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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

How to deal with withdrawl from gabapentin 5100mg per day?

Spacebear23

Greenlighter
Joined
Aug 22, 2013
Messages
6
Location
Dunedin NZ
Hi everyone. I am 23 and I have nerve damage in my lower abdomen and have been on gabapentin for nearly 2 years. It does not seem to be working and have asked to be taken off gabapentin but my doctor has just been upping my dose and I am currently on 5100mg a day. I want to wean myself off, as the side effects of the drug (for a while) are getting to become sometimes worse than the pain. Please I am looking for any advise
 
Hi everyone. I am 23 and I have nerve damage in my lower abdomen and have been on gabapentin for nearly 2 years. It does not seem to be working and have asked to be taken off gabapentin but my doctor has just been upping my dose and I am currently on 5100mg a day. I want to wean myself off, as the side effects of the drug (for a while) are getting to become sometimes worse than the pain. Please I am looking for any advise

I don't have any personal experience with using Gabapentin but I have read that the withdrawals can be longer and more painful than Benzodiazepine withdrawal.
Don't quit cold turkey, taper yourself down before you stop taking it.
 
Your post reminded me that I need to get a prescription for Gabapentin because it did wonders for my anxiety/depression. Back to the topic.

Do not quit cold turkey. I did, but I was on it for 9 months and I was taking 3x giant white tablets summed at 2400 mg/day. I had no problems getting off but it was simply because I substituted Gabapentin with Xanax. I have been on and off benzos for awhile, the key to getting off is to dose only when you absolutely need to (i.e., the anxiety is building up enough to render me incapable of working.)

Take only a portion of your normal dose. I won't give out numbers because benzo withdrawal is dangerous and I don't want people following my advice as anything except kicking-the-habit. Take the smaller dose until you feel comfortable. It's going to be edgy at first but you begin feeling better when you continue the routine and get to the point where you're taking half the dose and only as needed. There will come a point where the drug and the withdrawal becomes a nuisance but doesn't take over your judgement or thinking. At this point I naturally forget to dose or I think-twice before dosing, and when I do dose, I might put the chemical in water or crush it and take daps here and there. It's a poor man's Extended Release mechanism, not a way to begin abuse (i.e., crushing up and ingesting the entire thing.)


If Gabapentin is no longer effective, consider asking for Lyrica. It is a far more potent analogue of Gabapentin so you need significantly less but there is currently no generic (in case price matters.) You can switch to Lyrica and then taper off that, or stay with it if it works.
 
I think it's important to note that not everyone who uses gabapentin long term experiences withdrawal. For those that do, it's truly miserable. Don't psych yourself out. Try cutting your dose. If there are no ill effects, cut it some more. Continue to do so. If you start to feel bad, try to stabilize for a bit at that dose. Good luck!!!
 
Your post reminded me that I need to get a prescription for Gabapentin because it did wonders for my anxiety/depression. Back to the topic.

Do not quit cold turkey. I did, but I was on it for 9 months and I was taking 3x giant white tablets summed at 2400 mg/day. I had no problems getting off but it was simply because I substituted Gabapentin with Xanax. I have been on and off benzos for awhile, the key to getting off is to dose only when you absolutely need to (i.e., the anxiety is building up enough to render me incapable of working.)

Take only a portion of your normal dose. I won't give out numbers because benzo withdrawal is dangerous and I don't want people following my advice as anything except kicking-the-habit. Take the smaller dose until you feel comfortable. It's going to be edgy at first but you begin feeling better when you continue the routine and get to the point where you're taking half the dose and only as needed. There will come a point where the drug and the withdrawal becomes a nuisance but doesn't take over your judgement or thinking. At this point I naturally forget to dose or I think-twice before dosing, and when I do dose, I might put the chemical in water or crush it and take daps here and there. It's a poor man's Extended Release mechanism, not a way to begin abuse (i.e., crushing up and ingesting the entire thing.)


If Gabapentin is no longer effective, consider asking for Lyrica. It is a far more potent analogue of Gabapentin so you need significantly less but there is currently no generic (in case price matters.) You can switch to Lyrica and then taper off that, or stay with it if it works.
You just reminded me that I was prescribed 60 count 100mg Gabapentin with 2 refills a long time ago. I never filled it. I just called the pharmacy and I'm still able to fill it.
How does it work for anxiety? 5,100mg sounds like an extremely high dose. How much is generally recommended to take to feel the effects? I'm seriously considering filling it.
 
About a 2 months ago I tried to cut down but I felt like I had a permanent cold, had cold sweats, very nauseated, couldn't sleep, and sever uneasiness. Just felt like death, I am scared of what it will be like going off it.
 
About a 2 months ago I tried to cut down but I felt like I had a permanent cold, had cold sweats, very nauseated, couldn't sleep, and sever uneasiness. Just felt like death, I am scared of what it will be like going off it.

This is taken from Wikipedia, you should really be careful coming off of it:

Gabapentin should not be discontinued abruptly after long term use. Abrupt or over rapid withdrawal may provoke a withdrawal syndrome reminiscent to alcohol or benzodiazepine withdrawal. Gradual reduction over a period of weeks or months helps minimize or prevents the withdrawal syndrome.
Side effects upon discontinuation of gabapentin that have been reported in medical literature include insomnia, restlessness, agitation, anxiety, disorientation, confusion, light sensitivity, diaphoresis, headaches, palpitations, hypertension, chest pain, and flu-like symptoms. In one case, abrupt cessation of a high dose of gabapentin triggered a seizure in an individual with no history of epilepsy.
 
4 years ago I had a botched C section and ever then I have been in and out of hospital for pain management. Then 2 years ago I was put on gabapentin for nerve damage, the problem is that my pain specialist just continues to up my dose. He has never suggested anything else when I told him it wasn't working, just that taking more would help. I started to wonder what the max dose was and everything I seem to read say that the max is around 3600mg. I have never had a high from it and have always taken it as directed but even then I still get sweats. I just want off it as I am also starting to have kidney problems that are unexplained as I live a relatively healthy life.
 
Did it ever work? If it ever worked at all, and you have decent insurance, you might ask about switching to Lyrica.
 
It worked at first but only at the start, and when I told the specialist he told me that it was "break through pain". I have since found out that Nupentin put money toward his clinic. Thankfully I live in New Zealand and most medications are 80% subsidised and with the likes of gabapentin I have a government subsidy number and get it for free.
 
Does anyone have experience using Gabapentin for anxiety or after using something like Dexedrine for the comedown? I'm interested in seeing its effectiveness for those two things.
 
YES! I was prescribed to gabapentin for "anxiety" for a little under a year till i abruptly quit using it a little over a few weeks. Personally for me it's a very shitty medication for any major anxiety except maybe if you have never taken it.

Got sold a gabapentin pill (instead of xanax what i thought i was getting) and took it for coming down off meth and it helped a lot and felt like a benzo with a slight numbing feeling, but that was a long time ago. Now if i were to take it for a comedown it's shit, but it can help a little bit in terms of slowing you down and slight muscle/nerve pain.

To the OP ask your doctor to slowly wean you off if it's not helping. Theirs better things for nerve pain than gabapentin, and your dose for the gabapentin is VERY high, at a much lower dose it made me feel so spacey and disconnected to the point i couldn't stand it anymore.
 
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