I'm not sure what the hungover effect is.

I got permission today, to start taking mine.

1 300 in the morning

2 300 in the evening. And I hope this helps, I have the hardest time remembering the middle afternoon dosage.


So I would really like to know what the hungover effect is. But I haven't I don't think ever had one.

Good luck Mari, I know its needed to feel better.

Donna

Dear Mari,

short answer: generally, yes the "hangover" effect should go away. depending on the situation it can happen very quickly or very slowly. with high doses (bear in mind, ppl take up to 5 grams of this stuff) it might not happen at all.

long answer: i never felt hungover in the true sense... it made me feel more drunk than hung over. when i was ramping up this last time, i couldn't walk straight, or at least felt like i wasn't walking straight. this would be accounted for by the sedative effect.

in my case the sedative effect has always gone away quickly in the past. when i would take it to sleep, 300 mg would only work for 1 or 2 nights, and after that it would do nothing at all. this time, i was also on a pretty high dose of Depakote (1500mg) and i think the combined effect was causing problems. it seemed like depending how i spaced the doses i got the drunk effect worse or not so bad or not at all. but if i backed off on a dose just one day, then took more again, it would get worse again... it seemed that tolerance to the sedative effect was hard to develop for me in these conditions, contrary to my prior experience with gabapentin. i was taking 900-1200 mg which is somewhat irrelevant insofar as it seems to me you are pretty sensitive to some meds, ie. you seem to respond to, or experience effects, at very low doses.

i am wondering if the morning sedation (if that is what you mean by hungover?) is caused by a combination of the klonopin and gabapentin.

on a weekend i might experiment with taking less klonopin at night and see if the "hangover" effect lessens.

well those are pretty much my exhaustive thoughts other than i'm sorry it isn't helping the nerve pain yet... bit early for that, sigh.

it might take you a while to get used to it, but if it can be done it might be worth it.

sending you hopeful wishes and (((hugs)))

~ waves ~

Depressed. Not sure if I can manage to go into work in the morning / Friday.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Waves,
Maybe it is not exactly a hangover. I feel sleepy all the time (more than I did before the Gabapentin). I feel more brain fog than I used to. I also feel dulled (which is prolly the same as brain fog.) This is bringing down my already low mood even more. I might hang onto the dose one more week or I might decide to cut it back to 150 approx. I felt less crappy at 150 approx.

Thanks for the Klonopin talk. Good ideas. I have to think through how that would work. My normal dose at night (once daily) is 2.5. I could do fine on 2.00 one night. I don't know how I would feel the second night at 2.5.
For a while, about twice a year I used to bring down my Klonopin dose to 2.25/ 2.5. Before the end of the second week I would become agitated and depressed. The last time I returned to 2.5, I stayed there.

M

. . . Astonished by how depressed I am getting by the minute.
I should sleep. I don't know how I can face work.
I made hubby sit next to me while I brushed and flossed since it had been a while for either.

M

i am not sure what to say except i hope you feel better sooner. it sounds a lot like the medication. nothing more stressful is happening in your life right now, right? I feel so bad for you.
bobby

I am glad that your hubby is being supportive of you this morning. sorry you are going thru this. yes I think going back to 150 is a good idea.
(((((HUGS))))))

Dear Mari

the test with the Klonopin would be just a one time "test." i thought it might help you figure out if sedation by potentiation were the problem.

I did not mean to imply that you permanently modify your daily Klonopin dosage to accomodate more gabapentin, based on what happened in the "test." On the contrary, if you felt better the day after shaving off 0.5mg Klonopin once, that would suggest to me that gabapentin isn't going to be viable, precisely because you do need the Klonopin.

the way you described your experience in your most recent post, it sounds like there is a lot of sedation and cognitive dulling going on. whether the Klonopin is potentiating it, we don't know for sure but i'd suspect it. that's a pretty decent dose of Klonopin there. you could still try the test, or not, up to you.

however, since you are feeling this badly, with increasing depression on top of the rest, i agree with everyone else that stepping back to 150 might be a good idea without bothering to experiment.

did you say you took 220mg gabapentin for a while or do i remember screwy? did that work ok? if so, i would take 150mg to get well again faster, and then step up to 220mg again if you could tolerate that.

i am trying to figure out how you are getting these dosages because as far as i know gabapentin only comes in 100's, 300's and 400's, capsules, and splitting the powder is not real precise.

i am sorry this whole experience is such a trial. gabapentin was manna from heaven for me on so many occasions. i am so sad that it is giving you such trouble.

((( hugs )))

~ waves ~

Dear Bobby,

Thanks so much for helping me figure out what is going on. After reading your post I remembered that the only thing that has changed is that I went on a very very low carb diet for three days. I had some honeydew melon each night. That was it for carbs.

This morning after reading your post, I ate an apple for breakfast before work.
That depressed mood from last night seems to have lifted.

That tells me that I can have two fruits a day to maintain mood.

Mari

Dear Waves,

I apologize for not understanding and for not being clear. My brain was barely with it last night at the time I posted.

Maybe the low carb diet for three days (approx 35 carbs each day) affected the mood and prolly my cognition.

Right now Friday night I am posting within 45 minutes of coming home from work. I am usually up mood wise at this time. This is the highest cognitive level I will have for the day. When I get off the computer, I will take part 1 of my night meds and the little cognition I have right now will fall apart (too stupid to write out here about why there is a part 1 and a part 2).

I understood that. I was wondering if a two day weekend would work.

O.K. Now I see that the suggestion was to do this one night only. One night would give good results. If necessary I could do the one night trial again a week later on a second weekend. I'm comfortable doing that with the Klonopin tonight: shaving off 0.5.

Yes. I'm taking a decent amount of Klonopin. It's been working. Mdoc prescribed the Gabapentin for nerve pain and I got the happy effects of
~less anxiety
~less depression.

Around the time I went to 300 on the Gabapentin on Oct 24, the drugged feeling became too much.

I'll go back and read through this thread again and get back to you. Right now, I want to get through this post.

Yes. Splitting the powder is not precise.
Mdoc gave me pills for 900 mgs a day, The capsules are for 150 each. That gave me a lot of room to work. I threw away a lot of powder.
When I was taking 220 mgs. approx I would do the following:
1. take one pill at 150
2. take half of another pill at about 75.

That added up to 220 approx. When I pulled apart the capsules, I opened them so that the pill was vertical. Then I kept the powder in the bottom half and let the powder from the top half fall onto my work space. Then I tossed that powder in the trash instead of trying to save it to measure it for the next night.

As I write this, I recognize how completely crazy batty it is to split capsules. I am putting off dealing with mdoc for a few more weeks. I will see her very soon and get 'scripts for 100 mgs.
I am not looking forward to the convo in which I explain why I am taking such tiny doses compared to the 900 mgs in the script.


M

Waves and Biz and Bobby,


Splitting the pills got me confused.

This is exactly what the bottle reads: 300 mgs capsule. Take one capsule by mouth three times a day. Mdoc wanted me to take 900 mgs a day.

After messing around with the powder since back in May or June I lost track of of how much was in each capsule.


Recently I have been taking two capsules of exactly 300 mgs each for 600 total mgs. That means I have been taking 600 mgs when I thought I was taking 300 mgs.

600 appears to be two high for me.

Some other time I will go through the thread to see if I can figure out the point I screwed up. Probably that will be when I made a dose change.

For tonight, I have no idea what to do.

I'll post after I have a plan. I have to get away from the computer for now.

M