I mean, I have had some degenerate habits, so I try not to judge, but jeez, have you guys not tried benzos? Or for that matter, mdma, ketamine, weed? I come from the scene of opiate addicts. Gabapentin is commonly mega dosed for withdrawals and anxiety, I've never heard stories of anyone enjoying it. News to me. But then again, people take seroquel or trazadone and call it "high", guess I just dont get it
Gaba seems like one of those habits that's gonna be hell to come off of without any of the fun.
Have you gone through benzo withdrawals? Heroin withdrawals? I was taking upwards of 30mg Xanax or 300mg Valium or the equivalent in klonopin, midazolam (Versed), and some weird RC benzos like phenazepam or flu-bromazepam... And all that on top of 1g+ of iv heroin per day. The withdrawals were unspeakably horrible. The lifestyle was full of misery. Getting off that stuff might be the best choice I've ever made.
I don't get much euphoria from benzos anyway, and opiates are too addictive for me to do "just once." I am on suboxone and plan to stay on it long term.
After being a daily weed smoker from age 15 to 25 or so, I get nothing but anxiety from it anymore.
I absolutely love MDMA, mephadrone, methylone and any entactogen/empathogen but I stay away from that stuff now as I did plenty of it in my 20s. Same goes for hallucinogens. I used to "assemble" DMT and would smoke it heavily on regular occasions, especially mixing it with MDMA, NO2, GHB and whatnot. I did all the basics like LSD, shrooms, mescaline as well as many of the Shulgin chemicals (God rest his soul) like 2c-i, 2c-b, 2c-e and their ilk including 2c-t7 and such... On the rare occasion I'll still take a trip, but once or twice a year at most.
I quite like ketamine, methoxetamine, pcp, GHB and GBL. But as I mentioned earlier, I did enough of that in my 20s to last a lifetime.
Stimulants like basic amphetamine, meth and many of the cathinones, MDPV... I got very deep in all the weird RCs or "bath salts" but the comedown from stimulants was always extremely unpleasant and required massive doses of alcohol or downers. Ambien and muscle relaxers (Carisoprodol aka Somas) were great fun but I quite often ended up blacking out on ambien and doing regrettable things.
The thing about gabapentin is its fairly mild, helps me with motivation, helps me enjoy socializing and gives a nice sense of well being. It won't blast me into a worm hole like ketamine or turn me into a euphoric puddle like MDMA but thats not what I'm looking for anymore.
It is somewhere just above nicotine or caffeine in its effects, and I quite like it. It may not be for everyone, but it most certainly provides what I'm looking for.