Gabapentin (Neurontin) Withdrawl Support Group

[[Re...]]

Real: yeah, most people won't do that kind of 1mg taper as you I suppose....

Honestly I hate any type of titrating myself. and why do it when the pharmacy can do it lol. I could imagine the suspension is a bit better then at home with water.

will see....i might even catch up with you couple months from now....

 

I hear you.  I expect and hope (for your taper) that you catch and pass me.  I hope for myself to have some kind of relief.  At this pace i'm looking at another year or more......

 

-RST

[[lo...]]

do you get any 'windows', good days when you keep stable? or struggle every day?

hard time to see how that low of a dose can have such impact....I guess the good news is that at that dose you don't have to deal with that bad of s/x of that drug like fatigue etc

 

Real: yeah, most people won't do that kind of 1mg taper as you I suppose....

Honestly I hate any type of titrating myself. and why do it when the pharmacy can do it lol. I could imagine the suspension is a bit better then at home with water.

will see....i might even catch up with you couple months from now....

 

I hear you.  I expect and hope (for your taper) that you catch and pass me.  I hope for myself to have some kind of relief.  At this pace i'm looking at another year or more......

 

-RST

[[Ca...]]

Hey there Slim, and Loc...

Pls do keep posting as you wish...!! Very interesting accounts of what can happen...

Esp. With so many Drs running to it as a "cure all"...

 

Wishing you both the very best...

 

 

[[ga...]]

RST is right. Gabapentin is water soluble. So when you mix it up, you actually have a solution, not a suspension.

 

suspension = the particles are "floating" and will eventually settle out, sometimes very quickly

 

solution = particles are dissolved and will not settle out under normal circumstances

 

Found the following on BB. Found lots of reliable sources online (such as pubchem) that say similar.

 

March 28, 2016, 10:05:28 pm

The solubility for gabapentin in water is listed as 10 mg/ml which equates to 295 mg/ounce.  So you should be fine dissolving 800 mg in a cup of water.

There may be some insoluble matter from the pill, but the gabapentin should dissolve.

 

 

Gard

[[lo...]]

being 18 months out, and still dealing with bad waves, but also very good days, I am wondering if gabapentin plays any role in this.

it appears that even updosing temporary does not really help that much when being in a wave. also tapering doesn't cause the waves either. they come and go randomly.

which makes me think that it is still benzo w/d, and gabapentin just is a parallel issue. the biggest concern is obviously that gabapentin prevents healing. but then I am reading about all those buddies having similar symptoms 1+ years out, and not being on gabapentin. this is pretty hard.....

[[Re...]]

being 18 months out, and still dealing with bad waves, but also very good days, I am wondering if gabapentin plays any role in this.

it appears that even updosing temporary does not really help that much when being in a wave. also tapering doesn't cause the waves either. they come and go randomly.

which makes me think that it is still benzo w/d, and gabapentin just is a parallel issue. the biggest concern is obviously that gabapentin prevents healing. but then I am reading about all those buddies having similar symptoms 1+ years out, and not being on gabapentin. this is pretty hard.....

 

It absolutely is very hard.  I'm in a wave very similar to the one when I updosed back in October.  I'm pretty non-functional right now and I'm the head of my organization.  I am definitely in a difficult spot.  I hear YOU locutus. 

 

I think I may have discovered part of my problem.  I have no proof yet, but it appears I may have been chronically exposed to mold in my previous house and also in my office.  Apparently, some molds can be neuro-toxic result in neurological issues.  We just had the test done in my office yesterday but there is clearly black mold when we pull back some carpeting.  The inspector thinks it's been there a long long time.  This may partly explain why I was dependent on Ativan so quickly originally and why I can't get off the Gabapentin now.  I have an appointment to talk to my doctor about this on Monday.  Anyway, food for thought.

 

-RST

[[ay...]]

I have just spent 3 days reading all 189 pages of this thread. I really appreciate every single poster. I am now following to see how it turns out for everyone.

 

I am 33 months out from a 3years 7 months 10℅ taper from 10mg-0mg Diazepam. I ended up on Gabapentin 4 months from the end of the taper due to chronic nerve pain/burning of inner thigh, buttock, groin, which rendered me unable to walk without agony, or to sit down. Gabapentin didn't really help to be honest but Amiltriptyline did which has enabled me to live a normal life. (Started Amil towards end of taper too). After reading all this it appears I'm not the only one.

