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Gabapentinoids (Gabapentin) withdrawal, any advice?

Well, some good news, maybe: gabapentin (hereafter GBP) and her quirky kinetics.

So you take 7.2 grams GBP every twelve hours. Well, there's a well-known issue of diminishing returns for this drug--the more you eat, the less (per dose) you actually get into your blood. If you take a 400mg dose, 188mg gets into your blood (47% ). But an 800mg dose only gives you 272mg (34% ) (these are real data from the FDA monograph).

The trend continues, but no one's looked at even half your dose. Well, math does exist, and people who know how to use it estimate that the most you can absorb in a 24 hour period is 5 grams. This is from the appropriately named journal Seizure who list references that suggest 6 grams is a more likely cutoff. That's 6 grams divided, too, so really 3 grams at a time, twice a day.

The implication is that you could, right now, cut your use in half and never notice a thing. You've been essentially shitting out half your pills. But you're also taking 3X the max daily dose, and 4x the max single dose, so we can't even use their math to estimate (their number are still in the linear range). Not to mention how your guts have adapted. So maybe slightly less than half was shit out?

All else being equal, I would tell you to cut in half right now, and taper down to levels at least found in LD50 calculations.

But, you claim an inheritable seizure disorder in your family, and are taking a seizure-risk drug of unspecified quantity, and a short-acting benzodiazepine. This paper tested "high" dose GBP's effects on anti-seizure meds, but tramadol and benzos weren't included. GBP is not metabolized, you just piss it out, so I wouldn't worry about interference from your liver. But who knows what impact an extra half-ounce of drug going through your kidneys has on the other drugs you take. Their concentrations may be higher than normal, and cutting your GBP means you'd also lower their concentrations. Maybe just for the benzo, putting you at risk of seizure.

So, you obviously need to tread very lightly, and discomfort from a gabapentin withdrawal should be the least of your worries, before you go status epilepticus on some country road.

I think you need blood work to monitor your GBP to safely taper off it completely. And after that stop the tramadol if you're a seizure risk to begin with.
 
he's probly gonna reccomend an ssri (no thx to those side effects and stimulation... many say they just make their anxiety worse)

I felt like my ass was plugged into the wall, pure fkn poison those SSRLIES...
 
I've done cold turkey benzodiazepines at higher doses before so I thought I would be fine. Appearently 5mg clonazepam wasn't that bad for me but 3600mg gabapentin cold turkey totally destroyed me both physically and mentally. It was so much worse.

Me 2 man..I'm tapering diazepam and SWEAR the WDs from gabap/pregab are WORSE than benzos...I have a bad anxiety disorder and found it easier to taper BEFORE the gabapentin.
 
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Gabapentin/Pregabalin are a godsend when withdrawing from many drugs. But nothing that I know of really cures/fixes their own withdrawal except more Gabapentinoids.

I find it harder to taper from Gabapentin than Lyrica. Most likely due to its terrible bioavailability.
 
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Hmm I was on 3200 mg a day for 3 years and decided I didn't want to take this medication for any longer. It was too much of a constant hassle to pay for doctor for a script on top of my methadone so I quit 4 days ago and I feel fine little more irritable and less motivated than usual but no withdrawals. I'm not sure if my 100mg a day of methadone is masking it or what but I was super nervous reading all the stories online. I think people are getting rebound symptoms more so than actual withdrawals, just my honest opinion. Have a blessed day all!
 
Man, I hate to be so dismissive of these posts in this thread but I agree 100%

I abuse the holy absolute living motherf'n sh*t out of gaba, I'm talking doses I've never even seen talked about on the internet, and I'll ride that for a month, sometimes 6 weeks. And then I can simply stop and not notice a single thing, other than kinda wishing I could just keep gobbling gaba pills because it's such a great/chill feeling.

