and then taper from there or just jump off completely (not ideal at higher doses) once you feel stable after moving over from benzos. That will probably be easier than going straight down on benzos. Also, gabapentin has very little recreational value so it may help really remove you from any pattern of drug consumption linked to recreation and you will learn hopefully be ess tempted to have a sneaky big dose to get a small high or anything like that than you would with a pocket full of benzos.