memantine

Has anyone tried memantine?  If so would you share your experience?

I am on 10 mg a day.  It seems to definitely help.  I believe it moderates glutamates, which is an excitory neurotransmitter in the brain that tends to get out of wack when you taper benzos and increase anxiety.   

I am on 10 mg a day.  It seems to definitely help.  I believe it moderates glutamates, which is an excitory neurotransmitter in the brain that tends to get out of wack when you taper benzos and increase anxiety. 

 

That's awesome.  Did you get a prescription for it? 

Yes.  It is a prescription.  It was originally tried as an off label anti depressant that I took on and off, but my Psych looked at it and realized that it could be useful in helping with the taper.

I don’t know why more ppl don’t take this to help WD.

 

I know couple ppl with ME/CFS who tried to get off of clonazePAM but couldn’t who went back on and take Memantine to stop interdose withdrawal.

 

Can’t get it off label in U.K. but I got some online and take 5mgs when the glutamate storm gets especially bad and it stops it and eases the mental symptoms.

I don’t know why more ppl don’t take this to help WD.

 

I know couple ppl with ME/CFS who tried to get off of clonazePAM but couldn’t who went back on and take Memantine to stop interdose withdrawal.

 

Can’t get it off label in U.K. but I got some online and take 5mgs when the glutamate storm gets especially bad and it stops it and eases the mental symptoms.

 

If the NMDA receptor is what needs healing then wouldn't taking memantine prevent that part of the brain from healing. I've read and been told there is no withdrawal from it?

If the NMDA receptor is what needs healing then wouldn't taking memantine prevent that part of the brain from healing. I've read and been told there is no withdrawal from it?

 

A very good question that is honestly above my knowledge level.  I don't know anything about NMDA receptors healing.  As I wrote, Menantine moderates glutamates, which is an excitory neurotransmitter in the brain that tends to get out of wack when you taper benzos.  This increase in glutamates increases anxiety.  Thus the menantine allows you taper while reducing the anxiety.  I don't know anything about NMDA receptors and healing, only gaba receptors.

I used a very low dose (2-5mg) of memantine the entire time while on benzos. That and high dose of gabapentin seemed to help the taper in some ways. I also took Suboxone and phenibut as well. I felt terrible during the process though so I’m not really sure how much it helped honestly. A lot of why I felt so bad was just side effects of being on so much medication. But I think it prevented benzo damage. My recovery seemed linear after coming off benzos too. I never experienced the waves and getting thrown back in acute ever so something was really different about my recovery. The only time I ever did feel acutes again was when I drank 5 beers 4 months after my benzo taper. I felt terrible for about a month. Very difficult to know what happened though. I just recall feeling better after 8 months of completing my benzo taper. I also healed alot from coming off gabapentin and phenibut. I still am. Maybe I have damage from that and the other stuff I’m trying to heal from. Anyway, I really need to try to just take nothing now. Drugs are useful while tapering and in the early years of recovery. But after a certain point I think you need to stay off everything to heal possibly.

 

It seems like memantine and clonidine would be helpful to taper or deal with CT symptoms. Gabapentin too but it is really difficult to taper off that stuff and should only be used as needed. But it seems like it’s always needed during benzo wd.

 

There was a Russian drug called Afobazole that made an obvious difference too. I didn’t take it often but it really did something obvious that calmed the brain down during WD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabomotizole

 

Kratom seems to help a lot with WD too but it can be stimulating as well. I think it just depends where you are at in the healing process with kratom. But on reddit people use it to taper off benzos. Maybe it depends on the strains. The chocolate strains seem to be the least stimulating. They are basically fermented red strains I think and are promoted for night time use.

Has anyone got any experience with Memantine/Namenda. My symptoms are 90% mental.  I'm reading this drug can slow down glutmate without upgregulating receptors etc.

 

I rarely see anyone post about this.  Is this a bad idea?

We recently discussed it in this thread: http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=243441.0

We recently discussed it in this thread: http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=243441.0

 

I completely forgot I made that post.  Thanks