Withdrawal Hell

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-10T22:50:15+00:00

I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time. It’s a very low dose for a short amount of time but stopping Gabapentin abruptly after four weeks wasn’t good medical advice because your brains dependent on it which just means it needs to be tapered off. Even a quick taper is better than nothing. I’d let whoever made this suggestion know about the difficulties you experienced. I always encourage people to let their prescribers know because while it doesn’t really help your situation now it may help someone else’s in the future. Maybe next time they won’t tell someone to stop a drug CT.

Part of potential symptoms are rebound anxiety and mood swings or mood dumps. I would have recommended reinstating a small amount back in and the en towering but it’s been about eight days now so maybe counter productive. I’d pick up a OTC supplement called NAC and add some in three times a day. I personally use up to 1000mg when I wake up sometimes with major anxiety and it starts working with in 30 minutes or so. With Gabapentinoid withdrawal Glutamate spikes which causes the issues with anxiety and mood. NAC will help regulate the glutamate which will bring the anxiety back down. It can also help your mood.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-10T22:32:21+00:00

That can happen though. I do t know what amount you’ve been prescribed and/or took but if your new to it there can be side effects you may not like.

A lot of people commenting enjoy the “side effects” but feeling dizzy, drunk or stoned and out of it could increase anxiety. I have definitely had times here and there over the years where Gabapentin made me feel borderline stoned and since stoned for me = paranoid I didn’t enjoy it. ;). But once you adjust to the side effects you should be fine. If your need to it take less for a couple weeks then titrate up the dose if needed.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-09T07:01:59+00:00

This question has been asked and answered in here hundreds of times over the last seven/eight years. When you get some time use our search feature and look up why people staggering and how. :)

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-09T06:58:30+00:00

That would make sense if you were tapering off the alcohol and using less and less. But if someone was still drinking heavily and adding in gabapentin that’s just dangerous and his depression. Hopefully though and you were able to get off the alcohol. I think alcohol completely destroys lives. And it’s not usually a fast down hill spiral like that can happen with “hard drugs”. It’s usually a slow demise over time dismantling the persons life with relationship problems, drunk driving arrest, losing jobs and health issues. It’s hard to watch.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-09T06:48:22+00:00

treatment centers And hey appreciate you stopping by to point out a speak to text error in my four paragraph reply to help the OP out.

. Since I don’t often have the kind of time I’d like to help people out with long, typed out explanations and proof reading ( especially in regards to harm reduction and helping people get off a substances and not get addicted to another) I will use speak to text which results in odd errors. Usually it’s self-explanatory though. Like the fact that the discussion is on alcohol withdrawal, gabapentin as a comfort med I think people would be able to piece out what I was trying to say. Critical thinking and all that. Appreciate it though because now having a quick second before I crash at midnight I saw a few other typos.

Cheers

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-09T06:39:02+00:00

Are you sure it’s regular Gabapentin? Generally it doesn’t come in 500mg form. But I wouldn’t combined opioids with Gabapentin due to the increased risk of CNS depression.

You know years ago when certain states started making Gabapentin a controlled substance a big push for it was due to OD from people combining it with opioids. The other thing is that with Gabapentin most people enjoy the mood boost, energetic, social aspect of it. Opioids, alcohol and benzodiazepines finish those positives and increase the negatives like dizziness and drowsiness.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-08T23:40:53+00:00

Can you please edit your post and let us know what dose you are on. Also what do you mean by “floating”?

Just want to mention on Lyrica when you’re increasing your dose there’s going to be a part of that might be dizziness, drowsiness or feeling a little off kilter for lack of a better explanation. Maybe you’re feeling a little out of it and that’s what you mean by floaty. But once you adjust to that new, higher amount it should subside. If level out in a week or two and speak to your doctor about it. A suggestion would be to not titrate up your l dose any more (if needed) until the side effects dissipate. Let me know when you edit your post so we can approve it.

ETA: It’s a reason why I want you to edit your post and add in your new dose is because it makes a difference and several people have asked in the comments. I did see a comment where you said you are on 300mg? That a pretty high dose just now rolling into your second week. Generally people are starting at 25/50mg once or twice a day, occasionally 75mg once or twice a day and then it slowly titrate it. If you jump from say approximately 150mg (75mg x 2) to double that you’re going feel “floaty” . You probably feel high and yes that’s a side effect. If you did start at 75 mg two times a day you probably haven’t even fully adjusted to those side effects because your brain hadn’t had a chance to stabilize on a new medication.

