Gabapentin side effects?

Posted by Sundance(RB) @sundance6, Apr 13, 2019

I am a regular on the Mayo Board! I don't know what I would do without it! Our doctors don't want to discuss openly the things about illnesses and side effets of drugs and other things. Anyway, my question to all of you is Gabapentin and it's side effects. I have been on it now for 6 months. My doctor raised me from 100mg. to now I am on 400mg. three times a day.
The problem is my tiredness! I happen to be in a friends office yesterday and she was taking some medicine. She said she was taking Gabapentin. I asked why and she said she had, had shingles back when and it still helped with the pain. I know the drug is percribed for many things that is why I take it for my issues.
I told her I had been taking it for about 6 months. She asked if I had been tired all the time, just out of the Blue. OF COURSE I SAID YES! She said it took her a year before she got out of the tiredness.
Let me know if any of you have experienced the same thing. Also let me know at what dosage you may be on? I know this is all confidential!
Again Thanks to The Mayo Clinic and Everyone who is kind enough to be open with their lives!
Sundance!

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Chronic Pain Support Group.

@lorirenee1

@wsh66 Hi Stephen, I am so glad that you are not in much pain now. Life with pain is horrific. I was scheduled for a trial of the Dorsal Root Ganglion Stimulator, and of course, it was canceled due to Corona. I live on Kratom and Marijuana for severe foot neuropathy. Feel like a pot head from the sixties. But it beats severe pain. Be safe, Stephen, and thanks again, for all that you do here to help people. Blessings to you as well, Lori

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So sorry, Lori. I just guess I was lucky I took the date of 1/27 for my spinal cord stimulator. I wanted to make sure I was ready for gardening season; sure wasn’t thinking virus back then re delaying things. :<( Hopefully you get your procedure and it helps! Meanwhile, do whatever works!

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@wsh66

Excuse me but I said nothing at all like, "just get over it" or "buck up". I said it was treatable. There are three kinds of treatment. The first is talk therapy, the second is drug therapy, the third is bibliotherapy or reading books about the causes and effects of depression. All three of those methods are known to work. Any two of those methods of treatment in combinations are proven to work twice as well as anyo one alone. All three used together are three times as effective as any one of them on its own. After many years of treatment, I'm not sure I know what situational depression is as I have come to believe that depression isn't about what happens to us, depression is about how we think about what happens to us.

Awful things happened to human beings and they make us sad, things break our hearts, we experience extreme loss. Being made sad or worse by situations is not necessarily depression. Sadness is a normal state of being when we lose people or we lose a job or maybe we lose a friend. Any number of things can happen to us to darken our mood and leave us wounded. This may turn into depression which needs to be treated but we don't need to experience loss or injury to become depressed. Depression runs in families. Depression can be learned behavior. Depression can be based on a person's brain chemistry, their diet, their lack of exercise or any other combination of poor life skills or poor life experiences .

I'm not speaking about manic depressive disorders, those are completely different and don't respond to the same drugs that we take for depression without mania.

From my observations of friends and fellow artists, manic depression seems to be a much more serious condition with a much bleaker out look for treatment.

I'm not playing down the seriousness of depression either. Left untreated, depression is a terminal disease. It can affect our general health, our longevity, our relationship with other people, our ability to hold jobs. It also affects our ability to heal, to recover from illnesses. For patients with chronic pain both depression and anxiety can greatly worsen our situation. It increases our experience of pain and by that I mean what hurts really bad when I'm depressed doesn't hurt quite as much when I'm happy. This presents serious pitfalls for some patients who say I don't need talk therapy, I don't need drugs, it's normal to feel this way when you're in that much pain. I am not depressed, depression is not my problem. Too many people look at depression as a character weakness or a flaw and refuse to admit they are depressed and refuse to seek for accept treatment. This is very frustrating to watch in another person, especially a loved one. I know this to be true because in the beginning I refuse to admit that I was depressed and didn't seek help until I was in a great deal of pain and perhaps it risk for ending my life. When I began treatment, I used all three methods at the same time which is what I would encourage anybody else to do. You can take too many pills and you can take have too many operations but you cannot have too much bibliotherapy, or too much talk therapy. You can't have bad talk therapy but that's another story.

The two best books I read were "Feeling Good" and sadly. I can't remember the author. I also loved "The Four Agreements", by Miguel Ruiz.

If you are depressed, please get help. If your doctor or your family tell you they think you might be depressed, please listen to them. If you get the impression from someone that they think depression is a character flaw put as much distance between them and you as is possible. Love & blessings.

