Struggle with being entirely mentally present … dementia

[OpiateKiller]

Two types of drugs you may want to avoid for the sake of your brain - Harvard Health

Benzodiazepines and drugs with strong anticholinergic effects have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease in people who take them. There are alternatives to both types....

www.health.harvard.edu

I was taking hydroxyzine for about 4 months and I began to seriously have a mental decline. It felt very depersonalized much like I went through from benzo withdrawal.

Thankfully I stopped taking it but now I feel gabapentin has to go if I have any chance of regaining my full self.

I must begin a taper if been on some sort of GABA drug fairly steadily for the last 4 years… does anyone have any advice here or similar experience?

 

[xtcgrrrl]

Two types of drugs you may want to avoid for the sake of your brain - Harvard Health

Benzodiazepines and drugs with strong anticholinergic effects have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease in people who take them. There are alternatives to both types....

www.health.harvard.edu

I was taking hydroxyzine for about 4 months and I began to seriously have a mental decline. It felt very depersonalized much like I went through from benzo withdrawal.

Thankfully I stopped taking it but now I feel gabapentin has to go if I have any chance of regaining my full self.

I must begin a taper if been on some sort of GABA drug fairly steadily for the last 4 years… does anyone have any advice here or similar experience?

I’ve taken Hydroxyzine for an extended period of time, did not feel as if I suffered any sort of mental decline. However, I was also taking topiramate (Topamax) and that one definitely did make me NOTICEABLY more stupid. I felt so much more clear-headed after I got off of that. But it wasn’t just a migraine preventative for me, it was also helping with my anxiety, so that returned full-force. I have likewise been trying to get off of the gabapentin, but my anxiety became so much worse when I tried to taper, not to mention other symptoms like pain (which is what I’m prescribed this for, nerve pain) and I even started to feel that twitchy sensation I got before I had seizures, before. So I’ve ceased attempts to get off the gabapentin because I don’t want to have another seizure. I’m worried about it though…

 

[Dreamflyer]

Benzos and first-generation antihistamines (like hydroxyzine and diphenhydramine) turn me into a complete zombie, but once I get off of them I'm sharp as a tack.

 

[ukdaniel34]

Mate I've withdraw from pre gabs, similar to gabapentin. It's absolutely horrendous, itching sweats anxiety flushes seizures.

You need to reduce every few days or you'll be poorly. Only thing that slightly helped was promethazine over the counter.

 

[swilow]

Mate I've withdraw from pre gabs, similar to gabapentin. It's absolutely horrendous, itching sweats anxiety flushes seizures.

You need to reduce every few days or you'll be poorly. Only thing that slightly helped was promethazine over the counter.

Pregabalin was one of the most horrible withdrawal experiences I've had, and that includes various opiates and benzos. Genuinely felt like insects were crawling all over me, terrible anxiety, insomnia, depression. Admittedly, this was from months of taking over a gram a day but I was shocked at the sheer brutality. I tried CT numerous times but it never worked and I always jumped back on after suffering for a few days. Eventually did a slow and relatively painless taper. But the 2 years or so when I was binging on Pregabalin were some of my worst years. Just horrendous stuff when abused, i was acting so weird all the time, and just flippantly hoovering down dissociatives and various psychedelics, but also such a unique and satisfying high. Good old drugs eh, our best friends and worst enemies

 

[ukdaniel34]

Yeh along with alcohol, two withdrawals that I wouldn't wish on anyone.

 

[Señor Moreno]

Two types of drugs you may want to avoid for the sake of your brain - Harvard Health

Benzodiazepines and drugs with strong anticholinergic effects have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease in people who take them. There are alternatives to both types....

www.health.harvard.edu

I was taking hydroxyzine for about 4 months and I began to seriously have a mental decline. It felt very depersonalized much like I went through from benzo withdrawal.

Thankfully I stopped taking it but now I feel gabapentin has to go if I have any chance of regaining my full self.