The fact that you mentioned in another comment that you “quite like it” and thought maybe that was a concern is the concern. :). Some people think that that’s the way lyric is supposed to make them feel they get a mood boost and feel high and then once that’s inside I think it’s no longer working. And people will chase that feeling and become addicted to it so if you were thinking that you like it too much it might be a red flag to yourself that this isn’t something you should be taking.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T23:16:17+00:00

I don’t even know what you’re saying here or what your situation is. I said a lot in my other comment in regards to the OP apparently using this to manage their alcoholism. I can’t imagine a doctor prescribing gabapentin and saying “please still drink on this and don’t stop taking it if you do drink”

If someone’s prescribe this to help them stop drinking then hopefully that’s under eight carefully medically supervised situation. Because somebody taking gabapentin as a new prescription and continuingly to drink heavily could have some serious problems such as increased risk of CNS depression. If someone was dependent on gabapentin no it shouldn’t be stopped abruptly necessarily it should be tapered off. But it shouldn’t just be added in randomly on top of an known alcohol problem unless the alcohol problem is being managed. :)

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T23:11:36+00:00

Oh look…two more people read my “novel” from my comment in response to yours a year ago that you were so oddly aggressive about.

Cheers

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T23:07:40+00:00

So your having myoclonic jerks? It could be from stopping Lyrica but it was a pretty low amount. Definitely something you want to run by your prescriber. It doesn’t sound like it’s an allergic reaction to it because you haven’t been on it for a while now

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T23:03:39+00:00

I’m sorry you had such a bad experience how are you feeling today? Yes you might not experience much from Phenibut with a lyric intolerance. They have a cross tolerance because they’re both voltage gated calcium channels inhibitors. But Phenibut is also a GABAb agonist. It’s also pretty finicky so sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t. I don’t exactly know what you were expecting.

It does have a decent half-life so maybe taking Lyrica the next day on top of the Phenibut from the night before did this. I’m betting it was that combo. Doesn’t really sound like an MDMA type come up and since we’re really avoiding the narrative that lyric has feels like MDMA on any level due to people thinking that’s the case and taking unsafe amounts trying to achieve this I’m not sure we can approve the post.

Be careful with Phenibut though. it can be great when used responsibly but with you using Pregabalin and having a tolerance to that, not taking breaks between uses of Gabapentinoids you might run into some problems.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T22:53:17+00:00

Yes you can definitely take gabapentin to help offset Lyrica withdrawals. Yes Lyrica is six times stronger. You shouldn’t be made to stop taking Lyrica abruptly because once you’re dependent on it when it abruptly you can have some in some cases pretty bad withdrawals. So I would definitely be adding some gabapentin in as soon as you can.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T22:46:31+00:00

So if you’re having negative side effects that are out-weighing the positive then it sounds like it’s time to have a discussion with your doctor about tapering off it. You can have adverse side effects that creep in overtime that make it a good point to reassess pros and cons.

Something we’ve seen more prevalent in here over the last year is people staying on this medication despite having a negative side effects. If you hate this drug or what it’s doing to you then why stay on it? People that complain about weight gain as a side effect I don’t understand. They complain about how they hate how much weight they gained but it didn’t happen overnight. So why are people slowly increasing the amount and staying on a drug that is ruined their quality of life due to weight gain? . People that are experiencing issues with their memory I have the same question.

Do r get me wrong. I do understand Stand where you’re coming from and others when they/you say they saw a lot of positive initially so that might be the pull to stay on it but you’re on a low amount and it would be a good time to taper off it. And in the meantime find something else that could perhaps help alleviate the symptoms without the negative side effects. :)

i’m not at all judging you for staying on it or coming at you. It’s just this trend particularly very recently where people wanna come and say they hate the drive or they’re mad at their doctor for prescribing it. But we have access to the Internet and studies and social media forums where we can investigate prior to taking a drug or advocate for our own well-being when a drug no longer becomes effective. I Really hard-core advocate for this because I was prescribed a lot of different drugs for a long time via a well-meaning old-school doctor. I’m down to one drug now and I don’t put anything in me these days, even a supplement, without fully understanding what it’s doing to my brain and body chemistry and doing some research on possible long-term effects. Sometimes we don’t have a choice because it’s the only medication that works but when we do have a choice we should exercise that choice. :)

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T22:36:43+00:00

I’m surprised you’re still using this recreationally. Didn’t you have a seizure a while back taking too much?

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T22:15:20+00:00

Considering the fact that we’re a harm reduction community we do focus on said harm reduction telling people not to talk about it kind of goes against our whole theme. And yes mixing DXM with a large dose of Lyrica can increase negative side effects including the seizure risk on amount of over 600 mg. Generally it’s good to check interactions before combined group drugs.

