Gabapentin (Neurontin) Withdrawl Support Group

[[Co...]]

I have one doctor who understands drugs and listens to his patients.  My PM doc.

The others seem to only believe what the pharm companies say about these meds.  So I don't discuss my plans, just let them refill and on my way.  I have high blood pressure so I have reason to see them.

 

As hard as it is to get off of benzos, gabapentin has been so much worse.  Feeling that sick makes you feel inept.  You are not.  Not sure why the lack of compassion from the doctors.  We are strong and what we need is help with symptoms, compassion, and as you said.....sleep.

 

[[Ut...]]

Splitting the doses is really working!  I take 100 mgs first thing in the morning and 100 mgs at 8:00 at night.  Hopefully things continue to be smooth.

 

I've decided to hold at this dose for awhile and begin to taper my doxepin.  I'm at 75 and want to slowly taper down to 50 mgs.  Then I will hold that and go back to tapering the gabapentin.

[[Is...]]

Hi All, I will be 8 months off of Neurontin on February 1. If I could get off this bad stuff than you can too. I have been using Kava Kava Root Tincture at night to lay down and sleep for a week now. It has been helping. I am not using any medications. I finally started having partial windows this month--Yea.  One year of only sleeping a couple of hours every other day or every four days is ridiculous. I do not believe no sleeping helps in our recovery.

 

I hope this year brings all of you free from Gabapentin/Neurontin.  You all deserve not to have this drug rule your life.

 

Love, Island Girl

[[Co...]]

Splitting the doses is really working!  I take 100 mgs first thing in the morning and 100 mgs at 8:00 at night.  Hopefully things continue to be smooth.

 

I've decided to hold at this dose for awhile and begin to taper my doxepin.  I'm at 75 and want to slowly taper down to 50 mgs.  Then I will hold that and go back to tapering the gabapentin.

 

It seems that our bodies tell us when it's time to cut again.  As you cut more you may need to take it 3 times a day. 

 

Another Utah girl.

[[Ut...]]

Island girl .......

 

I am so happy to read that you are getting better!  I have been so worried about you!  What kind of symptoms are you still having?

 

 

Coffee lover .......

 

Thank you for the dose tip.  Have you started to taper yet?

[[Is...]]

Utahgal,

 

Thanks for asking about me.  I have so, so many systems to list. I will see if my brain can even separate them to list them.  Here are some of the following:

No sleep

Akathesia (I haven't been able to lay down to try to sleep because I walk day and night--12 months now)

Inner vibrations throughout body from head to toes,

Pins & needles throughout body from head to toes,

Right side of body doesn't always work,

My right eye opens & closes (without me doing it) and extreme pain, head in pain, cannot more neck and in pain, every part of my body is in pain, teeth feel like they are all being pulled on and inconstant pain,

tinnitus very bad, extreme ear pain

I always feel like I am in a dream like existence but it is more like being tortured day & night

Depression, anxiety, and so much more....

 

It helps me so much to get sleep. Getting 1 hr at a time isn't much.  Kava tincture worked for a week but last night no sleep again and no laying down just walking. I wish I could feel calm. I wish I would turn a corner.  Take care, Island Girl

[[Ut...]]

Island girl.....

 

That sounds terrible!  You don't sound much better at all!  Isn't there something you can take to relieve those symptoms?  How about a beta blocker?  Or maybe another AD that you can taper later?  Why would you allow yourself to suffer so much?

 

My original failed gaba taper left me with many of the symptoms that you describe.  I was put on doxepin (an older tricyclic AD) and it has helped so much!

 

I wish more people would post their gaba taper experiences so I would know what to expect.  I'm trying to go slow, but I do fear that the lower I get in dose, the harder it will become.  I am 1/3 of the way there.  I did manage to get from 300 down to 200 relatively easily.  I found that now that I'm down to 200 mgs that I do need to split the dose to twice a day.  I am going to hold here for a few weeks to give my brain a chance to adjust.

 

Do you think all of your symptoms are from gabapentin withdrawal, or from something else?  Shouldn't withdrawal symptoms blow over in a few weeks?  How could you be so sick for a whole year?

 

I am so sad to hear this.  I had thought you were doing better.

 

Xxoo

[[Co...]]

Island girl .......

 

I am so happy to read that you are getting better!  I have been so worried about you!  What kind of symptoms are you still having?

 

 

Coffee lover .......

 

Thank you for the dose tip.  Have you started to taper yet?

 

I have been tapering since Nov.  Down from 1200Mgs. to around 150Mg a day. 

Seems with this med slower is better.

[[Ut...]]

Coffee lover......

 

That is great!  You have tapered a long way!!  Yay!!

 

Did you have any symptoms with your dose decreases?  How much do you cut by?  How many times a day do you take it?

