Gabapentin (Neurontin) Withdrawl Support Group

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Hey guys did anyone get severe neck stiffness and brain zaps and while tapering this stuff I went from 300 mg 3 times a day to 400mg 2 times a day it's only a 100mg reduction but it's insanely hard on me. I made this reduction about 10 days ago and still haven't gotten better in fact it seems it's getting worse and if I miss a dose a few minutes off I 'm worse throughout the day like today the head shocks started only 2-3 hours of dosing. How long does it take to stabilize? I refuse to updose because I've done it before and only leads to more tapering and pain. Please your input is appreciated.

 

I think the bigger issue is changing your dosing schedule.  You've gone from 3 doses per day to 2 but as I'm sure you know, gabapentin's half life is from 5 to 7 hours.  So, now that you've changed your dosing schedules you are getting bigger spikes in your blood plasma levels.  If you charted your blood plasma levels you would probably find a line on a graph that looked like a smoothly rolling set of hills from dose-to-dose.  Now, your graph would probably look like mountain peaks (each dose) with valleys between them (interdose period).

 

What to do is a hard question here.  A lot depends on what you can do with the gabapentin you have.  The first most obvious option is to go back to the three dose schedule at 300mg per dose and try to stabilize there.  Another option would be to divide your dose into a form that you can micro taper it.  That is to say you could try titration or dry cutting.  In dry cutting, you could go to 266mg per dose at a three dose schedule per day (in order to remain at 800mg).  In this case, you'd require 100mg capsules.  In the case of capsules, you'd take 2 100mg capsules per dose and then remove 44mg of the powder from the third capsule.  You'd need a milligram scale to measure this correctly.  You'd need to know the actual weight of the powder and then divide it by 100 to determine the powder to medicine ratio.  For example, in my capsules, the gabapentin powder weighs on average 0.131 grams.  Therefore, 44 mg out of 100 mg is 44/100, obviously then  44/100 = .44, or 44 %.  So, I weigh the powder repeatedly until I remove (and save) 44% of .131 grams.  In this case, .44 X 0.131 grams = 0.057 grams.  Now, I simply scoop (carefully), the remaining powder back into the capsule, press the two tubes together and take that when ready.

 

The only thing I am not certain of is the distribution of gabapentin in the powder.  Is the gabapentin evently distributed in the powder?  I don't know.  So, I try to mix it up very very well before I begin to remove the powder in the hopes that it's evenly distributed.  I haven't had as good a luck with water titration but theoretically it should be the most precise of all the methods.  The problem for me is getting the gabapentin to properly diffuse through the water so I can be confident that what draw out of the suspension is an accurate amount of the medication for my dose. 

 

I've done the dry cut method to successfully get down to 50mg, 2X per day but I'm holding now as I think I cut too fast and I've had a major uptick in symptoms.  I also was starting to exercise again and that has been a problem for me.  Some can do aerobic exercise but it appears that I cannot.

 

Regards,

 

-RST

[[lo...]]

I had no issues cutting from 3 to 2 doses per day. gabapentin is really a weird drug. sometimes I can cut and don't feel anything for days and then it hits me.

[[be...]]

I don't really wanna do that the reason I went from 2 doses to 3 doses is because gabapentin seems to rev me up. Shit do you think I can stabilize at this dosing I actually WAS stabilizing at this schedule but something happened and screwed up my schedule where I usually dose At 9 am/pm but didnt take the night dose till 3am and morning dose at 2pm then got back on schedule after that but this happened on Monday do do you think I should give another week or 2? I got faith man!

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I don't really wanna do that the reason I went from 2 doses to 3 doses is because gabapentin seems to rev me up. Shit do you think I can stabilize at this dosing I actually WAS stabilizing at this schedule but something happened and screwed up my schedule where I usually dose At 9 am/pm but didnt take the night dose till 3am and morning dose at 2pm then got back on schedule after that but this happened on Monday do do you think I should give another week or 2? I got faith man!

 

Hey benzobeans, also a shout out to you, locutus!!!

