Benzo withdrawals - Does gabapentin make symptoms worse for any of you?

[Mycotheologist]

I got some gabapentin and I was planning on using it to suppress the minor benzo w/d symptoms I have but it makes them much worse. It improves my mood a lot and relaxes me for 2 hours but after that I get really aggitated. Taking low doses of benzos doesn't even counteract all of this aggitation.

I've been researching quite a bit about managing withdrawals and I have a minor xanax withdrawal that I have to deal with right now so I want to take the opportunity to experiment with potential remedies for it. I tried kambo (aka sapo) and it hasn't worked so far. I'm going to see my doctor on monday and explain the situation and try talk him into prescribing me various things (its easy to persuade them when they see you know your shit). Heres some things I want to try:

1.) Baclofen - Baclofen is a fairly selective GABA_b agonist that exhibits little or no cross tolerance with benzos (which are selective GABA_a drugs). I suspect this will greatly remedy the symptoms but I haven't tried it before so I don't know for sure. I find phenibut extremely unpredictable, it worked for me in the past but last time I tried it, it stimulated me like mad for some reason. I don't know how similar baclofen is to phenibut.

2.) Trazadone - Its tricyclic antidepressant with anxiolytic and hypnotic properties. I want to try and use it for sleeping.

3.) Clonidine - Its an a2 adrenaline agonist which lowers blood pressure, eases anxiety and helps insomnia. Drugs affect everyone differently though so I have no idea what to expect with that.

Heres some things I've tried which worked:

1.) Antihistamines - Piricon helps me sleep and relaxes me. Haven't tried other antihistamines.

2.) l-theanine - It improves my mood and relaxes me but at the same time I think it amplifies the aggitation a bit.

3.) Phenibut - Its worked for me in the past but its an unpredictable bastard so I steer clear of it these days.

Heres some things I've tried which make things worse for me but help others:

1.) Gabapentin - Don't know why but it amplifies the aggitation/anxiety.

2.) Opiates - They seem to do the exact same thing gabapentin does. They make me feel good for a couple of hours then they make me aggitated and anxious.

Can you share your experience with things that work and if you have any experience with those drugs which I want to try can you share it.

 

[sconnie420]

I use the gaba's 4 w/d on benzo's... It doesn't make it worse 4 me, it makes it more tolerable.. Not much, but any relief is better then none when you're going through benzo wd's..when I wd I get depressed, ur symptoms are probably just different. . Good luck man

 

[T. Calderone]

I'm not familiar with Piricon when when I was miserable withdrawing from benzos, diphenhydramine (benedryl) helped me sleep for a short while. Trazadone was more effective for me. Clonidine would seem like a good solution since it keeps your pressure down and can be sedating. Hope your doctor helps you find some relief tomorrow. Benzo withdrawal was far worse than opiate, symptom-wise in my experience. I thought I was going to die. Another thing is take a good multi-vitamin to alleviate leg/foot cramps.

 

[Mycotheologist]

My doctor probably won't know anything about benzo withdrawals so its up to me to provide the info. I'm in Ireland, benzos aren't as commonly prescribed here as the US so doctors don't really have much experience with dealing with w/ds. I'm trying to compile a big list of drugs that I can test out. Another drug I want to test out is carbamazepine. Besides that, the only new drug added to my list is tizanidine but thats an a2 agonist like clonidine so I don't think theres any point in trying that if I try clonidine. Does anyone know carisoprodols mechanism of action? Its a muscle relaxant so it may help with benzo w/ds. Another muscle relaxant I know of is cyclobenzeprine. Afobazole looks like a good drug for remedying anxiety.

 

[Missykins]

This post might be better suited for Other Drugs as they have this sort of discussion frequently.

 

[T. Calderone]

Carisparidol was hit or miss for me. Sometimes one tablet would knock me out, other times taking more than one and no results. Cyclobenzeprine was more consistant for me anyway, especially for leg cramps.

 

[stardust.hero]

Moved: TDS --> OD

 

[Thanatos]

What does minor benzo w/d consist of? Dosage and frequency of the specific compound would help us find the best option for you. If its just a small amount of a short half life benzo you might not need anything, besides some good rest, diet, and a distraction from your agitation instead of taking another drug.

