Please help me! Mental horror stopping gabapentin

Its awful I know.  I don't think there are any good studies on this.  Its supposed to be a safe medicine and non-habit forming although stopping it is pure hell.  I would burst into tears over nothing and extremely sad and everything just felt so heavy.  It took about 3 weeks before the symptoms started to wind down but still I have profuse night sweats. The mental and emotional part of it is completely gone at 7 weeks now for me.  I couldn't focus on anything at all and time just moved so slow.  I reiterate that this will pass.  I couldn't sleep either.  You should really contact your doctor, you should seek some help because I am so worried for your state of mind.  Sounds like you are having a hard time of it, I did too.  There's a light at the end of the tunnel but no reason why you shouldn't reach out to your doctor or emergency room and explain that you are in horrible withdrawals from gabapentin.  It's a bad, bad medicine.       

I am cross-posting this from another thread because I feel it is relevant here too and I really want to say this to everyone.

• Victoria

I quit Gabapentin cold-turkey on some very bad advice from my doctor back in February. It's now November. My dose was very low and I only took it for a few weeks - but I was on Cymbalta for a few months prior, so take this with a grain of salt, please. Remember that all your neurotransmitter chemistry is related, so even if you weren't on Cymbalta, you can take hope from this post.

I also deal with severe anxiety issues, but I had never had symptoms like this before.

The first few days off were awful, but nothing could prepare me for what I now know is called "antidepressant discontinuation syndrome".

I've had severe cognitive impairment - memory problems, processing problems, "brain zaps" so bad I couldn't walk. They would come and go every few hours, sometimes leaving me functional and sometimes impairing me so badly I couldn't form sentences. I wondered dimly if I might have had a stroke, or had MS or Lupus, perhaps. I had so many tests done I can barely remember them all (but they all came back clean!).

The symptoms were worse when I was near sleep - mornings and evenings. Many nights I legitimately couldn't tell dreams from reality. My childhood sleep paralysis came back, and I woke screaming four or five times a night some nights.

This week, as if by magic, something changed: I woke up and was able to put sentences together in my head again. It just /worked/. The zaps and headaches are still around but my periods of lucidity are longer between them now, and truth be told I've been cognizant and clear-headed (with a few stumbles) for about three days straight now. That hasn't happened to me since before I started this rotten drug.

I wanted to come back here and give you some hope - you who is there right now reading this forum as you endure this unbelievable nightmare, your thoughts scattered and broken and your brain malfunctioning:

You will get better.

This is not permanent. This is not forever.

Your symptoms will come and go - and many times they will likely be worse than you remember them ever being - but they will get a little better each time. Each flareup or backslide leaves you just a little bit more healed. There are no victory stories on the internet about recovering from this medicine-induced misery because nobody wants to relive these symptoms once they are gone, but think about it: if nobody got better, there's be stories about that!

Hang in there. You will recover. It may take a year. It may take longer.

But...you are healing. Be patient. There is an end to this madness.

You will have your mind back.

Yes Tyler everthing you wrote is I went thru and then some Bad stuff I quit Nov 17 2017 and still have problems

I was prescribed Gabapentin for occipital neuralgia a few weeks ago. I started with 100 mg at bedtime, but doubled the dose (following doctor's instructions after 3 days. It was Thanksgiving vacation and I had some wine. My pill bottle didn't say anything about alcohol, and my doctor never mentioned anything about not drinking while taking this medication. After 5 days (2 of 100 mg and three of 200 mg) my husband took me to the ER because I was completely confused and couldn't remember my own name. I was there for 4 days and had every test known. They suspected a stroke, a seizure, and checked for meningitis among other things. It was a very scary 4 days and I'm still not back to normal. In the end, after a lumbar puncture, an MRI, CT scan, EEG, EKG, a chest xray, and more, they sent me home, They concluded that my weird symptoms were caused by gabapentin combined with alcohol. I've got back a lot of my word recall, but I am still very weak, can hardly type, and I am confused and feel like I've been asleep half the time. The doctor told me I will recover but it's basically like I've suffered a brain injury. I'm extremely frustrated and feel like I am suffering from dementia when I was completely healthy a week ago. Has anyone ever experienced this after only 5 days of taking gabapentin? It seems unlikely that such a small amount would cause such side effects. I wonder if I'm just allergic to it. I'm also wondering how long this will last. I'm an elementary teacher but I don't trust myself to keep my students safe while I'm still shaky and confused. I'll never touch this drug again! I'd rather keep having headaches!