Gabapentin Withdrawal Horror

I am very sorry. You need professional help, this is way beyond an online discussion group. Please seek treatment.

hi kendra,

dont quit, keep going!! do not take the neurontin, youll make it harder for yourself. i had to quit cold turkey and the first five months were hell but gradually things began to ease up. by month 8 of withdrawal, it wasnt great but i began feeling a little stable. between month 10 and 13 i felt like i could finally breathe and every month since month 13 i have gotten better and better! you will get there, pls persevere.... anyone that tells you quitting cold turkey leaves you with permanent damage is wrong. apart from a little anxiety from time to time, im back to a good standard of living and looking for work. if i can do it, you can too. dont give up now. have a quick look at high and low thyroid symptoms - youre probs experiencing one of them, apart from a plethora of other symptoms but fixing your thyroid function will help decrease ither symptoms too. Good luck!!

that said, pleaseeeeee anyone reading this post, do not quit cold turkey by choice! its uglier than you can imagine. i had no choice as my liver had stopped working due to the gaba so i cudnt keep them diwn despite trying but the hell that followed is worse than anyone weening slowly can imagine. id stop breathing out of nowhere. dont do it people, ween properly. but for those whove had no choice, there IS light at the end of the tunnel

that was mean. you didnt have to reapond at all if you werent going to encourage. perhaps you forgot how far you came and how everyone here helped each other through what was the worse experience in all our life times. if you have nothing good to contribute to help, say nothing. but i hope others do continue. its about humanity. treat each other with dignity. respect. love. even when you dont feel like doing it. we all know the drs dont get it. we do. my prayers are for all suffering from this poison.

I'm sorry guys I wasn't trying to encourage anyone to get back on them. I just meant that this experience for me is a nightmare and I thought it might would help if I took a little just to help with the withdrawals and taper myself down but the more I've thought about it the less I want to. I'm terrified of neurontin now and I don't want to take any unnecessary chances to make matters worse. Also please keep in mind I am very new to this group today is my 1st day and I've never had any support or help with this. Thanks to everyone who responded to my post. I am going to keep fighting this because of you guys.

Kendra, If doctors warned us what gabapentin, generic for Neurontin could do to us, their patients probably wouldn't take it. I'm very sorry that you learned that no one should stop it cold turkey.

As for considering trying a small dose to see if that would help, you should research, "post-acute withdrawal syndrome, PAWS," since it could make you worse. I realize you are having a difficult time, but I agree with Babs statement that you need to get medical assistance, since none of us could possibly know the seriousness of what you're going through.

My experience with Gabapentin wasn't good. You mentioned having a seizure while you were awake and aware. I was wide awake when I had a seizure that caused rapid hand shaking with internal burning in my left hand. I don't want to explain what developed after my first reaction.

You need medical help. Beth

Beth. Thank you so much you have really help me more then you know.

🙂 God bless you.

Michele, going cold turkey like that is extremely dangerous and can cause life threatening side effects. My comments were meant to be a clear message to get help. She acknowledged she had a substance abuse problem. We are not medical professionals.

stick with it Kendra, the hardest part is quitting and youve passed that barrier already. just dont look back, keep going. you will need every ounce of will power to get through these next dew months but it will be worth it. you will feel better for persevering! a good diet is paramount to help you through - add fruit to your diet if you dont eat much of them already. they will help regenerate the essential vitamins in your body that the gaba has depleted. watermelon is key in detoxing the liver as thats where the withdrawal kicks in. your liver is flushing out the toxins and the best thing u can do to help yourself is drink 2litres of water everyday and keep creating goodness in the liver by eating clean with lots of fruit and veg. i have gotten over this nasty withdrawal by doing everything naturally. apart from 2 paracetamols and one course of antibiotics which i didnt even need, ive done everything organically. you will get there too just hold on tight for a little longer, our bodies are nothing short of a miracle, over time if u eat, exercise and sleep well, your lover and body will do the rest. dont give up xxx

i meant LIVER. silly phone

Welcome to the group Kendra. I'm glad you reached out.

You mentioned you were given Gabapentin for Restless Leg Syndrome, and Fibromyalgia. Are you having any more problems with abnormal muscle movements?

I had slight hand tremors for several years before a neurologist saw me in 2008. He told me my hand tremor was normal for my age. He noted in my records that I didn't have any uncontrollable movements, such as Myoclonus, (muscle jerks).

So I was 59 years old when my primary doctor prescribed Gabapentin for lumbar nerve pain. After taking the 2nd consecutive dose of Gabapentin, after my first symptom of rapid hand shaking, I suddenly developed a lot of jerky movements. The most embarrassing movements were when my thighs started rapidly opening and closing.

I should have realized I needed to go to the ER to get this documented, but I felt utterly humiliated by the movements as well as having uncontrollable laughing spells that didn't fit the situation.

I also developed high B/P, and my feet swelled because I hardly had any kidney function. I was given medication for those symptoms.

I also acquired contractures of my right thumb and fingers on my right hand that occurred while sleeping. My new primary doctor ordered a hand brace, which doesn't help my hand.

My doctor should have reported my adverse reaction to MedWatch, but after I gathered my medical records, I sent in a report.