 

With respect to your question, benzobeans It is so hard to say as Gabapentin seems very particular to each person.  It's  been 10 days since you cut and changed your schedule.  You might give it another bit of time.  A few months ago I had to stop and hold and it took me 10 days to partially stabilize. And then another week before I felt safe to resume my micro taper.  Keep in mind that dropping 100mg at once is a single cut of about 12% from 900mg.  Is it just that you made too big of a cut???  How long had you been at 900 and what was the highest dose you have been tapering down from??? 

 

I'm in a miserable spot, as I said earlier, and holding at only 50mg 2x per day.  It's just so weird.  Still, you said you felt you were stabilizing until you had the scheduling error on Monday, So it might be worth trying to tough it out a while longer to see if you can stabilize at 800. 

 

Keep us informed! 

 

-RST

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Update! getting worse don't think I 'm going to sleep tonight. Was anyone else getting an adverse reaction from taking gabapentin not from benzo withdrawal but gabapentin itself?

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Anybody here recommend a certain magnesium? And anybody here cold turkey gabapentin at 300 mg 3 times a day nd how long did it take for you to recover and when did you turn the corner in your healing and was it worth it?

[[Ca...]]

Anybody here recommend a certain magnesium? And anybody here cold turkey gabapentin at 300 mg 3 times a day nd how long did it take for you to recover and when did you turn the corner in your healing and was it worth it?

 

Yes for sure. For many people Gabapentin causes serious withdrawals

 

[[be...]]

Anybody here recommend a certain magnesium? And anybody here cold turkey gabapentin at 300 mg 3 times a day nd how long did it take for you to recover and when did you turn the corner in your healing and was it worth it?

 

Yes for sure. For many people Gabapentin causes serious withdrawals

yeah I might not be as long as benzo withdrawal but to me it's intense and that's saying alot

[[Re...]]

Anybody here recommend a certain magnesium? And anybody here cold turkey gabapentin at 300 mg 3 times a day nd how long did it take for you to recover and when did you turn the corner in your healing and was it worth it?

 

Yes for sure. For many people Gabapentin causes serious withdrawals

yeah I might not be as long as benzo withdrawal but to me it's intense and that's saying alot

 

I think the risk of CT 900mg is too high.  We are all different but my rapid taper from 500 to 200 was not even tolerable for me.  I am VERY sensitive to this medication so I'm probably not the best example as a case study.  However, I'd suggest you taper it down some.  Even a rapid taper woukd be better than a full CT..

 

-RST

[[be...]]

Anybody here recommend a certain magnesium? And anybody here cold turkey gabapentin at 300 mg 3 times a day nd how long did it take for you to recover and when did you turn the corner in your healing and was it worth it?

 

Yes for sure. For many people Gabapentin causes serious withdrawals

yeah I might not be as long as benzo withdrawal but to me it's intense and that's saying alot

 

I think the risk of CT 900mg is too high.  We are all different but my rapid taper from 500 to 200 was not even tolerable for me.  I am VERY sensitive to this medication so I'm probably not the best example as a case study.  However, I'd suggest you taper it down some.  Even a rapid taper woukd be better than a full CT..

 

-RST

 

Are you saying I might have a seizure? BTW I'm stabilizing a lil bit. It's looking like it might be 2-3 months before I stabilize as best as I can

[[Re...]]

Anybody here recommend a certain magnesium? And anybody here cold turkey gabapentin at 300 mg 3 times a day nd how long did it take for you to recover and when did you turn the corner in your healing and

Yes for sure. For many people Gabapentin causes serious withdrawals

yeah I might not be as long as benzo withdrawal but to me it's intense and that's saying alot

 

I think the risk of CT 900mg is too high.  We are all different but my rapid taper from 500 to 200 was not even tolerable for me.  I am VERY sensitive to this medication so I'm probably not the best example as a case study.  However, I'd suggest you taper it down some.  Even a rapid taper woukd be better than a full CT..

