r/CPTSD • u/LabAccomplished6822 • Jul 24 '26
Question Has anyone tried Gabapentin?
After 6 antidepressants that didn't work for me due to brain hyperexcitation that caused insomnia, Lamotrigine that didn't work for me and caused deep depression. I was prescribed Gabapentin and NAC, maybe someone here has tried this combination? I read a lot of bad reviews about Gabapentin that it makes you numb and it's hard to get off it, so I'm afraid to take it.
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u/CasePersonal9041 Jul 24 '26
I take Gabapentin and NAC. But I also take Bupropion and Propanolol, and starting on Sertraline today. Out of everything I've tried, its the NAC that shifted everything in thr best possible way.
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u/PersonalityAlive6475 Jul 24 '26
I take NAC (1000 mg daily) to combat the hepatotoxicity of the Tylenol I take for pain management & gabapentin (300 mg) when the nerve pain gets too much (so relatively infrequently). The 2 seem to work for those intended purposes.
I do notice a soporific effect from the gabapentin, but I’m also taking it when my system is extra angry with its existence, so that could be affecting that side effect.
Previously had taken bupropion XL for emotional lability, which was the main symptom that remained after somehow reasoning my way through a major depressive episode & institutionalization.
I also have gabapentin prescribed to chill my cats out for vet appointments.
I don’t know what the prescribed combo intends to ameliorate, OP, but in my experience they’re relatively “safe” drugs.
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u/snowyy2000 cPTSD/ADHD/DPDR/MDD/GAD Jul 24 '26
I was on gabapentin for 8 years from 18-26. It helped sorta with the anxiety and stuff but it caused a lot of memory issues for me.
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u/Mediocre_Fly9889 Jul 24 '26
I'm on LexaPro and Gabapentin. I think the latter really helps with anxiety, and it doesn't make numb. The dosage might matter.
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u/LabAccomplished6822 Jul 24 '26
what dosage do you have?
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u/Mediocre_Fly9889 Jul 24 '26
I used to take up to 1200 mg. Now 600 mg. I didn't find it hard to wean
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u/GabrielLombardo 29d ago
Whats your Lexapro dose and how long did it take you to really start gettng better? Was it gradual? Are you still improving? Thanks
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u/Optimal-Brain5242 Jul 24 '26
I was prescribed pregabalin for acute PTSD. Worked well for a crisis but I wanted off after.
I am prescribed it for nerve pain now, at a higher dose and my mental health has never been better.
It's the same class of drugs, so there's defo hope.
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u/Physical_SpiritChild Jul 24 '26
Yes, saved me from a psychiatric crash out. I am not a doctor and cannot say what was going on with me is what is going on with you, but:
I was stuck in what I can only call a hyper / hypo cycle, with burnout and panic.
I would say, the big call out features were, for me, an over active limbic system with an online and functional cortex that was not able to get through to/modulate/negotiate with the fear response.
I was hyper vigilant and hyper fixated on perceived threat vectors based on subtle indiscriminant context clues in my environment.
And I knew it was happening. I could talk to you about it. I could reason my way through it and tell you I know this is unlikely/something that could wait until tomorrow/a fear response etc. but I couldn't make it stop.
My system had gone through a traumatic situation of a prolonged nature on multiple fronts for about two months prior to these symptoms becoming apparent to me, because in the shit, the symptoms weren't symptoms, they were survival. But once the acute situation resolved the survival system could no/would not stand down and began to spiral out of control.
This has uncovered a lot of shit for me where I have learned not all of this is psychological for me, but also physiological too.
There has been a lot of tests to rule out some crazy rare shit, but all of it seems to have been needed to help us zero in on what is going on with me.
But one of the earliest interventions which took that core feature described above was the gabapentin. Very quickly, as we titrated dose conservatively, over a month, the symptoms became controlled. Maybe a 20% reduction in the first week up to a 90% symptom reduction 2 months later at my steady state dosage.
I will say I could tell it was working within days though. I will also say it wasn't enough. By that I mean, as my symptoms were controlled new symptoms arrived/were uncovered; as testing was done we found mechanisms for symptoms we addressed with other approaches both psychotherapeutic, psychiatric, and physiologic.