Then again, I know every human is different. I just find it odd how I can take such extreme amounts and notice nothing, while someone taking a paltry 300 or 600mg for 6 months is apparently going blind and deaf and can't lift milk cartons and has perpetual tinnitus and depression and diarrhea and restless legs and etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc

And, again hate to say it, but all these 'long list of evil side effects' posts are coming from people who are either on a slew of super hardcore drugs or are simultaneously in the process of quitting said hardcore drugs.

If you stumbled upon this thread while Googling and are curious about gaba w/d, I would take a lot of these posts with a grain of salt. Harm reduction is great, but I don't see any benefit in scaring the shit out of people for no reason.
I agree with you 100 percent bro it's hard not to laugh at this shit I mean yeah okay everybody's chemistry is different but that doesn't mean some people withdraw and others dont man neurochemistry is the same across the board it's simple if A drug affects B receptor for C amount of time then X will happen when you take it away. Seems that most of the people in these posts are in the process of quitting benzos or have major anxiety disorders to begin with. Just saying it's not harm reduction to villainize gabapentin and scare other people either away from it or scaring them right back onto it. Prove me wrong because saying some people get W.D. and some dont is not what people mean when they say biochemistry is unique for each person they are talking about a whole different set of equations. T1/2, Cmax, Tmax, etc. It would be like saying some people get withdrawals from opiates or benzos and some dont and that's just not true benzodiazapines and opioids affect everybody evenly across the board find me one person that reacts differently and I'll think differently about it
 
Keppra was very useful for getting off of gabapentin. It didn't get rid of the sleeplessness, but it did ease the anxiety and restlessness. I could at least sit still and relax just a little. It's also an anticonvulsant, which eased my concerns about seizures. It's not perfect, but it made all the difference for me. It worked for Lyrica withdrawal as well.
 
I quit alcohol cold turkey after more than ten years of a liter a day of gin, or whiskey, or whatever was in the house. No withdrawals.
Does than mean everyone who did the same and saw pink elephants or had seizures was full of shit?

Probably not. More likely is that I am an exception and it would be irresponsible to try and convince the average Joe that he can just quit a habit like that. People die from alcohol wds. I was just lucky.

Send and Opoidergic - Your experiences are really interesting, and they should give hope to those trying to quit. HOWEVER....... people do get really sick during gabapentin withdrawl. Not everyone of course. But some folks get withdrawls from Tylenol, coffee, or even sugar.
You were very lucky.
 
I didnt decide to quit. I just lost my taste for it and I didnt want it anymore. I never had any symptoms of wd. No DTs. Nothing.
Im not bragging. I drank at an unbelievable pace, as if I was partly immune to alcohol. When I stopped, I didnt feel like I was giving up much.

Most people will have a very predictable reaction to stuff, and a very predictable withdrawl pattern as well. But then most people are born with brown eyes, some blue, and I could show you a picture of a black man with white skin - but lets leave Michael Jackson out if this.
 
Abusing this substance is a helluva lot of fun. If you want to quit, from my experience the withdrawals are over within 2-3 days or so.

Bee strong ;)
 
Not harmless

I just want to add input even though this is an old thread, it has many different posts/perspectives from lots of people on their experience with withdrawals from gabapentin. I want to add a link to a thread I posted with a timeline of what I went through day by day. Very detailed in terms of how I felt, what I took to alleviate withdrawals, what I did during the day to kill time, and so forth. I really want to help those people that are feeling confused because everyone tells them it?s either harmless or that they quit after taking it a long time and felt no withdrawals. Gabapentin withdrawals seem to have this bad acid trip like mentality just like another poster said, and it?s so true.
Day 2-5 days peaking withdrawals I?d say
Day 5-7/8 you start feeling better 10% each day
Day 7-12 you are at 75%-90% better but they come and go in waves

My detailed thread, I hope this helps someone

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/813382-Gabapentin-withdrawal
 
I noticed that a large dose of pregablin with zero tolerance made my food digest really fast. Especially since my daily oxy makes my food digest really slow. It makes sense that cold turkey from gabapentin would totally screw with your stomach.
 
