It did work for me for reducing pain, but it made me tired and depressed. After about two weeks I stopped using it. The side effects weren't worth the benefits I was receiving.

It helped and i also put on over 50 lbs and it put 30 lbs of fluid on me besides and gave me pneumonia because the fluid went from my feet to legs to stomach and filled up my left lung.

Gabapentin can have some hard side effects. I never used it ---- but it's been used by several here ---- so hopefully you can get som e better-informed replies. Your pharmacist can help you.

I've used a low dose of Gabapentin for years. It doesn't seem to bother me much and I have pain relief.

Thank you everyone that has replied so far.

Not such great comments regarding this medication so far. I’ve also read on other forums other good / bad comments.

I’m so confused and in two minds.

I have been prescribed this medication due to my pain and clearly I need it but I’m so scared of the bad side effects and become even more depressed than I already am due to the bad side effects.

Why can’t things just be easy and simple for once. Why can’t I just get fixed and live a normal life like everyone else. I’m just so sick of this.

I just wish there was a medication that wasn’t full of shit that made so many bad side effects but so many seem to be this way. So we are either forever in pain or forever with bad side effects. Seems fair.

What’s the actual point.

Ten years ago, I was given gabapentin for 6 months to treat peripheral neuropathic pain. It did not work, and the pain resolved itself when my rheumy adequately treated my lupus flare. I had side-effects due to gabapentin, but I cannot remember what they were.

Anyhow, what I mean to say is that all drugs have side-effects and not all patients will experience them. Each patient will have a different response and shall experience a different side-effect to the same drug. You will never know what your response to the drug may be until you try. If we stop taking medications due to the list of side-effects of the drugs, we will not be treated and have to endure the symptoms of our ailments. The drug profile/drug information compiled by drug company is produced in accordance to laws and regulations made by the Health Department and the Government. These drug profiles are akin to health safety reports, but are not intended to indicate to patients that each person will experience ALL of the side-effects listed. The drug information is to guide doctors to distinguish drug effects from actual symptoms of ailments. If you decide to receive treatment, just write down the list of symptoms and report them to your family doctor if the symptoms become bothersome.

I appreciate everyone taking the time to reply and give their honest opinion on the drug and their experience when taking it as that is exactly what I needed the experience of individuals.

I have read the leaflet and the drug administration side effects ect and that is not really, in my opinion, a true reflection of what can really happen when taking the medication.

Yes I do understand and agree that everyone that takes the medication can and will have a different experience with it and on it. Some may experience no side effects and others may experience extreme, but I prefer to be armed with as much knowledge as I can and know what to expect should I get to that point and look out for things before it gets too bad.

Doctors these days do not seem to tell you anything, you have to do your own research and investigating and I don’t feel that is right or fair.

I agree yes I’m in pain and I do need to be on medication but it is not without fear as I have been going through allot due to doctors not being honest and upfront with me, being lied to, and I have allot of trauma ptsd so it’s very hard when it comes to trust.

I’m also facing having to come off the birth control pill Yaz at the same time which is going to have its own set of withdrawal symptoms which is absolutely terrifying me.

I’m also having to face appts with a plastic reconstructive surgeon and making some very serious decisions when it comes to this surgery which I have serious trauma in relation to this surgery.

Having all of this on my plat at once is causing me such anxiety and fear, I’m absolutely terrified of what’s to come, how sick o may become and what side effects I may be facing all the while having to make some very serious tough life changing decisions at the same time!

I just wish my life could be simple and easy.

KC, I know your frustration and I empathise with your predicament. It takes many immunologists, rheumatologists, neurologists and five years of investigations for specialists to conclude that I have lupus. Despite the diagnosis, my family doctor is still in denial that I have an autoimmune conditions. Prior to the diagnosis, all the doctors and specialists whom I had consulted always insisted that I had made up symptoms to get attention, despite the fact that I tested positive to many autoimmune markers, and fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for lupus. These doctors were very sarcastic and insinuated that I had a mental illness in consulting many physicians to ask for treatment.

