Overdoing benzos and alcohol changed me. Help/Suggestions?

[Thugnasty]

Alright I figured I'd post this to see if anyone else has encountered the same problems. So I was on oxys/dope for about 3 hears, decided to get "clean" on suboxone 24mg a day. I was doing good for 3 months and then life caught up with me and I just lost control. I started drinking heavily and doing 5-7 xan bars a day, that made everything worse. I ODed one night taking a insane amount which I could say is one of the stupidest things I've ever done. Which led to a 3 day stay in a psych ward. After that I kept doing my subs, bars,and drinking habit. Then one day I woke up, had no alcohol or bars, just my suboxone. I can't even describe the feeling, had a seizure and finally came to, told medics to leave. I thought I was fine, then went downstairs and had another seizure. I had to go to the hospital for a few day stay, if I hadn't the DR said I probably wouldn't have been around much longer, afterwards I had about 3 more seizures after that visit until I cleaned up enough.


To get to my point, even though it's been almost a year since that point in my life, I still have huge memory loss, my short term memory is horrible. I can't even remember my girlfriends weekly schedule sometimes, I don't remember recent things, or stuff that happened or things that you'd never forget normally. I retain about 50% of it if I'm lucky. I have random tremors or twitches, decently sleeping is non existent, my anxiety and depression are far more extreme. And I don't feel like the same guy I used to be at all. Whether it's my thought process or how I percieve life, it's like I'm a completely different person.
I don't drink or do drugs to excess anymore, every now and again I'll dabble if anything. I just want to know if anyone has been through this, and could possibly give me some suggestions. Like if there was things or some sort of therapies that helped you recover. Any sort of help or point in the right direction would be appreciated greatly.

 

[MyExcuse]

Was addicted for 2 years to GHB/GBL and had a similar experience in regards to hospitalization. Ran out and entered withdrawals, was out of it for a few days before my next shipment arrived. Continued on this for 3 months and then decided to try and tapper. Tappered for weeks until I just suddenly started experiencing DT's. It progressed over a period of a week until I started having seizures back to back and was taken to the E.R.

3 day hospitalization with an Ativan drip and I was released with a script for Ativan and Seroquel. I had major mood and memory issues for years. I started to notice the greatest improvement when I started experimenting with nootropic supplements like Alpha-GPC and Sarcosine. I also was prescribed Lamictal and that has helped a lot with my mood. The memory issues haven't really gone away, but they have decreased substantially. The Alpha-GPC helps a lot on a daily basis.

Anxiety is still bad. Had it before drug use and the drug use has only made it worse.

 

[Thugnasty]

Which supplement helps which issue? I've been curious about supplements. I need to get established with a new doctor to see what I can do for my moods, anxiety etc but anything I can do on top of that I am willing to try. My brain feels sluggish almost , like trying to move quickly through mud.

How long was it until you starting seeing noticeable improvement?

 

[MeDieViL]

My personal recmmedation is first the addition of choline, uridine and omega3 as they are the mean factors for cell growth in the brain, NSI-198 to restore the brain helping anhedonia and depression, semax is said to help wtih recovering from drug addiction and finally cerebrolysin, highly recommened for brain repair.

If anyone has simular issues please pm me your exact symptions and ill try to come up with a personal tailered regime as a first try

 

[adder]

Did you taper off Xanax slowly after having those seizures or did they just fix you up after those seizures for a few days somehow and then you never took benzos and drink alcohol again?

It seems like sudden cessation is often responsible for such long-term withdrawal effects or whatever it really is. After I quit clonazepam after 9 years on benzos, I went through a benzodiazepine withdrawal that lasted probably over a year if you count in all residual withdrawal symptoms, but after 9 months I felt good enough to start studying again and my memory has never worked better since I started taking benzos and opioids. When I was quitting clonazepam, I was already on Suboxone for ~1 year. My taper wasn't super-slow, but at the time when I was starting buprenorphine maintenance, my clonazepam dose was reduced from 6mg a day to 2mg a day within like 2 weeks which wasn't comfortable but worked fine along with bupe that I was already taking, then I tapered from 2mg to zero within a year. I'm not saying I'm 100% fine as taking any GABAergic easily reminds me of my past benzodiazepine use, but as long as I stick buprenorphine, I'm fairly well.

My guess is that such problems arise when tapering is too quick or none at all, and this is extremely dangerous because of high seizure risk and neurological problems that may follow. I can't suggest you anything though, sadly. Finding a good psychiatrist that could take care of this would be my way to go if I were you.

 

[Tryptamite]

Did you taper off Xanax slowly after having those seizures or did they just fix you up after those seizures for a few days somehow and then you never took benzos and drink alcohol again?

It seems like sudden cessation is often responsible for such long-term withdrawal effects or whatever it really is. After I quit clonazepam after 9 years on benzos, I went through a benzodiazepine withdrawal that lasted probably over a year if you count in all residual withdrawal symptoms, but after 9 months I felt good enough to start studying again and my memory has never worked better since I started taking benzos and opioids. When I was quitting clonazepam, I was already on Suboxone for ~1 year. My taper wasn't super-slow, but at the time when I was starting buprenorphine maintenance, my clonazepam dose was reduced from 6mg a day to 2mg a day within like 2 weeks which wasn't comfortable but worked fine along with bupe that I was already taking, then I tapered from 2mg to zero within a year. I'm not saying I'm 100% fine as taking any GABAergic easily reminds me of my past benzodiazepine use, but as long as I stick buprenorphine, I'm fairly well.

My guess is that such problems arise when tapering is too quick or none at all, and this is extremely dangerous because of high seizure risk and neurological problems that may follow. I can't suggest you anything though, sadly. Finding a good psychiatrist that could take care of this would be my way to go if I were you.

I also agree with this theory, having experienced it myself.

I can only suggest nootropics like piracetam or the other racetams.
For anxiety maybe an SSRI or an SNRI but I personally do not like those or think they have much benifit for the majority of people. Maybe lyrica, pregabalin, consult with your doctor.
I would be vary wary of telling you to use something like Kava kava or phenibut as it seems like you have an addictive personality and daily ues of these drugs will make your situation worse.

You need to avoid anything that affects gaba-a, and be wary of things that hit gaba-b (as alcohol does to an extent). pregabalin canbe habit forming and does affectt gaba indirectly but won't reset your symptoms of WDS.
Mental and physical exercise.
Things will get better. sorry it takes so long.

tryp