Alternatingly, gabapentin either works great and has barely noticeable withdrawal, or a hellish acid reflux suffering tablet with the worst withdrawal in the world and I am once again a victim of the opioid crisis.
My doctor suggested gabapentin when I asked for an anxiety med, cool idea or no? It’s an off-label use so I might be a victim again. My impression so far is that it feels like a very lightweight version of loprazolam, goofy and relaxed. I’m still stimming ofc but I’m also calmly vibing, and I can still feel my emotions which is nice. Pls tell me how over it is ✨
It’s one of the safest and least habit forming options for anxiety afaik.
It doesn’t work for everyone, though, and you should be careful about mixing it with any strong sedatives.
I sure hope so!! I read it was super addictive which was worrying. 3mg melatonin should be fine with it, right?
Melatonin is fine. It has very few drug interactions.
I’m prescribed it and a polydrug user.
I figured, just wanted to bs safe. Ty ✨
Np. There’s only two drugs that really target the same receptors (pregabilin is that other). And both bypass the liver, so don’t interfere with other drug metabolism.
Melatonin, weed, and gabapentin tend to irritate my tinitus. And mixing it with pain killers can cause unpleasant numbing. Mixing with alcohol I tend to have to nap.
But nothing dangerouse in my experience and I’ve abused my doses and been pretty reckless with mixing tbh.
And mixing it with pain killers can cause unpleasant numbing.
Ooh ooh, this will be fun to mix with tramadol!!!
Hmm, checking again now, I do see user reports of withdrawal symptoms. I don’t know about super addictive, but there does appear to be an addiction/physical dependence potential and it could be particularly strong for certain individuals. With that said, in literature it is considered to have a comparatively low risk, and the primary alternative is benzos which are notoriously problematic.
One nice thing about gabapentin is that your body can only process so much of it, and you will develop a tolerance at high doses. So there isn’t much reward for chasing the high (if you’re one of people that gets a high from it) with higher and higher dosages. After a certain point, you basically have to quit it for awhile if you want it to have an effect again. This limits the abuse potential.
Pregabalin (a modified form of gabapentin) is an entirely different story. It is reported to be addictive, with more OD potential, and worse withdrawal symptoms. The body does not limit its metabolism. It’s by no means the most addictive drug, but it is known to be much more troublesome than gabapentin.
I don’t know how much gabapentin you are taking, your medical history, your age, your body weight, etc. I’m also not a doctor. However 0.3mg of melatonin is a very light dose and melatonin has a good safety profile. If you’re at a few 100s of mg of gabapentin and don’t experience any respiratory depression from it or 0.3mg of melatonin, then I believe they should be safe together. Refrain from driving if you feel drowsy or otherwise altered. Generally it’s things like benzos, z-drugs, heavy alcohol consumption, opiates, and prescription sedatives that you need to be more careful about mixing with.
If you can, it’s a good idea to get comfortable asking your doctor and pharmacist these questions, as they will be the best-equipped to answer them. Of course, doing some research of your own and asking around for others’ experiences can also be good for additional context.
Yeah I ain’t taking benzos fuck that shit. Tried em once, their capacity to make you feel pleasantly useless is too good. I am odd about withdrawal, I had no trouble coming off tramadol but sertraline is one of the worst things ever for it, jfc.
Good to know gabapentin has an upper limit, nice. Also I will not take pregabalin! Ty!
Oh right okay, it’s only 100mg of gabapentin to start, and then 200 if it goes well. I am small so I get prescribed small doses a lot! I am young but above drinking age. Makes sense melatonin would be safe given it’s naturally produced in the body, and I don’t drive which is good. Respiratory depression sounds kinda scary…
Uh which questions specifically, but yeah I should make a list to bug my doctor with. I’m usually good about other stuff, I tend to do my own research a lil too much.
100mg of gabapentin
I see, that’s pretty far on the “light” end of dosages.
Respiratory depression sounds kinda scary…
It’s not great lol.
The biggest risk of gabapentin is adding it to something else that already causes respiratory depression. Almost all gabapentin OD fatalities (which are already relatively few) involved combining it with other drugs that have higher risks. It’s not at all a common issue with gabapentin on its own - even at doses 8-12x what you are currently taking.
