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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Benzos Do Beta Blockers help Benzo Withdawal

S

Scrillion

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
Messages
216
Hi all,

I’m going to be using the Ashton method for tapering of 50mg/day of Diazepam. Does anybody have any experience using beta blockers during Benzo tapers or withdrawals and if so do you think they were helpful in easing the withdrawal symptoms?

Thanks a bunch!!!
 
Unfortunately beta blockers aren't much help during benzo withdrawal.
 
I used to take clonidine during benzo withdrawals, helped with the sweats a whole lot, that's about it.
 
rave23 said:
I used to take clonidine during benzo withdrawals, helped with the sweats a whole lot, that's about it.
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Clonidine is an alpha-2 agonist, not beta blocker. It could help a little, particularly for sleep.

Beta blockers can help reduce some of the physical symptoms, like tightness im the chest due to increased anxiety. Doesn't help alot though from my experience and can make it feel worse psychologically as it in inhibits norepinephrine. I didn't find it worth taking.

As far as beta blockers I have tried atenolol in desperation during benzo withdrawal and didn't help to my recollection.

To be frank I've found nothing significantly makes the benzo withdrawal process more tolerable. The ones that do carry risk of addiction of their own (like phenibut, gabapentin) or work in a similar way to benzodiazapines (such as ashwaganda) which drag out the withdrawal process by being benzodiazapine-like or cross tolerant.

Time is the real medicine here. Beta blockers could help a little and are harmless enough to test out for this purpose, but don't expect a whole lot.
 
Okie doke. I’ve been through Benzo withdrawals many times and have tried literally everything under the sun except beta blockers. So I thought I’d ask. I really appreciate everyone chiming in. Thank you all very much!! Just a tip out my experience with benzo withdrawal is that if you drink 2-3 cups of very strong (2-3 tea bags) chamomile tea it will take the edge off a bit. There’s a chemical in chamomile that barely tickles the GABA receptors enough to give you a little bit of relief. It won’t take them away and it won’t prolong the withdrawals, but it’s a small amount of relief from the incredible misery that is Benzo withdrawals. It works. Give it a shot. Thanks again for the replies.
 
Scrillion said:
Just a tip out my experience with benzo withdrawal is that if you drink 2-3 cups of very strong (2-3 tea bags) chamomile tea it will take the edge off a bit.
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If you want to mess around with plants that affect your GABA in one way or the other, you could use valerian (Valeriana officinalis) , passion flower (Passiflora incarnata) and lemon balm (melissa officinalis). But every substance that alters your GABA levels will not help you with benzo taper in the long run, as you probably know.

I wish you all the luck!
 
www.healthline.com

Beta-Blockers for Anxiety: Benefits, Side Effects, and Risks

Beta-blockers are a type of medication that's traditionally used to treat heart conditions. Sometimes, beta-blockers are prescribed for off-label use to help manage anxiety symptoms. We'll go over how beta-blockers affect anxiety, the types of anxiety they work best for, and how quickly you can...
www.healthline.com www.healthline.com
 
Psycho_Logic said:
If you want to mess around with plants that affect your GABA in one way or the other, you could use valerian (Valeriana officinalis) , passion flower (Passiflora incarnata) and lemon balm (melissa officinalis). But every substance that alters your GABA levels will not help you with benzo taper in the long run, as you probably know.

I wish you all the luck!
Click to expand...
I’ve heard people mention valerian and Passion flower many times but they never did anything for me. Never tried lemon balm. Chamomile gives me just a small bit of relief, but when your in full on withdrawals a little feels much better than nothing. It didn’t seem to extend the withdrawals at all. I’ve been through them, unfortunately, many times both with and without chamomile.
 
WellTram said:
Nmda antagonists, natural gabaergicks, gabapentin helps but more for opi. wd, chamomille tea is good and also tryvtaper
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Thanks for sharing. Is tryvtaper a typo or is it something else? I’m using the Ashton method for tapering. NMDA antagonists or agonist? Can you give a few examples? Thanks!!!
 
Gabapentin seems to mask it a little. Same with Baclofen and phenibut, which hit GABA B calcium channels. Only problem with those 3 is that they themselves cause dependency very fast (a few days for phenibut) and the withdrawals are horrible. Anyways, I’m going to go very very slow using the Ashton method so hopefully it won’t be too uncomfortable until maybe the very end. Thanks for all the replies. Much appreciated.
 
Scrillion said:
Gabapentin seems to mask it a little. Same with Baclofen and phenibut, which hit GABA B calcium channels. Only problem with those 3 is that they themselves cause dependency very fast (a few days for phenibut) and the withdrawals are horrible. Anyways, I’m going to go very very slow using the Ashton method so hopefully it won’t be too uncomfortable until maybe the very end. Thanks for all the replies. Much appreciated.
Click to expand...
is this your first time withdrawing from benzos
 
I talked to my Dr about this the other day and he said he’s had a lot of success lately with giving clonidine to patients that are at the end of a taper or having bad symptoms. I’ve tried clonidine several times and it made me very dizzy and crappy feeling.
However, I just remembered that I had very good results in helping with sleep and anxiety using Mirtazapine. So if I have some troubles I think I’ll ask for that. It’s pretty harmless so I don’t think he’d have a problem giving me a script for it. Just thought I’d share that for anyone looking for withdrawal symptom help.
 
^^^Mirtazapine is a decent option to induce sleep during benzo. 15mg in the evening should be sufficient.
 
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