Gabapentinoids (Gabapentin) withdrawal, any advice?

[Spacebear23]

Everyone is different. I have been on 5100mg for 2 years and I get horrendous withdrawals.

 

[bardy1967]

I have been on gabapentin for about 8 years now maybe longer taking 2700mg a day in capsule form, 900mg morning, 900mg in the afternoon and 900mg before bed. To be honest im not sure if they really do anything for me as i am on Zomorph too for my back pain 160mg per day 100mg in the morning, 60mg at night. I also have Oramorph to take as and when needed for breakthrough pain, this is in liquid form. One thing that i can say, a few times i have ran out of gabapentin i have had hot and cold sweats, plus i know i get very moody aswell when i miss a dose or two so its definitely doing something to me. Does anyone think i should go see my dr and ask him to take me off this medication and if so what reason should i give him?

 

[issokay]

I'm gettin those warm feelings in the parts of my body with nerve damage, as well as the worst spams & clenching of the muscles in my feet and toes, places you wouldn't think could flex so strongly, especially when I can't voluntarily move those parts of my body. Gabapentin has ruined to pain control. Opiates and benzos no longer work for me. I think gabapentin blocks the mu opioid/opiate receptors. It's not listed as a side effect but when I took Chantix the benzos and opiates didn't work for me for a while I was worried it wouldn't work again, but this has persisted longer with the gabapentin. I quit about 7 days ago. There's no valuable info on it and everyone claims something opposite the next person. Claiming euphoric effects, kinda like when I sold someone a vitamin capsule claiming it was pure MDMA, just under half of the handful or so of people I sold to were adamant they felt nothing.
Disclaimer: this was 15 years ago and I'm not in the business of going to prison. I have too many health problems and coping problems to put myself there…

Pls help, anyone…

 

[issokay]

I just started takin gabapentin and have taken it for about 4 weeks and I stopped, now, 7 days after I quit taking it I'm still having the worst withdrawals of my life & I went through a dr CTing me from 8mg/day for 10 years, but amu relapse once in 14 years and he jerks me off of my panic/anxiety meds after telling me himself that the withdrawal could be fatal. At least my PCP tapered my Norco/MS Contin. He's outing me back on that in a couple months, but I was completely stunned the dr did that to me. Now is happening to me again with gabapentin! This is worse than heroin withdrawals while crashing from meth on a Sunday summer day in New Delhi. (Granted they would sorta offset each other, but my point is I can't believe people take this. I refuse to be one of them.)

 

[EP158207]

Dont go off gabapentin suddenly. It increases the seizure threshold. Taper down. Get your body used to less and less of it then it wont feel so bad when you come off.

 

[issokay]

Dont go off gabapentin suddenly. It increases the seizure threshold. Taper down. Get your body used to less and less of it then it wont feel so bad when you come off.

My doctor told me that he has never heard of anyone having a problem with withdrawal from Neurontin (Gabapentin).
He switched me to Lyrica (Pregabalin)

 

[Predecessor]

what if you only use it recreationally? Will you get withdrawal symptoms then?

I do it recreationally (twice a week @5,000mg each time) and have never experienced withdrawal. Even after taking a 4 week break a few times.

 

[MagickalKat777]

My doctor told me that he has never heard of anyone having a problem with withdrawal from Neurontin (Gabapentin).
He switched me to Lyrica (Pregabalin)

Some doctors still insist that benzodiazepines don't cause withdrawal. Doesn't make it any more true.

Lyrica is worse than gabapentin is. It doesn't have the funky absorption issues that gabapentin does. Its just a much more potent and much more bioavailable gabapentin. You're switching one addiction for the same addiction - just a much more expensive one.

