Day 1 of Benzo detox. Sleep was very different. Not sure how to rate it. It took me longer to fall asleep, I woke up sooner (maybe 2 hours) and more frequently but when I did I was not totally awake. I was more like in between. Also during the sleeping periods, although I was dreaming, I also feel there was some deep sleep. Hard to tell though, that the part of the night when we’re completely unaware. I’ll rate it 5/10 for now, as I don’t know if it’ll be enough to have a normal day.
I cheated my schedule. I took 2mg of Clonazepam instead of 1 and I took my usual 12.5 mg of hydroxyzine (the recommended dose for insomnia is 25 to 100 mg). I will cut benzo to 1 mg tonight. After a full day of Gabapentin, 3 times a day, maybe I’ll be fine with that.
Morning: I don’t have withdrawal symptoms, but it’s too soon to tell. I took benzos a year ago to escape insomnia. My logic was I’m bad enough with pfs already and not sleeping, by itself, was making it more than twice as bad. However, Gabapentin does not seem to make me sleep as Clonazepam did. So I may end up clean from benzos, but unable to sleep and therefore unable to have normal days, go to work, drive my motorcycle in Bangkok’s crazy trafic etc… If that is so, I will have to go back to benzos or find an alternative.
Maybe without benzos I’ll be able to take Taurine or sleeping herbs like Valerian, passion flowers, Ashwagandha etc…
So how I feel this morning: Like I didn’t have a good night of sleep. I feel drowsy and I have brain fog. I just drank a coffee and had some beef jerky (homemade with beef and salt only). Of course, I took 300 mg Gabapentin along with my morning vitamins and aminos. Maybe I should cut 5-HTP, L-Dopa and Tyrosine, but those are the ones that usually wake me up. I think I’ll take some calcium with Lactate and Pyruvate now that the calcium channels are blocked. This should boost Orexin, the wakefulness neuropeptide.
Gee focus is bad. My brain is at 50%.
2:30pm I’m waking up a bit. Brain at 70%. Still no withdrawal symptoms (and still too early to tell).
I have to take another 300 mg of Gabapentin in 30 minutes. Let’s see if it hits me or if it goes down smooth.
4:30pm I took the pill at 3pm, it’s now at peak effect and I’m having quite a lot of brain fog along with a small headache. I have some energy but far from what I had during the past week. My thoughts are still coherent but I’m having problem focusing. Also easy tasks, like accounting, seems more difficult now. I’m definitely not as sharp as I used to.
I’m now taking my 3 brain aminos: 5-HTP 100 mg, L-Dopa 350 mg and Tyrosine 1000 mg.
Tyrosine used to eliminate pfs brain fog. I don’t know about Gabapentin brain fog.
I’ll have to look up if Gabapentin and 5-HTP are having negative interactions…
7pm Nope. No negative interaction. Gabapentin reacts with GABAergic drugs only, and the aminos I’m taking affect Serotonin and Dopamine. The 3 brain aminos did lift off 75% of the brain fog. At the moment, I feel in a good mood and slightly euphoric. It would probably be better if I took the brain aminos at the same time as the Gabapentin. When the detox is over, if I choose to continue Gabapentin, I’ll reduce the dose to 100-200 mg. 300 mg really hits me. The recommended dose for the benzo level I was taking is 450 mg 3 times a day !