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Pregabalin for opiate/benzo w/d

A

aallaann

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 12, 2007
Messages
68
Location
Western
I was on bupe maintenance, recently down to stable at .4 to .8 mg per day – did a day at .2 and jumped 3 days ago. When I jumped I was at about 10 mg diazepam per day and decided “I’m done with bupe – start the benzo taper and get off those too”. So on day one on no bupe I went down to 5 mg diazepam (I felt like a real tough guy at the time for some reason). A day later I was in w/d (as I had expected), heavier than previous days (as I had expected). Vivid dreams, light/fragile sleep (or no sleep), shitting machine – like I was hooked up to a horse laxative IV. When I was not occupied with work I couldn’t do anything but pace or sway or rub my hands together. I’ve been in w/d before but I’m not sure how much of this is from the bupe jump and how much is from the diazepam taper. Yesterday I decided to take 600 mg pregabalin instead of the 5 mg diazepam. I have only seen one equivalency comparison between the two and it was 600 mg pregabalin = 40 mg diazepam (I’m not sure how reliable that info is). At any rate, I felt and slept fine. No shitting every 30 minutes, no w/d feelings. I was a little loose from all that pregabalin but other than that I felt good.

So here is the question: if pregabalin removes all of the benzo and opiate w/d and cravings (for me, at least) would it be a good idea to taper down from 600 pregabalin, then switch to gabapentin, taper to low doses of that and then finish off with LOW doses of diazepam - like 2.5 mg every 3 days (option 1). Or am I just trading monkey for monkey? By starting off at 600 mg pregabalin is it just like jumping back up to 40 mg diazepam per day?

Option 2 is to just try to get stable on 5 mg diazepam per day then taper down from that (maybe invest in some Imodium) but I know that feels like hell. But my gut tells me that if it doesn’t feel like hell then you’re not kicking properly.

Option 3 is to admit the bupe w/d needs to work itself out and to get stable on 10 mg diazepam with zero bupe. But part of me thinks “option 3 is just an excuse to keep popping 10 mg of valium every day”. Other than the mentioned substances I do about 350 mg carisoprodol and 50 mg diphenhydramine to (try to) sleep. Although when I did the 600 mg pregabalin I did not need that to sleep and slept better than ever.

Option 4 is to jump immediately and deal with the seizures.

Option 5 is to return to using opiates every day and become a fucking zombie again.
 
Follow-up – it’s been about 24 hours since my 600 mg pregabalin dose. I’m shaky again and having the cold/hot thing again as I always do in withdrawal. Chattering teeth – all that good stuff. My hands are ice cold but I’m sweating. Typical. I don’t feel too bad mentally though.

I’m going to take another 600 mg today and tomorrow with no diazepam – then back to 5 mg diazepam Monday. I’ll see how that goes. My prediction is that Monday night I’m going to feel fucked. If not then I think I’ve figured out some kind of magic withdrawal formula.

I’m on such low doses that I feel I can jump but I always struggle with coming off the last dose – no matter how low. I haven’t been benzo free since June 2007. It would be nice. At minimum it would be nice to be done with the bupe and stable with that.
 
I really hope this works out for you and thank you for sharing your experiences... I think it can be beneficial for a lot of other people.

If I were in your situation I would definitely only try to climb one mountain at a time. If you compound the misery of trying to quit two substances at once you are probably just increasing the likelihood that these changes won't stick.

I can tell you that I take 450mg/day of lyrica... I titrated within 1-2 months from 0-300mg/day and maintained that for 3 years and recently went up to 450mg. I have had to rapidly taper or stop cold turkey a number of times due to forgetting to refill, errors at my doctors office, etc. over the last 3 years and there was some mild withdrawal symptoms but nothing like when I stopped 4mg of ativan or even 2.

I hope you get through this alright and keep us updated.

Take care
 
I've always felt that pregabalin, and its weaker cousin, gabapentin, make for excellent withdrawal aids. They help you sleep, keep the pain down, and reduce craving. Combined with some immodium for the notorious S.H.I.Ts, and it makes withdrawal...not fun...but definitely manageable. I haven't heard too much about people using these drugs for withdrawal, and since people seem to react so differently to them, I wouldn't recommend them to everybody, but chances are that if you enjoy them for the benzo-esque high to begin with, they'll probably do wonders for your withdrawals, and you won't have to take as many benzos.

The capacity is there to swap one addiction for another, especially since tolerance seems to rise so quickly for gabapentin/pregabalin, but to me they seem much less addictive than benzos, and I never noticed any physical or mental withdrawal symptoms after ceasing use. Granted I've only used pregabalin or gabapentin on a daily basis or about a two week period, but that's more than enough to get through most acute opiate withdrawals.

The other nice thing about pregabalin/gabapentin is that they make me feel more social, even during withdrawals, which is a very crucial thing for me. When withdrawing, my cravings usually get pretty intense and I'll get mood swings to the point where its difficult for me to interact like a normal human being with others..it paradoxically makes me appear alot worse off than if I were high at the moment. But pregabalin or gabapentin make me genuinely excited about going out of the house and interacting with others, so low doses of these drugs could even make work or school a viable option, which beats calling in sick any day.

I'd say this thread could be mergedd into one of the megathreads we have floating around OD, maybe the Lyrica or Neurontin one??
 