 

My dose had stayed the same 300 morning 300 afternoon 300 bedtime. 5 weeks ago I cut out the morning dose and felt nothing. I waited 1 month then took out the afternoon dose.  Its day nine today, and if I hadn't starting feeling better was going to updose. I have felt just as in the days of Diazepam WD only with some sort of tremor in my chest intermittently. Its getting less and less but is still happening which disturbs me. I hope it goes away.

 

Today the nausea 1-3pm, tingles, and burning have been a lot less, hence I'm going to see how it goes till tomorrow. The stories so far though have got me worried. I believe the last 300 will be hardest. I have a 1mg Risperidone taper started as well (first 10℅ cut so far).

 

 

[[pl...]]

I guess I've been lucky because I've never had a WD problem with Gabapentin, and I've taken up to 3600 mgs. in a day. It has helped knock down the Ativan WD symptoms, but it doesn't always have an effect. I've also found that dicloflenac (NSAID) helps with the headache, head pressure and tinnitus, but again, it isn't always reliable.

[[Re...]]

I guess I've been lucky because I've never had a WD problem with Gabapentin, and I've taken up to 3600 mgs. in a day. It has helped knock down the Ativan WD symptoms, but it doesn't always have an effect. I've also found that dicloflenac (NSAID) helps with the headache, head pressure and tinnitus, but again, it isn't always reliable.

 

I appreciate all the comments from everyone.

 

In short, I think my case has some twists and turns that one only understands after-the-fact.  I'll summarize them here in point form because I think it'll be easier to explain my situation.

 

- I went into very bad acute withdrawal after CT very short Ativan use (11 days)

- 1 day later I reinstated and then a week after I crossed to diazepam for a rapid taper (4 weeks).

- 2 weeks later I was into an intolerable acute withdrawal.  I was about to lose my job and gabapentin was given as an option.

- After a few weeks of gabapentin, my withdrawal declined somewhat.  I began tapering gabapentin then. 

- I started to feel better and this is where my second big mistakes began but I didn't realize it.

- In conjunction with tapering the gabapentin, I had a flood in my house that required immediate work to deal with, much of it very physical.  After a few days of hard work, I went into a terrible wave.

- stopped the gabapentin taper and updosed to a more stable amount.  I started to feel better about 2 weeks later.

- soon I was able to function much better and almost felt back to normal and so I was back to more projects.  This time, my taper rate was much reduced.

- Eventually I got more active doing a bit of exercise and then I had to hold on my taper again. 

-  This pattern repeated itself a few more times until I finally figured out that it wasn't the tapering so much as the exercise.  I didn't put it together that what I thought I was doing because my body needed it was actually putting me into waves.

-  The problem with the waves is each time I went into a wave and then came out of it, it seemed like I was more damaged as I couldn't taper the gabapentin as much.  This is why I thought it was the gabapentin.

- By the fall of last year, I got down to 100mg per day divided into 2 doses (50mg AM and 50mg PM).  I went for a little bike ride and disaster set it.

- It was the worst agony of any withdrawal I had ever experienced.

- I updosed a bit thinking it would be OK, but it didn't seem to do much.  It took me a week to stabilize.  I went from 50mg twice a day to 60mg three times per day because the interdose withdrawals were so horrific.

- Since then, I've had a pretty agonizing taper down to 150mg (50mg three times per day).

- Now, I've hit a brick wall.  I think I'm in tolerance to the gabapentin partly because I didn't understand that the exercise was driving me into what I think was benzo withdrawal over and over again which damaged me each time it hapenned. 

 

It's ironic that I tried to help myself with exercise but I ended up damaging myself.  How do I know this is true?  Now, if I do anything physical, I am in agony.  If I cut my gabapentin, I am in agony.  My body is simply shot.  I need to do nothing and stabilize for a long time and then try to finish this damn taper.  I hope I can get it done this way.....

 

Anyway, as i also said earlier, I've also just discovered that my office is a black mold breeding ground that I've been exposed to for a long time and I'm sure that hasn't helped any.

 

-RST

[[ay...]]

Realslimtaper you're story is really saddening. I hope things improve for you. Especially as you got down to 2 divided doses of 50. Will be listening out for how you're doing.

 

So glad I found this thread. I Really need to be around Gabapentin sufferers right now.

