klonopin withdrawal or neurontin withdrawal

I recently came off of Neuontin too quickly and I have had terrible problems. Terrible anxiety, breathing difficulties and stomach spasms. I have found a lot of information regarding problems withdrawing from Neurontin. Your doctor is wrong about this.

I was on 2400 mg. of Neurontin for hot flashes. Since it did not help I tapered off - too quickly apparently - I noticed anxiety building up towards the last week on. After I was totally off I had obsesive thoughts and then had great difficulty breathing. I had to go back on because the breathing problem and stomach spasms, as well as anxiety attacks were awful. I am back to 1200 mg. and have had to add on Librax to help the stomach spasms. I am still experiencing shortness of breath and chest spams every 20 minutes. I have scheduled an appointment with a Neurologist for this week. It is not all in your head about the withdrawal. Neurontin has terrible withdrawal symptoms.

How quickly did you come off? I am experiencing the same problems, down to 150mg. Please talk to me.

I stopped taking 300mg and have been feeling awful. My doctor prescribed it for an ache in my index and middle finger. It went away so I thought the neurontin worked great, but I hated the constant dry mouth and waking up tired and so I wanted to stop taking it. So over the last 5 days since I've quit, I have a number of the same symptoms described above. I have been having extreme hot flashes, which at first I thought was from menopause, and I hadn't had any in a long time and these are worse and longer. My appetite is strange, and I'm achy. My bowel movements that come with stomach cramps have been way too frequent This is a strong drug that I wish I had never started taking. I am determined to get it out of my system.

Any drug will have withdrawals. Never stop any drug cold turkey. It must be gradual. Just be patient. To help with the major anxiety, irritability, thoughts of hating everyone, being really pissed off all of the time-stomach problems, and more- I started taking PharmaGaba by Murray. Many drugs affect the gaba receptors in the brain. This particular form of GABA will cross the blood/brain barrier . It really helped me calm down for the first time in a long time. I got it at the Vitamin Shoppe. It is in chewable form.
Also, I am a Christian. I read my bible to let God talk to me through His word . I give my day to Him and ask Him to go before me and prepare a path for me. I basically pray the Lords prayer. This is very calming and relieves me from trying to change the things I can't and worry about things I have no control over. I take responsibility for most of my stuff but face it there are things we fret about that we have no control over. I just give those things to God.
I had to withdraw from Vicodin, Soma, Klonopin and Xanax- all given to me for fibromyalgia, back pain,dental work. Be patient, getting this stuff out of your system takes time. Don't listen to negative people who judge you. Surround yourself with supportive people. Tell the others to take a hike. Go to church,AA,NA- anywhere you feel support. I had to go into the hospital for medical detox, then volunteered for residential treatment.
It has been 10 months and not easy but I took these meds for years.
Take care. You will be fine.

i am weaning of neurotin. i have been on it about 1o yrs i weaned down to 400 mgs i tried to quit it was too much. i am breaking up the capsule and take spome of the powder. i have done this for a few days i am still edgy shaking when i get up in the am.
i will keeping taking a little more of the powder for a bit. its harder than i thought it would be. i have been through detox before but this diffrent. yesterday i was really speeding felr everything in me so was going so fast.
detox sucks but i will get through it

diane

I take 200 mg before going to sleep and 0.5 mg klonopin in the middle of the night when I inevitably wake up. I have been on 0.5 mg klonopin for many years and have no strong desire to go off it. I know if I tried to go off it, I would have a very tough time. I know this because once or twice I was unable to take it and suffered the next day. I was put on klonopin because of back sciatica. Obsessive thoughts are something I unfortunately live with.

Brisbane, Qld, Australia: 1 looked after a gentleman in the coronary care unit who had a Myocardial Infarct and arrhythmia complications. Due to the rush to get treated he didnt mention he was on neurontin. Within 24hrs post last dose, he was extremely confused - so much so that he defecated on his bed and then placed it on the bedside trolley. The nurses and doctors were deriding him, but I felt this was TOO odd TOO suddenly. I rang his wife - who lived many hours away and hadnt yet been to visit. She mentioned he normally took 2 large white tabs for pain twice a day! After some digging about, she told me it was neurontin. I told the other staff who were unimpressed, they thought he was an awful man who also a pervert as he had married a malaysian woman. But I did find someone who was willing to listen. Within 2 hrs of being given the dose, he was coherent and orientated. He died 7 or so days later and I have always wondered if the sudden withdrawal during a cardiac event had complicated his recovery.

