I’m not looking for medical advice, but more understanding. I have chronic back pain. I can alleviate it completely with only 2 things - alcohol and a heating pad. Ibuprofen lessens it but it’s still present. Muscle relaxers do nothing (which makes sense because it’s not muscle related, it’s spinal disk degeneration).
A tall glass of whiskey makes my back relax and I can move normally. Once it wears off tho, it’s right back to tense and painful.
The doc put me on gabapentin for my nerve pain (ulnar and carpel tunnel) and I thought it was hitting the right receptors to help me stay off of alcohol, or dulled my desire for it. Turns out I was just self medicating the nerve pain and with the GABA I didn’t need the booze so much.
Don’t drink and take Gabapentin. They work on different receptors on the same channel. That means they have unpredictable effects together. The effects aren’t additive, they’re more like multiplicative. And more random than either alone.