Took 1200mg of gabapentin one day, what next?
Posted , 4 users are following.
my doctor gave me 300 mg capsules to be taken all at once before bed for sleep support. last night i took the full dose. I did not sleep any better but was instead stuck in some sort of half awake half asleep trance like state. it was horrible. i normally wake up at 7am. its now 1pm and i am so spaced out and dizzy i can barely move, i dont even feel real,also ive noticed a fast hear beat. after just 1 dose is there any need to taper, or can I just quit it?
0 likes, 20 replies
babs99203 aaron03723
Posted
Are you on any other meds? That can cause additional problems. Be aware that some people have had seizures when they cut back too much or too quickly. its not common, but if it occurs you should go to an ER.
aaron03723
Posted
now that I am completely Gabapentin free and recovered from the bulk of the withdrawal. i wanted to come back with the conclusion and share my experience in what happened to me from my initial post until today.
I felt it important , because so many people may have no idea how nasty this drug is. I do not want to scare or discourage anyone, i believe a person can get off this, even after long term use, if they take it slow and accept they may not be comfortable and can really understand it is the drug making you sick.
to make a long story short I had such a horrific reaction to the dose I took that I think the drug itself caused some immediate damage. The withdrawal that followed was a mix of feelings of physical and emotional pain that i really can not compare to anything. complete insomnia, stomach and digestive problems, heart racing, anxiety, depression, tinnitus, cramping, twitching, blurred vision. it was bad enough for me ( a happy healthy person) to consider ending it. days of this went on. was I losing my mind???
so I saw a Nurse Practitioner who actually believed me , and agreed that this an incredibly dangerous drug to anyone taking it, and that withdrawal and damage from it are very real. her advice was to restart at a dose of 900 dose divided into 3 times a day. I trusted her so I did, and most of the symptoms improved.
I dropped 100mg every Saturday first drop was afternoon, then a week later I dropped 100 from the morning , then in week 3 I dropped 100 from the night dose.
I did this until I had no afternoon dose left.
then when it came time to drop to the last 100 mg I chose to take 50mg in the morning and 50mg at night.
on Friday January 3rd i stopped the gabapentin completely.
the entire time during my taper I experienced all of the withdrawal symptoms I mentioned above just not as severe. there were some really bad days in there. now here it is 9 days later and I am starting to feel like my old self again.
I am sure my extreme reaction to this drug in such a short time span is unusual, however I think it needs to be documented somewhere.
1 high dose, 1 day, and 3 months of withdrawal...
please stay away from this drug !!!
if you are on this drug, you can get off it, I have read many stories of long term users making a full recovery, I have also read a few reports similar to mine.