 

-RST

 

Are you saying I might have a seizure? BTW I'm stabilizing a lil bit. It's looking like it might be 2-3 months before I stabilize as best as I can

 

 

I don't know, that's just the thing.  A managed taper will, a majority of the time, help you avoid a more problematic withdrawal.  All of this is only anecdotal but most of the people I've talked to who have CT doses above 300 to 400 without a changebin symptoms have been on fairly heavy doses of benzodiazepines. 

 

That's just my opinion.  Perhaps others can chime in with their thoughts.

 

-RST

[[Da...]]

I asked this on the withdrawal board but thought you all would have an answer.

 

I tapered off gabapentin and then took a few “rescue doses” of 100mg. A couple days later I’m in agony again, like I felt when I made a big cut of the Gabapentin.

 

Is it possible I’m making withdrawals worse by doing those couple rescue doses of the G?

[[lo...]]

Dad: are you still on benzo? YOu could definitely get slammed with w/d by taking one off doses, especially when you've been longer on gabapentin and got used to it.

altough when I was on benzo I had no issues starting and stopping gaba at all, so its hard to say, if its gaba or benzo....

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Hello EVERYBODY!!!

 

I'm wondering if anyone here has micro tapered gabapentin at low doses?  I'm struggling at 50mg BID and just changed my dosing schedule to 40mg TID.  I did this because the interdose withdrawals had become untenable due to the short 5-7 hour half life.  At only 50mg BID, I am shocked that I am having this kind of withdrawal.  I've mentioned it on the boards elsewhere but some recent exercise may have rocked my HPA Axis out of whack which has pushed my system out of whack and caused a cascade effect.  I have held for 11 days at 50mg BID and it has been getting worse every day.  I'm not being subjective here, this is objectively noted by me as I keep a journal and record data about my sleep, my heart rate and other things.  Last night, night sweats arrived as the latest to this scenario. 

 

So, in order to deal with this I've gone to a 3 times per day dosing schedule at 40mg per dose.  Hopefully, this will work in the way I anticipate by more frequent dosing resulting in a steadier amount of plasma at about the therapeutic range you would have by dosing 50mg twice a day. 

 

If anyone has advice on how to handle the low doses of this drug, I'd really appreciate it  I expected to be able to get off it pretty easily from this low a dose but that's just not in the cards right now.

 

-RST

[[lo...]]

Real: your dosing is below any therapeutic level, so you might not be able to stabilize, and jumping might an option for you. this is how I felt below 0.1mg clonazepam. things started to go south and I jumped.  the hard question is if further tapering can help you or will just prolong the pain.

All: I am wondering when do you get slammed with symptoms when you cut? I know GB has a short half life, but I never feel the cuts till day 5-6 or so. I am wondering if this even has anything to do with gabapentin.

I am at 300 morning and 450 evening currently. my last was 600+300, and whats funny, I never had any problems during the day either with this uneven dosing.

Now if I skip the morning dose, I get slammed with racing thoughts and anxiety around 3-4pm or so.

but the w/d symptoms I get from cutting lower are completely different then skipping a dose. cutting feels like some kind of deep darkness depression hitting my head, skipping is just racing mind and anxiety. the racing mind is much easier to deal with then the dark depression.

which is why I wonder if this is even gaba w/d or just still benzo crap.

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Interesting,  Locutus.  Thanks for your response. 

 

I know I am under the therapeutic dose so I wonder if this is simply withdrawal from gabapentin or a benzo wave brought on by exercise-induced stress.

 

The thing is, the therapeutic level is established based on pain management as opposed to a withdrawal protocol.  So, I think tapering down to nothing is the way to restrict further problems.  I ran into several posts from people who jumped at 100mg and their struggles went on for a long time thereafter.  I think in most cases, they reinistated a benzo to deal with it.  I'm definitely befuddled here.

 

-RST

 

 

[[lo...]]

