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Misc Gabapentin, Worse withdrawal ever, heres my story

C

c0astin

Greenlighter
Joined
Apr 28, 2016
Messages
4
So i was on gabapentin for 8 years for nerve pain, i ended up moving to colorado to become an electrician. but did poor planning for doctors which were backed up 4+ months which caused me to run out. thankfully my bosses girlfriend had a bunch of lower MG she gave me, My initial dose was 600 4 times daily, i tapered down from 600 4x to 600 2x then lower and lower till i was at 50 once a day (this taper was over 2 weeks) to successfully detox and not worry about work my boss went vacation wednesday to monday, so i took the last dose wednesday to get through the day, got home smoked bud and took my meds and hoped for the best, the next morning i woke up feeling OK. i went to walgreens to get the usual detox shit. and when i got back it started to hit me, and i knew that this wasn't going to be pleasant. stomach aches, and anxiety the first day and no sleep, the 2nd day was worst then the first, I'm in full blown detox, it feels like you are severely dope sick minus the chills and shitting everywhere. my hands were so shaky that pouring a glass id miss a lot of it. it went on like this till friday is when i started puking, roughly 3 times a day, i felt so horrible that i was contemplating suicide, it fucked with my mind so bad i would see jolts of light across the air. monday came and i had to call out, i knew tomorrow wasn't going to be any better so i got my hands on some xanax and it did take the edge off. but i was still throwing up every morning for 3 months, and had morning sickness for 8 months. Do not go on this drug for an extensive period of time. when i was prescribed it they said it was non addictive. which is BS I'm glad to be off this drug, worse. longest. drawn out, unpleasant detox ever.
 
I feel your pain. My doctor had the nerve to tell me that it is not an addictive drug when he put me on it.
 
I took gabapentin for seven weeks at doses of 1200-2100mg per day. I was also told that this medicine was safe and didn't cause any type of dependence or withdrawal. Well, it caused all types of physical and psychological problems while I was on it so I had to stop it cold turkey.

That was over 13 months ago and I am still suffering a great deal. I deal with physical issues (neuropathy, heart palpitations, restlessness, hair loss, alcohol & caffeine intolerance) and psychological issues (severe anxiety, irrational fears, cognitive impairment, inability to drive and travel anxiety, arbitrary OCD thoughts).

To give an example, I take a bus to work everyday because I am unable to drive the three miles to my job. I have to move around several times per hour because of restlessness and heart palpitations. I can't drink coffee or go to happy hour with my co workers because caffeine and booze makes all my symptoms 100x worse (for days afterword). I then go home and rest because I usually feel like complete shit. Eventually I will fall asleep whenever my sleepiness overpowers my heart palpitations and nerve pain.

I am unable to travel or do anything meaningful. My social life has been wiped out and my career has suffered greatly as I have not been able to accept any promotions or relocation offers.

All because of a "safe" and "non habit forming" medicine.

I had a MRI and blood work done recently and both show me to be in excellent health. Try getting help from a doctor when all your tests say you're normal.

I will hate the doctor who gave me incorrect information about this medicine with a fiery passion until the day I die.
 
c0astin said:
So i was on gabapentin for 8 years for nerve pain, i ended up moving to colorado to become an electrician. but did poor planning for doctors which were backed up 4+ months which caused me to run out. thankfully my bosses girlfriend had a bunch of lower MG she gave me, My initial dose was 600 4 times daily, i tapered down from 600 4x to 600 2x then lower and lower till i was at 50 once a day (this taper was over 2 weeks) to successfully detox and not worry about work my boss went vacation wednesday to monday, so i took the last dose wednesday to get through the day, got home smoked bud and took my meds and hoped for the best, the next morning i woke up feeling OK. i went to walgreens to get the usual detox shit. and when i got back it started to hit me, and i knew that this wasn't going to be pleasant. stomach aches, and anxiety the first day and no sleep, the 2nd day was worst then the first, I'm in full blown detox, it feels like you are severely dope sick minus the chills and shitting everywhere. my hands were so shaky that pouring a glass id miss a lot of it. it went on like this till friday is when i started puking, roughly 3 times a day, i felt so horrible that i was contemplating suicide, it fucked with my mind so bad i would see jolts of light across the air. monday came and i had to call out, i knew tomorrow wasn't going to be any better so i got my hands on some xanax and it did take the edge off. but i was still throwing up every morning for 3 months, and had morning sickness for 8 months. Do not go on this drug for an extensive period of time. when i was prescribed it they said it was non addictive. which is BS I'm glad to be off this drug, worse. longest. drawn out, unpleasant detox ever.
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are you in the denver metro area? you should get yourself into a walk in clinic or mental health place asap. each county has a mental health place and you can get an appointment almost immediately. each county has their own. denver, jerfferson, adams, etc.

sometimes this doesn't clear up 'quickly'. you need to get back on and taper off slow.

blue comet knows. do not fuck with this withdrawal. it can last forever.
 
cj said:
I feel your pain. My doctor had the nerve to tell me that it is not an addictive drug when he put me on it.
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This seems to be very common as my doctor told the same thing to me back when I was WDing from opioids for the first time.
But I only took it for ybout 2 weeks (600mg a day) and definitely suffered rebound symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, irritability, lethargy etc.

I wish you guys all the best for your recovery.
 
My doctor told me I could "pop them like candy" for anxiety during the day if I didn't want to take klonipon and get sleepy before night time.
I only took them on and off and never felt an effect so I don't think I ever had the chance to be dependent.
 
