3rd year now that I'm getting psycosis during the months I was on Gabapentin, others get this?
Posted , 5 users are following.
Every year like clock work I get extremely vivid dreams ever since taking Gabapentin 3 years ago after a back surgery for nerve pain, the Dr wanted me to taper up to 900mg (300mg 3x daily) and after taking a 300mg dose a the first few days I said nooooooooooo way. I found that 100mg 3x daily worked for the nerve pain enough to tolerate while having as little of that horrible stuff in my system as possible.
Thursday night the dreams started again that feel like reality, and when I finally wake up from all the absolutely terrifying nightmares (dead family members, me dying from upcoming surgery, insane stuff) I literally cannot tell if I'm still dreaming / in a nightmare if noone is around to ground me in reality for a good 10 minutes after waking up.
For people who suffer from this or worse, does this ever go away or get better with time? Or found a way to counter these adverse reactions with another supplement or drug?
Its crazy how it strikes with precision, every October right when I first started Gaba 3 years ago, and lasts for the duration of when I was taking it into November / December, and I don't even think about it until I start getting these insane nightmares.
I am amazed Oxycontin producers have been sued into the ground for the harm their medicine has caused, while the makers of Gabapentin are not only NOT being held accountable for ruining lives just short of death, but its still being prescribed in ridiculous / life destroying doses.
Any help or advice or anything would be great, I feel like I am permanently damaged, like 2 months of my life are being taken away from me every year 😦
0 likes, 9 replies
babs99203 rommon
Posted
This drug seems to be unlike anything else out there. It has some things in common with benzoids, but it's an ugly, different animal. First, yes, those vivid, odd, incredibly real dreams are caused by the gab. For me and others who have them (I only get them a few times a year) they are not nightmares, they feel so real, that as you said, it's hard to separate them out as a dream.
Are you still on gab? Or is this still from withdrawal? It seems you're still on them. BTW, I'm not a medical professional, but I doubt it what you're describing is psychosis. It's a strange side effect of gab. I don't know why this happens at the same time every year. Are there other stressers for you at this time of year? do you get SAD--Seasonal Affective Disorder? A good therapist may help give you some coping skill. Remember, it's the drug, it's not you. It affects the brains, the neurons etc. It was created as an epilepsy drug, NOT a pain killer. Understanding to some degree how it works and what it does may help a little bit.
Remind yourself, it is a dream. Many people have very vivid dreams, or children can get night terrors. Tell yourself it's that category. The only way I've found to counter it is therapy, healthy habits, support from others and knowing that I will get better.
Getting off the drug isn't fun, withdrawal, certainly isn't. But knowing that you're taking a step to a better life makes it worth it. I was at 2700 mg almost 3 years ago, and by slowly, safely tapering (I now take 8 weeks or longer) I'm almost back to normal. However, this last 300 is hard. The choices are: titrate (dissolved in water and take smaller amounts of the solution, look it up), liquid gab or cold turkey. Dropping from 3 pills a day to 2 pills may cause as bad a withdrawal as stopping entirely. Many who tried to go down to 2, then 1 then zero, wish they had just stopped totally. It's a low enough dose that there shouldn't be any serious side effects that occur with stopping at higher doses. My last drop from 400 to 300 was on July 21st. I finally feel like my old self. But as I have a very hard stretch at weeks 6-9, I don't want to ruin Thanks giving or Christmas. I'll wait until after that.
rommon babs99203
Posted
I was actually only on it from October - December 2017, and only took 300mg daily (100mg 3x daily), they started me at 300mg daily and once I felt the impact, I immediately reduced the dosage to 100mg 3x daily when first starting so there was no withdrawal going down to 100mg, just continued that dosage for 2 months until the moment I could taper off, then just skipped a dose every 3 days until I was done.
However last year I suddenly got the same absolutely terrifying dreams in October last year, I thought it was just a nightmare or maybe I was sick until it was as bad or worse every night, and I'd wake up not knowing if I was still in the dream because it was so unbelievably real.
Again this year (just a few nights ago) the same absolutely horrifying dreams appeared again like clock work again this year, and this has never happened until I initially got them from Gabapentin.
I didn't have terrible dreams during recovery until I bumped my hip / sciatic nerve that produced amazing pain down my leg, and took the little bit of oxycodone I had left from surgery to help with pain then they switched from that to Gabapentin which is when my life turned into a nightmare for the next 2-3 months.