Thanks for the info and support.

Have you ever used valium and if so would you agree 4 mg ativan was equivalent to 40 mg valium (that's what the equivalence table at benzo.org.uk has it at)? I’m trying to do the pregabalin/benzo math on this and it does not seem like I’m too far from being done based on what I’m feeling at the doses I’m taking.

My newest plan is 600 mg pregabalin today, 600 tomorrow. 5 mg diazepam Monday and if I can’t tolerate that then back to 10 mg Tuesday. I’ll stabilize my diazepam with a ceiling at 10 mg per day and taper from there very slowly.
 
pallidamors said:
I've always felt that pregabalin, and its weaker cousin, gabapentin, make for excellent withdrawal aids. They help you sleep, keep the pain down, and reduce craving. Combined with some immodium for the notorious S.H.I.Ts, and it makes withdrawal...not fun...but definitely manageable. I haven't heard too much about people using these drugs for withdrawal, and since people seem to react so differently to them, I wouldn't recommend them to everybody, but chances are that if you enjoy them for the benzo-esque high to begin with, they'll probably do wonders for your withdrawals, and you won't have to take as many benzos.

The capacity is there to swap one addiction for another, especially since tolerance seems to rise so quickly for gabapentin/pregabalin, but to me they seem much less addictive than benzos, and I never noticed any physical or mental withdrawal symptoms after ceasing use. Granted I've only used pregabalin or gabapentin on a daily basis or about a two week period, but that's more than enough to get through most acute opiate withdrawals.

The other nice thing about pregabalin/gabapentin is that they make me feel more social, even during withdrawals, which is a very crucial thing for me. When withdrawing, my cravings usually get pretty intense and I'll get mood swings to the point where its difficult for me to interact like a normal human being with others..it paradoxically makes me appear alot worse off than if I were high at the moment. But pregabalin or gabapentin make me genuinely excited about going out of the house and interacting with others, so low doses of these drugs could even make work or school a viable option, which beats calling in sick any day.

I'd say this thread could be mergedd into one of the megathreads we have floating around OD, maybe the Lyrica or Neurontin one??
Click to expand...

I agree - I prefer the pregabalin/gabapentin (more stimulating) feeling to the benzo feeling (dulling). I don’t know how benzos seem to suck people in so much. It happened to me and I never thought it would because I’ve never liked the high. I would just take some for airline flights. Then I starting using it as a mixer – then I had to keep doing it to keep withdrawals away – blah, blah. You know.
 
Follow-up:

Monday: 5 mg diazepam. The evening was rough. Fragile sleep to no sleep.
Tuesday: 10 mg diazepam. Felt ok and slept fine.
Wednesday: 5 mg diazepam. Felt ok and slept fine.
Thursday: 5 mg diazepam. Felt ok and slept fine. Starting to feel better than I have in a long time.
Friday: 5 mg diazepam. I think I’m stable on 5 mg. I’m pretty happy about that. I think I’ll do 5 mg for another week then 2.5 per day.
 
IMO do one thing at a time.. first take care of the bupe, wait at least 2 weeks after having kicked the bupe to start on the diazepam.. and then if you can, it takes time, but diminish by 2mg per week, then 1mg / week once you get down to 3 or 4mg... i don't know about the lyrica i dont know enough about it
 
Update: After bouncing around a bit on the diazepam I switched to exclusively pregabalin. I’ve been taking 600-900 mg pregabalin, 200-300 mg tramadol for pain and zero diazepam for the past 9 days and have noticed no withdrawal symptoms. I plan to taper off the tramadol to acetaminophen starting today over the next week or two then taper off the pregabalin. I hope I don’t experience hell on earth when I try the pregabalin taper.
 
OP do it all gradually man and one by one - leave the pregabalin till last - and steady with the tramadol - , ur still triggering the mu receptors.... your doing well though i think

so right now u have got rid of the diazepam ? and the bupe ?.

if so well done just gradually reduce the pregab and the tramadol - gradually gradually ,... make it as painless as possible - no need to be a tough guy here

well done - please keep us all posted
 
Yeah zero diazepam for 10 days and zero bupe since April. Only tramadol and pregabalin.

I hear you - I'm going to reduce gradually.
 
aallaann said:
Yeah zero diazepam for 10 days and zero bupe since April. Only tramadol and pregabalin.

I hear you - I'm going to reduce gradually.
Click to expand...

nice work keep it up .. u should work on reducing the tramadol next... leave the pregab as it is

how much of each are u taking now ?
 
ah tamadol. it is a drug one gets hooked on. 800 mg per day. So now I need to fight that. It seems like I always have a partner in crime.
 
Lyrica is good for late withdrawals IMO. Would have been a great taper if it wasn't for the Tramadol. I considered using it for a "while' after I got off my bup taper if the PAWS was a problem. However after researching it a bit I decided against it.

I have found methylphenidate works great to clear up your head from PAWS. Just be sure to use as prescribed because I've gone on a couple of binges and then left with none for ages. Learned my lesson there. Without it I'm brain dead. I just take 10mg IR twice a day.
 
Im on lyrica for benzo withdrawal. i take 400 mg a day and plan on staying on it til my withdrawal stops. i feel terrible but would probably feelw orse without the lyrica. I hope i recover while on lyrica;.
 
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