• Select Your Topic Then Scroll Down
    Alcohol Bupe Benzos
    Cocaine Heroin Opioids
    RCs Stimulants Misc
    Harm Reduction All Topics Gabapentinoids
    Tired of your habit? Struggling to cope?
    Want to regain control or get sober?
    Visit our Recovery Support Forums

Gabapentinoids Lyrica and Gabapentin Hell (Withdrawal)

GabaHelp

Greenlighter
Joined
Feb 11, 2020
Messages
6
I've been on Lyrica and Gabapentin for several years now. At first they were very helpful. I used to be on Valium as well, until I began to experience get inter-dose withdrawal symptoms while taking the medication. For a while I didn't know what to do about the Valium, finally I found this method of detox called the Coleman method that uses a benzo antagonist (flumazenil) to flush the Valium out of your system. It accelerates the detox. For anyone stuck on a benzo I highly recommend this method of detox. The gabapentin and Lyrica helped me deal with the post acute withdrawal symptoms from the Valium. However, a few months ago I started to experience inter-dose withdrawal from the gabapentin and Lyrica, and it's getting worse. The withdrawal is even worse than the Valium. I've increased my gabapentin dose from 1500mg to 2700mg, but, it only helps for a few days until my brain catches up and I become dependent on the higher dose. I take 225mg of Lyrica. I need to taper off, but, I can't even remain on my current dose let alone decrease it. Taking phenobarbital and trying to quickly taper off would not work. I would just become dependent on the phenobarbital. Any taper would have to be slow, even with the addition of phenobarbital. The people in my life I trust enough to talk to about this don't really understand this hell, and I'm sure they're losing patience with me. I have three addiction medicine specialists I've talked to about this, but, they can't figure it out. No one knows what to do with me. If anyone here has any ideas I'd love some help. Thanks...
 
I've no idea if this would help or not, but what about one of those detoxes where they keep you medically sedated for a period of time? Maybe that could help? Best of luck with whatever you choose and I hope you find something that ultimately works.
 
Yeah, I've thought about that, problem is I think those only work if they have a way of accelerating the detox process...like using naloxone for opioids, or flumazenil for benzos. I would have to be knocked out for like a week for that to work. I've been thinking of going back on a benzo for a few months in order to deal with the horrendous w/d's from the lyrica and gabapentin, then doing another flumazenil detox to get off the benzo. I'm afraid I might just end up with inter-dose w/d from the benzo and the lyrica and gabapentin all at the same time. I did after all just finally get free of valium. So I don't know...
 
You must taper down very, very slowly.

OMG! I know how bad the withdrawal is from just the gabapentin.
It is worse than opiate and benzo withdrawal put together!
Be very careful.

I had no idea about the withdrawal at all and I just stopped taking gabapentin after using it for a month and not finding it to be helpful with my chronic pain issues. I went psychotic from just stopping it suddenly.

I know Lyrica is way stronger too.

There is a Mega thread on here where others talk about how they were able to get off it and things that helped.

It figures “the doctors” cannot figure out how to help!
My doctor did not know that the gabapentin could not be stopped suddenly!
I was so mad!

Good Luck!
Prayers going up for you!
 

have a look at what can happen.
 
I previously abused Xanax for about 5 weeks and had pretty bad withdrawals from just that, but I'm a pretty hardcore opiate addict mainly. I don't mess with benzos at all and my last benzo use was 1.5 years ago when using clonazepam to try to kick opiates which ended up in disaster.
I'd previously used gabapentin to kick opiates and it went well but I relapsed. I tried to kick a long acting opiate with it and was using 3000mg a day maybe more. After 30 days I stopped the gabapentin and still felt like I was in opiate withdrawals.
So I went back on the dope. Tried another detox with gabapentin, using 3000mg a day - the detox went well for the 4 days, the gaba helped amazingly. I slept, ate, felt pretty great. However when I ran out of the gabs on day 5 - I went into Horiffic withdrawals that was like opiate withdrawal, but with these horrible flashes/shocks running up my body, I felt incredibly frightened of people, and I was Freezing cold. It was horrible. I also could not sleep (worse than opiate insomnia, opiate insomnia is due to RLS and chills whereas this was hardcore real insomnia, wide awake. When I did fall asleep I had HORIFFIC nightmares.) It went away after 3 or 4 days luckily.

