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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Using Gabapentin for Benzo Withdrawal

B

beeeatch

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 4, 2011
Messages
54
went to doctor, who refused to prescribe me anything, but referred me. the referral/appraisal said they can do nothing for me either. except maybe send around a counsellor every so often. no-one will prescribe me anything.

i went begging for help. wanted a script and an organised taper down. maybe with gabapentin to help or something. but was told, "NO, we cant refer you to anyone who can prescribe, as we find when we do this, addicts carry on buying from the street anyway".

i've been buying from the internet. i cant afford it anyway. i have a child to support. i only got onto benzos as i needed sleepers after clucking from prescribed opiates after sporting injury. after two weeks of next to no sleep didn't do enough research.

how can i get a health care professional to take me seriously? there's no-one where i live that will. surely, due to the risk of seizures, the doctor owes a duty of care to make sure that doesn't happen and should prescribe me something. surely?

if i'd presented as an alcoholic, and they'd given me benzos, they'd have tapered me down. i've been nothing but honest and am frustrated as fuck over the whole situation.

i dont want to be dependent on anything.

what can i do? any suggestions would be incredibly appreciated.
 
how can i get a health care professional to take me seriously? there's no-one where i live that will. surely, due to the risk of seizures, the doctor owes a duty of care to make sure that doesn't happen and should prescribe me something. surely?
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^I agree that they do. Tapering off benzos is something to be taken seriously. If your doctor isn't taking you seriously, then see another doctor. If that doctor doesn't take you seriously, go to the ER. I hate to tell you to actually present yourself as an alcoholic, most emergency rooms would treat somebody who said they were in alcohol WD better than somebody who said they were in benzo WD :/

what can i do? any suggestions would be incredibly appreciated.
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I seriously recommend speaking to another doctor. If your doctor refuses to refer you, demand to speak to another doctor, if that doesn't work, go to the ER. I know that sounds rash, but if you are in benzo WD, you need a taper, a professionally supervised taper.
 
i was sent for an assessment, and told that, in their experience, when they do prescribe and taper, people carry on scoring off the street anyway. so they dont bother. i really REALLY want to get off of them. i only started taking them to combat the insomnia caused by withdrawals from opiate painkillers from a sport injury, and i needed sleep to be a competent parent. i've not been dependent on anything since two years before my daughter was born (9 years ago) and i HATE it. just wanna be normal again.

gonna try the doctor again next week with extra push, but not holding out too much hope.

i'd not slept properly for a week before taking sleepers, else i'd have researched properly. now i'm on diazepam and temazepam. with gabapentin early in the day. is it possible to do it alone? dont want to takie months.

and i'm not even drinking socially anymore, so fecked on that front. pretty agoraphobic with it now, when i were a proper social butterfly before. am basically stagnating. how do i make it stop?
 
i'd not slept properly for a week before taking sleepers, else i'd have researched properly. now i'm on diazepam and temazepam. with gabapentin early in the day. is it possible to do it alone? dont want to takie months.

and i'm not even drinking socially anymore, so fecked on that front. pretty agoraphobic with it now, when i were a proper social butterfly before. am basically stagnating. how do i make it stop?
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You will need to either switch to diazepam only and taper down with that, or use a combination of gabapentin and diazepam (the dosages should be decided by a doctor - and I am not a doctor).

A proper diazepam taper would take months, depending on your body's reaction to the dose reduction and how much you're taking now. Tapering takes time.
 
thanks. that's what i'd figured. first time i took gapabentin, was the first time i'd felt 'normal' for a long time. thing is, the source i got them from has dried up. i know the taper would be much better for my impatience in conjunction with them.

would doctors in the uk prescribe gabapentin?
 
^I'm not familiar enough with U.K. laws or prescribing practices to completely answer that, I'm in the U.S.

Doctors in either place should prescribe diazepam or at the very least chlordiazepoxide (Librium).
 
get off them yourself. learn how to taper off drugs, dont expect ANOTHER drug to fix your drug problem. you need to fix it.
 
get off them yourself. learn how to taper off drugs, dont expect ANOTHER drug to fix your drug problem. you need to fix it.
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Hypnotics are a special class of drugs when it comes to coming off them, stopping a benzo/barb/alcohol habit cold turkey is actually extremely dangerous.
 
Yeah it's not like stopping smoking weed or meth or some shit. Benzo withdrawal can cause seizures and be fatal.

OP I sympathize with you, many doctors just throw supposed 'addicts' to the curb. If you cannot get any GP's to take you seriously I highly recommend going to the ER. They cannot turn you down.
 
OP I sympathize with you, many doctors just throw supposed 'addicts' to the curb. If you cannot get any GP's to take you seriously I highly recommend going to the ER. They cannot turn you down.
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This needs to be stressed.

(It's A&E in the UK, in case you were wondering what "ER" meant, both Brokedown and myself are in the U.S.)
 
I hate to tell you to do this but maybe you tell them your an alcoholic and need something to wean yourself down with. You'll have a better chance than saying your trying to taper from the benzos. Many will think your drug seeking. Maybe if they see you twitching and suffering spasms you'd have a batter chance. I mean, when I was coming off benzos I'd spasm every 5-10 minutes and tremble/shake all day so if they see you are "really" in withdrawals they will help you. How severe are your symptoms? Because if you are able to talk to them without suffering any physical withdrawals they won't feel its necessary. If you are able to go a week before seeing another doctor you'll probably just be told, well you've gone through the worse if you've been able to go that long without them. Which in all honesty would be true, so if your feeling seriously bad, go to the ER or something because I tell you, I would never have been able to go a week without tapering. If you've already gone a week or more without convulsions or seizures then they probably won't treat you.