 

[thehumanguineapigy]

My doctor told me that he has never heard of anyone having a problem with withdrawal from Neurontin (Gabapentin).
He switched me to Lyrica (Pregabalin)

I only took lyrica for less than ten days!... was up to 1200_1500/day

I promise you there are serious wd symptoms from both gaba and lyrica. You can not always trust your doctors advice. unfortunately drug companies lie to make money. If you read the peoples posts in this thread, you may change your mind. I myself made this account not ten minutes ago, to warn people about this drug. i have gone thru every wd I know of, including very heavy opiate wds for ten years. If I had to choose between h wdrawl and lyrica wdrawl. i really don't know if i would choose lyrica honestly. I experienced very scarry psychological symptoms from lyrica for two weeks now. i just want it to be over. EXTREME depression and spontaneous waves of overwhelming anxiety that caused me to go to the ER, for what i thought was a heart attack. turned out this drug gave me my first extreme panic attack. this was before I had realized the symptoms were from lyrica, and educated myself on other peoples experiences. i feel horrible for everyone that has also gone or will go thru gaba/lyrica wds.

I do it recreationally (twice a week @5,000mg each time) and have never experienced withdrawal. Even after taking a 4 week break a few times.

your playing with the devil, i promise you the high is just not worth taking the chance. My symptoms were mentioned above. And that's still noteverything

 

[issokay]

So what does this alleged high feel like? (Not that I'm even considering thinking about trying it, but I'm curious why anyone would take the stuff if they don't have to.) Is it comparable to an upper, downer, muscle relaxer, benzo, a mix of some of them? Do tell…

 

[benzoman12345]

FUCK Gabapentin, I got put on it for pain and at 300mgs 3x per day (900) , it helped cramps in my legs that were underlying for years, did fuck all for my back pain what is was prescribed for, upped to 600mgs 3x per day (1800), no change at all except slurring words and stuttering and in photographs I can tell myself I look rubbered, a term used in the UK for people staggering about full of temazepam, I'm already on benzos and no amount of benzos give me side effects like that shit, stuttering my words on something with GABA in the name, something wrong with that picture,

So today I took 300mgs 3x per day and tomorrow I will take 200 next day 100 next ZERO , 4 days detox, I'm hardly gna take a seizure with my Benzos and if I did it would be nothing compared to a massive Valium W/D seizure I took years ago anyway and I handled that pretty well and I know all the symptoms , I expect to shake for a bit, but I'm sure I'll survive,

That's what I think of Gabapentin, IMO it may help some people but it is not the appropriate medication for pain or anxiety , it is an anti-epilepsy drug full stop.

 

[benzoman12345]

Opiates and benzos no longer work for me. …

I have also noticed that no amount of Opiates work for me since being on Gabapentin, I thought my tolerance just got higher but when I say NO amount I really mean NO amount

 

[moparman636]

I've been taking gaba for a year now and some times I'll go a couple days without taking it and have never noticed any withdraw from it..

 

[benzoman12345]

There is no high from Gabapentin unless you are a total junkie who just likes to fucking fall about like a clown, I tried it once out of curiosity and I felt 100 percent sober except I was walking in zig zags banging off walls , lost control of my legs but I was fine mentally, how the fuck anybody can enjoy that I don't know, a lot of people on methadone go crazy for it round here, they'l buy gabapentin off the street before valium (in the UK there is only valium on the streets, no Xanax or anything), I think Gabapentin and Methadone combo must do something, it does say that gabapentin increases the effects of Morphine, then how comes I am ammune to Codeine now ? Don't understand the drug at all , but I'll keep it on my script anyway incase I end up in Benzo seizure mode for some unknown reason seen as it is an anti-seizure drug and I can take seizures the moment Benzos run out it's not exactly something I'm gna throw out.

 

[bob_arctor]

When I was tapering Pregabalin and was combating withdrawals I had some use of a combination of Mulungu tea (for me, this acts like a weak BZD, and there is literature on it having anxiolytic effects in animal models), L-theanine, Valerian, supercritical CO2 extracts of Kava Kava, and Melissa officinalis tea. Sometimes when the going got rough, low doses of Pyrazolam helped out as well, but I tried to stay away from straight BZD:s overall.

