Anyone withdrawal from Neurontin or Lyrica?

[g1949]

I am currently withdrawing from 150 mg 3 x's daily and I can tell you it's been hell last few days. My body is itching like crazy I am sad, mad, snappy and I can't fix it. Tomorrow I will add a diff. drug but even tho I have been withdrawing slowly for 2 wks it has been tough. Thought I was loosing my mind glad I found you!!!!

[PaloAltoPixie]

At one point, I was up to 3200mg of Neurontin daily in divided doses, and I was withdrawn fairly quickly by my doctor, over a period of 2 weeks. My withdrawal experience isn't nearly as terrible as the stories I've been reading here - I consider myself very lucky. Aside from some insomnia, which I suffer from by default, it was a relatively pain-free withdrawal for me...

[Juls1948]

I have been withdrawing from Lyrica over the last two weeks...and I have had terrible headaches and the nausea is horrible. I thought I had the flu....

[Lizz7711]

I highly recommend supplementing w/ magnesium to offset some of the withdrawal you are experiencing...best form is transdermal..magnsesim oil by Ancient Minerals is supposed to be the best. Gets right into your bloodstream through the skin. We're using it to help my Dad who is weaning off Neurontin.

Best of luck to all of you,
Liz

[thehipcrip]

Cripes.

Two weeks ago, I started taking 300mg of gabapentin three times a day. I d/c'd it tonight due to intolerable side effects [diarrhea, uncontrollable muscle twitches in the same arm affected by central muscle pain, and one isolated incident of spiking a fever of 103.8]. I'm hoping that the short time I've been on it and the relatively low dose I've been taking make me less susceptible to withdrawing from it than I was to the side effects from taking it.

My new pain doc and I had talked about trying Lyrica if the gabapentin didn't work out. But after reading this thread, I'm loathe to even try it. It would be a real bitch if I ended up having side effects from it that I couldn't tolerate and had to continue taking it for months in order to titrate down slowly enough to avoid withdrawal.

Wish me luck on stopping the gabapentin cold turkey.

[Matthias_GE]

Dear fellows

I apologize for my bad engl. - I am from Germany, but here are no seroius forums that deal with the problem "withdrawal from lyrica".

I took 150mg for about a year and quitted cold turkey 3 weeks ago. I had some valium to cope the withdrawal symptoms which helped with the anxiety, the nausea and the lack of sleep. I did have mild nerve pain, but would I have known what lyrica withdrawal symtomps are - I never had even thought about taking it!

From my experience with other medical drugs (was addicted to tramadolor [given for post-operative pains] and the withdrawal was the challenge of my life)

1 year of using = 1 month of withdrawal, thats what I learned while detoxing form tramadolor.


May I ask you how you deal with the severe mood changes? How long did the depression (as some of you had to deal with after detoxing from lyrica) last?

[Matthias_GE]

BTW - the first week was the heaviest nightmare of my life, none of my experience with any other med. withdrawal was this hard. It was the valium (10mg/d) which helped me to tolerate water and food. Taper down might be a better way to deal with that problem, but I worked too hard the last weeks to get over it - and never am willing to experience that nightmare again.

[rose_thorn98]

For those of you who had itching from Gabapentin and/or Lyrica, once you weaned off the med, how long did it take for your itching to stop. I'm currently weaning off Lyrica and the itching is so intense. I have itching all over my body, which started one month after starting Lyrica a year ago. The itching has become unbearable so I'm getting off the Lyrica but as I wean down the itching is becoming worse. Please share your experience after quitting, did the itching go away?

[Hope2005]

Neurontin made me very sick- (I was trying it for neuropathy and spasms) I lost about 18 lbs in 3 weeks and became very depressed as I was on it and coming off of it. (it also made me crazy in my head) Lyrica also made me sick. I believe withdrawals come from any of these drugs and that so many have different symptoms that it could be hard for doctors to determine that you are not having withdrawals. I hope you are feeling better really soon! (I stick to clonazpen, mild, but it is the only one that doesn't make me crazy or sick)

[danajoqberry]

I'm on my second attempt to stop taking Lyrica. The first attempt was unsuccessful. I was taking 100mg/twice a day. My dr. had me drop 50mg a week until I was down to 50 mg only for a week and then stop. The day after my last dosage I started having stomach cramps, diarrhea and fatigue. The next day the symptoms increased to include loss of appetite, nausea, shaking, crying (maybe this was more of an anxiety thing, but for me came out as tears, but I would cry for 30 minutes without stopping). I felt absolutely horrible. I would dry heave, but would not vomit, I could not eat anything, but would make myself eat chicken noodle soup. I could however sleep, that is one thing I didn't have a problem with. I missed a lot of work for several days. After about 4 days of this my husband insisted we call my doctor, I let him. He called for me and when we got the call back, my doctor's practitioner said it was Lyrica withdrawal. He said it was very uncommon, what I was going through. He told me to go ahead and take one-100mg dosage then, and another that night, I took one right away and felt about 50% better within the hour, it's amazing. So he wanted me to call the next day and let him know if the Lyrica made me feel better. I called the next and told him that it did make me feel better. So he wanted me to start back on my regular dosage for a week and then drop down by 25mg a week this time.

So, this time it will take me about 5 weeks I guess to ween off. I had a few extra 25mg lyricas so I've just taken those to try to extend the inevitable, but I can already feel it creeping on. I take my last dose tonight of 25mg. I have already had stomach cramping, diarrhea, fatigue. I'm not looking forward to the next several weeks. But if something can cause this sort of withdrawal I definitely do not want to be taking it!

I am getting off of Lyrica because it quit helping with my Fibromyalsia pain, it also caused me to gain about 30 pounds, also I have major edema (swelling in my feet and legs) while taking it. I have to take a "water pill" while on Lyrica which causes me to be potassium deficient which has caused other minor problems.

Thanks for reading and I'll post an update.