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Gabapentinoids (Gabapentin) withdrawal, any advice?

I was on 900/day for 4 mo. Stopped and felt no withdrawal. A while later, I was on 2400/day for 1yr. and tapered down over the course of a month. I experienced withdrawal that was both unpleasant and drawn out. I would say about 5wks to work itself out. Hot/Cold Flashes, anxiety, didn't sleep for 4 days straight, would wake up in a near full blown panic attack multiple times each night. Strange buzzing and restlessness was always present. It has a way of making you feel very weird and discontent. Very unpleasant and not worth the benefit it gave. I simply took it wayyyy too long.

It's a decent opiate withdrawal aid for me (especially for RLS). I now treat it like a benzo -- take for 2wks and stop. No withdrawals present.
 
Tripple threat withdrawal

I have a chemical triple threat going on. First I detoxed cold turkey off of Suboxone while I was getting off of Heroin, Ativan, Klonopin and Depakote. It was the worst detox experience of my life.
I couldn't handle the anxiety so I went back on Ativan and Xanax. After a few months of just benzo's I detoxed off of them too. I went on Gabapentin for joint pain a few months ago having no idea that I could withdrawal from that too.
I've been experiencing an overall strangeness of my senses. My sinuses feel like they're winding tighter and tighter than my heart races and I get waves of terror. The waves get worse and then settle down. The feeling lingers and settles down after a few days. Tonight it came back and I'm scared to death of it coming back. I feel like I keep going through some kind of withdrawal and it's exhausting.
I don't know how much more my body can take but it's like catching fire constantly only to be put out before I can pass out or die, ensuring that I will feel all of it. I am tired of this.
 
Having just read my last post I realize that I'm not making as much sense as it sounded like in my own head. It all sounded better before I typed it out and posted it.
 
CitioKid said:
You're right, if you didn't experience gabapentin withdrawals, no one else in the world ever will.

I guess the five days of not sleeping for one single second, horrid panic attacks, severe restlessness and depression that I felt when I quit gaba was all placebo.
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fair enough. were you taking a very high dose?
 
I am taking 4 30mg tabs of oxycodone per day for RA pain and back pain. In other words, pain 24/7 for the past 7 years. My doc started me out on a lower dose of course. Last month he added 1 300mg of gabapentin at night. Yesterday it was increased to twice a day.
I'm afraid that he will stop treating me as I broke the contract this week by using an off label drug to cope with withdrawal symptoms. I couldn't get my refill of oxy due to being snowed in. I didn't think to try the gaba to help. I had to take a random drug test at the office yesterday. Now he will think that I use the off label drug all the time. I'm scared to go through the withdrawal again, this time for more than 2 days. Do you think I can detox on my own with the help of gaba if he refuses further treatment? What about the withdrawal from gaba?Help!
 
catlover said:
I am taking 4 30mg tabs of oxycodone per day for RA pain and back pain. In other words, pain 24/7 for the past 7 years. My doc started me out on a lower dose of course. Last month he added 1 300mg of gabapentin at night. Yesterday it was increased to twice a day.
I'm afraid that he will stop treating me as I broke the contract this week by using an off label drug to cope with withdrawal symptoms. I couldn't get my refill of oxy due to being snowed in. I didn't think to try the gaba to help. I had to take a random drug test at the office yesterday. Now he will think that I use the off label drug all the time. I'm scared to go through the withdrawal again, this time for more than 2 days. Do you think I can detox on my own with the help of gaba if he refuses further treatment? What about the withdrawal from gaba?Help!
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Try Lyrica (Pregabalin). I have never felt withdrawals from it and used as much as 1200 mgs /day for over 2 years. It's at least twice as strong as Gabapentin.
You will most likely feel the wd's from the opiates is you haven't, altough this will help you a lot. What was the other drug you used for withdrawal btw?
 
I hate my fucking dr

He is a urogynecologist! This is supposed to help with bladder pain! WTF was he thinking? i HAVE BEEN ADDICTED TO OPIATES, FINALLY detoxed at home (medicaid wont pay for rehab) and now I have to go thru this shit.....are there any lawsuits against the makers of this, for them using a drug, first for "restless leg", then, "bipolar", then epilepsy, now all kinds of pain?? I have BP and hope I survive this...please help...I feel so weird:!
 
also alcohol....everything smells moldy and my friend says i have been acting delirious.....should I taper? I was on 900 mg a day....then I had a cystoscopy under general anesthetic and I just feel SO weird....
 
†∆†;8953082 said:
there aren't gabapentin withdrawls are you serious....

i took it for like two years and abruptly stopped and didnt notice a damn thing.
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Correction. There weren't withdrawals for you.


These people aren't imagining this or making things up. :\
 
Withdrawing from the oxycodone will give you quite severe symptoms for about 10-15 days, the physical pain part is bad, plus the insomnia along with the mental part which will last a lot longer than that especially if you are prone to anxiety or depression, if so it will likely last about a month.

The gabepentin is supposed to help with opiate withdrawal so that may help. But when the opiate withdrawal is over, and if you stop taking the gabepentin you will have withdrawals from that, not as bad considering your low dose, but you will feel it. Insomnia, nausea , depression, suicidal thoughts. Nice stuff isn’t it. I have experience it all. I am currently tapering off of clonazapam, and methadone. I am also using gabepentin, and I stopped using it, and got withdrawal for about a week or so. Can’t wait until I can come off of everything.