I have been on Ativan for several years, and various benzodiazepines for probably almost 10. My doctor got me hooked on these because I am so sensitive that regular psychiatric drugs make me very very sick. According to the psychiatrist I am bi-polar with a pretty bad anxiety/depression disorder. He showed me brain scans of what my brain probably looks like and it was wasn't pretty. Apparently some parts of the brain are over active and there is some "faulty wiring".
I want to get off the Ativan because I know it is now causing anxiety so it can then relieve it (Xanax was the same--it seems to be the nature of addictive drugs.)
My psychiatrist has recently prescribed Neurontin to help wean me off Ativan. He said the 50mg dose was safe for a baby. I took it at night, as prescribed, and was sick for two days. I forgot to eat, had a blood sugar crash, forgot to take Ativan (which could be very dangerous), and a host of other symptoms, including queasiness, a flu-like feeling and leg spasms.
Because I am desperate to get off the Ativan and everything seems to make me sick, I got the liquid suspension, figured out that 16 drops equals 50mg (5ml), and started taking ONE DROP three times a day. Even at this tiny level I can feel the drug in my body, feel queasy, tired and a little spacy. Reading the posts, I am getting afraid of this drug--out of the frying pan into the fire, as it were.
I would like to hear some success stories to give me courage and perhaps a plan for getting off the Ativan (before I get hooked on the Neurontin). I found Simon 2"s post very helpful and encouraging. I need some positive feedback and support. I don't know how I will deal with my "mood disorder" once off everything, but I need to boost my trust in Spirit (and friends) to help me through.
Has anyone else out there done medical detox? What needs to be done after to deal with the residual withdrawals. Does anyone have an alternative to neurontin or some other dangerous drug to get off the Ativan.
Thank you.

Hi Ulinka! Positive experience report here!

I have had a VERY similar experience to your situation, with slightly different pharms but ones that work similarly & have pretty much just gotten through the worst of a benzo & a suboxone taper (that took 4 years!) & was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder & those meds were actually quite easy to get off of compared to the other stuff & i've been off of them for 2 years now w/no apparent related issues.  My strategy mostly has been to substitute evil meds w/plants! (and i love plants-- I do plant consultation work and am starting to work with people in your situation using the knowledge I have gained -- which I am extraordinarily thankful for!  What worked wonders for me and still is working wonders is Gaia herbs Stress Support aka Adrenal Health. (eventually I won't take it anymore though--the beautiful thing about herbs and herbal extractions is your body doesn't become dependent on them unless they are more of a drug than an herb -- they slowly teach your body to start making all the neurotransmitters & whatever else the meds have taught your body not to make on their own).  Feel free to email me or get in touch for more detailed info-- I'll just throw out a few more herbs/plant preparations out there for you to research if you like, or if you would like a more personal email consultation sort of thing let me know & we'll work something out for you. (I'm a certified herbalist & have been studying this stuff since I was 16, so i have about 10 years of experience dealing with this personally & i also work with Michaela Boehm, taking care of her finicky medicinal herbs/land/plants/animals & I personally grow all the trickiest, most obscure or endangered herbs myself in my back yard, so I have a pretty close relationship with plants & the land!)  One of the other most helpful herbs was Skullcap (it's skullcap lateriflora, taken in a tincture or tea) here's a little snippet from a reliable source:

Skullcap is a powerful medicinal herb, it is used in alternative medicine as an anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, slightly astringent, emmenagogue, febrifuge, nervine, sedative and strongly tonic. Some valuable constituents found in the plant are Scutellarin, Catalpol and other Volatile oils, bitter iridoids and Tannins.

Scientific studies are proving this to be a valuable plant in many areas for mental disorders. Skullcap is used in the treatment of a wide range of nervous conditions including epilepsy, insomnia, hysteria, anxiety, delerium tremens, withdrawal from barbiturates and tranquilisers.

A medicinal infusion of the plant is used to promote menstruation, it should not be given to pregnant women since it can induce a miscarriage, the infusion is also used in the treatment of throat infections.

The infusion is given for nervous headaches, neuralgia and in headache, pain, and inducing sleep when necessary, without any unpleasant symptoms following. Skullcap is currently being used as an alternative medicine to treat ADD and a number of nerve disorders.