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I agree with you. I was in combat in Korea. I learned to live with it, but still memories are strong. I read the bible 1 pager each night.Workers of God is another word for the holy Spirit. I have been active in the community to help others. I know when we talk like this, eye balls roll. Therefore, I have found talking with others with the same mind set or to my VFW brothers helps. I have encouraged others on this form to be Pro-active for their own health. This means to google and learn why we are taking certain drugs and ask our professionals if the medication is getting the targeted response. Everyone should do this. It is a no brainer. Expressing your opinion about a drug is appreciated. Some times we for get to say, please talk to your physician about this. Many of us do a lot of googling into "The health effects of.......... There are many things that affect our health. Please!.. Never be reluctant to express honest feelings or facts. Most of us can sort it out. Thank you for your contributions

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@bill54321

I agree with you. I was in combat in Korea. I learned to live with it, but still memories are strong. I read the bible 1 pager each night.Workers of God is another word for the holy Spirit. I have been active in the community to help others. I know when we talk like this, eye balls roll. Therefore, I have found talking with others with the same mind set or to my VFW brothers helps. I have encouraged others on this form to be Pro-active for their own health. This means to google and learn why we are taking certain drugs and ask our professionals if the medication is getting the targeted response. Everyone should do this. It is a no brainer. Expressing your opinion about a drug is appreciated. Some times we for get to say, please talk to your physician about this. Many of us do a lot of googling into "The health effects of.......... There are many things that affect our health. Please!.. Never be reluctant to express honest feelings or facts. Most of us can sort it out. Thank you for your contributions

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I wouldn't worry about the eye rollers if I were you. No one rolling eyes at you here. I find it very helpful to spend some time wishing well for others, sending love and blessings, and when I think about people who vex me or upset me a picture of them standing in front of me and I say to them I love you and I forgive you. But I love you and forgive you even if you don't vex me.

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@wisco50

So sorry, Lori. I just guess I was lucky I took the date of 1/27 for my spinal cord stimulator. I wanted to make sure I was ready for gardening season; sure wasn’t thinking virus back then re delaying things. :<( Hopefully you get your procedure and it helps! Meanwhile, do whatever works!

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@wisco50 Thanks so much for your kind words. You were very lucky to get your spinal cord stimulator in time. I am happy for you! That is wonderful. Now I can look forward to my Dorsal Root Ganglion trial, sometime in the future...God knows when, for sure! Till then, Kratom and Marijuana. Beats pain, any day. Be safe, Lori

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@wsh66

I wouldn't worry about the eye rollers if I were you. No one rolling eyes at you here. I find it very helpful to spend some time wishing well for others, sending love and blessings, and when I think about people who vex me or upset me a picture of them standing in front of me and I say to them I love you and I forgive you. But I love you and forgive you even if you don't vex me.

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You are a very nice person.

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@lorirenee1

@wisco50 Thanks so much for your kind words. You were very lucky to get your spinal cord stimulator in time. I am happy for you! That is wonderful. Now I can look forward to my Dorsal Root Ganglion trial, sometime in the future...God knows when, for sure! Till then, Kratom and Marijuana. Beats pain, any day. Be safe, Lori

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My good doctors told me not to do a stimulator until it's absolutely necessary and there's no choice. There's all kinds of problems I've heard and spoken to people who've had a long periods of time and never had difficulties. My next door neighbor who's had it for over a year and a half suddenly started feeling better and they found out the batteries with him ran out. I just stick to moving and marijuana as well as anti-inflammatories and I'll take my chances

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@spondi64

<p>My Dr prescribed Gabapentin 300mg caps last Friday. I took one at bedtime & woke up at 3:30a.m. in horrible pain. Has anyone else experenced anything like this?</p>

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Georgia from Australia - I was caught by your words "chemo brain" associated with pain. Is there not an Immunotherapy available for your cancer? I had both chemo. and Immuno. and there is not comparison. Could function and do all my "usual daily stuff" . with Immunotherapy treatment. On chemo. I was "wipe out".

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@spondi64

<p>My Dr prescribed Gabapentin 300mg caps last Friday. I took one at bedtime & woke up at 3:30a.m. in horrible pain. Has anyone else experenced anything like this?</p>

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Australia..I am so sorry for you. Aside from telling you to look up the diet a women who is famousfor flaxoil and cottage cheese, ; let me say you need to check all your concerns with your treatment team. I have had 2 brothers and 1 sister and my father die from cancer. The best auto-immune, outside of RX doses, is with food and also avoiding foods, smoking, drugs and binge drinking. Google heath effects of.......

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@veteranspouseinpain

I&apos;m sorry give me a second I&apos;m having trouble sign ing in. 

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Hi Vetranspousepain from Georgia from Australia. I always have trouble always signing in on this site. computer illiterate me.!!
When you ask about nerve pain you have to be more specific in order for help. Say where it is. What it feels like. Steady or off and on. etc. ..Then those of us who have had a specialist treatment can direct you. Yes ?

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@spondi64

<p>My Dr prescribed Gabapentin 300mg caps last Friday. I took one at bedtime & woke up at 3:30a.m. in horrible pain. Has anyone else experenced anything like this?</p>

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I am on 1200 3 times per day with no noticable side effects

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