headfuck123
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2010
- Messages
- 1,623
Apologies if this has been covered or is a bit all over the place. My goal is to be completely free of benzos, gabapentin and stay off other pharma meds generally.
So Im roughly 3 months clean of opioids after a rough year (or two?) of use / abuse of DHC, Tapentadol, morphine and Subutex. Thankfully im over the whole opioid thing and feel like I can now move on from that horrible chapter.
I had already been dependant on benzos, pre opioid addiction and have a history of benzo addiction, along with a lot of experience with tapering off them safely. I feel I have that side of things covered if I stick to a slow/steady taper plan and listen to my body. When detoxing from subutex, I started using either pregabalin or gabapentin to cope with the nerve pain etc and have since settled with gabapentin as the lesser of two evils, at a dose of 900-1500 daily for the past few months.
Should I attempt a fairly fast taper off the gabapentin then start slowly tapering the benzos? Im worried my illicit supply of gaba will dry up, addiction clinics and Drs refuse to script either benzos or gabapentin for me to taper with, under medical supervision like I did in the past with Diazepam, thus i've had to do it on my own. Their only offer is a 2 week detox in hospital, which for benzos and other gaba drugs would be dangerous at best..
Currently needing 450mg gabapentin + 20-30mg diazepam daily, along with cannabis, tobacco + coffee.
Does it sound reasonable to take a week off work, go straight to 300mg gaba for a few days then 150mg daily til stable then jump off after I'm ok at 75mg and just suffer more while I have the time off? I understand some get no withdrawal from gabapentin and others struggle quite a bit, I feel I fall somewhere in the middle, with symptoms resembling opioid wd's (body temp fluctuations, lack of apetite & sleep, nerve pain, anxiety & irritability/ mood swings etc..). I didn't struggle too much getting from 1500mg down to 450mg in a matter of weeks.
Also wondering are there other meds which may help that won't interfere with gaba receptors too much, overload my system or cause further addiction issues? I have access to soma, zopiclone, zolpidem, various opioids (no thanks, too risky..) and Ketamine. Got some pregabalin and phenibut as a back up but I understand those to be more intense to come off of.
The first 5 - 10 days of detoxing from opioids, no amount of Diaz, Pregabs or Cannabis helped with the severe symptoms. What I did discover was that Ketamine provided the most relief and seemed to have lasting positive effects on mood, motivation, nerve pain and even seemed to make me need less diazepam. I understand my body has already taken a beating from all of these drugs but maybe a week off with the odd K-hole and a strict and fast gabapentin taper might work. My hope would be that after getting off gabapentin Ill be able to stick to cannabis along with more effort on tapering off benzos. Also, my diet and exercise are pretty good, not in bad physical shape but obviousy struggle with fatigue and pain issues related to these drugs.
Any similar experinces, advice or insights on this would be much appreciated!
HF
So Im roughly 3 months clean of opioids after a rough year (or two?) of use / abuse of DHC, Tapentadol, morphine and Subutex. Thankfully im over the whole opioid thing and feel like I can now move on from that horrible chapter.
I had already been dependant on benzos, pre opioid addiction and have a history of benzo addiction, along with a lot of experience with tapering off them safely. I feel I have that side of things covered if I stick to a slow/steady taper plan and listen to my body. When detoxing from subutex, I started using either pregabalin or gabapentin to cope with the nerve pain etc and have since settled with gabapentin as the lesser of two evils, at a dose of 900-1500 daily for the past few months.
Should I attempt a fairly fast taper off the gabapentin then start slowly tapering the benzos? Im worried my illicit supply of gaba will dry up, addiction clinics and Drs refuse to script either benzos or gabapentin for me to taper with, under medical supervision like I did in the past with Diazepam, thus i've had to do it on my own. Their only offer is a 2 week detox in hospital, which for benzos and other gaba drugs would be dangerous at best..
Currently needing 450mg gabapentin + 20-30mg diazepam daily, along with cannabis, tobacco + coffee.
Does it sound reasonable to take a week off work, go straight to 300mg gaba for a few days then 150mg daily til stable then jump off after I'm ok at 75mg and just suffer more while I have the time off? I understand some get no withdrawal from gabapentin and others struggle quite a bit, I feel I fall somewhere in the middle, with symptoms resembling opioid wd's (body temp fluctuations, lack of apetite & sleep, nerve pain, anxiety & irritability/ mood swings etc..). I didn't struggle too much getting from 1500mg down to 450mg in a matter of weeks.
Also wondering are there other meds which may help that won't interfere with gaba receptors too much, overload my system or cause further addiction issues? I have access to soma, zopiclone, zolpidem, various opioids (no thanks, too risky..) and Ketamine. Got some pregabalin and phenibut as a back up but I understand those to be more intense to come off of.
The first 5 - 10 days of detoxing from opioids, no amount of Diaz, Pregabs or Cannabis helped with the severe symptoms. What I did discover was that Ketamine provided the most relief and seemed to have lasting positive effects on mood, motivation, nerve pain and even seemed to make me need less diazepam. I understand my body has already taken a beating from all of these drugs but maybe a week off with the odd K-hole and a strict and fast gabapentin taper might work. My hope would be that after getting off gabapentin Ill be able to stick to cannabis along with more effort on tapering off benzos. Also, my diet and exercise are pretty good, not in bad physical shape but obviousy struggle with fatigue and pain issues related to these drugs.
Any similar experinces, advice or insights on this would be much appreciated!
HF