Uh which questions specifically
Anything about medications and their interactions. Including addiction risks, adverse reactions to watch out for, dietary concerns, etc.
Thank you so much for playing not-doctor for me for the night. It’s tough to get appointments but I will try to ask my doc in future.My pleasure. Good luck!
Got put on it for neuropathic pain once and it just made me lethargic and sleepy. Yeah the pain was slightly lessened, but I couldn’t do anything. I was then quickly taken off it and another medication was tried.
I hope this lethargic and sleepy does not last, I feel serenely calm but also slightly alcohol-buzzed.
Tolerance to the sedation developed pretty quickly for me. A lower dose can help too. I take 300 * 3/day
Awesome
I’m on it for neuropathic pain as well and had a similar experience for a while. The sleepiness and lethargy stopped being a problem after I was on it for a bit, but the efficacy of its painkilling (and anxiolytic) properties also mostly wore off. I could go up quite a bit in dose, and have as a rare occasional thing, but don’t really want to go down that route, as I’m already worried about withdrawal if/when I do go off. Mind if I ask if any following meds you tried worked well?
Synthetic opioids like tramadol work the best in terms of pain relief for me, but the side effects are pretty huge, so I only use them during really bad pain episodes. For more minor common pain where the neuropathic component isn’t that bad, I take a NSAID called celecoxib.
Well, they prescribed my dog gabapentin because she’s anxious and all it does is make her the world’s sleepiest hound
Personally, don’t like having her zonked out 20 hours of the day, but then again I also doubt my dog has actual anxiety problems (pretty sure the people who left her at the shelter lied)
Understandable
I am on a dog dose, I hope I won’t be permanently zonkedHey I’m sure it’ll be fine, just remember, no one knows you’re a dog on the internet.
Yea…
and I can still feel my emotions which is nice
An anti-anxiety that lets you feel emotions would be pretty rad ngl
Yeah it would, will post more if anything funny happens. Had a huge downward moodswing just half an hour ago, adjustment periods and all.
I can’t understand the title. Are we the bear website?
Yes this is bearsite. Try it, put a medication into the search bar!
something went wrong and I looked up a bear on the drug website
I was put on it for a different off label use, and then kept on it longer for some nerve pain, but it didn’t do shit for my anxiety.
Fugg
Works for my cat’s anxiety
Goofy and relaxed is a good description from what I can observe. Higher doses = too sleepy
I am on a cat dose, I am a cat also so this is handy ty.
In which case I recommend this tent because that’s what we’ve been vibing with lately
Ah yes the comfy vibing tent
That’s a good cat
I have a friend who likes it for anxiety but its more of an “as needed” for them not every day
Ohhh, so exactly like loprazelam, huh!
Gabapentin is fine at low doses, anything below 600mg a day is fairly low. Just don’t let someone give you more than a gram a day, because the withdrawals do become quite terrible at high doses. Don’t let your dose be raised too quickly. Most doctors are pretty good about this, but your dose should only go up like once or twice in a year, and it shouldn’t be a huge bump
Awesome, thank you. My current indication says 100mg for two weeks, and if it’s good go to 200mg. Sound fine?
Yeah that sounds perfectly reasonable. Like I said, as long as you’re below 1000mg a day you’ll be fine. Gabapentinoids are extremely similar to alcohol in how they actually act in your brain, so at low doses they’re perfectly manageable dependency wise. You’ll probably notice your tolerance increases fairly quickly with the medicine, however the medical effects of it don’t start lessening for quite a while so you’ll be good there. If you’re getting it for anxiety, they should keep you at a fairly low dose, 600mg-900mg a day should be the most you ever get. You’ll find a sweet spot on them eventually and probably just stay at that dose because Gabapentin is a very different drug depending on the dose you take. It’s very interesting imo.
I’m probably one of the people you heard saying Gabapentinoid withdrawal is terrible, but I was dosing myself on them so my tolerance climbed to the equivalent of about 4000-5000mg a day. At those doses, it truly is the worst withdrawal, but the first time I quit it my tolerance was only around 1000mg a day and it was pretty manageable. A little bit of insomnia and physical anxiety but nothing you can’t just breathe through.
