I started on 100mg x3 gabapentin and then worked my way up to 300mg x3 daily. Once I got to 300mg I became so damn stupid. So then I told my pain mgt doc and she almost fell out of her seating laughing by the way I told her I’m dumb but then she wanted to see if Lyrica would be any better. Got on 75mg x3 and I’m still very stupid.
I never remember anything and forget words mid sentence or what I’m even talking about.
Anyone else have this struggle also?
I’m on 1200mg/day of gabapentin for migraines. I had to stop upping the dose at that point because it was starting to make me tired all the time. My body has slowly gotten used to it and I’m less tired now. This stuff impacts everyone’s brains and bodies differently. If your doctor is legit laughing at you for this, that’s complete unprofessional shit.
No it wasn’t in a rude way. I just said it in a really funny way. She’s super chill and we joke around. It used to make me tired but not anymore. It just slows my brain down with thought and ingesting information and some days I’m just so incredibly foggy
I took gabapentin a while back, but what you’re feeling is fairly normal in the early stages of taking it. Usually after 6 months to a year you stop feeling so groggy and the body adapts to it and the dosage.
Granted, I took it for seizures and required an added medication to prevent them, but it helped with the migraines from the swelling.
I’ve been taking it for a year now although only got up to 300mg a couple months back
Ah, so they weaned you into it. Which could be why you’re still feeling the daze and lag.
As I’ve gotten older, the question becomes what works, as far as a side effect, if your body can adapt to the issue, this might be the best choice.
Every medication has side effects and some have far more than others but spread out. So if you can stick it out a little longer, I would stay on it a little longer to rule out if the issue passes.
But I’m old but internet standards lol and learned, with medications, sometimes you’re best off accepting, close enough.
Yeeah, that never went away for me on lyrica, although I did not wait out that 6 months the other guy is talking about.
It is a freakish experience. I was already not working but would have been unable start anywhere at all in that state.
It took me 2-3 months to wean off by 5-10% at a time, being suicidal every few days. If you dont want to get hooked on something else, you have no way of decreasing withdrawal symptoms.
Hi, I’m on gabapentin. I don’t have that problem as bad as it seems to effect you. But I started getting it worse past 300mgx3 for me. Lyrica was worse in my case. I found backing down to 300mgx3 and eating high fat meals around the time I take them helped me.
I’m now on 600x3 of gabapentin but I feel like it’s made me dumb enough for long enough I forget what it was like before the gabapentin. So high fats meal with the gabapentin helped the brain fog for you?
Yeah, I was on 600x3 for some months, I couldn’t take it I felt drunk all the time and the increase past 300x3 didn’t seem to help my symptoms. But yeah high fat meals seem to help like nuts or salmon. My guess is my body is better able to metabolize the gabapentin and make more lipid fat Raffs to transport it across the blood brain barrier. On top of that there has been some studies suggesting that a high fat diet is good for brain fog in general
I was on 1200mg 3 times a day for nerve pain (CIDP after-effects). This was dancing along the edge of me just not caring about anything.
I had to move off, so I tried Lyrica. I was on it (cannot remember the dosage) for a few months before coming off it, as it just didn’t do the job for me.
YMMV
I switched from 400mg 3x/day Gabapentin to Lyrica for exactly the same reason. I had taken it for about 5 years. I’m taking 100mg 3x/day. I find the pain relief similar but the side effects a little less. Gabapentin gave me not only the dumb feeeling but made me compulsively do things, like I know I should stop talking now but literally cannot do it, or I know I should stop cleaning because I’m hurting myself but I’ll just do one more thing. I’d try to joke about it like “this clean kitchen/pot of chili was brought to you by… Gabapentin” but it wasn’t healthy for me.
I can’t remember (lol) the exact situations I was in but I’ve basically said that exact same thing you would. I’m glad Lyrica is working better for you
I take 300 mg of gabapentin three times per day. The first three weeks or so, I felt the same. Sleepy and slow witted. After that, I adjusted and didn’t experience those side effects anymore.
How long were you on it?
I got GABA for my migraine and CRPS. This was a hell of a ride, not exactly fun. Unfortunately, there was little effect for me, neither side effects nor the wanted ones - and I was on 3x 600mg. At this time my palliative care & pain management physician just phased that one out due to no effect.
Have you found anything that works sustainably for your CRPS? My wife has had it in her leg since 2008 and had tried so many things. Lots of different drugs, lumbar blocks… She even had a spinal simulator for a couple years. Some things worked, but none of them keep working. She takes Zoloft, which helps a little, and otherwise just deals with it now.
Nothing that is 100%, but what helps me the most is cannabis oil (tilray). It reduces the ground pain and the flare ups.