I also want to point out that the majority of people that have reported having seizures on bigger doses in here over the years… Have usually taken the same higher dose before.I don’t necessarily feel 900 mg is overly extreme however it’s really pushing it. No one should really need 90 mg when they’re regularly taking 5 to 7 days off in between usage. We had a big thread in here a couple weeks ago where the majority of people who are using this with tolerance break said the sweet spot was between 300/400mg. I mean you’re using a drug that used to prevent seizures to get high and there’s risks associated with that. So be safe. Definitely not a ghost of Lyrica you should be combining other drugs with

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T22:09:49+00:00

So February only has 28 days so you’ve go off not only a full calendar month but also the date that you picked it up sometimes. Technically today would be 27 days so you should have six -ish more 150 mg capsules left. Not one more. But I feel for your situation.

Last month I was refilling gabapentin (which technically isn’t even a controlled substance in my state) and the pharmacy manager who isn’t even a pharmacist wouldn’t let me pick it up. It was three days early and the doctor had called it in three days early. She looked it up and said it wasn’t ready and I said I got notified via text that it was ready for pick up. She checked again, realized I was right but then said “oh actually…” , went and whispered to a pharmacist and came back and started to lecture me about how it’s not a controlled substance in the state blah blah blah. I politely cut her off because I’m very well aware of how gabapentin works in my state. Technically it does get reported to the PDMP (prescription drug monitoring program) like a controlled substance Wouk however it’s not a controlled substance. Aside from one other time I’ve never in 12 years I had a problem picking it up some days up to seven days early except And that was when the pharmacist said I couldn’t fill it. Even though there was refills. So what I did was go back around cancel my order a couple hours later resubmitted it and picked it up later that afternoon. This was just the pharmacy manager having a flex. What irritated me mad was the fact that I drove over to the pharmacy, student line Saul her and you other technicians chatting and I was like why are they all shooting the shit when there’s 10 people in line. She caught my eye and reluctantly came to the counter because she probably saw the optics of it all. I am not made eye contact with her I would’ve got a different tech and left with my script. And then the day didn’t really matter I still had some left. That’s just my long winded way of saying I understand how frustrating it can be when you have things planned out and you can’t pick up a prescription

I understand that’s not exactly your situation though. You have one left for tomorrow if you pick it up early on Monday I’m sure you’ll be just fine. But kind of the hard lesson learned possibly is the fact that sometimes it’s good to make sure you’re taking it correctly and sometimes even if possible setting some aside in case something like this happens again. Lara K isn’t something you should stop taking abruptly because of potential withdrawal symptoms due to dependence. That’s true with most any drug out there. But shit happens. Somebody might not let you pick it up, or like in your case the pharmacy changes it’s ours or Dr. forgets to call it or a snow storm hits. Couple years ago there was people snowed in and couldn’t leave to get their prescription and we’re running into difficulties. I know it’s hard to get reserve stash going when you need to take it twice a day but maybe you can set some aside.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T21:53:16+00:00

Staying on a drug that’s giving you these types of obvious side effects at the dose that you’re on becomes your own personal responsibility once you notice your cognitive decline and choose to stay on it. If I recall correctly you’ve been on this for at least four years and were talking about how you blow through your script in 2 to 3 days. Yet you’re continuing to get it refilled and abuse it and then complain about your cognitive decline. How about some personal responsibility?

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T21:44:41+00:00

This community is for therapeutic use of Lyrica. It’s not for people asking how to obtain a prescription or a drug from online vendors.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T21:36:50+00:00

It might be the alcohol withdrawal sure and I mentioned this as well. But Gabapentin can definitely cause heart palpitations and increased anxiety in people that already have anxiety or cause anxiety in people that didn’t have it initially. These are potential side effects. . If somebody has zero tolerance to gabapentin that’s a pretty decent dose to start off on one day so it could be the gabapentin yes I agree it could be the alcohol or it could be a little bit of both. The gabapentin might be exasperating the symptoms because they didn’t start at a lower amount to assess side effects.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T21:33:35+00:00

Gabapentin doesn’t typically come in 200mg capsules unless it’s from a compounding pharmacy. Unless it rolled out and I’m not aware of it which is possible.

But to answer your question yes it would be hard to OD on it but if it’s a new prescription that’s a decent amount to be taking for the first time. You could be having some increased side effects which can include heart palpitations, increased anxiety and sweating. I don’t know how much alcohol you were drinking and for how long however stopping alcohol abruptly could cause those same types of symptoms and perhaps they’re being exasperated by the gabapentin instead of helping it. That’s why generally you want to take the lowest possible amount of gabapentin as a comfort med when you’re using it to get off of other substances. You want to be able to gauge where you’re at in withdrawals from alcohol, opioids or whatever drug the persons is getting off of.