I must begin a taper if been on some sort of GABA drug fairly steadily for the last 4 years… does anyone have any advice here or similar experience?

Hey Opi, glad to see you posting! How are things going overall?
Hydroxyzine makes me stupid, but never had a problem stopping them. Pregabs,as @Swillow and @ukdaniel34 have said, are different. Worst anxiety ever, like coming down of a serious IV cocaine session, but like two or 3 weeks long

 

[Dreamflyer]

I’ve taken Hydroxyzine for an extended period of time, did not feel as if I suffered any sort of mental decline. However, I was also taking topiramate (Topamax) and that one definitely did make me NOTICEABLY more stupid. I felt so much more clear-headed after I got off of that. But it wasn’t just a migraine preventative for me, it was also helping with my anxiety, so that returned full-force. I have likewise been trying to get off of the gabapentin, but my anxiety became so much worse when I tried to taper, not to mention other symptoms like pain (which is what I’m prescribed this for, nerve pain) and I even started to feel that twitchy sensation I got before I had seizures, before. So I’ve ceased attempts to get off the gabapentin because I don’t want to have another seizure. I’m worried about it though…

I'm so sorry that you're dealing with this. Anxiety sucks. I hope that you feel better.

I was given one month's worth of Gabapentin as a muscle relaxant and I actually felt really good on it, like I was calm but not impaired in any way.

 

[foodcrisis]

my mother's family has a risk of dementia and she uses benzos and alcohol for sleeping like all the time. i don't see why they won't prescribe my father pain killers when he has a seriously messed up back but he smokes weed so they won't prescribe them anymore... they'll prescribe my mother benzos with a family hisotry of dementia and she drinks with them every night too. the doctors don't check... she wakes up every morning and drinks coffee too. she says she doesn't like weed. if i were her i'd probably just recommend going straight edge because she doesn't have to keep a job anymore... she drinks wine like every night though and uses benzos too. doesn't make sense to me. i know she knows benzos cause dementia too... she's just got to get through the day i guess. there's not enough good stuff on t.v. to be awake that often i guess. kind of sad.

 

[OpiateKiller]

Hey Opi, glad to see you posting! How are things going overall?
Hydroxyzine makes me stupid, but never had a problem stopping them. Pregabs,as @Swillow and @ukdaniel34 have said, are different. Worst anxiety ever, like coming down of a serious IV cocaine session, but like two or 3 weeks long

I am doing much better, I stopped taking Soma and Roboxin as well as the Hydrozxyine and I feel much better. Something about the anti histamines and muscle relaxers was seriously causing me to feel like I was on a DXM plateau.

Doing much better guys thanks just a warning I say stay away from anti histamines long term I read many studies of contributing to dementia and Alzheimer’s

 

[gordonliddy]

I must begin a taper if been on some sort of GABA drug fairly steadily for the last 4 years… does anyone have any advice here or similar experience?

I know less about the drug aspect of what you're going through than I do the chakra aspect. Are you open to yoga as a partial amelioration to what you're experiencing?

 

[plumbus-nine]

I think acute cognitive dysfunction is very different from slow-onset and irreversible dementia. Like acute vs tardive dyskinesia. But some drugs like anticholinergics cause both. I felt very stupid on pregabalin but afaik doesn't it carry a risk for dementia (yet probably it's too new to really know that).

 

[OpiateKiller]

I know less about the drug aspect of what you're going through than I do the chakra aspect. Are you open to yoga as a partial amelioration to what you're experiencing?

I love yoga I do hot yoga twice a week and going to Costa Rica in July for a 200 hour yoga retreat / teaching to
Become YTT 200 certified ! No coincidences

 

[OpiateKiller]

I think acute cognitive dysfunction is very different from slow-onset and irreversible dementia. Like acute vs tardive dyskinesia. But some drugs like anticholinergics cause both. I felt very stupid on pregabalin but afaik doesn't it carry a risk for dementia (yet probably it's too new to really know that).

