Gabapentin

[JDizzle]

Gabapentin

My personal experience has been up and down. If I want to get blasted, I will. I am hesitant to post on the effectiveness of being able to have a few drinks and stop. I have done that, but I have also drank way too much. I usually go out with the intention of drinking too much. As I've said, I don't think I am a very good test case, but I have had some success.

[spiritwolf333]

Gabapentin

@JD -how does gabapentin compare with baclofen as far as side effects and anxiety/derpression?

[JDizzle]

Gabapentin

Sorry I have been away. I have been really busy with one of my customers selling their company. It is a lot more fun to post here.

Gabapentin has stopped working. HAHAHA or is on it's way down. It is exactly the same as what happened to me with bac so I recognize it. I drink more and more before I "choose" to stop for the night and sometimes don't stop.

*** I want to be open about what I am doing to keep anyone from having their panties turn inside out. I don't want to be sober. I never have, never will. If I wanted complete sobriety, I know where to get that. So, I know what is wrong with me and the way I drink and that is gaba B receptors (I know nothing about this). All I know is that with Gab and Bac, I experienced for the first time in my life being able to drink and then stop. This did not last in either case.

My comparison of gabapentin and baclofen is they work exactly the same. I got the exact same result from both (gab lasted a little longer). I had no SEs from gabapentin and that is what was nice. Because of that, I am going to mess with the dose a little. I was taking 600mg 3x a day. I am now taking 1x a day (went down to 2x for a few days first). I am going to go back up to 3x a day after about a week or so. My HOPE is that it will work for a month before it stops again. I am here for improvement in my drinking, not sobriety. I have achieved that. I am also going back to the doctor in about a month, so I will be able to explain it to him and hopefully gain some insight on how it worked and how to keep my body from getting used to it.

I'll keep posting as I go. I was laughing because all I ever wanted was another moment in time where I could maintain (like when I did for a couple months with pot). I finally got that!! NOW I WANT IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAH. The really cool thing though is even though it is not working, my hangovers still are not murderous mental anguish.

I am really interested to see someone try this who is abstinent (spiritwolf). Neither drugs helped me with that, but honestly I didn't want it anyways.

[spiritwolf333]

Gabapentin

JDizzle;1613157 wrote:
Gabapentin has stopped working. HAHAHA or is on it's way down. It is exactly the same as what happened to me with bac so I recognize it. I drink more and more before I "choose" to stop for the night and sometimes don't stop.

*** I don't want to be sober. I never have, never will. If I wanted complete sobriety, I know where to get that. So, I know what is wrong with me and the way I drink and that is gaba B receptors (I know nothing about this). All I know is that with Gab and Bac, I experienced for the first time in my life being able to drink and then stop. This did not last in either case.

My comparison of gabapentin and baclofen is they work exactly the same. I got the exact same result from both (gab lasted a little longer). I had no SEs from gabapentin and that is what was nice. Because of that, I am going to mess with the dose a little. I was taking 600mg 3x a day. I am now taking 1x a day (went down to 2x for a few days first). I am going to go back up to 3x a day after about a week or so. My HOPE is that it will work for a month before it stops again. I am here for improvement in my drinking, not sobriety. I have achieved that. I am also going back to the doctor in about a month, so I will be able to explain it to him and hopefully gain some insight on how it worked and how to keep my body from getting used to it.

The really cool thing though is even though it is not working, my hangovers still are not murderous mental anguish.

Hi JD -thanks for a great-honest reply.

As you know, I have become really interested in Gabapentin as an alternative to baclofen. Less side effects and more predictable are my primary reasons for my interest. Additionally, many more doctors are familiar with gabapentin than they are baclofen and will probably be more likely to prescribe off-label for alcoholism. And, on top of all of this, the new director of the NIH-Alcoholism headed up the study for the use of gabapentin for alcoholism while he was at the Scripps Institute (George Koob).

Now I think that it is interesting to note that sobriety has not been your main intent while (and for) taking baclofen-gabapentin. Why? Well, because I somehow have to believe that the brain will find a way around these medications if one is still drinking. In other words, the brain says no to medications other than alcohol. Thus, at some point, the medications no longer proves effective in re-programming the brain not to expect alcohol. Instead, the brain works out a way to keep taking the meds and re-work the circuits to allow alcohol back in as a main player in the receptor-generator arena. Now, I am just a laymen with the scientific knowledge and understanding of the medications, but my experience tells me that alcohol will find a way to mess up the greatest of all situations. Our brains want us to be on a dopamine high all of the time -or so I suspect.

Anyway and otherwise, this is the type of REAL information that can and will help other members of this forum. Thanks for the post.

[whatever...]

Gabapentin

Spirit, I'm a patient of apparently the best shrink of the country I live in, he is quite open minded in regards to prescribe off label stuff under close monitoring.

He is treating me as I was his friend and I treat him the same.

I've been with him with a 'ton' of meds on trial & error base so to say.

He never had a problem to allow me to try HDB (with the script that followed) a couple of years ago.

