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Mental Health Gabapentin for anxiety

polymath

polymath

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Nov 4, 2010
Messages
1,890
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Northern Europe
Has any of you tried gabapentin as an off-label medication for anxiety? I'm planning to ask about this from a psychiatrist. Gabapentin seems to be less addictive than benzos or Lyrica so it might be a good antianxiety medication for a recovering alcoholic such as myself.

I've been having anxiety attacs for over 10 years and my citalopram medication isn't helping enough. I've never been prescribed benzos but I've been given them in hospital and in detox and they seem to help. I just don't want to develop a benzo addiction so I'd rather not resort to them.
 
It did work goof for anxiety in my case, but be forewarned, some people have a really hard time coming off of this medication. Toz is a well respected member here and he has been living a nightmare trying to get off of the stuff. If I recall correctly, he tapered off and was still not feelng ANY relief after 6 months or so. This is rare though. Of course YMMV, but don't think that it's a magic non-addictive bullet in combating your anxiety.
 
Thanks for your answer, bdomihizayka. Looks like Toz was taking 3600mg a day, maybe a smaller dose would be enough to help with anxiety. Or maybe the medication could be taken only in situations when the anxiety is especially bad.
 
DO NOT take Gabapentin for anxiety. I was prescribed it for 3 years at 3,200 msg a day and it has an odd tendency to literally stop working after 1-3 days of use. The result is you are left with a dependency on a drug that is misunderstood by scientists who don't even know its mechanism of action, and the withdrawal is horrific.
 
Did wonders for me, the first non opiate medication that ever worked. First legal one I guess.

I am on 300mg 2-3/day. Helps a lot without making me feel stoned or lobotomized. Far superior to the laundry list of anti depressants (SSRI snri MAOI etc etc) I have been forced to try

Been taking it for about 2 years and it still works great. Just don't play the "raise your dose" game. Sure, get somewhere that works, but it won't always feel like the miracle it once did, doesn't mean tis not still working.
 
Yeah, it's not much better than benzos in the withdrawal department. I have seen it totally destabilize people for years coming off of it and people finding themselves in nightmare situations with it. The withdrawal is poorly understood. It works okay, aside from that, it seems relatively benign. It doesn't interact with much. No side effects really.

I have been on it for about four years now. I take around 900 mg a day. It does still do something for me, but I wouldn't recommend it. I am planning on coming off of it, but I can't tolerate another withdrawal for a long time. I might be on it for another four years. Don't underestimate the dependency it causes and if you decide to try it, keep your dose low. Taking much more than 300 mg at a time is pretty much a waste. You have to stagger your dose.

It's a selective calcium channel blocker, if it has an effect on gaba its indirect. You should supplement with magnesium if you take it because it can deplete magnesium levels. Don't take magnesium the same time you take gaba either.

I think toz was sick for two years from the stuff and never got better. He is on the stuff for life now.
 
Thanks for all your answers. The problem I have with benzos is that they make me feel high and if I had a benzo script I might start compulsively redosing them to chase the euphoria. I think gabapentin doesn't have this kind of a problem involved.

It really sucks that there are no non-addictive effective meds for anxiety or severe pain.
 
I don't know about afobazole, but I've read about alpha2-selective benzo agonists that have an anxiolytic effect without causing physical dependence. Unfortunately, clinical trials with such a benzo were stopped because it seemed to cause abnormalities in liver function tests.
 
God damn I am prescribed it for anxiety. I have only been taking it for about 2 months in the 900mg a day range. I think I am going to stop after reading this thread. It really hasn't helped my anxiety anyway.
 
Gabapentin is such a strange compound...My starting dose was 3,200 msg a day (2x 800mg twice daily) and after 3 days it stopped working, albeit I stayed on it for years...Here's the good news..In regards to tapering, you can drastically lower your dose initially with minimal symptoms. Here was my taper:

-went from 3,200mgs to 1,600 for 2 weeks...I noticed NO difference

-I then lowered 400mgs every 2 weeks until stopping cold turkey...The only WD was 3 days of insomnia and waking up with brain zaps similar to SSRI withdrawal.
 
A psychiatrist gave me Gabipentin when I asked for something I could take during the day that wouldn't make me sleepy the way my benzos do. She told me I could take as much as I wanted without feeling non-functional, she literally used the phrase "you can pop them like candy".
I tried it a few times and never felt much affect so I'm guessing I never built up a dependence. The only time I took it regularly was in rehab for alcohol because I wasn't allowed to take benzos. Still never felt much although it's hard to say because they kept me on so many unneccessary detox meds that I felt like a zombie already. One interesting thing was that the medical staff at rehab didn't realize it could be prescribed as an anti-anxiety medication. I'm not sure what they thought I had the prescription for but when I told them it was for anxiety they had to google it.
I stopped taking it after leaving because I went back to my regular klonopin.
 
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