Fibromyalgia Support Group
You're not alone in your pain. Fibromyalgia is a condition that can be difficult to diagnose and manage. If you're trying to cope with pain throughout your body, sleep problems, general fatigue, or other common fibromyalgia symptoms, you're in the right place. The community is here for you to talk about therapies and share your challenges.
Oh my goodness! I went off the gabapentin about 2 weeks ago because I couldn't stand the side effects of being hyper, anxious, angry, and couldn't sleep (although it was extremely effective in stopping the pain).
Gabapentin has a short half-life of only 6 hrs. The widespread pain/stiffness came back the next day. But my mood is still very bad. I am not as hyper now, but still anxious, still have trouble sleeping. And new symptoms emerged like depression/sadness, crying, and now these 2 days a slight dizziness. I thought the med should have cleared from my body by now since I was taking the lowest dosage. So I googled withdrawal symptoms on the internet, and indeed, these are withdrawal symptoms! As a matter of fact, it says that the shorter the half-life of a med, the more severe the withdrawal symptoms!
At least now I know what's going on...
Gabapentin has a short half-life of only 6 hrs. The widespread pain/stiffness came back the next day. But my mood is still very bad. I am not as hyper now, but still anxious, still have trouble sleeping. And new symptoms emerged like depression/sadness, crying, and now these 2 days a slight dizziness. I thought the med should have cleared from my body by now since I was taking the lowest dosage. So I googled withdrawal symptoms on the internet, and indeed, these are withdrawal symptoms! As a matter of fact, it says that the shorter the half-life of a med, the more severe the withdrawal symptoms!
At least now I know what's going on...
Tess
I understand most will not agree, blah blah blah, yet I've doing it this way for at least the last 5 years. It prevents tolerance buildup and I find that 400-600mg dose cuts down on my arm, hand nerve pain.
Keep in mind that this med is used mostly off-label and it does different things for different people. I was telling my doctor about how I use it today. He found it quite interesting.
Just my thoughts....
I was taking a very low dose: 50 mg in AM, 50 mg in PM. If I were taking a bigger dose, I'd mostly likely check with the doc to titrate down. With already such a low dose, I don't know how much smaller increment can one titrate down. I had visited the doc a week after I stopped, and he didn't disapprove of what I did. (And also he didn't mention these were withdrawal symptoms! He just said, "Strange, the med should have cleared from your body by now.")
I had also ran this idea by him: Since the benefits of the gabapentin happened the next day (substantial pain decrease), and the side effects happened only after taking 2 weeks' worth of pills, then maybe the next time I need to do some heavy housework, I'll just take ONE pill, do the housework, then don't take anymore pills. This way, I can avoid the side effects.
He said I can try it. But now with the withdrawal symptoms, I'm not so sure I should try. (I should check with the psychiatrist first. He should know more about these meds and withdrawal than the pain management doc who prescribed this. (The psychiatrist is aware that I was taking this though.))