I’ve been editing Day 1 as I went through. For those interested, you may read again Day 1 as it changed at least 5 times during the day (making additions). I’ll be doing the same today as changes occurs within hours.
It looks like on Day 1 I made a mistake and took 450 mg Gabapentin at 3pm. This is why I was so hammered. I may have done the same in the morning. My memory is failing me and everything is blurred, kinda like in a dream or something.
Day 2 Yesterday at bedtime I took 1 mg of Clonazepam, 22.5 mg of Hydroxyzine and 450 mg of Clonazepam. I increase Hydroxyzine by 10 mg as I try to counteract the lack of benzo with something that would make me sleep.
Hydroxyzine is an antihistamine and does not have bad withdrawal symptoms as Benzos do. Also antihistamine acts on the histamine complex, which, along with the Orexin complex, constitute the wakefulness mechanism in the Body. Orexin is the main one, histamine is secondary and has other functions. Therefore an antihistamine can make you sleep and they just developed an anti-Orexin that definitely fights insomnia by knocking down the wakefulness mechanism (Suvorexant).
Morning I slept as good as bad as on Day 1. I would again rate it 5/10 as I don’t know if it’ll be enough to have a normal day. I woke up 1-2 hours before I got up, and I was quite awake, feeling well and everything. I took my morning pills right away, on an empty stomach, and then drank a coffee.
At first I started to feel more awake and my mind was becoming sharper then Gabapentin 300 mg slowly kicked in and brain fog slowly settled in my mind.
1:30pm Gabapentin has it’s peak 3 hours after taking it, (and eliminated in 6-7 hours). So I’m about at peak time now. I’m dizzy, have brain fog although my mind is still coherent and I can focus. When walking, it’s hard to keep my balance and I’m feeling some muscle weakness although I can push through it and do things. I’ll try 10 pull ups, lifting my knees to my head as I do it, and see if I have normal muscle strength (I can do 13 at my peak)… I did 12 and now I’m quite dizzy. But it means the muscle weakness is not real, it’s just a feeling.
Considering 36 hours for Clonazepam average half life (I have little body fat and I’m ketogenic, which means I cycle though my fat at least 3 times faster than someone eating carbs) , I now have the equivalent of 5.75 mg maximum in my blood whereas I had about 10 mg every morning when taking 4.5 mg a day. I’ll be half way (5 mg) through around 3am tonight. I’ll have 0.5 mg in the blood in a week and 5 days later (2 weeks in the detox) it will be 0.05 mg at which point I can consider myself cleaned up of benzo.
When stopping Clonazepam cold turkey, the first symptoms appear around 2 days later and peak 2 weeks after. According to my half life calculations, this is when the body only has about 0.05 mg left of Clonazepam which makes sense if it’s when withdrawal symptoms peak. It looks like I’l have to be on Gabapentin for at least a month if not two.
It’s been 36 hours since I started cutting the Clonazepam. So far no symptoms but it’s still too early. If in 2 weeks I still have no symptoms, it will show Gabapentin does prevent Benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms for a guy with pfs on a restricted diet, taking lots of supplements and doing exercise. If my pfs symptoms were more severe, it would not be advisable to try this.
7pm I took another 300 mg of Gabapentin at 3pm, along with 5-HTP 100 m, L-Dopa 350 mg and Tyrosine 750 mg. This time Gabapentin did not make me so dizzy, I barely felt any difference. It also turns out I did a 23 hours fast without noticing. Being ketogenic, I can stay a long time without eating, I never have low blood sugar (ha ha. by definition) so Im always full of energy no matter how long it
s been since my last meal. Im sure our ancestors were like that. I can
t imagine a cave men having hypoglycemia and feeling weak…
When I did eat, however, I had 1 pound of beef with some spinach and lots of animal saturated fat. Im good for at least 16 hours. It makes me feel like a jaguar, eating all I can when the hunt is good and fasting between catches. Aside from that everything is smooth. I
ll have to say, much smoother than a week ago. Gabapentin has a way of taking worries away !
I feel like a stone hippie saying ‘‘everything is coool, man.’’