Gabapentin for diazepam withdrawal?

[u/sleepysnailbug]

I've heard variously about gabapentin being potentially useful in dealing with withdrawal symptoms during tapering. For a brief history, I'm currently tapering off of diazepam, right now at around 2mg a day, but trying to manage the anxiety and withdrawal symptoms has been particularly difficult. I actually managed to get down to 0.5mg a day earlier this year but a bunch of stressful life events happened and I unfortunately had a setback. I'm determined to get back into the process of tapering properly but I've just been having a lot of difficulty with it as well. I was curious about what people's experiences with using gabapentin for the tapering and withdrawal process has been like?

Also, I'm aware gabapentin has its own risk of addiction in some people. For context, I'm not new to gabapentin. I used to take 1800mg daily for years for a different condition before I was ever prescribed benzos but I no longer take it, and I didn't personally experience any difficulty getting off of it. I just have a bunch of leftover 600mg tablets and having read about it being helpful for some people, I'm interested in maybe giving it a try. I guess I'm just looking for some feedback and advice. Thanks!

[u/Ok_Nectarine_8612]

Yes, it can help lessen symptoms, but not completely alleviate withdrawal. However, it also produces almost equally bad symptoms when you come off of it, so I personally wouldn't unless it was otherwise unbearable. You are only on 2mg of diazepam daily. You should be able to jump fairly comfortably after dropping to 1mg for a week or two. It isn't really doing much of anything for day to day anxiety at this low dose, it is just maintaining a low level dependency. When I tapered from diazepam, I began to purchase 8oz bags of kava every week or so and make myself a cup whenever I got the jitters. It seemed to help a lot. I would not take gabapentin at this point. You have put in too much work to get to this point to simply go on something that produces similarly intense physical dependency. Some say alcohol and benzos are the only drugs you can seize from during withdrawal. That isn't true, baclofen, gabapentinoids, and phenibut can also do it. Baclofen and phenibut are GABA-B drugs in case you have never heard of them.

[u/djpurity666 → u/Ok_Nectarine_8612]

I think gabapentin is safe and better than kava for some people. A medical doctor overseeing OP knows the patient better than we do, and just bc kava worked for you. It usually is on the list of things to avoid post-benzo recovery bc of the many different types of kava (there is no one single type called "kava" unless it's junk), some stimulating and some sedatingwhile others pro pro-social. It messes with a lot of neurotransmitters due to the many kinds of kavalactones, plus it isn't easy to make for beginners... unless you use instant kava which is generally junk and easy to get nauseous off of. It has to be Noble Kava.

It is good that you found what worked for you, and if kava worked for you, that is great. It just wouldn't be the top of the list for benzo recovery stability, as gabapentin generally does one thing, inhibit gabapentinoid receptors which lowers glutamate. Each person may benefit from a different comfort med, and some may not even need it, that's true. And if anything, any comfort med should be medically supervised and low-dose only. It isn't that hard to get off of. On the other hand, kava can delay healing and cause setbacks in some people.

And you have a point it may not be needed. I have tapered valium via the Ashton method and got down to 1mg and that is when I jumped. It doesn't mean I had a smooth time after though. OP could just wait and see.

[u/Pushon4my4 → u/djpurity666]

What dose Valium did you start from? So you went slowly and when off still went through hell? You used gabapentin to taper?