Hi there, I had Gabapentin for severe nerve pain when I had a shattered disc in my C-spine. I took it for around 6 months, with gradual increases in dosage until I got the best pain relief at 2700mg a day, split into 3x900mg doses. I had paracetamol 4x a day and ibuprofen 3x per day alongside this. Had to use a spreadsheet to keep to my daily regime so that I was on top of the pain rather than chasing it all the time. That’s a relatively high dose of Gaba but it worked well for me. I didn’t feel spaced out at all. Everyone’s different though, and I know of people who can’t tolerate Gabapentin but are OK with Amytriptyline, and vice versa.
I eventually had spine surgery to remove all the disc fragments, one of which was sitting on a nerve, trapped in the foraminal exit, hence the pain. On stepping down, amazingly I was off the Gaba in 5 weeks, reducing by half a tablet each time and seeing how I felt before reducing further after a few days. I’ve known of people who have taken up to a year to step down from those high doses, but I guess I’m lucky in that drugs usually leave my body pretty quickly.
Hope this helps.