 

Im wondering whether to bring my only dose left of 300mg bedtime slowly forward. I've taken my morning 300, and afternoon 300 out and now I'm wondering how sleep would be affected lowering this bedtime dose. I'm thinking of bringing it forward gradually to the afternoon, gradually by an hour each week maybe. If I could do this it might make withdrawal easier.

 

Feeling much better, however still got the internal tremor slightly. It feels like an extra heartbeat in upper chest. Not cutting anymore yet till this has stopped. I am wondering because I'm 33 months out from Diazepam taper maybe I can get away with taking the last 300 out a bit quicker.

[[lo...]]

so my very bad wave left me as of sunday. I did also start to cut again on sunday (from 300+300+600 to 300+300+550). I did updose during my last bad wave which started couple weeks ago.

I a feeling pretty good as of today. which makes me believe that gabapentin w/d and benzo w/d do live separate lives.

my plan as of now is reduce the evening dose to 300, and once that is done, I will taper all of them equally via liquid. this time slow, and with no updosing, even when waves come (which I feel are still benzo, even 18months later.....)

[[Re...]]

so my very bad wave left me as of sunday. I did also start to cut again on sunday (from 300+300+600 to 300+300+550). I did updose during my last bad wave which started couple weeks ago.

I a feeling pretty good as of today. which makes me believe that gabapentin w/d and benzo w/d do live separate lives.

my plan as of now is reduce the evening dose to 300, and once that is done, I will taper all of them equally via liquid. this time slow, and with no updosing, even when waves come (which I feel are still benzo, even 18months later.....)

 

Glad to hear the wave passed.  Be careful not to push yourself too hard.  I believe the physical stress I took on when I started to feel better ended up pushing me back into a benzo wave and messing with my CNS over and over again.

 

As a follow-up to yesterdays comment I made which included the realization that I have been exposed to mold in my office for a long time, we received the results of our mold test and it identified that I have been exposed to high levels of toxic Stachybotrys Chartarum.  This may be adding to my problems as it may have significant neurological impact.

 

........wonderful.

[[ga...]]

Realslimtaper you're story is really saddening. I hope things improve for you. Especially as you got down to 2 divided doses of 50. Will be listening out for how you're doing.

 

So glad I found this thread. I Really need to be around Gabapentin sufferers right now.

 

Im wondering whether to bring my only dose left of 300mg bedtime slowly forward. I've taken my morning 300, and afternoon 300 out and now I'm wondering how sleep would be affected lowering this bedtime dose. I'm thinking of bringing it forward gradually to the afternoon, gradually by an hour each week maybe. If I could do this it might make withdrawal easier.

 

Feeling much better, however still got the internal tremor slightly. It feels like an extra heartbeat in upper chest. Not cutting anymore yet till this has stopped. I am wondering because I'm 33 months out from Diazepam taper maybe I can get away with taking the last 300 out a bit quicker.

 

Aley, I'm not tapering my gabapentin yet (this time, did once before) but I think many people find it easier to taper than a benzo. I still would advise caution. Gabapentin comes in 100mg capsules. Perhaps you could get your script changed so you only reduce 100mg at a time. You might want to also consider only tapering one drug at a time. If you run into trouble, you won't know which taper is causing the trouble. Just my 2 cents.

 

Gard

[[ay...]]

Thanks Gardener. You're right. Im thinking of carrying on with my other taper (Risperidone) as I believe that to be more evil than Gabapentin even. Oh dear. Just hoping to stabilise on this last 300mg. Would hate to go back up. Knowing me I probably should have left Gabapentin alone completely till I'd finished my other taper. Maybe it could have helped at the higher dose.

 

I'm really hoping these waves are not Benzo, which they do feel like, as I'm 33 months out so that would be scary 😕

 

 

[[ga...]]

Thanks Gardener. You're right. Im thinking of carrying on with my other taper (Risperidone) as I believe that to be more evil than Gabapentin even. Oh dear. Just hoping to stabilise on this last 300mg. Would hate to go back up. Knowing me I probably should have left Gabapentin alone completely till I'd finished my other taper. Maybe it could have helped at the higher dose.

 

I'm really hoping these waves are not Benzo, which they do feel like, as I'm 33 months out so that would be scary 😕

 

Gabapentin is a short-acting drug. If you're only dosing once/day now, that could be making you feel unstable. I dose 3x/day. I'm thinking about going to twice/day. I don't think I will ever go to only once/day. I will do liquid titration when I want to reduce so I can bring each dose down together. I'm pretty sure gabapentin is soluble in water, so converting to liquid should be fairly easy.