I hope you will get better soon, and I hope you will find help.

i also had the muscle twitches in my thighs when I was taking gaba. ive been off gaba for a year now. whew!! that was quite the time. but once all the wd symptoms were gone, it ALL stopped. I had more illnesses while taking it. I finally feel myself. For anyone out there suffering, please know this WILL end and you will be a stronger person when its over. reach out herw when needed. we are the only ones who fully get it. doctors dont, cant. we ALL need somebody to lean on one time or another in life. May God bless all people on this sight. Heal us all Lord, give us your strength to persevere and endure all lifes the storms.

key.... NEVER go backwards. it dosent work, it dosent relieve a thing. press onward. pray for strength. the Lord sustained me. saved my life..... again!!

im sorry youre having to go through this! i went through gabapentin withdrawal with all the side effects you have and more, it took quite a while before it all settled down and the withdrawals went away... i suffered just like you did and was only on 3600 mg for 9 months. the way the withdrawal works is this.. your body needs alot of time to adjust to being off the medication. you will start to feel better but then feel like crud again, this is completely normal. ( its called windows and waves- windows of feeling ok and having clarity and then waves of feeling like crud again) im not trying to scare you just want you to know you WiLL get through this, just have faith, its gets a little bit better every month. your nervous system is fragile right now until you heal and do your best to take care of yourself through this. your faith will be tested but you have to hang in there, everything that you are going thru is normal for coming off this drug.. but it does get better its just slow progress... ((( hugs))

ugh... is anyone still getting the brain zaps and anxiety? ive been off gabapentin for 18 months now and all other symptoms have gone except this crazy anxiety! im so fed up of it. im okay for about a month and then it hits me out of the blue again. driving me insane!

yes i can identify with this. i am ok for a while then anxiety kicks in. i have been totally off for 11 months. i can go 5/6 weeks then it hits me. normally if i get very tired or stressed. it then lasts about a month. i also had leg twitches. these have gone now

im exactly the same, you totally have my sympathy. im okay for abt a month or sometimes 6-8weeks and then bang, its back with a vengeance and yeah, lasts about a month and its the worst month on earth. my body seems to enjoy being tired, that doesnt affect my anxiety but yeah any small amount of stress triggers it and i just cant come out of it alone. doesnt help when family constantly exacerbate the situation because they dont understand that im not doing this to myself. anyway, i found so many organic remedies to all my physical symptoms but im completely stumped with this one. my whole body is in knots!

Leenz, were you also on other meds such as an anti-depressant or benzo beside the gab? I haven't heard as much about the brain zaps with gab, but it seems to be a real issue with the other meds.

That not knowing is so hard with this darned drug. That alone causes anxiety and keeping us off balance.

hiya bans, how are you doing?

no, i wasnt taking any other drugs at all (thank God!) and i have never experienced this sensation until withdrawing from the gab. there is brain fog but then there are brain zaps.... literally every other month my brain says okay, i dont feel like working this month and for the following few weeks i walk around like a corpse just waiting to be able to feel something. its less than before so im grateful, as it used to be everyday but honestly, im literally sick of not being able to feel happy!!

I know about brain zaps. Mine feels like my head is a rubber ball and everything inside is slushing around.

Have you tried a good quality CBD oil for the anxiety?

I am currently weaning off 12 years of xanax as well as two other meds they put on me on last year and am off of the gab for over a month. The CBD oil under the tongue seems to produce a calming effect and gives me more focus. Just make sure you are getting a quality product. There are so many out there right now and some are bogus with tons of additives.

hi sorry for late reply, been so lethargic these last few weeks. but yes, i do have a good quality cbd oil, which id actually forgotten about! so ive restarted it this week and my brain has a little for focus and it reduces the swelling in my body. ive also started taking Centrum (for women) this week and its giving me more strength and energy. its such a big tablet though so ive been crushing it and started it by taking a quarter a day until my body got used to it before increasing to a full tablet. definitely worth the money for me.

another thing that is super odd though, when the withdrawal began, my body used to feel like i was constantly on fire and i was taking everything to cool myself down but since beginning of this year, im total opposite. if even the slightest wind blows, i feel frozen! has anybody else had this? if yes, any remedies pls? many thanks

Interesting you mention the swelling of the body. Me too, and yes, even while I was still on the gab, I would be sweating all the time. My skin would be cool to the touch but clammy and I couldn't do anything about it. I still have some hot flashes but no where near the issues I had before and the swelling in by legs and feet has subsided as well. I don't feel cold all the time but there are times when I am either freezing for hot. Worst of all, after stopping the gab, my feet were burning all the time. I am still having odd sensations in my feet, like some kind of neuropathy and have developed a nueroma lump in the arch of my foot. Many of these symptoms resemble diabetic symptoms. I have been tested twice this year and am not diabetic but I am overweight. I have noticed that certain foods have more of an effect on my body temp, carbs especially and caffine.

hi Bocephus,

try not to worry, the weight gain is water retention from the gab. as it leaves your body the weight will shed. yes, anything that is not liver friendly will give u a flare up of symptoms as its ur liver that is detoxing so all carbs and caffiene dont help. try to build a liver friendly diet... it helped my withdrawal a lot.

but honestly i have no clue what to do about feeling freezing. i catch a severe cold everytime i go out!