 

[Mycotheologist]

entheo: My minor benzo w/d symptoms are just these waves of aggitation and anxiety which come and go throughout the day and trouble sleeping due to inability to relax and getting way too hot. Basically nothing compared to real benzo withdrawals that other people describe. I can't take opiates or gabapentin because they amplify this aggitation/anxiety 10 fold. I can't take stimulants because they make me dysphoric. I was taking 1-3mg (usually 1mg) of xanax daily for 2 months in total (with a couple of 7 day breaks in between). I recently (last dose was day before yesterday) stopped after taking it daily for 3 weeks. I was also using phenibut and GHB for months before that though but I think its the xanax that caused these minor w/d symptoms.

My doctor was opposed to prescribing everything on my list besides trazodone. Trazodone let me get a full nights sleep last night and I woke up feeling fine (as opposed to feeling unrested). It definitely works for me. One side effect so far is it gives me nightmares at the start of the night. I woke up to take a piss and I remembered lots of bad dreams. When I woke up this morning the dreams were relatively normal.

I am 100% certain baclofen would completely cure the average persons minor benzo w/d symptoms but unfortunately I have to go through doctors who know less than I do about pharmacology. My doctor told me he had only heard of baclofen being used to treat muscle spasms, he hadn't heard of it being used for anxiety or benzo withdrawals, or even alcohol withdrawals and thats the reason he was opposed to prescribing it to me. He wasn't thinking pharmacologically but rather thinking in terms of what ailments a drug is commonly prescribed for. Anyhow, I can attest to trazadone working so far. I may go to another doctor at some point and try talking them into prescribing me other things to test out.

 

[junglebook]

Absolutely xanax can affect you like that its a very potent drug, psycologically i couldnt handle it its that potent. Some are ok some are not. Best thing imo for withdrawal which worked great for me was diazepam. Use them to ween off made it a much more easier withdrawal, im still playing catch up even now but its slowly getting better using diazepam. You''ll sleep, it will take away the physical withdrawals, you'll have to suffer the mental withdrawals im afraid, well i did anyway....still am but diazepam made it a whole let easier specially once u get used to the lower dosage.

 

[boxednirvana]

Are your withdrawals the result of wanting to get off these drugs or because you ran out?

I'd get some GABA at the health food store. If you read about it online, so many sources say (and people who've never tried it) "it can't work, it doesn't cross the blood brain barrier" ...but it does work and quite well, especially if your GABA levels are low. If you're looking for a legal high, GABA ain't the thing but it definately takes the edge off. If you read customer reviews at sites like iherb, there is clearly a large number of people who get results with GABA. I think it's like 5-htp, many take it and are like "this don't do shit" and others take it and it's like a miracle supplement. So that if your brain is deficient in GABA, you'll get results with it, if not your brain isn't going to have a use for it.

Phenibut is a great gabaergic, lasts a long time, allows your mind to stay lucid while providing anxiety relief . Thing with phenibut is, you can't dose it every day. I mean you can but you'll have to withdraw off of that after a time. Tolerance builds very quickly with phenibut so that it's best to use 3x per week MAX on non consecutive days.

Between the GABA and phenibut, you can probably treat those withdrawals pretty effectively. Hope you feel better.

 

[lurching]

if antihistamines don't work, a low dose (2.5mg or 5mg) of olanzapine (Zyprexa) will probably help with sleep. it's a modern neuroleptic/antipsychotic with a mild side-effect profile (likely non-existant at those doses). it'll make you groggy but it could be useful for sleep.

 

[xxxyyy]

i've found that GHB is a godsend for benzo withdrawals. baclofen works too. i don't know about gabapentin, but pregabalin worked pretty good for me also, however i went far beyond my scripted dose of 600mgs a day.

 

[lurching]

i've found that GHB is a godsend for benzo withdrawals. baclofen works too. i don't know about gabapentin, but pregabalin worked pretty good for me also, however i went far beyond my scripted dose of 600mgs a day.

ghb.. would be pretty risky for someone struggling with a xanax habit.

 

[xxxyyy]

yes, GHB is very addictive especially if you're inclined toward GABAergics. i made that mistake in the past where overuse of benzos segued into overuse of GHB.
baclofen though is safe sailing. still horrid to withdraw from but not addictive at all.

 

[Brian242]

Does anyone know carisoprodols mechanism of action? Its a muscle relaxant so it may help with benzo w/ds. Another muscle relaxant I know of is cyclobenzeprine. Afobazole looks like a good drug for remedying anxiety.