I was always told you could just go to a doctor for help if your going through severe withdrawals. I was wrong until one saw I was really sick and could barely talk. He switched me onto Diazepam for a 1 month taper.
 
beeeatch said:
thanks. that's what i'd figured. first time i took gapabentin, was the first time i'd felt 'normal' for a long time. thing is, the source i got them from has dried up. i know the taper would be much better for my impatience in conjunction with them.

would doctors in the uk prescribe gabapentin?
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look online- its cheap, accessable in the uk, as is zopiclone.

both will tide you over in need but zopiclone are addictive and not recomended for tapering

you bought benzo's on the net? well zopiclone and lyrica are WAYYY easier to find and quite cheap

you dont need a prescription- just money

(i know advertising buying drugs off the internet isn't maybe seen as harm reduction, but if you are going to withdraw from benzo's then maybe it is if it will keep you from having a seizure. i have already suggested this to a friend who ran out of xanax and it helped him cover his arse as xanax withdrawl is no joke)
 
Benzos as we all know are the most difficult ...I tried for 10+ yrs to get offf these ..only to make things worse...its a scary WD...very scary....but 6 months ago I went to detox for 9 days.....did a librium taper then 28 days rehab...and was on serequel, 3000mg Neurontin...depakote...among others....and I almost still had them take me away , had convulsions.........Uh it was so horrific!!!!!!

Be very careful...!!!!! if you start to feel better...u can (and likely will) still have other episodes......

get professional help.......very dificult to do solo.....I had many opiate WD's.....they were much easier....trust me........
good luck
 
How long have you been using benzo's? If you haven't been using them that long, then just ask for a prescription for a beta-blocker, preferably something like Metoprolol. This is reduce your withdrawals greatly. Everyone thinks you need to taper off benzo's all the time, and not to go cold turkey. Not entirely true. I have been on and off benzo's for 7 years. I have a HUGE tolerance to benzodiazepines. It would probably take at least 10mg of Alprazolam to knock me out. If you don't have epilepsy, or any seizure disorder, and you have only been using benzo's for not that long, and especially mild benzo's like Diazepam, and with a long half life. Seizures are not really a worry.

Everybody reacts a little overboard on this forum with benzodiazepines. Well coming off a heavy opioid addiction can be harder to kick for some people (like me) than benzo's. I have a HUGE tolerance to both and i'm not dicksizing here.
 
i've done cold turkey off opiates before. fourth time was successful. i never meant to get sucked in with this shit this time, i just wanted some sleep so i could get my daughter to school/fed/clothed etc.

i've taken nothing out on her, but it's seriously effecting my relationship. it's only been a couple of months i've been taking them, and as soon as i realised i had a problem i was straight to the quack for help, naively thinking i'd get some. they wont prescribe me anything, and i cant afford to keep buying online.

i tried to take nothing at all this morning, and from waking up at seven, until about half ten i was ok, but was then in floods of tears over nothing. crying aint my style. so i took a couple, ok three blues, to sort myself out.

i dont want to be dependent on anything. got a doctor's appointment tomorrow. she's the same one who referred me to the people who said they could do nothing except send a counsellor around occasionally. how do i get her to take me seriously and to prescribe? do they not have a duty of care or anything? actually, i'm gonna look that up now.

sorry to go on whinging. but i'm in a really bad, dark place right now, and i dont want to eff off all of my relationships because of it.
 
I believe it says somewhere in bluelight's rules not to ask how to persuade doctors to give you pills. If you do have the risk of serious withdrawal, going to a methadone clinic or emergency room would be a good idea- maybe even a rehab center. They will administer the correct dose to help you stop. If you want to continue then cool, but don't ask us on how to fool your doctor into writing you a script.
 
Justin Sane 53 said:
I believe it says somewhere in bluelight's rules not to ask how to persuade doctors to give you pills. If you do have the risk of serious withdrawal, going to a methadone clinic or emergency room would be a good idea- maybe even a rehab center. They will administer the correct dose to help you stop. If you want to continue then cool, but don't ask us on how to fool your doctor into writing you a script.
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how to fool??????? that is SO not the case. i really want a SUPERVISED taper on prescription. so i'm not buying on the internet and self medicating, compromising my relationship with my other half, maybe even inviting social services to look into my parenting skills..... the latter being the main reason why i want to go through the doctorf to have support.

but hey, if i'm breaking any rules. maybe i'm in the wrong place. as so often appears to be the case with any forum, or indeed anywhere i go asking for help
 
methadone clinic.... emergency room.... rehab centre? are you in a city? i'm in a small village down a valley in wales, literally the arse end of nowhere. i also dont drive. my doctor would appear to be my last resort.
 
I apologize, I didn't read your situation very well then. I don't know the laws or skill of doctors in Wales, but I doubt they have the supplies or knowledge to help you. If you got seriously injured or had to give birth etc., where would you go? Wherever this place you would go is called, they are most likely the ones that can help you. I live in the middle of nowhere as well, but we have two emergency hospitals
 
Justin Sane 53 said:
I apologize, I didn't read your situation very well then. I don't know the laws or skill of doctors in Wales, but I doubt they have the supplies or knowledge to help you. If you got seriously injured or had to give birth etc., where would you go? Wherever this place you would go is called, they are most likely the ones that can help you. I live in the middle of nowhere as well, but we have two emergency hospitals
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yeah, hospital. that'll be great. s'frickin miles away, the transport issues would cripple me more financially than buying online lol. it's not as though i'm not stressed enough already.

anyway. guess we've pretty much exhausted ideas from here. cheers for the help people who've contributed.

bee xxxx
 
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