 

If you're feeling very unstable now, you might just hold off on tapering anything for a bit and let your brain adjust to the changes. Or you might get those 100mg gabapentin capsules so you can divide your 300mg into 3 separate doses. That might help even things out.

 

Gard

[[ay...]]

Has anybody successfully come off of Gabapentin?  It would be very nice to hear that some have, and how you went about it. Feeling really down about it.

[[ay...]]

Thank you Gardener. I'm taking all you're advice on board. Through what I've read that they are soluble so it should be easy enough to create 100mg doses from 300mg capsules. Just wondering if I need to do more than 100 100 100

[[ga...]]

Has anybody successfully come off of Gabapentin?  It would be very nice to hear that some have, and how you went about it. Feeling really down about it.

 

Years ago, before I ever took a benzo, I took gabapentin for nerve pain. I tapered off of it because it was making me fuzzy-brained. I don't remember it being very hard, just slow. And here I got talked into going on it again when my nerve pain flared up again.

 

Gard

[[ga...]]

Thank you Gardener. I'm taking all you're advice on board. Through what I've read that they are soluble so it should be easy enough to create 100mg doses from 300mg capsules. Just wondering if I need to do more than 100 100 100

 

Just an FYI, if you decide you need a dose correction (up-dose), it's more likely to work if you do it quickly. Otherwise, you're probably better off trying the 3 doses/day and holding. There's a long hold support group for people who are badly destabilized and have paused their tapers. I was on it when I was holding. I held for a l-o-n-g time to get stable but now am tapering successfully. You can do it, too!

 

Gard

[[Ca...]]

Has anybody successfully come off of Gabapentin?  It would be very nice to hear that some have, and how you went about it. Feeling really down about it.

Yes, I didnt have any problems from big (max) doses, several times over the years, mainly pre benzo... Then as needed every few months, like 1day at 2400mg...

It did cushion benzo WD, I would suggest treating it like a mild benzo to start with, and see how it goes...

 

[[ay...]]

Thanks, its great to hear you both have cracked this before. It gives some hope.

 

Has anyone had the singular forceful heart palpitations? This is the worst thing right now. I'm noticing it when still like when reading but it may be happening whilst I'm busy but just not feeling it.

[[Ca...]]

Thanks, its great to hear you both have cracked this before. It gives some hope.

 

Has anyone had the singular forceful heart palpitations? This is the worst thing right now. I'm noticing it when still like when reading but it may be happening whilst I'm busy but just not feeling it.

No, sorry, never any heart issues from anything...

But it dies seem to be fairly common around this site...

You could try the search function..?

 

[[ga...]]

I haven't either. My biggest physical issue with gablepntin was/is muscle twitches.

[[Pa...]]

About 21 days ago I was in a really bad wave and needed something to help me. I had my old Gabapentin prescription and took 200mg in the morning, then 200 in the afternoon and 200 at bedtime. The next morning I woke up without any anxiety. This was the first time I woke up feeling that good in years. My day was also great so I decided to keep taking them just that way. So for about 19 days I was doing really well. No morning anxiety and I thought I was healed. My only side effect was that I wasn't sleeping well and I had daytime brain fog. During this time I also had increased my Effexor to 225mg from 187.5 and stopped taking Trazodone. Yesterday it all came crashing down. I woke up with Anxiety and the brain fog became worse. I tried to take 300mg last night at bedtime to see if it would help me sleep better and wake up without anxiety. That didn't work, I slept less and again woke up with anxiety. Today I decided to stop taking it. So I'm back to having my GAD but my brain fog is lifting and I'm getting my energy back. BTW, I'm 8 months off of Benzos and mostly experiencing waves but getting the occasional window.

 

Can anyone please tell me what happened or what I did wrong? Honestly I would have been fine living with the brain fog. It wasn't good but so much better than anxiety, breathlessness, tinnitus and all the other crap I've been suffering from.

 

 

[[ga...]]

Paul, it's very hard to even hazard a guess with all the recent changes in your meds plus the fact that you're still in w/d from from benzo. I would suggest you try making smaller changes and only one at a time so you have a better idea of what might be causing your symptoms. Also, as my doctor said to me, "The brain likes predictability." Probably stopping the changes and giving your brain some predictability for awhile would help.

 

Gard