Gabapentin side effects?

That’s funny. It’s just the opposite of me if I don’t take my gabapentin I get really tired. I feel really worn out once I take my proper dosage. My energy level comes back. Strange huh? I have autonomic neuropathy.

after years of use one day my feet and ankles started swelling. Dr. said it was the Gabapentin so I slowly stopped and she was right. The swelling went down so now I can no longer take it,

I was prescribed gabapentin for severe facial neuralgia. The dosage was 900mg daily.
At first I thought it was a miracle drug. The pain was almost completely gone within two days.
Then the incredible swelling started in my feet -very painful. The swelling rose from my
feet all the way up to my hips in about 10 days. My legs were huge, the skin taut and shiny,
not one tiny wrinkle anywhere. I could barely walk or sleep.
I also gained over 15 pounds - perhaps from water retention.(?)
I was offered an alternate drug, but they didn't tell me it was in the gabapentin family.
My pharmacist gave me a withdrawal plan that got me off gabapentin in 4 weeks.
It took 3 months for my legs to return to (almost) normal.
I now live with the facial neuralgia - which is very depressing.
It's a great pity we have to choose whether or not the pain relief is worth the
debilitating side effects.

Really now? See i was wondering about this. I started off on it just fine, it helped a lot with my peripheral neuropathy. It still does help with the burning part of it at least. As for the numbness and hyperalgesia? Honestly it feels almost like it's made both of those worse. Also, my weight has been pretty steady for years and continued to be for the first 9 months or so of taking the gabapentin. However, within the last 6 months I've gained about 30 pounds and really rapidly. Also, if im on my feet for longer than an hour or two my ankles and feet swell like someone dumped a pound of salt into my bloodstream! Which, as random as this is going to seem, brings me to the next issue that has me baffled. Have you or anyone else reading this really, had an issue with your hair falling out, thinning, as well as developing a totally new texture to your hair that you've never ever had? I've always always had super thick, frizzy and coarse hair. But since I started taking this? First it started out with my hair just thinning so I bought like all the bosley shampoos and whatnot but then it was just coming out in clumps!!!! So I kept with the shampoo but also switched up my multivitamin to a prenatal and added dha and a bunch of others like a collagen and biotin supplement.... it helped as much as it could I guess. But now? Now it's developed this insanely just unnaturally soft texture! Like baby hair but softer! It's just now kind of filling back in again but it's still just unnaturally soft.

I take 2700mg daily (which I believe is the max) for migraines. 3 300mg in the morning, another 900mg at 4:30 and another 900mg at bedtime. When I started on it, it made me very tired (I slept a lot), but then I got used to it.

I've been taking 3600mg a day for a few years now to dull the pain in my feet. I take 4 300mg capsules three times a day.

I know there needs to be Billboard Signs that say;
WARNING
! GABAPENTIN MIGHT GRAB YOU !
Then follow up ad saying: :"Gaba might grab ya!" ...so it is remembered!
This drug was not intended for the variety of other ailments it is used for now. It has become a kind of "Aspirin" This drug is used increasingly by physicians for more and more ailments INCORRECTLY! It is important to know this is not NOT a "cure all drug! Check on it's history! It is a money maker for the Pharm Industry!! Seriously, I speak from experience. I took it under my Doctors orders. The first week was OK, I seemed to be better, and THEN, my throat completely closed! Had I not had help here, at that time, I would have died. Be careful!

I took it for years and then all of a sudden my feet and ankles swelled up to where I could not put on shoes and it was so painful. I waited 2 weeks to see if it went away before seeing my doctor. As soon as we started taking away the medicine gradually the feet went down but the pain took over 3 weeks to go away and noe I have broken veins all over my feet, ugly. So, buyer be ware.

I was on 300 mg twice a day for herniated disc pain...my issue was being unable to sleep at night due to pain, and allergic to most pain meds...
It worked great for a year or so and then I noticed I was tripping as I walked... I started holding onto a shopping cart at the grocery because I felt I might fall...the doctor had me booked brain MRI to rule out a growth, then decided to get me off gabapentin...my tripping, and feeling i was falling disappeared in a few weeks...side effects in the brain is not a good thing...I make do with aleve now, walk more, gentle exercise..

Well those are unhappy side effects are going on, so best stop taking it. I had a problem with it after a May 2024 lumbar L-5 epidural injection caused more pain than before. My Dr got me on the graduated regime of gabapentin as many here have been through. When I got to 400 mg that was the scariest drug experience. My body wouldn’t move and I felt very weak and unsteady — a struggle for my husband to move me from living room to bedroom. I had no more doses at that level. I graduated off in November to 100 mg. Then I stopped completely as the nerve pain had subsided. I have had a radicular cervical nerve pain after a herniated disc in 2009 but dosage never bothered me then but I think 200 mg was the maximum. I have multiple back issues and now in hopes of nerve ablation in future. Hope you all hang in there!