I received no treatment for five years until I collapsed and became bedridden as I could no longer walk. It was then that a female immunology professor decided to believe me and investigated further for autoimmune disease, only to find that I was suffering from acute lupus and was beginning to have kidney failure. As soon as the professor started treatment, my kidneys and I recovered as such that I could walk again.

I am sorry I have detracted on your post but what I am trying to say is: if you suspect that something is wrong, keep researching and consulting many doctors until you arrive at a diagnosis, so that you can obtain treatment. Don't think of side-effects, prognosis and life prospects - these things make you depressed. We will all die one day but in between, we will try our best and live to the best ability that we can. Once you relax, you can see things more clearly. As a chronic sufferer of an incurable illness, I do not fear death, nor feel anxious, nor being afraid of living. We have tried our best, made our best decisions, then step back and let things unfold.

Hi KCxo
You have my empathy, I have many diagnoses and chronic pain from those and injuries from trauma, so severe PTSD. Its really hard for me with all these doctors & it’s hard for me with medications especially when I have to try new ones because of many of the reasons you mentioned above plus I think subconsciously I’m trying so hard to protect myself because of the PTSD. Sorry if I’m going on & I probably am not articulating myself probably in what I’m trying to say to ya (because of fibro fog & migraine hangover) but when I read this whole post it really made me want to reach out so you know you’re not alone.

As far as the gabapentin, I tried it about a year or so ago & it was a no go for me because it made me just so completely out of it. I was doing the weirdest stuff like putting a tv remote in the fridge and then looking for it all day & just really ditzy stuff lol.
However, I knew someone else years ago that said it saved her life & worked very well for both her pain & anxiety.

Sending you lots of support
& a gentle hug <3

Thank you both for taking the time to reply.
And please don’t apologise for things you say, I don’t take offence as such, as I know you would never do or say anything to hurt me or make me feel that way, I know you are all here to try and help guide me and give me advice from your point of view.

I’m just at such a fragile and horrible place right now, and tbh have been for a while and it only seems to be getting worse with these big scary decisions I’m having to make.

I’m scared of making the wrong decision and things getting worse. I’m scared of not being told the right and full information. I’m scared of not getting better and never having a life again. I’m scared of what these medications may do to me and becoming so sick and not being able to look after myself and being an even bigger burden than I already am. I could go on and on.

I literally hate myself right now. I can’t think about these things as when I do I melt into a complete mess as my life is not even a life anymore, I’ve ruined it and in turn ruined others my family’s and I feel so much guilt.

I’m sad, I’m angry, I’m scared, I’m lonely, I’m lost, etc.

To update you I did start the gabapentin the other day. I haven’t stopped the Yaz birth control yet. I’m too scared to do both at the same time. But the specialist wants me to my family want me to, they are fearful I will have a stroke. I have my apt with my reconstruction surgeon mid next week.

Time to go back to watching TV and distracting my mind and trying not to think :(

It didn't work for me for Fibro. But years ago when I took it for another medical issue it worked

Another Gabapentin fail story here. Sorta.

For me, 1 pill...had stroke like side effect, I couldn't move anything but my eyes for 3 hours, had I been able to speak I would have told my hubby to get me to the ER, but I could only get out, watch over me. (read up later on it, 50% of their case studies had that same reaction). I still have trauma issues from that 1 pill. I can not take pills w/out thinking about it for an hour and circling back a few times before I even swallow a pill/vitamin. Meds are worse for me. Kinda of a biggie to get over if you know what I mean.

But my mom takes this and it helps her. And we use it for our arthritic great dane. It does help him too.

My advice, since you don't know. Try a small dose. Mine was the smallest it comes in. You might be one who this helps. And if so, that would be amazing. But have a good support system near you when you try a new medication. With all of the "approved" fibro meds, they can have some side effects that should be monitored.

I tried gabapentin several years ago. It decreased the pain immediately, but after taking it for about 5 days, I got very hyper--couldn't sleep, get angry. I kept taking it hoping that my body would get more used to it and that the side effects would subside. But no. I kept getting more hyper. (This is the opposite of what the common side effects are supposed to be.) Then my speech started to slur. I stopped. Then i got withdrawal symptoms (crying).

This was taking the smallest dosage possible, and even cutting that in half.