Struggling coming off gabapentin (gabapentinoids) - advice would be welcome!

[Raine (OP)]

Hey y'all

So I was rx'd Gabapentin as part of a regimen for the hellish methadone & dope withdrawals.
It was lifesaver, especially that first 2 weeks.
Problem is, it's been almost 6 weeks since I last had an opiate and I tried to stop the gabapentin and I feel something akin to opiate withdrawals every time.
I was taking 1,800 mg a day and they started me on it when I first tried to jump off the clinic without tapering below 30 mg about 3 months ago.

I can't tell where my symptoms are coming from anymore, like am I feeling withdrawals bc I'm trying to stop this drug or am I feeling some weird super-long withdrawal effects from opiates and I just noticed them when I don't take the Gabapentin?
I tried cutting down to only 1 a day but felt bad so now I'm trying splitting those so it's half a 600mg in the a.m and p.m

So, yea...any advice, experiences etc you can share?
Because that feeling it gives me is a relapse trigger.
My brain is totally sizing up how my body feels and going "Hey, isn't it dope time? You're overdue. You're about to feel really fucking bad!"  Heh.

[Chip]

@Raine, I have been extremely careful when using gabapentinoids and have never experienced any significant withdrawal symptoms.

firstly, stop dropping the opiate dosage at this point and stabilse before attempting this - sit there for at least a week or two and don't change your opiate intake during this otherwise you truly won't know which withdrawl symptom comes from what drug.

the good news is that you can taper without having to go to a clinic etc.

i advise you to do this with your doctor's consent or support.

the symptoms would be similar to opiate withdrawal.

here is one taper regimen that i found on the 'net:

say you are a long term user on 2700 mg daily:

900 mg  600 mg  900 mg for a week.

600 mg  600 mg  900 mg for a week.

600 mg  600 mg  600 mg for a week.

300 mg  600 mg  600 mg for a week.

300 mg  300 mg  600 mg for a week.

300 mg  300 mg  300 mg for a week

then drop to 100 mg doses by repeating this etc.

it will take a little while but maybe you can be more aggressive with the schedule and drops (etc.) as you haven't been on it very long at all. If you CT it then it will be intense but short - not advisable though, IMHO.

if you try this or any other, please log your experience by writing down how you did it so we can share it with any others who may who read this and who are in the same situation as you with this powerful and ADDICTIVE drug

[Raine (OP)]

@Chipper

Thank you.
I'm opiate free actually. Been 2 months for methadone
and 1 for heroin.
 I'm still not back to "normal" though, having detox sneezes & cold sweats, nausea, etc.  It's not like acute detox but it's still there and annoying as hell.

I wasn't sure if some symptoms were stemming from that (the everlong methadone withdraw) or from stopping the gabapaentin, or both.

I was on 1800 mg.
 Since I was not expecting this type of withdrawal from stopping,
I just stopped completely and then felt awful.
 I woke up feeling like I was dopesick
and had a slight panic moment.
The feeling was so familiar that I forgot I wasn't on dope anymore for a sec.


So, I wish I had asked you earlier, your method sounds
much more organized than what I have done so far.
I just went from 3 pills a day  (1800 mg)down to 2/ day (1200 mg) for a week and now I'm taking half of one (300 mg each)  night and late morning.
I'll probably cut those into quarters now
Because it has been another week and now I'm getting
Really sick feeling if I skip a dose.

I am so over drugs that cause withdrawals.
I don't ever want to be addicted again I'm just so over this  bullshit and so damn tired of feeling bad.

Thanks again Chipper, I forgot how knowledgable you are in this particular area.

[Chip]

sweet !

and you're opiate free ? wow.

you would definitely have a nasty mix of the withdrawal symptoms of both drugs (long term Methadone and short term GABAp)

the gabapentinoids can be very effective analgesics that don't seem to cause tolerance (to pain) like opiates do but they are deceptive.

your method is absolutely fine and thanks for sharing it.

i only use them for very short, noticeable and pleasant highs with L-O-N-G breaks between AND for medical purposes.

nice and easy does it ... no hurry, right ?

[Chip]

i forot to add that Gabapentin has a very short half life of 5 to 7 hours, which is why you see 3 doses per day.

Pregablin's is around 11 hours and Phenibut's is around that too.

half life is very important - think of Heroin's half life (2-5 minutes) BEFORE it becomes Morphine.