I don't know how long the WD from gabapentin will last for you, hopefully it is a short duration but I've read on Reddit that some people had this WD for 2 weeks. I was so frightened reading that, if I had 2 weeks of it I'd have ended my life. I went back on the opiates to deal with the gab WD.
I did another detox and tried gabapentin again, this time the gabapentin didn't even touch my withdrawals, it did nothing at all. But when I ran out of gabs that time, I never had any gab withdrawals at all.
Gabapentin is such a wierd strange drug. It's not like opiates where you can correlate each dose exactly to its effects.
 
Yes, the fear, I have a ton of fear. Of everything, when I'm in gabapentin or lyrica withdrawal. I have nightmares when I am able to sleep, I'm sure it's my brain trying to make sense of the fear. And the freezing cold. I imagine if I were in more acute w/d it would be more like freezing cold sweats. But, since I'm trying to taper, for now, it's just freezing cold. The problem is my inter-dose w/d is so bad i can barely drop the dose by 2.5% (using a water taper, dissolving the med and using an oral syringe I can make tiny cuts) without freaking out. Honestly if I were stable on any dose I would just take it for the rest of my life. But that's no longer an option.

The terrible thing is before finally resigning myself to the fact that I have to taper, just a couple months ago, I was only on 1500mg of gabapentin. My doctor tried putting me on this time released Gabapentin called Horizant. Man, that stuff is strong, and weird. At first I really liked it, it was very euphoric. But, also very unpredictable, I would go from euphoric to panicked. It's also about four times stronger than regular gabapentin. So when i decided I had to stop that med altogether I had to increase my gabapentin dose by 1200mg.

Anyway, thank you for the advice, and please keep it coming. This is going to be a long drawn out hell, I know. I really don't want to read all the other reports, they scare me. I've read enough of them. What I'd really like to know is what people did to cope, if there were any good comfort meds.

Thanks!
 
I should also add, before anyone suggests it, that baclofen isn't an option for me. It's a great med, one I used to get off of Valium, but somehow I became dependent on it. I only took it once a week, and yet now I get w/d when I take it. And not the next day, I get w/d symptoms like an hour after taking it. It seems like all gabaergic meds are off limits for me.
 
Sorry about showing you some of the scary stories, Mine included.

I just wanted to make sure you did not stop taking it abruptly.

I was put back on gabapentin recently and I too, have the inter-dose withdrawal.
I found that by Cutting the pills in halves and taking the halves so they overlap each other just a little has been helping.

Clonazepam helps for the gabapentin withdrawal.

If you do this slowly, you will be alright.
 
I mentioned to my psychiatrist that I had really bad withdrawal symptoms when I ran out of my gabapentin a couple days early , and he almost didn't believe what I was telling him. He basically switched the subject and didn't even acknowledge my concern. I was experiencing a paranoid schzophrenic mental state and I was very close to going to the emergency room do ask for help. Since then I haven't ran out early but this makes me want to get off the medication all together. I'm scripted #90 caps of the 300mg strength per month for anxiety. I wanted something other than a benzo
 
Thanks for the advice painful one, df, the lung, and everyone. I'm still trying to figure out what to do. If I go back on Klonopin I'll have to deal with getting off a benzo again...but using the flumazenil accelerated detox getting off benzos is not nearly as hard as trying to get off of 2700mg of gabapentin plus 225mg of lyrica. This is going to take years of feeling just awful unless I have something to help speed things along. I think with Klonopin I could probably do it in 6 months, without it it'll take 2-3 years.
 