Real: When I was still on normal dose benzo, C/T gaba i had barely any w/d. post jump I had completed 1 taper, tapered down to 75mg with absolutely no w/d symptoms (down from 1800), but got hit with benzo type waves on day 3-4. that was 3-4 months post benzo jump or so. I reinstated gabapentin and stabilized within a week or so. then I had couple more incidents where dropping it lower gave me bad w/d symptoms, but I also had similar symptoms while on my normal dose gabapentin, or even taking temporary a higher dose.  this is such a mystery.....

You mentioned people reinstating benzos - which I don't really understand why you would that, instead of just reinstating gabapentin. taking a benzo seems like doing double damage, you already deal with gabapentin mess, and then feeding into benzo after you got off??

what are your symptoms? just sweats and anxiety? I feel anxiety was fairly easy to deal for me. but what I have hard time with is this kind of chemical terror. feels like brain is shutting down, no energy, panic without panic attacks. you look good on the outside, appear fully functional, but feel like head is going to implode.....

sometimes I wonder if I should reconsider getting of gabapentin at 24months or so, when hopefully I recovered even more from benzo.....just keep gaba dose lower, at 600 or max 900 per day.

[[Ca...]]

Real: When I was still on normal dose benzo, C/T gaba i had barely any w/d. post jump I had completed 1 taper, tapered down to 75mg with absolutely no w/d symptoms (down from 1800), but got hit with benzo type waves on day 3-4. that was 3-4 months post benzo jump or so. I reinstated gabapentin and stabilized within a week or so. then I had couple more incidents where dropping it lower gave me bad w/d symptoms, but I also had similar symptoms while on my normal dose gabapentin, or even taking temporary a higher dose.  this is such a mystery.....

You mentioned people reinstating benzos - which I don't really understand why you would that, instead of just reinstating gabapentin. taking a benzo seems like doing double damage, you already deal with gabapentin mess, and then feeding into benzo after you got off??

what are your symptoms? just sweats and anxiety? I feel anxiety was fairly easy to deal for me. but what I have hard time with is this kind of chemical terror. feels like brain is shutting down, no energy, panic without panic attacks. you look good on the outside, appear fully functional, but feel like head is going to implode.....

sometimes I wonder if I should reconsider getting of gabapentin at 24months or so, when hopefully I recovered even more from benzo.....just keep gaba dose lower, at 600 or max 900 per day.

 

I am someone who went to a benzo to cover a Gabapentin withdrawal. I didn't 'reinstate' Valium - I had never been on it before. I found that after 4 years of max dose of Gabapentin, it was totally screwing up my cognitive function, and I no longer needed it for nerve pain. I began a slow, careful withdrawal: no problem going from 3600 to 1800 to 900 (each time I would have predictable and time-limited anxiety, trouble with sleep, rebound pain, and the need to keep moving - forget what that's called, but it would eventually resolve.) At about 300 mg I began to have really bizarre symptoms - my favorite was Transient Global Amnesia, during which I forgot where I was supposed to be, who the president was, and lost all memory of about 3 hours of my life. As I got lower, the symptoms just kept getting worse, and when I jumped at 100 I was in deep deep trouble. Hospitalized twice for stroke-like symptoms, and totally unable to sleep for weeks. Nausea so bad I went down about 20 lbs. I had taken Ativan occasionally as part of my Lyme drug cocktail for years, and went back to a low dose to help with the gaba withdrawal, had the interdose symptoms, and crossed to the V. Sooooo the takeaway is Gaba and the benzos do operate differently in the brain, and I have not had any cognitive symptoms as terrifying and debilitating on V as I did on Gabapentin. And my experience is consistent with that of many many many Gaba users. I do know that many have no trouble getting off it, but it can be just as rough as a benzo.

[[Ca...]]

I know that below 100 mg of Gaba is considered to be 'below any therapeutic dose' but many of us find that even that low a dose can be the devil to get off. I have known people to have to go to much lower doses before they jump, and still have devastating post-withdrawal periods of symptoms.

[[lo...]]

