How can I treat withdrawal from muscle relaxants?

[High_Anglican]

I injured my back and so I have a prescription for cyclobenzaprine / flexeril. When my prescription runs out, I know that I am going to experience some withdrawal, such as anxiety, restlessness, depression, increased appetite, and insomnia.

Can anyone recommend any natural supplements to help with flexeril withdrawal? I know there are plenty of supplements out there for anxiety and depression, but I'm trying to find something particularly effective for flexeril withdrawal...

 

[RandomClean3]

If you took it for less than a month and at reasonable dosages, you're likely not going to experience anything, I stopped after 20 days and literally forgot I was taking it. Now I never thought of withdrawal, and that's a big part, you can induce some level of withdrawal by expecting it, so remember that in all likelyhood, worst case scenario is mild discomfort for a couple of days. There's nothing specific for cyclobenzaprine because we don't fully understand it's mechanism of action, but most people describe a mild antidepressant-like withdrawal, at most I would recomend melatonin or benadryl since flexeril is a antimuscarinic, but for the rest you're better off without more drugs since anything I could recomend has a stronger withdrawal, baclofen, chlordiazepoxide, methacarbamol, it would just delay and extend the discomfort. Just be sure to get some sleep and in 2 days you'll be fine.

 

[Pickledlemons]

I was going to suggest methcarbamol but RandomClean has a good point.... any drug at all might be overkill.

 

[RandomClean3]

My dad was going through sertraline withdrawal. Normal procedure calls for fluoxetine (prozac) for a week since it has a massive half-life, but instead they gave him klonopin. It's been 10 years, still hooked on it.
Mild withdrawals should be dealt with with ibuprofen or similar and melatonin, at max an antihistamine. Almost all muscle-relaxants are GABAergenics, the ones that aren't are unlikely to provide any relief. Withdrawal is reajustment, your body needs to be able to relax skeletal muscle without a drug, if you took anything that relaxed the muscles, it would come back harder the moment you stopped taking methocarbamol, kava, phenibut, etc. An NSAID if you have pain, melatonin to sleep, let your body reajust itself. If you get any withdrawal (already odds are you won't) it will be mild and short-lasting. The withdrawal refered to in papers and articles is from addicts taking 150-300mg daily for a year.

 

[Chronicpain54]

I want to say I agree and leave it at that but I'll get flogged lol.

I was prescribed flexeril for 2 months and when my script ran out I gave no thought to withdrawal. It just didn't happen.

Same with taking pain medication for a month or so. As long as I didn't go over my dosage I had no withdrawals and my only feeling was sadness that I would be in pain again.

Don't psych yourself out and you'll be fine.