Gabapentin side effects?

[Xanthus]

I recently started taking 300 mg. of Gabapentin for nerve pain. Since I have been on it, I have noticed that I feel unusually cheerful, energetic, and chatty. I have been going a mile a minute in several directions at once. I have been talking to myself and otherwise feeling/acting kind of nutty. Nothing dangerous, just doing lots of cleaning, reorganizing stuff, things like that. BTW it is also helping with my nerve pain. I am just wondering if these things I am describing are likely due to the Gaba. If so, I am also wondering if I should expect a crash at some point?

 

[Johndoedoe.junk]

I don't know about a crash but I'm gonna say yes these behaviors are from the gaba. It has a mood stabilizing effect which could explain your cheerfulness and usually causes sleepiness so not quite sure why you're feeling increased energy.

I was on gabapentin 900mg (300mg three times a day) for about six months and while it DID help with my chronic pain it also gave me a busload of side effects. Swelling of limbs, weight gain, tiredness, EXTREMELY BAD memory/concentration issues (I'd be in the middle of a conversation and just blank and completely forget what we were talking about and found myself interrupting people just so I wouldn't forget what I was going to say), and gave me incontinence issues too. Needless to say the negative side effects far outweighed the benefit so I switched to Norco. Not saying you're gonna experience all these, just my personal experience with the stuff. Never did experience any withdrawals from stopping gabapentin nor any kind of 'crash' but the Norco may have masked that.

 

[Epiper888]

yeah im on gabapentin right now and get similar symptoms, it should go away in a week or so. its sort of like tweaking, the chatting feeling will almost always be there(for me at least) i have never had a crash, it just slowly fades. i also get some dry mouth. i enjoy gabapentin a lot, helps my anxiety more than benzos. im on 1200mg a day so when i first started i tweaked in a very weird way, i felt a little drowsy but stimulated at the same time if that makes any sense.

best of luck.

 

[geoffreychaucer]

I think a lot of people have discovered how 'high' one can feel on this unscheduled, very easy to obtain prescription drug. But considering how safe gabapentin is, I would think there are far worse prescription drugs to get 'high' on. And if you don't want to feel 'high' on the drug since you have legitimate medicinal need for it, just wait. If you stay at the same dose and you take it every day, or most days, then very quickly the euphoric effects will diminish to at most a feeling of well-being. More likely however, all the fun psychological effects will go away and you'll be left with just the necessary physical effects if you are taking it daily.

 

[AquaMergirl]

I take 800mg Gaba several times per day. The cheerful, chatty, cleaning, etc.. that you are talking about is typical for a low gaba tolerance. Go ahead and enjoy this because tolerance to this drug happens very quickly. I can take it and nothing happens. Also, try to stay on a lower dose for that nerve pain as long as you can. It stopped working for mine about 6 months later and I was upped to 600mgs at bedtime. Well, that then turned into 600mgs x 3/day Now, two years later I pop those things like skittles. I'm prescribed 135x 30 days to take at my discretion. My nerve pain is barely manageable this way, but my doctor is afraid to put me on something like a benzo. My thought is for you to enjoy the side effects now.. they won't be around for long at that low dose.