Is it safe to stop gabapentin? How?

Are you saying you are taking all these medications after being off benzodiazepines? What were you taking the Benzodiazepines for? When I started tapering off the Lorazepam I was on several other medications to start taper. After final tapering I was off all medications. Of course after 4 or 5 days I started a very down hill progression because of the incorrect dose they converted my Lorazepam for a half life Benzo.

Hi everyone.

I have a question regarding Gabapentin for anxiety.
I am taking Zoloft 100mg for past 5 weeks and asked my doctor to prescribe me Gabapentin.

I had been taking 100mg TDI for two days and 200mg TDI for one day.
Today I only took 200mg in the morning because I want to stop it.

I read about this drug and hear horror stories that withdrawals are from hell when you stop it so I decided I won’t go with this drug.

Will I develop any withdrawals after taking it for this past 4 days?

I want to stop it CT tomorrow but not sure if it is safe or should I take 100mg for few more days just to be safe?

Thank you all!

Hi, I've been taking gabapentin for about 10 years and find it to work very well for my pain associated with fibromyalgia and nerve issues due to spinal stenosis. I can tell you that on the rare occasions when I've forgotten to take it at night, it has kept me from a peaceful night's sleep (my nerves seem to be tingling) plus I wake that morning with nausea, fatigue and sometimes a headache. I just try to never forget my medications.

I have weaned myself from gabapentin in the past, leaving off just one pill at night for a period of 5 days before i leave off another. I've found it to be very uncomfortable, but it doesn't seem to last more than a few days. I hope this helps?

Thank you for prompt reply.
If you don’t mind asking you, when you started on Gabapentin, did you develop tolerance or it ok to keep a steady amount?

I am not sure if I should keep taking it.

It helps with my lip nerve damage from a surgery I had a year and a half ago and anxiety.

But I read that this is the worst withdrawals you can have if wanting to taper and stop the med.

Anna,
I moved your question about stopping gabapentin safely to this existing discussion:
- Is it safe to stop gabapentin? How? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/i-need-help-about-a-medication/

I did this so you can connect with others who have safely discontinued gabapentin and to read the helpful tips from other. Please consult your prescribing doctor when considering to stop medication.

Hi there,
I read thru all the discussion posts and was actually wondering the same thing recently. But, my question first tho, is it ok to take it for the rest of your life if you have really bad nerve pain? I have accidentally missed a dose here n there before, and almost immediately regretted it bc of nausea, pain off the charts and exaggerated symptoms in general. I'm ok with taking if for my whole life as long as it doesn't make me physically dependent in a bad way, if that makes sense. I've always been curious if someday I could come off it, but I hesitate to even find out if the withdrawals will be really bad. Any input would be great, thanks!

@annatino
I’ve been on seizure medicines for 55 years. Most people taking them complain of tiredness, balance and memory problems but wouldn’t hesitate to take it for the remainder of my life if it helped seizures or nerve pain but it doesn’t. Whether or not you have withdrawals is unknown. I took gabapentin three different times from 900 mg to 3600 mgs. It didn’t bother me to stop but someone else here was only tapering by one half or 1 percent and still having withdrawals so who knows. It’s more unlikely since you’ve been on it for such a short time but just to be safe I’d taper slowly. If withdrawals occur you can always increase your dosage to what you were taking then restart your taper even slower.
Dependency is likely especially if taken long term.
Jake

@annatino and @rivermaya34
Good evening. I am going to try to give you some background about my personal journey with gabapentin, This was the first medication that my Neurologist prescribed after the results from the skin biopsy came back with a diagnosis of severe SFN, (small fiber neuropathy). He began to increase the daily dosage by 300 mg per month. The side effects of fuzzy brain and dizziness were more than I could handle so he had me take the gabapentin only at bedtime. And yes, it worked to reduce the numbness, pain, and coldness in my hands to enhance my sleep.

Shortly after that, I was introduced to medical cannabis to include a topical 3:1 CBD/THC for my hands. I found it to be helpful. So…….in a shared decision, my PCP and I decided to taper off one half gabapentin capsule at a time. It took several months for me to get to 600 mg at night.

And I have been doing reasonably well. In fact, I would like to eliminate gabapentin altogether. My hope is that a medication will be developed just for Neuropathy patients. Or it may be that there is some way to implement nerve regeneration in a more reasonable timeframe. Until then I will be very careful about terminating the last two capsules of Gabapentin.

Go slowly, be careful, and don’t forget to introduce a replacement to handle the symptom progression that affects us all. We all know how much we regretted missing a dosage of Gabapentin.

Will you please let me know what you decide? Your shared experience will help so many others.

May you both be safe, free, and protected from inner and outer harm.

Chris

I can’t tell you how many times I have thought the same thing re: Gabapentin. It is rare that I’m not checking my watch and waiting every day for my 4 pm dose because pain is setting in. Then I wonder if that means I’m addicted. But I do believe it’s because the pain is real, and that the Gabapentin is just the best and safest thing for us right now.
Throughout life, I have doctors throwing HARD pain meds at me for each nagging pain, and I’m like “Woah!!! I’m not trying to MASK the pain, I’m looking to FIX the pain”. Sometimes, like for surgeries, injuries etc it made sense to mask it while we knew our bodies were healing, so I would indulge in very temporary pain relief; I always feared dependency that we’ve all read about.
But I’m like you, I would be ok taking Gabapentin for the rest of my life because I’ve accepted that we have something that doctors admit they can’t heal, and I think it must work since we know when the medicine is wearing off. Gabapentin does not make me “high”, drugged feeling, or unsafe. I can safely walk, drive, and function. Would I have even more energy without Gabapentin? Probably, but I’m sure my neuropathic pain and discomfort would counteract that benefit.
So I too wonder if I’ve become “addicted” and if I’d have withdrawal issues if I needed to stop; but until they find a safer alternative, or better yet, a cure for the pain and other life interfering effects of idiopathic neuropathy, I’m ok with Gabapentin for life and hope I stay stable. With that said, I have not tried any of the pain clinics and not certain if they take you off 100% of medications, but I’ve recently dabbled in acupuncture and if there are success stories of getting off Gabapentin for a sure tried holistic remedy, I would consider trying to get off Gabapentin with proper supervision.

Please discuss this with your physician before you discontinue usage.
Kim