 

[issokay]

There's nothing like good 'ol benzos to me. My doctor finally switched me to Pregabalin (Lyrica here in the States) and added MS Contin (Morphine ES [Extended Release]) 30mg 2x/day and Norco (Hydrocodone 10mg/Acetaminophen 325mg) to take PRN (as needed)
With the Pregabalin I have noticed that I've had much better effects of my opiates on me and u have yet to be put back on my Ativan (lorazepam), which I had been taking at 2mg 4x/day for almost 10 years before my fucking moron psychiatrist cut me off of that dose cold turkey! I really need to be back on it as I'm still having extreme panic attacks with my pulse hitting well into the 120's (bpm) resting.
I have actually quit taking the Lyrica since I now have the MS Contin. I still have Neurontin leftover as well as my Pregabalin in case I need it, but I definitely want to quit the GABA meds & never look back if I can. The withdrawal symptoms I experienced from it were just horrendous. I was only taking it for about 5 weeks before I made an executive decision to quit taking it.

 

[issokay]

FUCK Gabapentin, I got put on it for pain and at 300mgs 3x per day (900) , it helped cramps in my legs that were underlying for years, did fuck all for my back pain what is was prescribed for, upped to 600mgs 3x per day (1800), no change at all except slurring words and stuttering and in photographs I can tell myself I look rubbered, a term used in the UK for people staggering about full of temazepam, I'm already on benzos and no amount of benzos give me side effects like that shit, stuttering my words on something with GABA in the name, something wrong with that picture,

So today I took 300mgs 3x per day and tomorrow I will take 200 next day 100 next ZERO , 4 days detox, I'm hardly gna take a seizure with my Benzos and if I did it would be nothing compared to a massive Valium W/D seizure I took years ago anyway and I handled that pretty well and I know all the symptoms , I expect to shake for a bit, but I'm sure I'll survive,

That's what I think of Gabapentin, IMO it may help some people but it is not the appropriate medication for pain or anxiety , it is an anti-epilepsy drug full stop.

I really don't get why doctors prescribe this shit if this is true. I'm not doubting anyone's experiences at all–I had very horrible withdrawals, too.
How are doctors not aware of these problems? I'm definitely bringing this all to my doctor's attention the next time I see him. The last time I went in I had to see a different doctor. I did mention my concerns & I mentioned what I've read about peoples' withdrawals but he seemed to dismiss it telling me that I could just take one a day for a week if I wanted to. Then I told him that I had already been doing that, the sort of executive decisions that doctors, at least here, do NOT like their patients to make, but I was trying to express to him how problematic it was. He didn't seem to take the potential problem seriously.

 

[issokay]

I have also noticed that no amount of Opiates work for me since being on Gabapentin, I thought my tolerance just got higher but when I say NO amount I really mean NO amount

I had the same issue with my rx for benzos & opiates, specifically Ativan (lorazepam), MS Contin (morphine), & Norco, hydrocodone.
I definitely took plenty because I was desperate. I even IV'd some heroin because I was in such pain & I didn't get any positive effects from it. However, I did nod. So I'm happy to be off of Gabapentin, though Lyrica is what he replaced it with. While it seems to at least allow me to have the positive effects of opiates, & potentially benzos, apparently Lyrica (Pregabalin) can still have those godawful withdrawals, so I've quit taking it on my own since the morphine & hydrocodone is working now, albeit to a lesser degree.

 

[issokay]

I've been taking gaba for a year now and some times I'll go a couple days without taking it and have never noticed any withdraw from it..

I didn't have any serious withdrawals upon quitting Gabapentin until it'd been beyond 2-4 days. Believe me, it wasn't something just a little mild. It was seriously painful. It felt like weeks, that's how bad it was.

 

[issokay]

I think Gabapentin and Methadone combo must do something, it does say that gabapentin increases the effects of Morphine, then how comes I am ammune to Codeine now ?

You're taking Gabapentin & you're feeling the morphine but not codeine? I wasn't able to feel morphine, hydrocodone, or even dilaudid (by IV) when I was taking Gabapentin. Apparently Lyrica (Pregabalin) is a little better at letting the positive effects of opiates in general come through.