Benzos how have I not had withdrawals??

So I Was taking valium 10mgs almost daily for about 1 year or 1.5 years until 2 or 3 months ago. I took one and my breathing became supressed my heart was beating irregularly my body was twitching. So I immediately stopped taking them. But ive had no withdrawals whatsoever has it built up and will affect me later on?

Maybe because it was such a low dose, and valiums long half life,
A steady plasma level was probably achieved and then it slowly came down after quitting, a self taper? I dunno, just a guess.....also, Diazepam withdrawals can take 1-2 weeks to fully present themselves, but u said this was 2-3 months ago right? The symptoms should have and would have been observable by now, you'd probably even be starting to get better at this point

^^ This. Valium is one of the (subjectively) better benzodiazepines to withdrawal from. Also, based on factors such as your height, weight and metabolism, that can effect your withdrawal.

Benzodiazepines stick around in body fat.

You are probably one of the fortunate that can get away with a relatively decent simple taper.

If you ever start feeling funny in your head or if certain side effects show up out of the blue, get yourself checked out by a doctor visit.

Congratulations on a smooth taper.

My guess would be is you did have withdrawals but they were so mild you probably didn't even notice. They could've been as little as some mild muscle pain/tightness, slightly increased anxiety/insomnia and or mild depression. Just my theory.

count yourself as lucky and don't make the same mistake twice
benzo wd was hands down one of the most harrowing experiences of my life

im 5,9 and i have an unusually fast metabolism. i can never seem to gain any weight. Im not one to get anxiety but about a month ago i did get weirdly anxious in a social situation but that was it.

If your last dose was 2 or 3 months ago, I'd say you're in the clear, assuming you don't start using again, obviously.

This is more cause for celebration than anything else, as I'm sure you're aware,m you don't want benzo withdrawals.

Someone up there said don't do this again. They are right.

People have quite varied responses to benzos some get addicted much easier than others.

You know what they say about gift horses!

None of us can say for sure just how you managed to get out of this without suffering but the best thing to do now will be to maintain your abstinence from benzos.

What everyone else said is on point. I played with insane amounts of Xanax on and off for many years and always stopped with no issue (I was clueless at that point what benzo WD can do). Now, I have had a legit script for Xanax and have taken it exactly as prescribed...many days even less than prescribed (I am given 2 mg daily) and last week wasn't feeling anxious so decided not to take it.

BIG MISTAKE. Now, I've been tapering for two weeks and am only halfway there and it is f*ing miserable. I've withdrawn from hard opiates and what I'm going through now, even with a taper, makes opiate WD laughable.

As as soon as I'm done tapering, the rest of my pills are going in the trash and the 3 refills I have on it can sit at the pharmacy until it expires. Never. Again.

Oh, and I'm having to taper after only taking it since January. It can be that insidious. You got lucky.

Be carefup stopping benzos.suddenly, serious health risk such as seizure.

So you didn't really get benzo wd's for a long time despite abusing them hard and all of a sudden something changed and now you get them? Did anything else change in your life that might explain this sudden change?

I'm asking because right now I don't really get benzo wd's / perma tollerance even from serious abuse (we're talking grams of flam/clam here which should by all accounts result in very bad wd's).. I can basically just stop taking them once my tolerance gets too high, wait a few weeks/months (a few weeks is enough to get back to baseline tolerance aka feeling a slight buzz from 2 mg diazepam but I wait longer to stay on the safe side) and repeat starting with baseline tolerance and never experiencing any wds. I kind of like this since I love benzos so I'm wondering if there was any change in your life that might have made you susceptible to benzo WDs or if it just happened?

No, nothing changed. From what I've researched, there is a phenomenon known as "kindling" that can occur. I guess I'm kindled. Basically, if you keep starting and stopping, or abusing, a drug...eventually the WD will become harder and harder. The brain gets re-wired.

There used to be 2-3 month long spans of me taking 8-10 mg of Xanax per day and when I would stop...no repercussion. Not anymore. Eventually, benzos will catch up to you.

Thanks for the reply, just one more question, did it just happen or were there any warning sings?

white55 said:

Thanks for the reply, just one more question, did it just happen or were there any warning sings?

Click to expand...

It just happened. Last time I took Xanax daily for any length of time was 8 months ago and used heavily-stopped w no issue. Roughly 5 months later, I start using an actual prescription and using correctly and now I'm stuck tapering to avoid a nightmare. And even tapering is somewhat unpleasant. I'm dropping .25 every 10 days so hope to be totally off in a month more. I'm down to 1 mg daily now split into 4 doses of .25 to keep WD at bay.

Thanks and good luck with your taper, I hope you succeed with as little misery as possible, at least from what I've read everyone can given enough time and determination

ps

You probably know this already and I'm probably the last person who should be telling you this since it doesn't matter for me (at least for the moment and fingers crossed that it never changes since I just love them (funnily enough opis don't do anything positive for me except make me itch, nauseous and give me a headache... even for pain I find dissos much more effective) and anything else gaba related) but isn't it recommended to switch to something with a longer half life and not too 'fun' for tapering (aka diazepam if talking pharma benzos or diclazepam if we're talking about rcs (although I'm sure people have managed with many others))?

I got the kindling effect with alcohol. It was a real pain for quite some time, as I kept relapsing periodically for years, so it kept getting worse.

Benzos and booze are really both just hell to withdraw from, once symptoms manifest. I've heard similar stories and lived it myself. Nothing for years, than when it started, it was one of the worst experiences of my life (repeatedly, as I said I'd keep relapsing)

^And yeah, it's usually recommended to switch to something with a long half-life, regarding benzo tapers.

Flip side. I feel now that I may have been a little too simple with an answer to dylan0437 and any other viewers in his position. I grew up with a thick skull with untreated, poster child level ADHD. Rough life.

Some of us have experienced tripped out things, that make a benzo withdrawal seem mild.

It blows if you don't adhere to a tight withdrawal schedule. If you cold turkey from a high enough dose, you can die. Those are some real facts.

That's why we don't accept dick sizing about drugs. It's not cool. Handling a decent weed habit is passable to a point, but that's about it.

I've been on benzos for a solid decade and am learning how to use less and get more out of it.

I came off 3 mg of Clonazepam that I was on for years in five days once. That sucks and can fuck with your head or cause seizures and possible death.

Point being, some of us are just hard nose with benzos, but, yeah, if you can get over the major aspects of a withdrawal, kudos to you.

But also, as people have pointed out, try to keep the correct usage going and don't think benzo withdrawal is a cake walk. It's not. It can be a bitch, including panic attacks and insomnia. You want to use them in the best way possible and come off correctly IMO.' Better to understand this now, then find out the hard way.

I've gone hard on benzos (going through 50+ xanax bars in a month shit like that) and never approached DT status really, maybe some stuttering here and there and mild tremors, the anxiety fucking sucks though.