"The doctor prescribed Gabapentin for neck pain. Three years later, I was taking 1800mg/day and still in pain. Now I don't need medication anymore."
The day the doctor handed me the first prescription,
he said:
"This will help control the pain.
Take 300mg three times a day."
I trusted him.
I went home and started taking it.
The first week, it worked.
Neck pain reduced from 8/10 to 4/10.
For the first time in months,
I could turn my head without pain.
I thought I'd found the solution.
But six weeks later,
the pain started coming back.
Not severe pain.
But there. A constant nagging feeling.
I called the doctor.
"Increase the dose to 1200mg/day,"
he said.
"This is normal."
This is normal.
Those three words became the mantra of the next three years.
Dose increase: Normal.
Side effects: Normal.
Still in pain: Normal.
Three years later,
this is what "normal" looked like for me:
Gabapentin 1800mg/day
600mg morning
600mg afternoon
600mg before bed
Ibuprofen 800mg as needed
Usually 2-3 times/week
Cyclobenzaprine 10mg
For muscle spasms on bad days
Tramadol 50mg
For the unbearable pain days
And after all that medication,
the neck pain was still there.
Not 8/10 like before.
But always at 5-6/10.
Never completely gone.
But worse than the pain
was what the medication was doing to me.
Constant dizziness.
Every time I stood up,
the room would spin for a few seconds.
I had to hold onto something
to keep balance.
Brain fog.
I forgot people's names.
Forgot why I walked into a room.
Forgot conversations that happened 5 minutes ago.
Coworkers started commenting:
"Are you okay?"
Gained 25 pounds.
Gabapentin made me constantly hungry.
I ate when I wasn't hungry.
I snacked late at night.
And despite working out,
the weight wouldn't come off.
Drowsy all day.
Every afternoon,
I felt like I was being pulled down.
I drank coffee to stay awake.
But by 3pm,
I could barely keep my eyes open.
But insomnia at night.
My mind wouldn't turn off.
I'd lie awake until 2, 3 in the morning.
Then when I finally fell asleep,
I'd wake up more tired...
And the worst thing?
The neck pain was still there.
The moment I realized
I needed to change
was when my 12-year-old daughter asked:
"Mom, are you okay?
You look... different."
I looked in the mirror.
And I saw someone
I didn't recognize.
Puffy face.
Glazed eyes.
Hunched shoulders.
I was losing myself
trying to control pain
that wasn't even going away.
That night, I decided to stop the medication.
I didn't tell the doctor.
I just... stopped.
Day 1: Fine.
Day 2: Slight headache.
Day 3: Hell began.
Gabapentin withdrawal symptoms:
Severe headaches
like someone was squeezing my head.
Shaking hands
so bad I couldn't hold a glass of water.
Overwhelming anxiety
racing heart, couldn't breathe.
Constant nausea.
And neck pain
worse than it had ever been.
On day 5,
I went back on it.
Not because I wanted to.
But because I couldn't take it.
That's when I realized:
I wasn't just living with neck pain.
I was dependent on medication.
I started searching.
"How to safely stop Gabapentin"
"Chronic neck pain without medication"
"Natural solutions for nerve pain"
And I found something
doctors never told me:
Medication can't fix mechanical problems.
If the nerve is compressed—
if the vertebrae are compressed—
if the disc is bulging—
Medication can mask the pain.
But it can't:
→ Decompress the vertebrae
→ Release the nerve
→ Fix the root cause
That's why I needed higher doses.
That's why the pain never really went away.
Because the problem was still there.
And every day,
it got slightly worse.
I found a forum
where people shared their stories.
*"I took Gabapentin for 5 years.
Dose increased from 900mg to 2400mg.
Doctors never told me
there was another way.
When I found the method to decompress the spine,
pain reduced 80% in 3 weeks.
Now I don't need medication anymore."*
*"Gabapentin masked the pain
but didn't fix anything.
When I addressed the nerve compression,
I reduced from 1200mg to 0
in 8 weeks.
My doctor was amazed.
But the MRI proved it:
the space between vertebrae had improved."*
*"I thought I'd be on medication for life.
Doctor said there was no other option.
But when I fixed the mechanical problem,
my body self-healed.
I didn't need to mask the pain anymore
because the pain wasn't there."*
Stories kept repeating:
People living on medication for years.
Dose increasing.
Side effects getting worse.
Pain still not going away.
Then they found a way to address the mechanical cause.
And finally broke free.
I decided to try.
But this time differently.
I wouldn't stop medication immediately.
I'd address the real problem first.
I researched
cervical spine decompression.
How to create space
so the nerve gets released.
Not with medication.
Not with surgery.
But by:
→ Controlled traction at 26-degree angle
→ Activating deep "sleeping" muscles
→ Increasing blood flow to heal tissue
→ Letting the body self-recover
First week:
Still taking 1800mg Gabapentin.
But pain reduced from 6/10 to 4/10.
Week two:
I reduced to 1500mg.
Pain stayed at 4/10.
For the first time in three years,
I reduced medication and pain didn't increase.
Week three: 1200mg. Pain 3/10.
Week four: 900mg. Pain 3/10.
Week six: 600mg. Pain 2/10.
Week eight: 300mg. Pain 1-2/10.
Week twelve: 0mg.
No more Gabapentin.
No more Ibuprofen.
No more muscle relaxers.
No more medication at all.
And for the first time in three years,
I woke up with no medication in my body.
My head was clear.
I remembered people's names.
I remembered conversations.
I could focus.
My body felt light.
No dizziness.
No drowsiness.
No puffiness.
And the neck pain?
Almost gone.
Eight weeks after stopping medication,
I went back to the doctor.
He looked at my records.
Looked at me.
And asked:
"What did you do?
You're not on Gabapentin anymore?"
"No," I said.
"And the pain?"
"Almost gone."
He was silent for a moment.
"What did you do?"
I told him about
addressing the mechanical cause.
About decompressing the spine.
About releasing the nerve.
About letting the body self-heal.
He nodded slowly:
"That makes sense.
Gabapentin only controls symptoms.
You fixed the problem."
Today, eight months later,
I'm still off medication.
Neck pain down to 0-1/10.
Only appears when I sit wrong too long.
And it disappears after 15 minutes.
I lost 20 pounds.
Clear head.
Energy back.
And I feel like myself again.
I'm not writing this
to tell you to stop medication.
Don't stop medication without medical supervision.
Gabapentin withdrawal can be dangerous
if not done properly.
But I'm writing because I know
how many people
are living on medication,
thinking that's the only option.
If you're taking medication and still in pain—
If the dose is increasing but effectiveness is decreasing—
If you feel like you're losing yourself to side effects—
Maybe you want to ask:
"Why am I still in pain?"
Because if the problem is mechanical—
if the nerve is compressed—
then no medication can fix it.
Medication just masks the signal.
But the signal is still there
because the problem is still there.
And every day the problem isn't addressed,
it gets slightly worse.
That's why the dose has to increase.
That's why you need more medication.
That's why nothing really works.
If you want to know more
about how I addressed the mechanical problem—
About how I reduced from 1800mg to 0—
I'll leave the link here.
👉 Here’s what actually helped me.
You don't need to live on medication forever.
If the problem is mechanical, there's a way to fix it.