Chat, I do not recommend looking up a drug on the bear website.
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 ✨
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.
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'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)
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
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.