That's why IV tapering from street H with H is lunacy because there is NO user that has enough supply of the same potency that says "today i will reduce my dose by 10% this week (whose scales?) for each of the 3 or 4 shots per day and continue this for a few months"

yeah, right. so that's why successful H tapering is largely a myth - it's all too hard because of it's tempting high and difficulty.

The GABAp's all have no high when used daily, like Methadone, and tapering should be much more comfortable and shorter when compared to Methadone, i ASSUME.

Unhooking from opiates with GABAp may well be workable as the unhooking  from GABAp can be done without clinics, without highly scheduled drugs, in your own time and with less fuss acquiring it, possesing it, the stigma, possible social and legal ramifications.

I used Phenibut only 2-3 times a week for my thin-edge-of-the-wedge Methodone taper of MANY years.

@Raine, please let us know if you run into unforseen malaise.

[Mr.pooper]

You are def withdrawaling from the gabapentin. I was detoxing off Kratom and noticed 2 months later i was still in full blown withdrawal. It felt like an opiate w/d but with a darker aspect to it mentally. I figured it out one day talking to a friend of mine who was very experienced with the drug. I remember telling him "I dont feel happiness or anything anymore". I thought it was just due to lack of opiates. Turns out i was detoxing off the drug i used to get me off opiates in the first place. ( gabapentin is an amazing tool to conquer opiate withdrawal, however its a double edge sword.)

With opiate withdrawal things can make me feel better such as warm shower, listening to music, exercising, sex, smoking weed. However at the time NOTHING MADE ME FEEL BETTER. Weed made it all worse. I was amazed because im a daily smoker too.

Took me about 3 months to feel OK, from kicking the gabapentin. It is by far the worst withdrawal ive ever experienced. And ive cold turkey kicked a 7 gram a day heroin habit in jail.

I didnt taper really. I was highly abusing the medication. taking doses of 10-20 grams a day. on some nights I just couldn't take the RLS and hot cold flashes anymore,and would be delirious from being up for over a week strait not able to sleep. id dose 1200mg and it was enough to get a few hours of sleep atleast. The withdrawal lasts a really long time.

Even a year later I dont feel ive fully recovered from this drug. scary shit from a "NONE ADDICTIVE, NONE NARCOTIC"....FUCK YOU DOC, FUCK YOU MEDICAL SYSTEM, FUCK AMERICA. AND FUCK YOU KYLE! LAnd of the enslaved. We are lied to, and our health is put to risk for profit.

I just had to bail that same friend out of jail for an absurd amount of cash.(Id give up everything i had if needed) He got locked up on a friday morning for some bogus charges, and had to wait for court on monday/tuesday to see the judge.  therefor he had to stay locked up till court. The charges were all dropped when he went before the judge. But while locked up They refused him his medications. One of which is gabapentin. I asked him how bad a shape he was in, and he was not at all ok. THis is a man who cold turkey kicked 100mg+  a day methadone habit and was still chillin, and i could barley tell. So when he sounds scared, I definetly think things are bad. I refused to let that fucked up system kill my friend. By the time i got him out sunday and too a doctor, they said his blood pressure was so high that he would have probably died had he stayed another night.

[Chip]

wait, 10,000 to 20,000 mg of Gabapentin a day ?

for a few months ?

that is huge - did i read that right ?

[Mr.pooper]

@Chipper

Yes, you read that right. I would start off taking 6,000mg, then 1,500mg every 15-30 mins.

This was the only drug people have ever been able to tell i was on something. I get HYPHY on Gabapentin.

 I be getting shit done with a new level of unlocked abilities. I figure too much out on that drug. Ever see the movie limitless? NZT was the made up drug, that made the user super cognitively superior. Except you die when you stop taking it....WHich can happen with gabapentin. But the gabapentin did similar things for me, opened doors in my mind.

I would just start popping handfuls some days while doing coke. They synergize very well. Also made my kratom dose hit wayyyy harder.

[limerence]

gabap is a weird drug. wd is weird too. sometime it would be like cross between benz and opi w/d, sometimes just a murderous headache, sometimes ZERO w/d. I believe its also terrible for your health, my health steeply declined when i started taking, though it is a very effective painkiller. Everytime I stopped taking it successfully, I would only have a killer headache or not much w/d at all. If I stopped and started to get benz like wd, i would keep taking it until i felt like quitting and it was over after a headache at worse. I have a buddy who cannot stop taking it and w/d are unbearable for him.

how are you doing now?