I do not take Gabapentin anymore because of the withdrawals I experienced. I did not expect any and was doing 3g+ daily for six months. They are as bad as opioid withdrawal. Pure anxiety. No pain, craving, sensitivity, and so forth. I could not but sit up without my heart rate skyrocketing. The withdrawals lasted at least a month as well. It hurt me really bad and nothing eased the withdrawals except more Gaba. I skip it altogether now.
 
Thanks for the advice painful one, df, the lung, and everyone. I'm still trying to figure out what to do. If I go back on Klonopin I'll have to deal with getting off a benzo again...but using the flumazenil accelerated detox getting off benzos is not nearly as hard as trying to get off of 2700mg of gabapentin plus 225mg of lyrica. This is going to take years of feeling just awful unless I have something to help speed things along. I think with Klonopin I could probably do it in 6 months, without it it'll take 2-3 years.

Will you let us know how you managed it?
I might have to get off the gabapentin also and I would like to know about anything that helped.

I wish you the best of luck. 🍀🍀🍀🍀
Sorry that we did not have much useful information for you on this topic.
 
There's a medication called tiagabine, it's a gaba reuptake inhibitor, like lexapro for gaba. It helps a little bit. For now I'm just tapering very slowly. Lyrica - I dissolve the powder in water and use an oral syringe to make small cuts in the dose, 6.5mg, a week. Gabapentin - I dissolve a 100mg capsule in water and take half, making 50mg cuts a week. I'd prefer to do this faster but that's all I can handle for now.
 
I previously abused Xanax for about 5 weeks and had pretty bad withdrawals from just that, but I'm a pretty hardcore opiate addict mainly. I don't mess with benzos at all and my last benzo use was 1.5 years ago when using clonazepam to try to kick opiates which ended up in disaster.
I'd previously used gabapentin to kick opiates and it went well but I relapsed. I tried to kick a long acting opiate with it and was using 3000mg a day maybe more. After 30 days I stopped the gabapentin and still felt like I was in opiate withdrawals.
So I went back on the dope. Tried another detox with gabapentin, using 3000mg a day - the detox went well for the 4 days, the gaba helped amazingly. I slept, ate, felt pretty great. However when I ran out of the gabs on day 5 - I went into Horiffic withdrawals that was like opiate withdrawal, but with these horrible flashes/shocks running up my body, I felt incredibly frightened of people, and I was Freezing cold. It was horrible. I also could not sleep (worse than opiate insomnia, opiate insomnia is due to RLS and chills whereas this was hardcore real insomnia, wide awake. When I did fall asleep I had HORIFFIC nightmares.) It went away after 3 or 4 days luckily.

I don't know how long the WD from gabapentin will last for you, hopefully it is a short duration but I've read on Reddit that some people had this WD for 2 weeks. I was so frightened reading that, if I had 2 weeks of it I'd have ended my life. I went back on the opiates to deal with the gab WD.
I did another detox and tried gabapentin again, this time the gabapentin didn't even touch my withdrawals, it did nothing at all. But when I ran out of gabs that time, I never had any gab withdrawals at all.
Gabapentin is such a wierd strange drug. It's not like opiates where you can correlate each dose exactly to its effects.
Thankyou really helpful to me
 