Gabapentin/Pregabalin are a godsend when withdrawing from many drugs. But nothing that I know of really cures/fixes their own withdrawal except more Gabapentinoids.

I find it harder to taper from Gabapentin than Lyrica. Most likely due to its terrible bioavailability.

It is possible. I found alcohol to help with pregabalin WD's, also GHB is very powerful, well actualyl they dont cure them them in any wya, but overpower them. The bad side is taht you need to bbe under the influence of GHB or alcohol all the time. But depenting hiow long y ou ahve used, you might need to use GHB only for 5 days with pregabalin wd's to end, at least with 4 months 1,5g daily use of it. And it's risky, you can easily get addicted to ghb or alcohol, but using them max. 7 days won't give you wd's, at least GHB, alcohol might giveyou, but then you cant take alprazolam for few days.

If foun wire variety of ways to quit opioids and pregabalin, but it's very risky for most of people, I use amphetamines, benzos, GHB, and any other that overpowers the effect of WD's.

Also if you are really wealthy you can always go to Turkey or many other countries where they cna but you to coma/deep sleep for 1-2 week, after that wd's are gone, many rich heroin user do that around there. For me wd's and PAWS and the worst, I can fight back any strong urge to use drugs as long as I have happy life.
 
Baclofen might help?

GHB is much better. In my knowledge baclofen acts on same gaba-receptors as gabapentin, but GHB doesn't, it really doesn't take out the WD's but good dose of it will mask it so you won't feel anything. Downside is that you have to take it every 1 hour, you can sleep only 2 hours before you wake from dopamine rebound and need to redose. 5 days of GHB won't do harm.
 
I was drinking heavy for over ten years and after tapering down sufficiently I had dts and had a seizure. I was not getting treatment and ended up in the hospital. I was given 300 mg 3x daily for a month to aid the wd from alcohol after being stabilized over a few days. I can tell you that the anxiety and feeling of things being very wrong was worse from the gbp. I didn't know what was going on but I resorted to drinking to over come it thinking it was still alcohol which lead to a relapse on alcohol followed by treatment again, 30 more days worth and 7 days of librium. After cutting the gbp out for a day I realized it was all the gbp wd, I had the same issues as everyone else.

Taper down and the magnesium and Benadryl at night help a bit but I'm feeling it still well into day two. I have hydroxizine (1st gen antihistamine) that I'll try tomorrow night to see if that helps a little more with sleep but this is an intense wd. I won't be messing with my gaba receptors like this ever again, I'm impressed that I made it through the worst of alcohol wd and can say the constant panic attack from gbp is on par with the reduction of sleep and anxiety of it at such a low dose. Steady Kpin or Xanax/valium would be nice to have on hand for the acute attacks of overwhelming panic but the fog your in likely won't be gone. A few drinks is helpful but due to me trying not to drink it causes almost as much anxiety. Stay safe, most of its in your head.. no one seems to have seizures but I get the fear.

2x xanax or 2mg kolonop?ine for 1-2 weeks wont giveyou any wd,s its safw to use as long you can qut using ut after two weeks.
 
Ne0 the only wd I was talking about was gbp and alcohol.

2x xanax or 2mg kolonop?ine for 1-2 weeks wont giveyou any wd,s its safw to use as long you can qut using ut after two weeks.

Maybe I wasn't clear but I only had withdrawal from gbp+ alcohol. I suggested using benzos for the wd I just don't have any
 
Maybe I wasn't clear but I only had withdrawal from gbp+ alcohol. I suggested using benzos for the wd I just don't have any

I deleted my post trying to edit it for an update. Hydroxizine is pretty easy to get and I slept through the night. 1st gen antihistamines and even Benadryl helped at night just have a bunch of water close for the dry mouth
 
Maybe I wasn't clear but I only had withdrawal from gbp+ alcohol. I suggested using benzos for the wd I just don't have any

Benzos make me very depressed. For this reason I've never been addicted to benzos, Only times when I don't get depressed is when I take them on amphetamines.
 
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