I've never taken for more than a month at doses as high as 3600mg and probably averaged 1500mg a day for a month with no noticeable wd
 
i feel your pain, its still messing with me till this day and its been since mid august of last year, i still wake up nauseous
 
i was in colorado springs but i moved back to the east coast. I'm good now i made it through the worse. 8 months off of it.
 
jammin83 said:
are you in the denver metro area? you should get yourself into a walk in clinic or mental health place asap. each county has a mental health place and you can get an appointment almost immediately. each county has their own. denver, jerfferson, adams, etc.

sometimes this doesn't clear up 'quickly'. you need to get back on and taper off slow.

blue comet knows. do not fuck with this withdrawal. it can last forever.
Click to expand...
I'm good now i don't even live in CO I'm on the east coast, i have the worst of it behind me I'm 8 months off now.
 
Shit I've been on this for nerve pain for about a year and a half to two years at 1800 mg. I'm going to begin a long slow taper. In no way am I going to try and get off fast after reading your experience. My doc also never said shit about it. However I still have nerve pain to address. I think I'm having good results with opiates for this issue (including Kratom) so I'm going to go that route. I know it will be another addiction but I think it's a better one. At my age if this all goes south I won't be losing so much. I've done my best work on this planet. I just want to avoid a lot of suffering. If suicide is in the cards so be it. However I'm going to try to avoid that if possible.

Anyone got any good things to help during this withdrawal? I'm all ears.
 
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Cosmic Trigger said:
Shit I've been on this for nerve pain for about a year and a half to two years at 1800 mg. I'm going to begin a long slow taper. In no way am I going to try and get off fast after reading your experience. My doc also never said shit about it. However I still have nerve pain to address. I think I'm having good results with opiates for this issue (including Kratom) so I'm going to go that route. I know it will be another addiction but I think it's a better one. At my age if this all goes south I won't be losing so much. I've done my best work on this planet. I just want to avoid a lot of suffering. If suicide is in the cards so be it. However I'm going to try to avoid that if possible.

Anyone got any good things to help during this withdrawal? I'm all ears.
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To address both of these

1) Don't think like that <3

2) Best way to avoid prolong suffering is to do a long withdrawal. Look into liquid gabapentin to assist with small cuts.
 
No offense but I'll think in any way that suits me thank you very much. At my age and condition death might just be my best friend.

I have a good mg scale and I can cut open my caps. That's the plan anyway.
 
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Cosmic Trigger said:
Shit I've been on this for nerve pain for about a year and a half to two years at 1800 mg. I'm going to begin a long slow taper. In no way am I going to try and get off fast after reading your experience. My doc also never said shit about it. However I still have nerve pain to address. I think I'm having good results with opiates for this issue (including Kratom) so I'm going to go that route. I know it will be another addiction but I think it's a better one. At my age if this all goes south I won't be losing so much. I've done my best work on this planet. I just want to avoid a lot of suffering. If suicide is in the cards so be it. However I'm going to try to avoid that if possible.

Anyone got any good things to help during this withdrawal? I'm all ears.
Click to expand...

I've been on benzodiazepines, Lyrica and Gabapentin on and off for close to a decade. I stick with benzodiazepines and Lyrica now. My trick, for lack of a better word, was at anytime I had to end any one of those drugs, mainly referring to Lyrica and Gabapentin, I always, always planned ahead and was progressive about withdrawal, but drew out the withdrawal as long as I needed to.

Once, I got off Gabapentin by switching to an equal analgesic dose of Lyrica, then slowly but provressivly tapered the Lyrica over a month or two or even three. Sometimes. I used benzodiazepines in conjunction. I must say, I'm on neather Lyrica or Gabapentin right now. IMO, you lower slowly, as long as you need. I personally think, going to Lyrica, then tapering down the Lyrica, which is related and similar to Gabapentin but different would be easier, taper wise. Hope that helped. PM anytime if needed.
 
Thanks I may take you up on that. I do have some (about a month's worth) Lyrica that is way out of date but it's likely still good. That shit is way expensive on my end .The Gabapentin is free. I think I'll do a very slow taper over several months. I just dropped off my phenibut habit after a very long taper. This is the third day without any and so far no issues. So I'm in no hurry to mess with my gabapentin dose until I'm certain I have no fallout from the phenibut. Having gotten hooked on both at the same time was a huge blunder I made when I was in terror of the pain from this nasty disease. Now I'm a lot calmer and way more educated so I'm trying to wiggle my way out of this mess. Then it will just be hopefully Kratom and Oxy or just Kratom. That's the addiction I plan on riding out this disease on if at all possible. I've gotten far better results with the opiates for this pain and depression than with any of the other shit. Although when I was using phenibut recreationally once or twice a week back in the day it was actually easily as good as the opiates. Maybe better. Now I feel nothing from it after abusing the hell out of it. I'll never touch it again unless it's on my last few days on earth. Of course all bets are off and I'll take anything and everything. =D And thanks again for the PM offer. I may need some moral support when I tackle it.
 
Just a note; I used to be on gabapentin (neurontin), but it made me gain weight, so I switched to Cymbalta, similar to Lyrica, and eventually that made me gain weight as well. Getting off the Lyrica was THE worst experience of my life; worse than any other withdrawal I've ever experienced. I used Valium in small doses to help. I tried to taper too quickly (stupid on my part; due to vanity).

What's odd is, I will use an occasional neurontin if I'm going through a withdrawal of something else, but just a little bit of it. It was the high doses that sucked. I still have nerve pain, but just deal, because everything caused weight gain. It took me a year, but I finally lost the 20 pounds I put on, which was causing more back pain.

Anywho, I'm also here if you want to PM or chat, and will not tell you how to feel. I'm sort of feeling there myself. It's not like we're doing it on purpose. I LOVE feeling like this, right?
 
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