I've been on Lyrica and Gabapentin for several years now. At first they were very helpful. I used to be on Valium as well, until I began to experience get inter-dose withdrawal symptoms while taking the medication. For a while I didn't know what to do about the Valium, finally I found this method of detox called the Coleman method that uses a benzo antagonist (flumazenil) to flush the Valium out of your system. It accelerates the detox. For anyone stuck on a benzo I highly recommend this method of detox. The gabapentin and Lyrica helped me deal with the post acute withdrawal symptoms from the Valium. However, a few months ago I started to experience inter-dose withdrawal from the gabapentin and Lyrica, and it's getting worse. The withdrawal is even worse than the Valium. I've increased my gabapentin dose from 1500mg to 2700mg, but, it only helps for a few days until my brain catches up and I become dependent on the higher dose. I take 225mg of Lyrica. I need to taper off, but, I can't even remain on my current dose let alone decrease it. Taking phenobarbital and trying to quickly taper off would not work. I would just become dependent on the phenobarbital. Any taper would have to be slow, even with the addition of phenobarbital. The people in my life I trust enough to talk to about this don't really understand this hell, and I'm sure they're losing patience with me. I have three addiction medicine specialists I've talked to about this, but, they can't figure it out. No one knows what to do with me. If anyone here has any ideas I'd love some help. Thanks...
My girlfriend was sent to rehab for the 3rd time for gabs the withdrawal is top 2 withdrawals out there and I'm a 20 plus yrs on methodon and benzos and experience withdrawal cold turkey and medical detoxification. And gabs are number 1. I never let my self go more then a day withdrawal but it's a mind fuck on top of perfewsly sweating and no energy or mental ability to do anything. Ever task seems so hard and overwhelming. I just hung the phone up talked to my girlfriend at rehab and she's the one that brought it to my attention they gave her the opportunity to use Valium for the tapper she was scared and could not research if Valium hit the Gaba receptors because she's on 225 mg of methadone and methadone doesn't hit the Gaba receptors and still will go into major withdraw without Gabapentin methadone will not do anything for a gabapentin withdrawal it feels like you are opiates sick all over again or heroin sick and the only thing that works is Gabapentin non-controlled non-narcotic medication I'd say someone dropped the ball there I understand there's a withdrawal from anything you're used to taking but non-controlled non-narcotic should not a person into a withdrawal like that is you're trying to tell me Gabapentin has been out for 80 plus years and this is the first time people started using rehabs and tapering off Gabapentin I think there's a lawsuit pending and the makers Gabapentin Neurontin Gabapentin is only FDA-approved for neuropathy seizures epileptic is not FDA-approved for mental health use or for help with opeit

withdrawal which had gotten from a addiction doctor in the past Gabapentin will help the withdrawal also was prescribed it for two and a half years when I was in jail for my psychiatry and that's when I really felt that there is a withdrawal from these was released and didn't care to fill script but went through mood swings and mental health 4 weeks and I just thought it was because I was anxious of not being in jail anymore and I was
only on

800 mg. 3 times a day never taking any extras now I'm taking 10-15 800 sad a and scared to death not to have them she told rehab that's what she was taking they started her at 1600 mg four times a day for her taper I want to tell her to take the Valium I resurched it and does attach to gabba receptors
 
after one year, +/-, who knows when you are on Pregabalin the dose was 225 mg a day. Started with a single 75mg.

I started taking less and less. I noticed no WD's. But i did a 'by feel ' taper and ended up with enough caps for emergencies.

I experienced no withdrawal.
 
Its a weird drug I've never used lyrica more than once due 2 seizure risk & I don't know if like gabapentin I wont get physically dependent on it or not.

I've used 3600MG daily for years with zero withdrawal in fact I recently forgot to take my nightly dose as I used a weed edible instead for the last like 3ish days give or take a day? I've zero withdrawal symptoms & this is not the 1st I've aburptly stopped using gabapentin after years of daily including everyone I've met that's used long-term excluding online anecdotes like theOP.
 
I think it is a longish term of abuse with sudden cessation that may bring acute withdrawal symptoms. Or Rx-ed a high dose and run out I know this caused my friend to go into spasms, sickness, seizures and other serious wd symptoms from pregabalin. There were several meds Rx-ed to him but the prgabalin was a must (paraplegic). I had to take him a few grams of phenibut to help ease the horrors a couple times. He didn't think it would work but it took a lot of the wds away or minimized them.
Not comprehending anyone replace pregab with phenibut or to trust the outcome mentioned above... it was a circumstance and it was a def stab at HR.
I also found that ~3x the weight in phenibut vs pregabalin can stve off any serious wds from high dose and/or abuse of pregab. Worked for me and a couple others I know... just throwin that out there.
fwiw
always my best fam
love ya long time
 
Top