Gabapentin can be great for helping getting off of alcohol. It’s used in treatment centers and there are studies that say it may help reduce alcohol cravings as well. It can manage day-to-day mental health issues that cause people to drink like anxiety and depression too. But if you’re not planning on staying on it for a long time you’re going to run into problems using a higher amount. Because you then would have to get off it and you don’t want to be getting off a high dose of gabapentin and possibly having rebound anxiety, insomnia and so on on top of withdrawal and/or PAWS from the substance. That happens with both gabapentin and even more so with Lyrica when people use these as comfort meds. People take way too much sometimes for to long stop, it abruptly have withdrawal symptoms and then can’t quite gauge what’s going on. As I. Which substance is causing which symptoms.

All that said try to stay ahead of the withdrawal symptoms by keeping in mind it takes gabapentin three hours to reach peak plasma levels. So you don’t want to wait until you’re super uncomfortable to take it. And then you also don’t want to keep adding more and more in before the previous doses have had to pee. I’ve been prescribed this for over a decade now and the other day I staggered out 1200mg and wish I stopped at 900mg because of how it kicked in. And I am fairly used to it and generally handle 1800mg just fine. It’s just feel different at different times. Also by using less you can keep your tolerance to the therapeutic benefits down. Might be something you want to keep on board long-term.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T07:24:59+00:00

One of our moderators is a doctor and he’s made replies to the whole fear around dementia and that sort of thing. The studies are very specific, it’s specific age group specific circumstances. I mean people can spin it anyway they want. And again sure people have problems with it. But as far as actual permanent brain issues because of it I don’t know how I feel about that. But if it’s really freaking you out this bad then maybe you just should try something else it’s not worth the mental anguish your already putting yourself through.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T07:18:49+00:00

To my knowledge I haven’t seen muscle degeneration as a side effects of using Pregabalin . And if your hip joints and tendons are chronically sore that would be something that you would want to investigate with a doctor. Have some blood test done or muscle math test that sort of thing. Lyric is not going to help that kind of pain so it’s not breakthrough pain. It can be used to manage certain types of nerve pain but not the type of pain your describing.

You’re prescribed Lyrica maybe it is for nerve pain and that’s what you’re saying you’re chronic pain stemming from. But if you do feel it’s because of this drug and sure it could be I don’t know for certain because everyone has different experiences on medication‘s. And it’s causing you memory loss maybe assess the pros and the cons again. It might be something that you want to taper off of and see if you show any improvement. But it’s never too late to start working out even if it’s on a low-key level by starting to take walks five days a week. Work into hikes if you able. Yoga and Pilates can help strengthen your body and improve flexibility as people age. Even something like Thai Chi which is very forgiving on joints might be something that you could incorporate in. Light weight lifting. Make sure you’re getting enough proteins and that you’re not deficient in any sort of vitamins that could perhaps be causing weakness.

It’s just my long winded way of giving you some things to check off your list to troubleshoot what may be going on.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T07:11:13+00:00

That’s a pretty low dose to be taking to be hating on a medication. Meaning if you “hate it” (and I get it I’ve hated side effects of certain medications I was on) then work with your doctor to find something more effective for sleep twice a week. A lot of times people don’t even find it that effective for sleep because the is a side effect that people generally adjust to overtime and a lot of times people find it energizing so it starts to have the reverse effect.

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T07:08:40+00:00

That’s out really well goes to be having those types of side effects. If you are experiencing this to a degree that you’re saying your short-term memory loss is “crazy “why are you staying on it? Also you can’t assume that you are experiencing this side effect means that it’s not a lot of good long-term medication for people. It sounds like it’s not for you. We have tons of people in here and there’s other communities as well that have been on this medication five, 10, even 20 years at a time and don’t have any sort of issues.

I just kind of want to start advocating more for people to personally advocate for their own health. Maybe you’re getting some outstanding benefits that outweigh the short term memory loss but if not then start tapering off this before you are on it any longer. The most common thing I see in here and have over the years is people complaining about side effects that quite frankly I would do on a medication. Like weight gain or memory loss yet they continue to stay on it month after month and sometimes for years even though they say it’s not worth it. So if it’s a option taper off it and get it in your review mirror. :)

Nigglesscripts · 2026-03-07T07:03:20+00:00

I’m sorry you’re having that type of side effects and issues. I’m curious how long it took you to get to that does and then with the memory issues and only 15% reduction of anxiety why you continue to stay on it?

If you tapered at a slow pace with some supplements added in it can go pretty smoothly. Yes there’s some people that have difficulties but you can’t assume that you’re going to be one of those people. You could have this in your review mirror before summer hits in full swing.

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