But I've noticed during our friendly sessions that he's quite sceptical/reluctant on the use of some:
namely buspar (the one that suddenly eloquent and self proclaimled professional - xanax Neva decided to give a try after their sophisticated reasearch) , another one was gabapentin/pregabalin.

[SlipperyPete]

Gabapentin

spiritwolf333;1613463 wrote:
Now I think that it is interesting to note that sobriety has not been your main intent while (and for) taking baclofen-gabapentin. Why? Well, because I somehow have to believe that the brain will find a way around these medications if one is still drinking. In other words, the brain says no to medications other than alcohol. Thus, at some point, the medications no longer proves effective in re-programming the brain not to expect alcohol. Instead, the brain works out a way to keep taking the meds and re-work the circuits to allow alcohol back in as a main player in the receptor-generator arena. Now, I am just a laymen with the scientific knowledge and understanding of the medications, but my experience tells me that alcohol will find a way to mess up the greatest of all situations. Our brains want us to be on a dopamine high all of the time -or so I suspect.

In my experience, you can become indifferent with bac, and then drink right through the switch. This happened to me. I switched over at 120 mg, then for various reasons drank too much for a couple nights, and started craving again. I found that at around 240 mg's I could drink to my heart's content and never have any cravings. However, bac seems to also do something to your brain to where it reduces the pleasure from alcohol, so I quickly realized that getting drunk was no fun.
My point is that if you become indifferent with bac and then start craving again, just raise your bac dose

[JDizzle]

Gabapentin

Thanks for the post Pete. I agree that I could have increased my bac dose and come back to the same control I had (I also first gained control at 120). I couldn't push through the SEs even going up 10 mg from there. Because gab and bac work in the same way, I am probably going to try increasing doses on it too, but since there isn't a ton of trial on it in here, I am going to wait and talk to my doctor first.

Spirit, thank for all the feedback along the way man. Ur comments have kept me motivated to post the good with the bad. I'll be interested to hear how u do.

[Colin]

Gabapentin

SlipperyPete;1613562 wrote: However, bac seems to also do something to your brain to where it reduces the pleasure from alcohol, so I quickly realized that getting drunk was no fun.

Exactly!

[Balboa45]

Gabapentin

Well I'm awfully late in here, but I'm enjoying this post. Like JD I never wanted to quit drinking completely, never had any problems with the law, family,(well maybe some family problems) work ect. but I'm 58 years old now and getting fucked up every day just isn't cool anymore, if it ever was.

I had never heard of gabapentin until I was seeing my dr. for annual blood-work last December and mentioned that I was having some restless legs jumping around the first couple of nights when first stopping drinking. I stop every month now and am proud of my new record of 230 days AF for 2013.

All I can add at this point is that the restless legs stopped immediately at 300mg of gabapentin, I continued up to 600mg at this point and am sleeping great, Dr. says to go up to 900mg if needed, never thought of this med for decreasing Al consuption, but am on board for the conversation, please keep it up.

[skullbabyland]

Gabapentin

Thanks JD, and Spirit, Pete, Balboa, and others, for continuing to post about Gabapentin... I don't have much to contribute other than just to say that I'm continuing to read with interest. JD, thanks for contuing this thread and I hope GP helps with moderating drinking longer/better than bac did...

[StuckinLA]

Gabapentin

squeezed;1614645 wrote: None of the meds work all that well (according to their most optimistic studies). If gabapentin doesn't work, you can always move on to the next med.

Meds work. Research supports the fact that meds work.

[StuckinLA]

Gabapentin

squeezed;1614676 wrote:
Did they work for you? They did not for me.

I experienced a complete suppression of cravings for alcohol on baclofen. I had no interest in drinking it and couldn't be bothered. So I say from personal experience that I believe baclofen works. But I also had side effects that made it not a viable long term option for me.

[JDizzle]

Gabapentin

I think whatever is making another go at it . Good luck to u whatevs.

Thanks for the input everyone. I haven't had much luck with meds either. Mine were all short term (but very welcomed) breaks. I tried taking 1800 mg the other night instead of 600 because I knew I was going to drink. It didn't help, but I kind of figured it wouldn't. I'm just trying to stay positive until the next doctor visit.

[JDizzle]

Gabapentin

Oh and sqeezed, ur totally welcome to post shit didn't work for u.... At least on my thread. I just want to hear experiences. Closed minded people seem to just have an agenda and only want u to say what they want others to hear. None of those people seem to post on this thread. We r all pretty open to what's real here.

[DipGal]

Gabapentin

Hi all... I'm on this area of MWO looking for some meds for DH. His psychiatrist prescribes gabapentin for his anxiety/depression in addition to remeron and xanax as needed. He is now taking 600 mg 3 times a day. It doesn't do anything for his drinking problem, or his anxiety/depression. Doc tried to up the dose, but he broke out in bad rashes and had to go back to 600 x 3. I'm really not sure why he takes it. Would he be even worse without it? Can't imagine.. He has a very sensitive body chemistry and often develops side effects..