Yeah I’ve abused phenibut gabapentin and pregabalin heavily, as well as klonopin. Currently on 1600 mg gabapentin a day.. last time I came off it I went into a psychosis from lack of sleep. It’s very difficult to get off of.

And yes phenibut withdrawal was my worst ever I’d rather get off methadone again before I ever did that again at 10 grams a day for months.

 

[SpiralusSancti]

I’m certainly more stupid than I was before benzos but it’s at least somewhat reversible and gets a bit better as time passes.

As for me, when I get really old, I hope some medical breakthroughs until that might suppress a bit negative effects of all the drugs and other damaging stuff (stress, injuries etc.), if not I’m probably fucked.

Benzos sooner or later make you stupider than you were, main reason I think benzos should be in category “not even once”. I never thought I could get addicted to such a lame group of drugs and here I am having consequences of benzo use.

 

[Dreamflyer]

Yeah, benzos always take me to a whole new level of stupid than my normal stupidity!

They've been a life-saver at times like job interviews, first dates and airplane flights, so long as I didn't abuse them. But if I take just a little bit too much, that stupidity causes me to take even more, which in turn makes me more stupid...

 

[Juniper Bruhmomentius]

Once we took 3 bottles of 150mg pregabs (168! = 25200mg) in period of 24 hours split with my mate. Thats 12.5 grams of pregabalin in a day. When I started withdrawing the next day.... worst wd experience I will propably ever have.

When I had them prescribed, even running out early was such a fuck awful feeling. Gabapentins are nowhere near as bad but you should seriously drop to a low dose before you stop them.

And yeah, I feel like Im surely gonna have dementia or alzheimer after hitting 40. Even now my memory is shot to shit.

 

[gordonliddy]

I love yoga I do hot yoga twice a week and going to Costa Rica in July for a 200 hour yoga retreat / teaching to
Become YTT 200 certified ! No coincidences

Sounds like you're in the zone, then. One of my alzheyiehhymrr (sp?) patients is actually doing really well. So while some people exhibiting symptoms have bona fide brain damage, in at least a couple of cases what I've observed was the result of an organism walling itself up in it's own cave, and then expecting everyone around them to accomodate them.

You're....older now? Adopt the habits of young people. Adapt to their systems. Flatter them go with the flow. This will keep you young. Spend at least twenty minutes per day doing something like a crossword puzzle or another (deliberately uncomfortable) mental challenge in order to help deter 'old bear' syndrome.

 

[xtcgrrrl]

Yeah I’ve abused phenibut gabapentin and pregabalin heavily, as well as klonopin. Currently on 1600 mg gabapentin a day.. last time I came off it I went into a psychosis from lack of sleep. It’s very difficult to get off of.

I’m currently on 1600 mg of gabapentin a day (800 mg twice a day) and I was taking pregabalin (300 mg) at night as well. Managed to eliminate the pregabalin but not the gabapentin. I really need to get off it completely cuz I’m tryna have a baby and they don’t know what the effects of gabapentin might be on a developing baby. Additionally, the baby might have to withdraw from the gabapentin after birth. I already went through this with my second child (with Xanax, not gabapentin) and it was horrible to watch. My second baby was a surprise, we were not expecting to get pregnant. I asked the doctor if I should get off the Xanax and he said that at this point it would be too big a shock to my system and the baby’s so to keep taking it as prescribed, they’d just monitor me carefully. So when my little girl was born, I had to wean her from the med via my breastmilk. I tapered off and she did too via the milk but I was so nervous/worried. She had a very pronounced startle reflex, amongst other things, I was concerned that she would be an anxious baby (and I was right.)

This shit sucks.

 

[Juniper Bruhmomentius]

^Thats sad to read.

My best friend was weaned off morphine and heroin when he was born and he was down bad when we were doing bupre before be both got into maintenance. He would faint on the first day of no bupre and shit like that. Wtf