Another thing that helped a lot was valerian, both as tea or tincture, & applied topically in an oil extraction mixed with other gently detoxifying herbs & relaxing herbs that smell good like clary sage (I make that oil myself from the stuff growing in my yard-- I don't think it's the type of thing that is easily available anywhere really... extracting plants into oil is an insanely tedious & somewhat fun process... lol-- fun if you are me, i guess).  Kava is good too, though only in small amounts & very occasionally & you don't want to take ANY of that while you're still taking any sort of benzo...

the other main thing that has helped INSANELY is mucuna pruriens (aka velvet bean).  there is very little research on it & i've had to do loads of digging & self-experimentation to figure anything out about it-- it's very complicated, but basically it contains very balanced precursors to just about everything your brain is most likely missing (dopamine, gaba, serotonin, tyrosine, etc. ad infinitum and has been working very well for me personally) & not making me feel wired or anything which apparently it does to some people.  if you want more info, just email me-- email address is jenna [period] reasor [at] gmail [dot] com.  Also, YOGA is wonderful... as is anything else like it. exercise, sunlight, meditation, etc.

Hope you are doing okay!
j

thank you for your encouragement and testimony! It came @ a very timly manner!

After fighting with Klonopin for 30 years I know it has a very long lasting withdrawal period. I have heard that it can take as long as 2 years to quit having the withdrawal symptoms from it. I know this is not what you wanted to hear. Klonopin is a bad drug to start and worse to stop. I am down to .5 mg 2 times @ day after being up to 20 mg @ day. It takes a lot of time but can be done if you don't rush it too fast. I wish you the best so go slow and you will make it! : )

I love your response to this it is exactly what I needed to hear. I am a christian also, trying to get off of Klonopin and I just do not want to take it anymore day.

I battle this everyday if you could email me that would be great..

Hi ANR,   I to am weaning off of gabapentin/neurontin and I experienced nausia a lack of appetite headaches and just a general mailaise my doctor had no suggestions as how to deal with the withdrawal from gabapentin allthough she did mention that some of her other clients who stoped taking gabapentin had experienced a similar withdrawal and I assure you it is very real.  I decided to do some research on the internet to see if there were any suggestions about lessoning the withdrawal from gabapentin, I found two comments about useing a magnesium supplement  so I went and purchased over the counter 500 milligram magnesium oxide and I am currently taking one 500 milligram magnesium oxide pill a day, I can only speculate as to why this would help, the articles both mentioned that gabapentin latches to the same chemical receptor in the brain as calsium and magnesium and it may be that magnesium is being sluffed off (not used) by the body as gabapentin is blocking the magnesium from latching on to the brain receptor and so possably a magnesium defieciency.  As anicdotal evidence that magnesium is some how lessoning the severity of the gabapentin withdrawal, when I first started weaning off of gabapentin I had cut my arm and I was soaking my cut in a solution of Epsom salt which is (magnesium sulfate) and I was allso taking bath's in an Epsom salt solution and I remember reading an article on-line that showed a bath in a solution of Epsom salt infuses magnesium into the body, well the result off all this was the fact that I did not experience any withdrawal from gabapentin while I was soaking in a Epsom salt bath and I was able to reduce my gabapentin from 2400 milligrams a day to 1200 milligrams a day.  By this time 30 or 40 days later my cut had healed and I was no longer taking Epsom salt baths so when I droped to 900 milligrams of gabapentin from 1200 milligrams after a few weeks I began to experience gabapentin withdrawal, at first I didn't know why I was feeling so sick.  After a month of withdrawal with no end in sight I decided to increase my gabapentin to 1200 milligrams and the withdrawal or sick feeling went away so I knew it was the gabapentin, not an other drug either because gabapentin was the only drug I was weaning off of.  For the next 6 months I would try to go down to 900 milligrams and the same thing happened again (got to feeling sick) so back to 1200 milligrams again.  Well I was determined to finish weaning off of gabapentin did the research started taking the magnesium oxide and epsom salt baths and to sort of jump start the process I took 1/4 teaspoon Epsom salt put this in a glass added 4oz of watter stirred it up and squished the epsom salt around in my mouth and spit it out (squish for 20 seconds 3 or 4 times), (CAUTION) if you swallow to much Epson salt you will get diarea, I squished two times a day the first 2 days followed up with an Epsom salt bath (2 cups Epsom salt in a bathtub half full of water and soaked in this for about 20 minuites, I started this treatment on friday afternoon and by sunday afternoon (2 days later) I was withdrawal free and man what a releif.  I know a lot of doctors are saying there is no withdrawal from gabapentin this probably due to the fact that there is nothing in the leterature the doctors get from the manufacturer about the potential for withdrawal from gabapentin, just so you know I have continued to wean off the gabapentin for 10 days since I started taking the magnesium supplement and there is little or no withdrawal now and I hope to be gabapentin free in 7 to 10 days.  Currently I have opened a 100 milligram cap split into thirds discarded 1/3 and split the remainder into 3 equal doses.  So that would be 20mg-20mg-20mg morning noon and night.

Good Luck and have a good day