Good Luck
 
heres my story. i have been on it for about 5 or 6 months,started with just about 3-5 400mg caps daily.it turned into 20-30 a day man. two weeks ago i had a near fatal overdose i took 35 400mg caps in a day. i ended up having 5 sezures and put in intensive care for a week. i have been off it since. i felt alot better after about a week.
 
Wow that's insane^. I used to take a prescribed dosage of 2400 mg a day for about half a year and I usually took more as my mother was prescribed it too. I used to really like the buzz these things gave me, felt like something in between a benzo and an opiate, but now it has a totally different effect, where it makes me paranoid like a bad weed trip but at the same time I get a sort of drunk body high. Not a good combo. Anyway, I never had any problems quitting this cold turkey but if you are experiencing withdrawal, you should just taper down.
 
catlover said:
I am taking 4 30mg tabs of oxycodone per day for RA pain and back pain. In other words, pain 24/7 for the past 7 years. My doc started me out on a lower dose of course. Last month he added 1 300mg of gabapentin at night. Yesterday it was increased to twice a day.
I'm afraid that he will stop treating me as I broke the contract this week by using an off label drug to cope with withdrawal symptoms. I couldn't get my refill of oxy due to being snowed in. I didn't think to try the gaba to help. I had to take a random drug test at the office yesterday. Now he will think that I use the off label drug all the time. I'm scared to go through the withdrawal again, this time for more than 2 days. Do you think I can detox on my own with the help of gaba if he refuses further treatment? What about the withdrawal from gaba?Help!
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What was the "off-label drug"? Are you sure it is something they even test for?
Personally if they say you had a dirty drug test I would just tell your doctor the truth about why you took it. Is your doctor a jerk? My doctor wouldn't even bat an eyelash if I explained the situation to him, but I recognize that not all doctors are this way and many clinics treat people like sub-human criminals and assume that everything is an effort to get high. But it seems totally inhumane that they would just completely cut you off your meds. Have you had a lot of dirty urine tests in the past and are on probation or something? Depending on your assessment of the doctor and clinic, and if you are sure the drug will show up on the test, it may even be helpful to tell your doctor beforehand. Then he won't think you are just making up a fake story because you got caught.

If you do somehow get kicked off, I would look for another doctor. I wouldn't worry too much about the Gabapentin as you haven't been taking it very long, but you will definitely get withdrawals from the oxys. If you get cut off I would try to conserve the ones you have left as much as possible and do a self-taper of gradually reducing your dose. There are a ton of threads on here already about things you can do or take to help with the withdrawal symptoms, but it's never easy. Let's just hope you don't get cut off and that you are overreacting out of worry :-)
 
Greetings, this is my first posting on this website...still do not know exactly how to navigate...
I just spent 30 days in a treatment center being medically detoxed from a 2 1/2 year misguided habituation of Lorazapan. As soon as the "detox meds" were eliminated I began having what is probably called "post-acute-withdrawal syndrome"...SOOOO the doctors (one rather famous addiction specialist and one competent? psychiatrist) put me on 600 mg Gabapentin 3X a day and 50mg Seroquel at 7pm.... At first I felt some relief from the Gabapentin, but that disappeared and I was feeling blank, empty, glazed...so I decided to get off it...and cut the dose in half with the intention of dropping it altogeter by the end of this week...and then get rid of the seroquel....so now, here I am squimming, quivering, hands and arms feel like they are not mine....and BOY am I angry...
 
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I had the same problems, I detoxed from Valium and took some pregabalin to cope it. Having break up with lyrica made me vomitin, depressed, muscle cramps etc. for 2 weeks. I finally took some valium to get over it, but the depression lingered over 2 month. Taper down might be a good advise. Anyway, as u might not want to take some benzodiazepines, I guess there is not much that might help. U could baclofen give a try, this might help. But this is GABA-B and dangerous after long time heavy use...
 
Even though I only used between 600mg and 900mg of Gabapentin every other day (not daily, 1-2 day breaks) for about 2 months I experienced some of the mentioned wd-symptoms.
Social Phobia, Insomnia, general unpleasant feeling, nervous wreck... and I never had a constant blood level !

The withdrawl potential seems to vary greatly from person to person but of course the higher your doses and the longer the intake maximizes the risk.

Did anyone else here had the particular symptom of waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to fall asleep again? To the point it drives you crazy?
 
Yes, the soft tissue pain is horrible! http://i.bluelight.ru/s/argh.gif I was on 1800mg a day and cut down to 900mg a day over 5 days. I went to get a massage on the sixth morning because I was anxious and tense. The therapist who had been seeing me for months could barely touch me. I started cramping up in my feet and upper back and her touch sent spines of fire through my skin. It was horrible!!! I went home and got a severe cramp in my back that still hasn't gone away. I called my doc and he said it's not from going off the gaba....nothing loike this has ever happened to me before and it's been a year since my car accident! I managed to get off Percocet and Xanax and it wasn't weird like this!http://i.bluelight.ru/s/eek.gif
 
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