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Gabapentinoids How Long Can You Take Gabapentin Before You'll Experience Withdrawal

Lovecraft

Lovecraft

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 20, 2013
Messages
284
I have discovered that taking at least 2000 mg staggered over a couple hours is the ticket to extracting this drug's effects. It's not my go-to, but coming off a small opiate/Benzo run, Gabapentin is helping. I only plan on using it for about 3 days, given the short duration of my opiate/Benzo usage.

The fact that your tolerance goes up so fast with it makes me think it's probably a quick process to physical addiction and I should be therefore be cautious.
 
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I don't have any personal experience but some will claim there is no withdrawal and others will claim there is a pretty serious withdrawal. I tend to think both are probably true, depending on the person. Doctors seem a lot less reluctant to hand them out than benzos or opioids so that makes me think statistically, its easier to get people off that those other types of drugs.

Depending on how long you were using benzos and opioids, 3 days may not be enough. At the same time 2000mg is a pretty high dose, you're taking that every couple hours all day?
 
your just replacing one drug for another, IMO your better off just weaning, physical exercise will help alot If your weaning
 
Pickledlemons said:
I don't have any personal experience but some will claim there is no withdrawal and others will claim there is a pretty serious withdrawal. I tend to think both are probably true, depending on the person. Doctors seem a lot less reluctant to hand them out than benzos or opioids so that makes me think statistically, its easier to get people off that those other types of drugs.

Depending on how long you were using benzos and opioids, 3 days may not be enough. At the same time 2000mg is a pretty high dose, you're taking that every couple hours all day?
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No...total spread over a few hours.
 
Thats not so bad. Grain of salt and all that, but gabapentin is probably the lesser of the 3 evils. If its keeping you off opioids and benzos that is a good thing. As for the timeline, I can't really help you there. Maybe someone else will chime in. Good luck.
 
Hey LC,
I am rx'd gaba, I can take it for 10 days at a time, around the same total daily mgs as you and stop after 10 days, and have no wds myself. Hope this helps.

How many days were you planning on taking them for?

Ash.
 
Sorry LC, I missed the part where you said you would take it for 3 days. You'll be fine wd wise if you stop the gaba. But take it for a few more if you aren't over your wds from the other meds.
 
You might withdrawal if you have been taking it everyday for a few weeks, some less time, some more time. The thing is, If you stop suddenly taking it after you have been on for that amount of time, you will get withdrawals. Good thing is, gabapentin is super easy to taper off of. You can drop off really quickly, like 300 mg every couple of days, until you get down to 300 mg, then 150 mg, then half of that and so forth. Tapering off of it will give you almost no withdrawals, unlike opioids, and benzos. There is absolutely no way to avoid miserable withdrawals with those drugs. You can do it that quickly, but If have a good supply of gabapentin, I always say why hurry? That goes for most everything.
 
EPL1 said:
Sorry LC, I missed the part where you said you would take it for 3 days. You'll be fine wd wise if you stop the gaba. But take it for a few more if you aren't over your wds from the other meds.
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Thanks EPL1. It's more between 2-3000mg. I lose count. But no more than 3000. And yes, I'll stop after day 3 as that would be the amount of time my w/d from Benzo/opiates would have been, roughly.
 
Gabapentin is safe to take for about a week every day. Some people seem to get withdrawal easier than others but I have never heard of anyone getting withdrawal after a week. Usually a week is enough to bypass most of opiate withdrawal. Gabapentin is my favorite way to get off opiates because it blocks nearly all of the withdrawal and puts you in a good mood to boot, and since it's not an opioid you don't set yourself back or prolong withdrawal at all. However you need to make sure you don't keep taking it, as it is physically addictive.

It's pretty good for light benzo withdrawal, too.

The best way to go about it is to taper down from your opiates as low as you can, then jump off entirely and start using gabapentin, and clonidine too if you have it. Take 300mg at a time, separated by 30-45 minutes each. I always get full relief from 1200mg, sometimes even 600-900mg will do it. The lower the dose, the less chance of having withdrawal from gabapentin. Pre-loading with an NSAID, like ibuprofen or even better, naproxen, increases absorption (by increasing gut permeability), and unlike most drugs, if you eat it with fatty foods in your stomach, it will absorb better.
 
I had withdrawal coming off 1,000mg every day for roughly 4 weeks.

It felt like a cross between an opioid/stimulant withdrawal. Body aches, no energy or motivation, feeling like I wanted to cry every other hour, intense drug cravings, hallucinations, etc..
Not sure why it hit me so hard, but everyone is different.

Hell I use to be able to take clonazepam for days at a time and then just drop it like it was nothing and never understood what was so bad about benzo withdrawal. Wasn't until I got older and started taking it daily for weeks/months at a time, that I finally understood what people were going through.


I was a tramadol addict for 10 years and doctors used to hand out tramadol like it was candy before it eventually became controlled (which was shitty IMO). So just because doctors are less reluctant to give it out doesn't mean much. High dose tramadol withdrawal after weeks was just as bad, if not worse (for me) than withdrawals from a heroin binge. And I'd rank gabapentin withdrawal maybe a step or two below them, so be careful.
 
Everyone is different. I used them for a year and stopped no issues . They are not that addictive
 
DeathIndustrial88 said:
I had withdrawal coming off 1,000mg every day for roughly 4 weeks.

It felt like a cross between an opioid/stimulant withdrawal. Body aches, no energy or motivation, feeling like I wanted to cry every other hour, intense drug cravings, hallucinations, etc..
Not sure why it hit me so hard, but everyone is different.

Hell I use to be able to take clonazepam for days at a time and then just drop it like it was nothing and never understood what was so bad about benzo withdrawal. Wasn't until I got older and started taking it daily for weeks/months at a time, that I finally understood what people were going through.


I was a tramadol addict for 10 years and doctors used to hand out tramadol like it was candy before it eventually became controlled (which was shitty IMO). So just because doctors are less reluctant to give it out doesn't mean much. High dose tramadol withdrawal after weeks was just as bad, if not worse (for me) than withdrawals from a heroin binge. And I'd rank gabapentin withdrawal maybe a step or two below them, so be careful.
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I was using 300mg of Tramadol daily for about a year and the withdrawal was awful. I didn't even quit C/T, but still ended up feeling like crap, especially mentally, for about 3 months. I'd never been through that prolonged a withdrawal before and I was wondering if I'd ever get better.
 
Lovecraft said:
I was using 300mg of Tramadol daily for about a year and the withdrawal was awful. I didn't even quit C/T, but still ended up feeling like crap, especially mentally, for about 3 months. I'd never been through that prolonged a withdrawal before and I was wondering if I'd ever get better.
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Yeah tram withdrawal is something else.
 
I’m 3 weeks in and it’s killing me! Feels like it’s getting worse not better! So agitated and angry had stomach cramps night mares no sleep it’s been tough not to get back on it! But it’s had a couple of years of my life and that’s enough.
 
like others have stated, Gabapentin is great for a light benzo/opioid withdrawal combined with Clonidine

Those 2 combined would be a god send for daily usage for a week or so….Clonidine must be reduced gradually to prevent rebound hypertension and the Gabapentin shouldn’t be an issue for daily usage (week or two)
 
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