I cannot believe they would prescribe that over an opioid, that just baffles me, its like offering to saw the leg off because I might get a dependence on a pain killer (with absolutely no history of chemical abuse). Just ridiculous!!
babs99203 rommon
Posted
The more I read of others stories, the more I find a common link to the severe and/or lingering problems with gab: opioids. They seem to trigger something in the brain to drastically increase the WD symptoms. Of course doctors think if there's a problem, throw another drug at it. For those on multiple drugs that affect the brain like anti-anxiety drug, anti-depressants and opioids plus the gab, you see these extreme, situations. So you were at 300 daily, 100 x 3, then went up to 900 total mg, 300 x 3? Then went down to 300 mg/day after being at 900 for a few days or weeks?
It's tragic that we can put the pieces of the puzzle together, but the doctors can't. They've become so conditioned to think that drugs only help, never harm. But now you also know that it's what helped trigger the reaction. It's unusuall that PAWS Prolonged Acute Withdrawal Syndrome occurred after such a short-term use of the two meds, but that's why I NEVER predict how someone will react. I know people, like you, that were on gab for even less time and had side effects that lingered for years. As it's rare to research this type of thing, we may not know why. For some they get a Parkinson-like condition. So, did the gab trigger Parkinson's? Who knows. But I believe that you will continue to heal.
rommon babs99203
Posted
They had prescribed me 100mg and 300mg capsules, I was supposed to taper up to 300mg daily by introducing another 100mg every 3 days til I was up to 300mg daily (100mg 3x), and once I got up to the 300mg dosage I was having terrible side effects and just tapered back down to 200mg (2x 100mg) daily for a few days and finally the last step back to 100mg daily.
I found that 1x 100mg daily dosage took care of the nerve pain amazingly, however this is now 2-3 weeks into beginning taking it (tapering up and back down), so by this time 100mg daily is enough to keep the nightmares going for the duration I am on it.
Now every year like clock work, no matter the conditions my body is under, almost immediately in October I get just crystal clear night terrors that are just as morbid and terrible as I can possibly imagine.
For example 3-4 months ago I took a synthetic opioid Tramadol for almost a month and a Prednisone 6 day taper pack for a pinched nerve issue I also occasionally experience left over from my original back surgery, but none of this triggered the Gaba dreams, and thankfully eventually worked itself out with physical therapy which has been gone entirely for 2 months now.
The Prednisone I am very sensitive to (any steroids) so I didn't sleep or eat much that week, but when I started sleeping, I got back to normal pretty quick as my back / leg felt better.
So it just seems to self trigger, and its every year now, and its just like life ruining for the 1-2 months that it is REALLY pronounced / terrifying and I its unbelievable to me the medical industry just seems to be ignoring the impact this drug has on people.
Deki rommon
Posted
IT SPUN MY BRAIN INTO MANIA/MADNESS. I was on a high dose, 4500mg for 10 years. As I was coming off it completely, lowering dosing over 4/5 months. Went into MANIA, 16 day hospital stay, now diagnosed with Bi-POLAR Disorder.
rommon Deki
Posted
Holy cow, 4500mg is an insane amount, I am so sorry to hear that Deki. I hope you are doing as okay as you can be, my heart goes out to you, that is medical malpractice in my opinion 😦
babs99203 Deki
Posted
Deki, I'm so sorry. There are others who previously had no diagnosis of Bi-Polar before being on gab, but when they got off too quickly (which you unfortunately did) end up with that diagnosis. Gab can cause mood swings, confusion etc. If you look up Inner Compass online and find the story about the founder, you'll read the same thing happened to her. Some feel, that diagnosis may be an over-reach that the brain just takes years to recover. I was on "only" 2700 mg, yet will take 3 years to get off it. Unfortunately, we've been harmed by the lack of information and training for doctors who prescribe this stuff. It's only since patients started speaking out and finding groups like this that we find out how wrong they are about the safety and lack of problems with this drug. Groups who understand this drug recommend 10% or less over 4 weeks or more of a decrease in their daily dose.
Deki rommon
Posted
i agree, he said it was as "SAFE as asprin" the more stories I read, especially the Standford study says it all. And many more will be harmed by this drug until all this comes to light.
sheri80176 rommon
Posted
that drug scares me to death even though it allowed me to continue working and was the only way i could get out of bed. i was up to 600mg 3x a day when i began hallucinating and thought i was losing my mind. My primary doctor kept telling me i was kn a high dosage and my specialist kept trying to increase the dosage. finally i agreed to lower the doses and began to feel sane again! now I'm off of it completely!! so please just be careful.