NO. Do not use Soma (Carisoprodol) for WD's. Soma increases your seizure threshold. Hence the slang term "Soma Shakes" or "Soma Coma"

 

[Thanatos]

^ that's not entirely true. Soma is perfectly good at relieving withdrawal symptoms as long as you don't take more than 700 mgs. You could even go to 1050 mgs and still be in the safe zone. OPs tolerence is very moderate so the risk of siezure is not dangerously high. The effect of carisorodal will relieve the stress on the whole GABA/ chloride ion channel system, so carisorodal would be better than cold turkey.
My vote goes to phenibut though, it'll get you through the discomfort but it's not really recreational enough to get hooked unless you really push it. If only used for the acute wd phase it should work well.

 

[belfort]

im sure GHB is great at masking benzo withdrawals but its a shitty tool imo..Ghb doesnt last long, maybe 2-3 hours and the high is much better than benzos so u will be more likely to abuse it..

 

[Mycotheologist]

boxednirvana: I have picamilon, its a prodrug of GABA. I don't feel anything when I take it. It would only prolong my recovery anyhow. Its day 5 since I quit the xanax and I've been feeling fine everyday so far, I just have some mild w/d symptoms such as aggitation, a strange headache sensation and the odd wave of anxiety. 100mg of trazodone knocks me unconscious each night, I wish I knew about this drug before I would have used this instead of resorting to benzos.

As for GHB, you'd have to be insane to use that during benzo withdrawal. It would work for a few hours but once it wears off the w/d symptoms would be amplified 10 fold. Phenibuts a different story altogether, it works brilliantly but I've been addicted to it 3 times already, I'd prefer not to get addicted to it again any time soon. I like its effects but its insanely addictive.

 

[Mycotheologist]

You''ll sleep, it will take away the physical withdrawals, you'll have to suffer the mental withdrawals im afraid, well i did anyway....still am but diazepam made it a whole let easier specially once u get used to the lower dosage.

What do you mean by mental withdrawals? I remember craving xanax heavily when I took a 7 day break from them but I'm not craving them at all right now. Maybe the trazodone is preventing the cravings. I also noticed that I was way more emotional than usual during that 7 day break but now I'm only mildly emotional. I'm fairly sure the trazodone has something to do with that. Emotions must get pretty extreme during severe w/ds. Potassium bromide would be good for severe benzo w/ds as it suppresses emotions as well as seizure threshold. I was considering testing it out but since my symptoms are so mild, I'd probably best not. I read that they used to give it to inmates to lower their libido and thus prevent them from raping each other.

if antihistamines don't work, a low dose (2.5mg or 5mg) of olanzapine (Zyprexa) will probably help with sleep. it's a modern neuroleptic/antipsychotic with a mild side-effect profile (likely non-existant at those doses). it'll make you groggy but it could be useful for sleep.

I've taken a liking to these non selective antagonist drugs. Heres trazodones binding profile:

5-HT1A receptor (Kd = 78 nM)
5-HT2A receptor (Ki = 13 nM)
5-HT2B receptor (Ki = 74 nM)[24]
5-HT2C receptor (Ki = 192 nM)
α1-adrenergic receptor (Kd = 39 nM)
α2-adrenergic receptor (Kd = 405 nM)
H1 receptor (Kd = 725 nM)

And heres olanzapines binding profile for comparison:

dopamine D1: 31
dopamine D2: 11
dopamine D4: 27
serotonin 5-HT2A: 4
serotonin 5-HT2C: 11
serotonin 5-HT3: 57
muscarinic M1: 26
adrenergic alpha1: 19
histamine H1: 7

They're both potent serotonin antagonists but trazodone has no anticholinergic properties, no dopamine antagonist properties and relatively low antihistamine properties, yet it still works brilliantly for sleeping. The effects aren't pleasant however they aren't unpleasant, I assume the effects of olonzapine would be more unpleasant, I'm guessing its dopamine antagonist properties cause a bit of akithisia. I bet its 5-HT2C antagonist properties give you the munchies. Mitrazapine is also a potent 5-HT2C antagonist. Thanks for informing me about olanzapine though, I'll remember that if I'm ever in a situation where trazodone and other non GABAergic sleep aids won't work for me.