 

I'm stuck at 200 mgs for now.  The anxiety is creeping back in.  I'm going to hold here for a few weeks.

[[Co...]]

I cut way to fast and was sick most of the time for 2 months.  My sweet hubs made me a time schedule, and set alarms in my cell phone to keep

the dosing even which helped so much.

I take my dose 4 times a day.  I am tapping it out of the capsules so trying to do less than half each dose.

 

I am going to finish the dosing off slower going forward.

 

 

[[Ut...]]

So how are you feeling now?  Do you get symptoms with each dose drop?  How long do your symptoms last?

 

You might want to get gaba in liquid form.  It's much easier to dose.

[[Co...]]

I have been on a hold for over a week, so feeling less bad.  Can eat.

I do get symptoms for about 36 hours after each dose drop.

The Zofran and clonidine help so much.

 

I just went too fast in the beginning.  Had no idea what would happen.

 

I see my doc in March, could ask for the liquid.  Hoping to be off by then.

I have 100mg capsules so its a bit easier to eyeball the half.  I also bought a gram scale.

May use that in the end.

 

How are you doing with your "project?"

[[Is...]]

Island girl.....

 

That sounds terrible!  You don't sound much better at all!  Isn't there something you can take to relieve those symptoms?  How about a beta blocker?  Or maybe another AD that you can taper later?  Why would you allow yourself to suffer so much?

 

My original failed gaba taper left me with many of the symptoms that you describe.  I was put on doxepin (an older tricyclic AD) and it has helped so much!

 

I wish more people would post their gaba taper experiences so I would know what to expect.  I'm trying to go slow, but I do fear that the lower I get in dose, the harder it will become.  I am 1/3 of the way there.  I did manage to get from 300 down to 200 relatively easily.  I found that now that I'm down to 200 mgs that I do need to split the dose to twice a day.  I am going to hold here for a few weeks to give my brain a chance to adjust.

 

Do you think all of your symptoms are from gabapentin withdrawal, or from something else?  Shouldn't withdrawal symptoms blow over in a few weeks?  How could you be so sick for a whole year?

 

I am so sad to hear this.  I had thought you were doing better.

 

Xxoo

 

Utahgal,

I am so glad you went down another 100mg from gabapentin.  To answer your question regarding do I think my systems are from Gabapentin or what--Well, I believe they are Valium related, Neurontin, Seroquel, Vistoral, and Depokote.  I cold turkey  off of Valium and my doctor (which I no longer see) decided I needed to go to hospital.  The hospital sent me home after six days with a cocktail of Neurontin, Seroquel, Vistoral, and Depokote.  Hospital said stay on these for one month but the doctor I no longer see said stay on a long time.  Four months later with four drugs doing the opposite of which they were suppose to do--I was getting so much worse every day-- and I got off all of them.  Than I threw up for 3 months from Neurontin and lost 20lbs.  I just cannot take any more medications.  They don't help me but only hurt me.

 

I hope soon you will be off Neurontin so you can start your life medication free.

 

Best to you, love Island Girl

[[Co...]]

So sorry to hear about you feeling so bad.  I have never been so sick for so long in my life,

That's including 3 pregnancies.

[[Ut...]]

Hi friends.  I'm still plugging along at 200 mgs gabapentin (down from 300).  As long as I split the dose, I remain symptom free.  200 mgs equals 4 ml liquid gaba.  So, I take 2 ml 8 Am, 1 ml 3 PM, and 1 ml 8 PM.  So far so good.  I will remain here a few weeks and let my brain rest.  I will in the meantime, switch my focus to doxepin and slowly begin to taper off my 75 mgs down to 50 mgs.  Then, I will switch back to gaba and begin to make cuts off my morning 2 ml dose.

 

I have a funny feeling that no matter what, I will suffer symptoms with each cut regardless hoe low and slow I go.  Hopefully they pass in a day or two with each cut.

 

What does clonidine do?  Is there anything else I can do to alleviate the symptoms?

[[Ut...]]

I also want to thank everyone for their support.  You all help me so much.  Thank you for being there!

[[Co...]]

Clonidine supresses adrenalin.  So keeps your BP and pulse from racing.

I have high blood pressure, so have to be careful.

It helps keep it more regular after the cuts.

[[Co...]]

Good morning everyone,

 

I came on board this morning to tell you something that happened to me yesterday. I have had a 7-8 month taper from klonopin that was blistering and an ensuing 6 month taper from valium that I am still in. 2 months ago I was given an rx for Gabapentin and told .'It is not a benzo and it is not addictive.' The night that I received the rx I went home and googled the drug and was not happy. It was described as having a benzo like w/d. I threw the rx away. I had a Dr. appt yesterday. I printed the information out and brought it in. Without showing it to the Dr. I offered up the information that Gabapentin was a bad choice of meds (it was for neuropathic pain) and that it was definitely wrong for me. The Dr started to dispute it and I did pull out the print out and said this--This is where it needs to stop. If you prescribe the drugs you need to understand what they are about. Big pharma can tell you that these drugs are low level (like the pull out that says klonopin has the POTENTIAL to be habit forming) but the fact is that after 2 tapers the last thing I needed was another. There is no way that I can go through this again.

