Hi,

I have been taking 100 mg Gabapentin for the past month or so. Pdoc said I could raise the Gabapentin to 400 mgs whenever I wanted.

Monday night I decided to ramp up the dose to about one and one thirds capsule -- perhaps 130 mgs. I fell asleep before I could go to bed. . . . .I took a nap while sitting at the computer and now I am awake again.

This is so weird.
I have to come up with a way to deal with how I handle raising the dose.

M

UGH

After that one hour and fifteen minute little sleep I had around two o'clock I have not been able to get to bed.

So frustrating. My whole night / day is a mess and I am doing the best I can not to be depressed about this.

M

Is that neurontin? is it halping with your depression? is that why you are trying it?
bizi

Hi, Bizi,

I have been on the Gabapentin / Neurontin for a year. It helps with anxiety. I try to raise the dose but the sleepy side effects are difficult.

Twice I have tried to raise the dose. This is my third time.

M

good luck and I am glad it helps with your anxiety, wish it would help more.
bizi

It's very difficult to figure out how to take these powerful medications. I take seroquel,and have sleepy side affects with it also. It takes affect immediately. It's very difficult to know what to do. It does help me with my condition though. BF

Hi,
This is what I am taking

July 15 Sunday 100 mgs (1 capsule)
July 16 Monday 130 mgs approx (1 1/3 capsule)
July 17 Tuesday 130 mgs approx (1 1/3 capsule)
July 18 Wednesday 175 mgs approx (one capsule and most of a second)
July 19 Thursday 200 mgs (two capsules)

The med is not really knocking me out. It makes me fall asleep for a short time. Wednesday night I fell asleep early for about 15 mins while watching tv around midnight and did not get back to sleep until 7:30 am with the help of some Klonopin.


I suppose that this is good news that Thursday I did not feel groggy or brainfogged -- mostly tired perhaps from not sleeping. . . also maybe a little sleepy.

->I need enough days at a decent dose to help with anxiety. --- not sure what the decent dose is.
->I would welcome some relief of depression and nerve pain too but those might require higher doses than I am willing to deal with.


M

Hi,

I noticed yesterday that my depression seemed to have lifted (first day I was not crying). I am not sure about the anxiety.
That means that twelve days at 200 mgs helped the depression.
I will wait three or four weeks before deciding to raise the dose again.

Labor Day weekend is a good time to raise the dose again if I feel that I need it.

M

I am also taking Gabapentin for RSD/CRPS, basically nerve pain. I was on 300 mg a day for about 1 month to start. It helped the pain, but yes I had those wonderful sleepy periods out of nowhere and then sleeplessness. I had to up the dose because the pain was getting worse and slowly over about 1 week I went from 300 mg a day to 900 mg a day. Its been about 1 month now that I have been on 900 mg a day and find that it take about that time for my body to adjust to the dose, but it does get better. I tried Lyrica, but too many side effects, dizzinezz, spinning, swelling, so I was taken off. Also the Gabapentin at first made me very clumsy. I fell three to four times within the first 3 days of starting it and then again when I increased my dose. But again, this decreased and then completely got better after my body adjusted. So my suggestion is to gradually increase the dose and keep taking the higher dose, hopefully you will adjust as your body get use to the higher dose, but you will have to get through this to get leveled out. Best of luck.