Cally I have no doubt that gaba is hard to get off. I think you are not the typical person here, since you have been on the max gaba dose for quiet some time, and then switched to a low dose benzo for a relatively short time. i think that gaba is different then a benzo, in a sense that it takes longer with higher doses to get hooked, while many people get hooked on benzo very quickly on low doses. it appears that most people who have been on gaba shorter times and lower doses, have little problems getting off.

in addition all the benzo people are very sensitive anyways so getting of anything is hard.

plus all the stress in life....which I feel ramps up everything badly.

[[Ca...]]

Check out the hundreds of posts here - it is not necessarily a function of long-term use. It can be a deadly drug.

http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2014/04/19/gabapentin-neurontin-withdrawal-symptoms-duration/

 

 

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Cally I have no doubt that gaba is hard to get off. I think you are not the typical person here, since you have been on the max gaba dose for quiet some time, and then switched to a low dose benzo for a relatively short time. i think that gaba is different then a benzo, in a sense that it takes longer with higher doses to get hooked, while many people get hooked on benzo very quickly on low doses. it appears that most people who have been on gaba shorter times and lower doses, have little problems getting off.

in addition all the benzo people are very sensitive anyways so getting of anything is hard.

plus all the stress in life....which I feel ramps up everything badly.

 

 

Hello.  I am also referencing a previous response to me in this stream.  Thanks to you both for your contribution. 

 

I am not talking about reinstating a benzo at all.  I am just talking about how this situation has me in so much difficulty that is hard to understand and, most difficultly, try to plan to deal with.  I'm into my 12th day at this hold and I am having incrementally worse symptoms.  For example, just 2 nights ago, night sweats returned.  I used to have an easing of my symptoms in the evening.  Now, it's pain 24/7.  The most difficult parts of this situation are insomnia and burning pain.  The burning pain is intense.  I cannot give it a description that does it justice, but it is as though my body is on fire.  I have other symptoms but they pale in comparison. 

 

I am really shocked by this circumstance.  As until I got to 51mg BID, I had tolerable withdrawal where I could be functional.  So, to be logical in all this, my symptoms exploded after my bike ride and they'be been getting worse every day since then.  I am at the point where I'm becoming non-functional, which is a place I haven't been since  acute / post-acute withdrawal. 

 

That's why I'm seeking insight. 

 

 

 

[[Re...]]

So, I did updose.  I went from 50 mg two times per day to 60mg 3 times per day.  This has taken some of the horrific edge off, but I'm still suffering a heck of a lot. 

 

I've been at 180mg for 4 days.  I think I'll have to hold here for a while and try to let my body stabilize a bit.  Then, I can only proceed with miminal cuts down to 0.  I guess that'll be somewhere between 10 - 15% per month.  It's really crazy how my taper went sideways.  I was doing so well.  The lesson learned is to really pay attention to everything your body is telling you and to stick to a well-planned taper.

 

I made my biggest mistake in failing to adjust my taper.  I was cutting 1mg off each dose and I hadn't checked the percentage cuts closely enough.  I only realized I was actually cutting almost 2% PER DAY in before I stopped (50mg/51mg = 2%).  A few weeks prior I should have switched to a constant percentage-per-day system.  Crap!!!!

 

-RST

 

 

 

 

[[li...]]

hello comrades,

 

I am stuck at 300mg GBN taken at one dose in am. Been on this drug since Aug. !st 2017. So almost 5 months.

 

I feel the drug has gone paradoxical. Feel so darkly depressed, anxious, flat, confused. apathetic, terror and dumbed down.

 

Tried to taper way too fast and became suicidal/super aggressive and brain dead so reinstated to 300mg.

 

Want to start a very micro taper once I get a script for liquid GBN.

 

Is it possible to safely taper off this evil poison? And does everyone experience protracted WD?

 

So sad and lost. Reaching out for support.  Anyone??

 

Be Well. Sending out positive thoughts....

[[lo...]]

Real: I hope you get to 0 with no insane symptoms. I am taking a complete break from tapering till somewhere next year. too much in life going on now, traveling, work etc.

 

I would like to hear some gabapentin success stories, from benzo people who took it at larger doses/longer. I guess they don't come back here when they done lol.