They listened. I never heard of Gabapentin until 2 months ago. But then again, I never heard of klonopin before I started taking it.

 

CC

[[Co...]]

Made another cut yesterday.  Next week if all goes well, I will stop.  This last cut was

a bit easier than the rest.  I am taking probably 20Mgs 4 times a day.

 

So excited to be done.  I can bottle up all the pills here and there and not have to be sure I have them available.

 

I am not sure if it will be worse without any for a bit.  Guess I will find out.

[[...]]

CoffeeLover, so glad to hear you are finishing up... I hope you stick around to let us know how it goes.  I am still finishing up my K taper.  I'm down to .013 mg of a .25 pill... can't be much but I still feel each cut... not like I used to  but sx come sooner and they still appear.... headache and sleeplessness, mostly... thank G none of that earlier d/p, d/r stuff...  I'm still trying to psyche myself up for the Gaba taper.  I don't know why I'm so scared.  I guess, I'm just so weary from all of this and to have to turn around and start it again seem almost unthinkable.  The doc would gladly let me stay on but at a higher... what she calls, "therapeutic" dose.  I'm not sure how valid my thinking is but ... its not true that you can come off it in a week so I'm quite upset that the docs continue to lie about that, it affects GABA... i've learned only too well what that means and on a strictly personal level... I hate them having such a hold on me... that if I don't play the game... they'll take my toys away... I really expected so much more from the medical profession but accountability and self serving has become such a way of life and after all, they are human.  Anyway...mostly, I"m posting because the day is fast approaching when I'm going to be looking for support on this thread and I want to keep my foot in the door.  It is reassuring to know someone has successfully completed an N taper.  Thumb up that things continue to go well for you.   Njoy

[[Ut...]]

Yay Coffeelover!  Let us know how it goes!

 

I'm down to 190.  I only decease by 10 mgs every 2 weeks.

 

I have been able to avoid withdrawals by dosing 3 times a day.  Slowly, but surely, I will get there!

[[Co...]]

Utahgal....I am glad that splitting the dose has helped.  I am wondering if my brain will

act up when it's gone than when I make a cut.  I will find out wednesday.

I have to start withdrawing from painkillers next.  Hoping it's no worse than the gabapentin.

 

Njoy....I think the doctors have to believe the information the drug companies give.  If they haven't

taken the meds themselves they have no way to know, and each person will have a diff experience.

I have been lucky that my doctor is understanding.  It was my choice to quit the gabapentin.  The doctors

are using it for pain more and more due to pressure from the dea to not prescribe opiates.

I can't imagine having to dose off of one gaba drug just to face another.  I dosed off of a small dose of Xanax several

years back.  There are similarities, and some major diffs for me.  The gaba caused unbearable nausea.

My doc gave me Zofran for it.  Lifesaver.  Also hot flashes and profuse sweating during withdrawal.

The mental part was almost non existent with the gabapentin.  All physical.

[[...]]

CoffeeLover:  Well, that's some good news!  I like that its more physical than mental... I've dealt w/ physical pain my whole life.  That mental stuff about undid me.  I will say, I'm not looking forward to stomach stuff.  I will do the 10 mg every 2 wks and 3-4 x/d dosing if sx become too much of a problem.  I have such a fear of not being able to sleep... that's what undid me the most on earlier failed tapers so I was thinking that I would continue to dose at bdtm but we'll see ... it is so nice to hear from people that are ahead of me on this... lots out there on the benzos now that I know where to look but we are still a small group coming off the N.  Utah girl... sounds like you are persevering... some days that's the best we can do.  Njoy

[[ho...]]

Hi Everyone. Thanks for being here and sharing some of your experiences. I haven't posted in a while as I have just been focusing on recovering from my very long and horribly difficult Xanax taper. I've been on Gabapentin for almost 8 years - planning on starting my taper from it exactly 1 month from today. I will be 6 months off of Xanax then. However, I may wait a bit longer if my symptoms don't decrease quite a bit by then. Anyway, you are all so courageous. We really are amazing to travel this path!

 

Thanks again for sharing!

Hopeful Girl

[[Co...]]

Well, I did it.  Took my last gabapentin yesterday at 3pm.  was at a low dose 4 times a day.

My hearing was bad the rest of the day like i had a tin can on my head.  And seeing a few sparks

of light here and there.  Seems that most of the issues with this med are physical.

Which is not at all like the benzos. 

 

I will keep posting the effects as the days go by.

One positive thing this morning,  my mind is clear.