I am usually an advocate for aggressive pain management as it can be so important to having any quality of life, but as we are discussing about Gabapentin in another thread, all of these medications carry some drawback. Long term use, and if your neuropathy is permanent so will your medication be, can cause memory loss. More aggressive pain killers may need to be titrated up and can be a problem for some people, as well as not being very effective for some neuropathic pain. It can be a long trial and error period to find an anti-depressant that helps the pain and those have many side effects as well.

I am not trying to discourage you from seeking relief, only saying that is it is truly just uncomfortable and distracting rather than painful you are wise to wait. There are a number of over the counter remedies and supplements that you will find here which may help the symptoms, or even aid recovery if yours is treatable.

If and when you find that you would benefit from pain management, almost any doctor would agree to trying Gabapentin. It is considered to be very safe and they are comfortable writing a prescription for it as it is non-abusable, and is the first line treatment for neuropathy. The next step is usually an anti-depressant, and later a pain medication if necessary. If they follow this protocol with physical therapy and other treatments as indicated they have covered themselves.

Many of us here do experience considerable lessening of the burning and electrical zapping with Gabapentin. Some of us get similar results from supplements such as R- Lipoic acid.

No one can decide for you whether it is time to treat the pain, but the longer you put it off the longer up you put off the side effects. Pain that disrupts your life and your mood, however, should be treated.

Actually there is some evidence of abuse potential.