BlueComet: Gabapentin withdrawal never ends. Should I reinstate?

[Pugknows]

BC,

 

Your symptoms, except for cog fog, don't sound like gabapentin side effects at all. Are you taking or coming off of any other drugs? You don't have a signature.

 

Pug

[BlueComet]

A brief history; I got off a four year klonopin and ambien routine in August 2014 by going through a detox after several failed tapers. This put me on my ass but after 2 months I slowly was making improvements. By month 5, I was driving again, socializing all the time, got a new job, had a lot of cognitive skills return, and had a lot of fatigue go away.

 

However, by month 5 I still had extreme insomnia, lingering and fluctuating anxiety, and a few other minor symptoms. To get through the hump of my new job and the difficulty that insomnia was causing (I was awake for like 2 days at a time), I spoke to an outpatient psychiatrist to discuss any possible short-term sleep aids. After two visits, I decided to go on his suggestion of gabapentin for sleep and the lingering anxiety. He started me at doses of 1200mg per day. It seemed to work okay in the first few days but then slowly I started developing side effects; irritability, depression, more anxiety. I just associated this with the benzo withdrawal I was going through. I mentioned this to my doctor and he bumped me up to 2100mg per day. This just made everything worse. I developed severe depression, suicidal thoughts, and a ton of physical symptoms. After one month of this medication, I realized this was the culprit to my newfound problems. It took 9 ER visits, one voluntary inpatient stay, and discussions with a lot of unhelpful doctors for me to finally get off this stuff after seven weeks use. Due to the seriousness of the suicidal side effects, and the inability to taper, I stopped cold turkey.

 

Since getting off this horrible medication, I have suffered from the following

PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS

-heart palpitations

-nerve pain

-nonstop hair loss

-fatigue

-shakiness/jitteriness

-pins & needles

 

PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS

-irrational fears

-derealization

-severe anxiety

-cognitive impairement

-depression

-anger

 

There are more, and I'm sure I can do a better job of articulating this, but my brain is not what it used to be. It has been 8.5 months since I stopped a seven week use of gabapentin and I am still suffering a great deal. I can't drive, I can't drink alcohol, I can't drink coffee. It has been a horrible 8.5 months and it has no sign of stopping anytime soon. I hate my doctor so much for putting me on this.

 

So, anyway, the questions I have are

 

1) Will I ever get better on my own, or has this medication caused permanent damage that my brain is not producing whatever is missing?

2) Is reinstating this medication too risky of a idea due to the psychological problems and weight gain I experienced while I was on it?

3) Is there anything I can take to supplement these wtihdrawal to reduce my anxiety and physical symptoms?

4) Has anybody had any experience with anything similiar?

 

Thanks all!

BC

[Petunia]

Hi BlueComet,

I moved your post from the symptoms forum and joined it with your original intro/update topic. Please use this thread to track progress, write about symptoms, ask questions and communicate with the community, add to it whenever you want. Please bookmark it or follow it so you can find it again.

 

It would be great if you would put your drug and withdrawal history in your signature. Doing this helps people understand your context, it appears below each of your posts. Here are instructions for how to do it:

 

http://survivinganti...your-signature/

 

I'm sorry to hear that you are still having symptoms. If you read back through your thread, you will find that your questions have already been answered.

 

Did you ever try taking 10mg as was suggested?

 

Petunia.

[BlueComet]

I had tried to break apart the pill to get 10mg but didn't have much luck doing it precisely, so I took 100mg. This provided some minor relief from physical symptoms but immediately brought depression back. A few days later I went into a funk that lasted a few days, I'm presuming from disrupting my CNS.

 

This seems like a cruel joke; I spoke to my doctor to take this short term to get through insomnia that was affecting my new job and it has now been affecting me close to 1 year later. This medication makes me psychotic, but I've been a mess without it and recovering from it is moving at a snails pace, if at all. I'm confident based upon my first six months off benzos that my recovery was fast enough to be done with this whole ordeal right now if not for gabapentin.

 

So, I don't know if starting gabapentin again is a huge gamble or makes sense.

[Altostrata]

Hello, BlueComet.
 
You went cold-turkey off 2100mg gabapentin per day? Now you've reinstated 100mg? When did you do that?

 

If 100mg is causing "depression," you might take less, perhaps 75mg.

 

This topic explains how to take a smaller dose Tips for tapering off Neurontin (gabapentin)

 

This drug comes in a liquid form. Your doctor could have prescribed it. Or, you can make your own liquid.

[BlueComet]

Allow me to clarify; I took one 100mg dose at the end of July 2015 in an attempt to combat the withdrawal. It brought back depression instantly so I didn't take another dose since. Aside from this one dose, I have been off gabapentin since March 25, 2015.

[Altostrata]

Very sorry that all the possibilities for taking a much smaller dose, as described in Tips for tapering off Neurontin (gabapentin) were overlooked.

 

I don't know what would happen if you took gabapentin again now. The only way to find out would be to take a tiny amount, even 1mg.

[BlueComet]

If a low dose doesn't work, or causes adverse effects, do you think I might shoot myself in the foot and make whatever I'm going through worse or prolong it?

 

If it does work, what type of timelines would be smart to focus on in terms of staying on it, tapering off it, etc?

[BlueComet]

If a low dose doesn't work, or causes adverse effects, do you think I might shoot myself in the foot and make whatever I'm going through worse or prolong it?

 

If it does work, what type of timelines would be smart to focus on in terms of staying on it, tapering off it, etc?

[Fresh]

Hi Blue Comet , at this stage your symptoms sound debilitating enough that it's worth a try.

 

You should know within 24-48 hours if it offers some symptom relief. If it helps , the idea

will be to stabilize on the lowest possible dose , stay there for a couple of months , then

begin a careful taper off. You need to give it at least 4 days to get to a steady level in

your bloodstream.

 

If you have an adverse reaction , your symptoms will get worse within 24 hours. By trying

just a tiny dose , this should pass quickly if it does happen. It is a risk that you need to

consider.

 

Fresh