Can't get off 100mg!!!

Hi Emma,the lower doses of any drug withdrawal always give the worst withdrawal symptoms At this stage you need to go so so slowly and take much longer periods between reducing.If you get a bad withdrawal symptoms go back to the before dosage and hold for longer until your body is used to the less amount .Sometimes cough medicines can be taken during this time to help with the insomnia if it is too bad or herbal remedies .All the best of luck! You can do this!!!

See your doctor don't go cold turkey

Sorry you're suffering. In my own experience, every change of dosage going up or coming down requires 21 days for your body to acclimatize. Weird side effects can occur along the way, most disappearing by day 14. You have to stick it out and let it run its course. Its not always fun. I'm presently at 1800 mg/day. Main side effect is sleeping all day. I'm about to get into pain management to get help dropping my current dosage. Either with alternative medicine or with the help of Cesamet, a synthetic cannabinoid. Like medical marijuana, but without THC. Good luck.

Hi Emma,

Only you can decide what course of action to take medically and if you also work in mental health and have had trauma in your own past, I am sure that causes a lot of stress and anxiety. I had never taken any anxiety or pain meds before my MVA in May 2015. I was started on gabapentin, among others while in the trauma hospital and had no idea what I was on. The doctors continued and increased me from 100 mg 3 times a day to 600 three times a day and it was awful. The side effects were terrible and it never worked on my pain anyway. I gained over 50 pounds, my body had involuntary movements, I stuttered, I shook, my memory was gone, I would lose the ability to find words when I spoke. I could go on and on. I knew I couldn't live like this. When I finally found a discussion from actual patients who were or had taken gabapentin and could say what they had been through, I made the decision to get off of it. My Neurologist suggested a plan for a very slow weaning but I took matters into my own hands because I didn't want to take any more time out of my life in which I could not function and be me. I went from 1800 daily to nothing over the course of 3 weeks. It was awful but I think it is worth it. I still have pain every day due to my 3 bulging and 2 herniated cervical discs, peripheral nueropathy, and cervical radiculopathy but at least I am drug free and I feel better about that. I get some pain relief through physical therapy and a traction unit. It is made by Saunders. They started me on it in PT and my Insurance would not approve one for me to use at home so I bought one used off of EBay where I found them in plenty and I only paid $127, with shipping it was still under $150. New units can be $800 to $1000. Everyone responds to things differently but if you want off the gabapentin, maybe something like this could work for you too. The longer you are on it, the harder it is to get off. Hope this helps you or someone else. Katrina

Hi Emma, I understand that the lower the dose, the more bioavailable the medication is to your body. That means your body is trying to use the entire amount and is used to functioning with it. At higher doses, your body is using much less of the medication so it can be easier to come down from very high doses until you get below 1200. Then you need to start slowing down your taper. I'm currently taping off 100 MG. I requested the liquid form for easier measuring the taper amount. I am currently tapering down by 10 MG every 3 weeks. So I went to 90 MG for 3 weeks, then 80 MG for 3 weeks and so on. I'm currently at 40 MG and now it's getting harder, so I may have to taper every 4 weeks now or taper at 5 MG? I will see how my body handles it. I still have withdrawals, but nothing like when I tried 100 MG all at once. I couldn't do it because the withdrawals were so severe. You may need to taper 10 MG every 4 weeks or even taper by 5 MG. The closer you get to the end, the slower you need to go. Cutting it in half at this point is too much and too fast for your body. Make sure you are also getting rest, drinking plenty of water, eating healthy and exercising while you are tapering. Hope this helps!

I agree with Shammah Emma ..it took me ages to get from 50 mg of pregabalin to 25 mg.I used the liquid form and went so slowly..it took me three months to do that,just 25 mg ,but the withdrawal symptoms were slight.Now to tackle the last 25 mg and I know being the last bit my body will want to hang onto it.Again I am going to go slowly.I have known people take a year to withdraw from medication doing it slowly to avoid ghastly side effects.

I used a milligram scale to taper. It definitely helped. Five months to get to 11milligrams before my final jump which went well! All attempts in between resulted in insomnia . For sleep I'm using emergency-c z.

Emma.  I completely understand this.  I was on 900 mg daily for a year for nerve pain and wanted to come off because it made me foggy and gain weight.  I went down fro 900 to 200 over several months.  But I could not budge below 200 without the most horrendous and horrifiying side effects of severe depression, anxiety, panic, anger, suicidal thoughts which I have never ever had.

I found a doctor who prescribed me phenobarbital to take to come off the gabapentin.  It took four days and it was complete hell.  But I think it would have been worse without it.  I have been off for 2 weeks now, and I am better, but still pretty awful...anxiety, waves of sadness, tears, depression come out of the blue, unpredictable.  Anger, irritability.  I am trying to supplement with good oils (omegas, coconut), amino acids, b vitamins.  I think it just takes time.  I hate this drug.

Definitely do this under the care of a doc or trusted friend, it is very very scary stuff.  Very dangerous.  Be careful.  Good luck.

about 3 months ago maybe a little longer I tried taking 100 mg of gabaprntin every other day ...after the 4 th day it was so bad but I hung in there for 6 days....at that point I could't function  had to go back to every day once a day 100 mg....July I was on it a year....June 8 I took my last depakoe.......I dont have another drs appt till Oct....but I am going to try and go in earlier to see what we can do to get me off of this med....right now I am getting alot of headaches...they think its sinsus inflammation    been having trouble for a month....going to call dr..may need antibiotic.......I never get headaches...